Cupertino, CA. Apple Computer, Inc. continues its push into the Internet audio domain (see previous story on Apple’s VCD “Virtual CD” technology introduction) with aggressive support of a new live audio streaming system.
Apple is partnering with Telos Systems to deliver Audioactive™ Internet streaming. Apple plans to debut Audioactive with a live webcast tomorrow (Sept.27) featuring the cranberries and Me’shell Ndegeocello, live from Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA. (6:00pm PST, 9:00pm EST).
Apple plans to deliver all of its future live webcasts in Audioactive format, including upcoming dates featuring Black Crowes (Sept.29), The Samples (Sept.30), and The Ugly Americans (Oct.2), all from the Fox Theater in Boulder, CO. Upcoming performances from the Strand Theater in Providence, RI are expected to be announced at a later date.
Audioactive is designed for live webcasting, rather than pre-recorded audio-on-demand materials. It is fully compatible with Macromedia’s Shockwave™ plug-in and Shockwave audio standard, so that millions of web surfers who already use Shockwave can automatically receive live Audioactive broadcasts. For audio that is not streamed live, tools like Macromedia’s Director™ can provide the editing, processing, and compression necessary for creating audio files.
“I think people are going to be blown away when they hear this,” says Steve Church, President of Telos Systems. “We’re going to demonstrate that audio on the Internet can have quality that rivals traditional broadcasting.”
Telos plans to implement the IP Multicast standard in Audioactive. Apple has already announced IP Multicast support in its QuickTime TV environment, which sends live audio and video over intranets (local-area IP networks), and potentially the Internet. Many network implementation experts consider IP Multicast to be the best near-term hope for solving the bandwidth problems inherent in moving audio and video broadcast media to the web.
The Telos Server System for Audioactive is implemented on Apple’s Network Server 700 running under AIX. The key hardware component enabling live audio streaming is the Telos Netcoder.
Netcoder is a dedicated hardware-based encoder, which offers much more processing power than systems bound to general-purpose CPUs. A five DSP-chip compression engine performs MPEG-2 layer III bitrate reduction, the most powerful audio method endorsed by the competitive MPEG standards process. On the core compression technology, Telos partnered with the audio and multimedia division of Germany’s Fraunhofer Laboratory, a world leader in pure research in the audio compression field, and the inventor of MPEG layer III.
In the upcoming webcasts, the system will deliver three feeds of increasing quality: one for 28.8 users, which results in better than AM quality audio; one for 56K (single-channel ISDN) users, which offers near FM quality audio; and one for 96K (2-channel ISDN or better) users, which offers near-CD quality audio.
“Apple continues to demonstrate its multimedia leadership on the Internet. We are now in a much improved position to show off our capabilities to music lovers who surf the Internet,” said Steve Franzese, V-P, Interactive Marketing and Online Services for Apple. “We are also pleased to find a technology ally with significant experience and a similar commitment to the music industry.”
Telos Systems is based in Cleveland, OH. The company was the first to apply DSP technologies to audio broadcast products. The Telos range now includes high-fidelity ISDN audio codecs for remote broadcasting, systems for call-in talk shows, and audio processing equipment for FM radio stations.
Pentium PC and Power Mac users are invited to download the free Audioactive player (helper application) in order to listen to the live music webcasts. If you don’t want to wait for the webcasts, you can hear examples of Audioactive streaming right now at the Apple Webcasts site.
Audio Highway will initially store audio selections on its web servers, where Listen Up customers will be able to view and select personalized audio selections. Once chosen, audio selections will be delivered to the hard drive of a consumer’s personal computer, then transferred to a Listen Up player via a pass-through parallel port.