White Pine beats H.323 gun

White Pine Software Inc., which pioneered Internet protocol-based videoconferencing with its CU-SeeMe client software, became the first vendor to release server software that conforms to the ITU's H.323 standard.

Meeting Point, which was announced at Internet World in June, has completed testing on the Windows NT platform and started shipping to several clients, including CompuServe, GTE Internetworking, Time Warner Interactive and UUNet, said Andrew Hally, director of product management. The company also is in final beta testing of a Solaris version and will begin shipping products during the first week of December.

Priced at $1995 for a 10-user license, White Pine is relying on the H.323 standard to push prices down and make IP videoconferencing economically feasible for all Internet service providers. "Conferencing is moving away from requiring $5000 on the desktop to a $200 camera and piece of software," said Hally.

The release of Meeting Point also gives the Nashua, N.H.-based vendor an early jump on Microsoft, which has yet to follow up with a server solution to go with its NetMeeting client software. And because H.323 lets servers handle multiple vendors' client software, the tradeoff was an easy decision, said Hally. "We're willing to give up a few hundred thousand in CU-SeeMe if we're able to have the server that connects millions of Net Meeting users."

Among the company's early customers is U S West, which is considering using the software in distance learning applications.