AT&T announced Monday a network services platform with a co-marketing and distribution
program that will allow companies to create, manage and distribute audio and
video over the Internet.
AT&T’s Ecosystem for Media will enable businesses to use applications such as
Website acceleration, streaming media, distance learning and media-enriched
e-commerce. The initiative is currently in controlled introduction with
general availability slated for the first quarter of 2001.
Working with Inktomi, Microsoft, RealNetworks and
other industry partners, AT&T will leverage its data and Internet
infrastructure, its digital media production capabilities and its network
reach to build this suite of media services.
Ecosystem for Media provides its customers with content distribution
options. For businesses that want to use the public Internet to distribute
their content, AT&T’s Intelligent Content Distribution Services provide
customers with a variety of options for accelerating Website performance,
video-on-demand and webcasting capabilities. For businesses with large-scale
networking needs that want to distribute their content within a private
network, AT&T offers its high-speed packet services.
The company’s streaming media services provide customers with a broadcast-scale
service for reaching large audiences over the Internet. One-to-many
multimedia applications can operate at improved levels by optimizing network
bandwidth and managing traffic destined for multiple endpoints. During the
next 18 to 24 months, AT&T’s streaming media infrastructure will scale to
support 10 million simultaneous Internet users.
AT&T plans to use Microsoft’s Windows Media
and RealNetworks’ RealSystem 8 as its initial media formats to provide an
industrial-strength platform with the scalability and performance
streaming-media applications demand.
“One of AT&T’s core competencies is scaling technologies,” said Kathleen
Earley, president AT&T Data and Internet Services. “We’re applying this skill
to our media infrastructure and building the capability to stream real-time
media to 10 million simultaneous Internet users. We’re fully committed to
providing businesses with the ability to reach as many people over the
Internet as national prime-time television reaches today.”
AT&T’s streaming media offers supplement AT&T’s Intelligent Content
Distribution (ICD) Services. AT&T’s ICD services employ technology from AT&T
Labs as well as Alteon WebSystems, Dell, Inktomi and Novell to improve the
performance and reliability of Websites as well as protect against unexpected
spikes in traffic.
For encoding services, the company will use
AT&T Broadband Services’ Digital Media Centers to digitize “traditional”
media, such as VHS or audiocassette tapes, and convert them for use as
“downloadable” or streaming Internet media.
AT&T also plans to work closely with Loudeye Technologies Inc., which
will supply its digital media solutions for digital audio and video content, as well as robust
applications to effectively manage media assets.
Ecosystem for Media also will include the ability for customers to create
original content through its Digital Media Centers. Located in Denver, New
York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, these centers offer production capabilities
including studio, mobile and post-production services to provide customers
with a complete suite of services to create video, audio and multimedia
content.
