Netpodium's mixed metaphor

Jack O'Halloran began his corporate life working for a start-up telecom company exploring ways to merge phone, data and computer networks.

"I learned computers have a long way to go before they replace the phone system," he said. "There's no such thing as bandwidth reservation and no real end-to-end connection." Data networks built for error correction and bursty transfers don't mesh well with voice transmission, in which low latency and robust connection are essential.

That early shot at convergence wasn't in vain. The company that O'Halloran co-founded last year, Seattle-based Netpodium, bills itself as "a new communications metaphor" that combines the simplicity of phone communication with the reach and pricing of streaming media over the Internet. "We use the phone for what it does best," he said, "and the Internet for what it does best. The result is one-to-many communication that feels like one-to-one."

The Netpodium Interactive Broadcasting Suite consists of two software components: a broadcast assembler and an interactivity server. The assembler is a Win32 workstation application that gathers all content-HTML pages, PowerPoint slides, GIF or JPEG images, animation, speaker notes and production cues-into one broadcast file. That file is packaged and sent to the appropriate server location to await the live broadcast.

The audience signs on using a Java-enabled Web browser, an Internet connection of 28.8 kb/s or higher, and a streaming media player. Most of the multimedia content is downloaded and cached on each participant's PC. Once the broadcast begins, a technical producer uses the interactivity suite to synchronize the visuals and the delivery of live encoded voice or video.

The audience can type questions into a pop-up message box. The producer scans the questions and decides whether to give an individual written response, post them to the group or forward them to the moderator for an on-air answer.

This back-channel text avoids audio disruptions that e-mail might cause. "No network can prevent data from overriding audio," O'Halloran said.

Complete broadcasts can be archived to a Web site, CD-ROM or Zip disk.

Ernst & Young has used Netpodium for six months, mostly with other delivery channels such as satellite or TV and for audiences of 10 to 350 people, said Dale Coyner, who manages the company's corporate learning channel. "It adds a dimension, especially to television or teleconferencing," he said. "People stay focused on the session rather than on their e-mail. They also ask many more questions." Ernst & Young has used the platform only for in-house presentations so far but plans to set up a broadcast for an outside client, a global pharmaceutical firm.

Novell conducts weekly Netpodium Web seminars for technical personnel and premier customers. Microsoft used Netpodium to confer with OEMs before its Windows 98 launch. Netpodium also is setting up a nationwide network of service providers to host broadcasts on contract for customers-a try-before-you-buy approach.

The product's greatest obstacles are corporate firewalls-audience members must have a direct TCP/IP connection to the server-and a scarcity of bandwidth. The firewall problem should be addressed by the end of the year. But finding the bandwidth to send a file large enough for streaming video to 400 PCs-some with only 28.8kb/s modems-will have to wait for the spread of high-speed access solutions such as asymmetrical digital subscriber line.

"The audio portion alone takes up 8 kb/s," O'Halloran says. "That leaves 20 kb/s for ad hoc content that wasn't cached before the broadcast and for messaging. We recommend an audience have at least 56 kb/s modems for streaming video." The Netpodium broadcaster should have a T-1 line that can support at least 100 lines, although the company is experimenting with ways customers can outsource their streaming media.

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MODEM MILESTONE General Instrument has installed its millionth digital cable set-top box. The box went into a home in Tele-Communications Inc.'s digital cable market in Dallas. Recipients also won a TV and six months of cable service from TCI.

Now that you've accomplished your goal of getting equal access to most programming, what's the next challenge?

We really applaud the commission for moving so quickly. Now that the FCC has done its part to beef up enforcement of the law, we're looking to Congress to close the loopholes in the law. What we're looking for them to do is extend the law to non-vertically integrated companies and terrestrial transmission. We continue to sing the mantra that without access to programming, consumers don't have access to competitive cable.

Is there a particular type of person that is choosing Ameritech's cable service over the traditional cable operators'?

There is not one answer, but certainly families are the mainstay of our consumer base. We recently passed our 150,000-customer mark and continue to exceed our expectations. More than one-third of cable customers are choosing us where we market the service, and about 10% to 15% of those have never had cable. Customers just like a choice and competition.

You recently won a franchise for Chicago's South and Southeast sides. Why did you go after those areas as opposed to the lucrative lakefront market?

Chicago is our hometown, and having a presence here is important. The area we picked really is a fantastic market for cable. It's dense. [The plant is] almost entirely aerial, and the customers there really are asking for us to come to them.