Microsoft has not yet released a beta version of its
heavily-hyped Windows Media 9 (formerly ‘Corona’) platform, but tongues are
already wagging about its advanced capabilities.
The revamped WM9 player, promising to virtually purge buffering delays when
streams are launched and take full advantage of a user’s high-speed
connection, is being touted as the best thing to happen to the streaming
media industry. But despite the PR shimmying from the software giant,
executives from rival RealNetworks insist the market is
still wide open.
“It’s unclear what it (WM9) is. It sounds like an incremental update to what
they’ve been doing for some time. It’s interesting in that Microsoft first
announced Corona a year ago and they’ve been talking about this magical
thing for over a year and they’ve never even shipped a beta product,”
RealNetworks VP of strategic relations Steve Banfield told internetnews.
“While they are busy announcing that they’ll announce something next month,
we are focused on delivering custom solutions and marketing our own
services. We’ve done all kinds of things in the same time period during
which Microsoft has been talking about this forthcoming launch,” Banfield
added.
Banfield’s bristling may be understandable. Microsoft has spent the
past few months teasing
everyone about the wild capabilities of Corona, but a beta product has not
yet been launched. And, even though demos offer
an interesting peek at video clip playback and the content creation and
distribution capabilities, Real’s Banfield is unimpressed. The sniping is indicative of the firms’ competitive natures.
“Our RealOne player already includes TurboPlay, which takes advantage of a
high-speed connection and loads clips without buffering timeouts or choppy
playback,” Banfield said. “I find it comical that Microsoft is touting
they’ll eliminate buffering when that’s something we’re already doing.
Vaporware is the only word I can use to accurately describe what they are
doing.”
But, with the competing WMP software gaining ground on RealPlayer’s
dominance, analysts believe the battle is well and truly on for command of
the digital media market, both on the consumer and enterprise end.
Gartner analyst Rob Batchelder in intrigued by the two-horse race in the
space but warned against dismissing RealNetworks as a legitimate contender.
“The (Microsoft v Real) race is really interesting. Both companies are
ultimately trying to blanket the digital media space with competing
end-to-end digital media infrastructure,” Batchelder told
“Don’t be so quick to count RealNetworks out. Real is very competitive. In
certain markets, real is kicking Microsoft’s butt. I think Microsoft will
also be at a disadvantage because of the distrust factor. They are setting
up WM9 as an overarching infrastructure but it is a horse race. Microsoft
has certain advantages but also some disadvantages,” Batchelder added.
He said the WM9 technology had tremendous potential but warned that media
companies would be very skeptical of Microsoft’s tactic to weave their way
into the distribution pipe. “But, on the on the enterprise end, it will
offer some very solid technology. But, it still doesn’t knock Real out of
the picture, not by any stretch of the imagination,” Batchelder said.
Pioneer embraces WM9
Already, Microsoft has inked a high-profile deal with electronics maker
Pioneer to put the WM9 series in Pioneer’s Digital Network Entertainment
(DNE) products, the first time a home theatre device will include support
for Windows Media video.
Pioneer’s DigitaLibrary DNE products, which will hit stores later this year,
will allow users to access Windows Media content directly from selected
online content providers, and shuttle digital audio and video content from
PCs to devices throughout the home.
“Windows Media 9 Series innovations in audio and video compression offer
great new opportunities for our customers to link their PCs to their home
theaters and to have access to their digital music, photos and video
anywhere throughout the home,” said Bob Niimi, senior VP at Pioneer.
“Pioneer chose to support Windows Media 9 Series audio and video technology
because it clearly demonstrates a shared commitment to create and offer
innovative, high-quality home entertainment experiences to consumers.”
Pioneer said it would also support Windows Media digital rights management
(DRM) technology and its use for secured music and video playback and
Windows Media Video for both streamed and downloadable video and for home
movies created using Windows Movie Maker in Windows XP.
“Support for Windows Media 9 Series audio and video technology means users
will get a further 20 percent quality improvement on this already
industry-leading audio and video compression. Pioneer selected National
Semiconductor Corp.’s Geode Processor to offer this breakthrough support for
Windows Media Video, as well as Audio on a chip, a first in the consumer
electronics industry,” the company said.
With deals like this, Microsoft is clearly shaping up WM9 as another option
in the race to deliver portability — and accessibility — to downloaded
digital content.
A consumer electronics maker warms to WM9…
Fast streaming to a PC near you
In regular audio or video streams, Microsoft is promising a encoded at 100Kbps would be delivered at that speed, even if the available bandwidth is greater, which causes network congestion to affect playback quality.
WM9 is promising only a few seconds of buffering before a stream is launched
and by using client-side caching, the new platform is sure to find favor
among content programmers. The player implements server-side playlist
support to allow real-time ad insertion and delivery for ad-driven streaming
media business models.
“(The) advances in compression technology help lower bandwidth costs, and
with twice the server scalability compared with the previous version,
(Windows Media 9) answers the call for a cost-effective platform that can be
used to build a profitable streaming business, or to use streaming to reduce
costs of high quality enterprise communication,” Microsoft said.
Microsoft said a new version of its proprietary Windows Media Video (WMV)
codec would provide a 20% efficiency boost compared with the previous
version and would allow HDTV-like video quality playback at file sizes half
that of DVDs. “The new WMA Professional codec is the first codec to enable
Web-based delivery of 6 channel surround sound with full-spectrum, full
resolution audio (24 bit/96 kHz sampling),” the company claimed.
To encourage industry adoption, Microsoft is cozying up to application
developers with the release of a revamped software development kit (SDK) to
let clients incorporate digital media into their applications and services,
using the programming languages with which they are already familiar.
Talking competition
Between now and September 4 when the product will be launched at the Windows
Media 9 Series Technical Summit in Los Angeles, the comparisons and public
posturing between Microsoft and RealNetworks won’t likely subside.
Microsoft might have given up ground to Real but industry watchers believe
the Richmond-based firm will make inroads in the enterprise space where many
companies are more inclined to adopt the company’s all-encompassing software
because of a comfort level with the platform.
“Microsoft has an unchallenged position in the enterprise already, and now
that streaming is a big part of Windows XP, they can only get stronger. This
should be a major worry to RealNetworks,” said a spokesman, speaking under condition of anonymity for
StreamingMedia, a Francisco-based firm that tracks the industry.
“I think it will be interesting because, for Microsoft, streaming media is
just a very small part of their business. They’re in the business of
selling software applications and the media player is only a very, very
small part of it,” he said, noting that RealNetworks’ exclusive focus is on
content distribution via a paid subscription model. “Let’s also not forget
that Apple is in the picture with QuickTime,” he said, referring to Apple’s
media player, which is included in its new Jaguar OS X
operating system.
More than likely, analysts say content providers would continue to offer
consumers both options for digital playback, since streaming media consumers
are likely to have both media players downloaded.
“The prevailing philosophy in the digital distribution landscape is to wrap
the content in barbed wire. We have two companies going to consumer media
clients and saying ‘our barbed wire is better than their barbed wire.’ The
truth is, they both have useful and interesting technology,” Gartner’s
Batchelder said.
For Real’s Banfield, the jury is still out on who will win the digital media
delivery race. “It’s hard to say what kind of affect (WM9) will have on the
industry. It is clear Microsoft will continue down their propriety path
with everything designed around pure support for Windows. We don’t see this
as having a big impact. We’re focused on our product set and we’re
continuing to grow our unique user base. We’ve grown our consumer
subscription service to over 700,000 subscribers while they (Microsoft) are
yet to offer a competing product.”
