Scott Hillis
SEATTLE: Internet media software company RealNetworks Inc. on Monday unveiled
its latest technology for broadcasting sound over the Internet, teaming up with
electronics giant Sony Corp. The company hopes that the move will help it to go
one-up on its cross-town rival Microsoft Corp.
RealNetworks, which makes the popular RealPlayer software for receiving audio
and video on the Internet, unveiled RealAudio 8, an update to its encoding
technology that converts sound or music to a digital form so it can be sent
easily on the Web.
The format allows Web sites to broadcast sound with better quality than was
possible before, delivering CD-like audio at half the size of a file encoded
with the popular MP3 format, RealNetwork Product Manager Rob Grady said in an
interview.
RealAudio 8, which replaces its earlier G2 audio format, was developed
jointly with Sony, and blends in the Japanese giant's own digital audio
technology, a format called ATRAC3, Grady said.
"Sony is by far the leading consumer technology brand in the offline
world, and Real is by far the leading digital media technology company in the
online world, so it was a natural fit for us to get together," Grady said.
Under the deal, Sony will also distribute RealPlayer and RealJukebox - Real's
program for recording, organizing and playing songs on a computer - with its
line of Vaio computers and its portable digital music devices, Grady said.
Real claims 155 million registered users of its RealPlayer and more than 45
million users of RealJukebox.
Real's share price has tumbled from a year high of $96 amid investor jitters
over technology stocks. The stock rose $1 to $23 Monday on the Nasdaq. On
Friday, it rose $3 to $22, rebounding after a steep sell-off earlier in the
week, sparked by news that advertising revenues would fall slightly.
The technology is Real's answer to Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format,
which analysts say is part of the software giant's all-out assault on Real's
dominance in the sector.
"This extends our lead because this is by far the best technology in the
marketplace," Grady said.
The debate over which format is better largely centers on which one sounds
better at lower encoding rates.
CD-quality with MP3 is considered to come at an encoding speed, or bit-rate,
of 128 kilobits-per-second (kbps). That means a 5-minute MP3 song takes up about
5 megabytes of computer storage.
Grady said RealAudio 8 could preserve CD-quality at just 64 kbps, a claim
that Microsoft also makes for Windows Media Audio. That would squeeze the
five-minute song down to just 2.5 megabytes.
The inclusion of ATRAC3 will offer better audio quality at bit-rates higher
than 128-kbps, but such speeds are usually only needed by music professionals,
Grady said.
Grady said the decision to work with Sony on the technology was similar to
how Real worked with chipmaker Intel Corp. to develop its RealVideo 8 format for
delivering video on the Internet.
But the big launch did not signal that Real would, like Microsoft, start
trying to push its format to the exclusion of most others, Grady said. Real's
software can play in a wide range of formats, including MP3, Windows Media and
others.
"The company's DNA is rooted in Internet audio," Grady said.
"We will continue to be format agnostic. If there is some technology in the
future that is better, then we'll make that available to consumers and let them
make a choice."
(C) Reuters Limited 2000.