VXtreme streams on to Net

VXtreme is jumping into the Internet market with a video-streaming technology called Web Theater, as reported by CNET last week.

Video streaming allows Net surfers to view moving images and hear audio as a clip is being downloaded, rather than after it has been downloaded completely. Two vendors, Xing Technologies and VDOnet, have already established themselves as key players in the video streaming market.

But while those companies have focused heavily on the consumer Internet marketplace, VXtreme aims to tap into growing demand for digital video within corporations, said Sharon Wong, director of product management at VXtreme. The primary need for digital video includes multimedia training and video-on-demand applications, Wong said.

The two-year-old company's product lets users create video Web pages for users who connect via 28.8-kbps modems as well as through corporate LANs (local area networks). The video files can come from VCRs, cameras, and Video for Windows (or AVI) files. Web Theater Producer runs of Windows 95.

In addition to its corporate focus, VXtreme will market its server product to Web sites and post its Web Theater Client software for Windows 95 and NT, Irix, and Solaris to its Web site next week. A Macintosh version of the client will follow in four to six months. VXtreme's client software works as a plug-in to Netscape Communications' Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The company will also sell Web Theater Producer, for compressing video files, and Web Theater Server for delivering video to users over the Internet and intranets.

Pricing for Web Theater product family starts at $1,995, which includes a five-stream version of the server, 25 client licenses, and one license for Web Theater Producer.