Subject: FYI: Microsoft Licenses DataBeam's T.120-Based Tools

From: Ruth Lang <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 09 Mar 1995 17:06:06 -0800

FYI.  I received this from Jon Steer who posted a message to rem-conf earlier
this week looking for a comment on the enclosed and on impact to conference
control related work.

Ruth

     ----------------- PRESS RELEASE FOLLOWS -----------------------

     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

     
     MICROSOFT AND DATABEAM ANNOUNCE DATA-CONFERENCING
     TECHNOLOGY RELATIONSHIP
     
     Microsoft Licenses DataBeam's T.120-Based Tools to Build Real-Time,
     Multi-Point Applications
     
     REDMOND, Wash. and LEXINGTON, Ky., Feb. 7, 1995 -- Microsoft Corp. and 
     DataBeam Corp. announced today that they have executed an agreement in 
     which Microsoft will license conferencing technology from DataBeam? to 
     enable Microsoft? Windows? operating systems with multi-point 
     collaboration capabilities.  In addition, the companies are evaluating 
     potential areas for future joint development efforts.
     
     DataBeam's technology is based on the T.120 standards for multi-point 
     data communications, an open set of protocols developed by the 
     International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to establish 
     interoperability among conferencing vendors, products and services.
      
     "Microsoft's decision to offer conferencing capabilities to its 
     customer base greatly energizes the immense potential market for 
     real-time, collaborative applications," said Lee Todd, president and 
     chief executive officer of DataBeam.  "Their selection of an open 
     standard clearly was made in the best interest of their customers, who 
     place a high value on product interoperability."
     
     DataBeam's multi-point data conferencing technology provides the 
     communications infrastructure for a wide range of applications, 
     including joint editing of documents at remote sites, delivery of 
     sales presentations to clients around the country, and annotation of 
     documents from different locations.
     
     "Real-time collaboration in the Windows environment will provide many 
     benefits to Microsoft customers," said Paul Maritz, senior vice 
     president at Microsoft.  "We chose to integrate DataBeam's technology 
     into our product plans because DataBeam has developed a solid 
     implementation of T.120.  Simply stated, T.120 is the underlying 
     technology that will allow people in diverse locations to collaborate 
     as though they were in the same room."
     
     The T.120 standards for multi-point communications enable conferencing 
     products from multiple vendors to seamlessly communicate with one 
     another.  These standards establish common protocols for multi-point 
     data transmission over a variety of network types, and they define 
     recognized tasks and procedures for common real-time applications such 
     as document conferencing and file transfer.  More than 50 
     telecommunications and computer-industry firms have publicly stated 
     their support for the T.120 standards through their work with the 
     International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium (IMTC).
      
     "This agreement between DataBeam and Microsoft on T.120 technology 
     raises our confidence that there's enough industry concensus around 
     the standard for interoperability to become a reality in the near 
     future," said Mike Vereb, advisor to the Pennsylvania Department of 
     Education's teleteaching project.  "Multi-point data communications is 
     critical to the expansion of our document conferencing network, and we 
     need this level of interoperability to roll out a complete solution to 
     our users."
     
     DataBeam develops and markets document-conferencing applications for 
     end users and licenses collaborative-computing toolkits to third-party 
     developers.  DataBeam's application products, including its FarSite? 
     document conferencing software, are used by hundreds of organizations, 
     including BASF, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, NASA and Philips 
     Semiconductor, to help geographically dispersed users collaborate on 
     shared tasks in real time.  The company was founded in 1983 and is 
     privately held.
     
     Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in 
     software for personal computers.  The company offers a wide range of 
     products and services for business and personal use, each designed 
     with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to 
     take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
     
     # # #
     
     Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks 
     of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
     FarSite and DataBeam are registered trademarks of DataBeam Corp.  

     For further information contact:
     
     Jessica Solodar or Deborah Parrott
     Rogers Communications (for DataBeam)
     (617) 224-1100
     
     Jill Pembroke or Delona Lang 
     Pembroke Resources, Inc. (for Microsoft) 
     (503) 224-9880

---

From: Jon Crowcroft <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 95 09:32:36 +0000

Ruth

hmmmm - well looks like Microsoft just made another stupid decision -
so whats newa (actually, i am very impressed by the Internet
Assistent, but thats not realy relevant here...)

can we try to inform the relecvant peopel there about the "power of
multicast" and non-scalability of T.120.....

but (as we discussed here) i guess i na circuit switched world, T.120
ain't so bad...

this point here:
 >     another.  

anyone who's actually used a large scale conferencing system based
round this (such as the UK national video pilt on Superjanet that uses
circuit emulation and T.120 and MCUs etc, as opposed to the Superjanet
mbone...), will know that the word "seamlessly" here is a laughable
description of what happens with todays best products in this area for
real multipoint....

cheers
jon

---

From: "jon steer" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 14:59:23 +0000 (GMT)

Jon Crowcroft ,
> multicast" and non-scalability of T.120.....

 I am sure that Microsoft knows about multicast, they have support for it in
 their current IP stack.

> 
> but (as we discussed here) i guess in a circuit switched world, T.120
> ain't so bad...

 What makes you think that the Microsoft usage of T.12x will be confined
 only to a circuit switched world ?  The DataBeam stack has a mode where it
 can be used on top of a WinSockets stack.

 It is strictly conjecture on my part, however, the timing of the
 announcement coupled with the timing of several new Microsoft ventures
 (Microsoft Network, Microsoft TV and the "Notes killer") makes me believe
 that Microsoft is probably planning to release a conferenceing product
 based on T.12x technology this year. The primary use of conferencing
 for them will be  to communicate with the rest of the world on their
 networks. Microsoft has a large training, education and support system that
 desparately wants videoconferencing.

 Microsoft's "Notes killer" product is probably looking for something
 sexy to differentiate itself from Notes and video is one of those things.

 From my viewpoint, any other conference control protocols could vanish
 overnight as a result of Microsoft making available mass-market
 implementations of conferencing systems based on T.12x.

 It would be a shame to be locked into MCU-centric protocols like
 T.12x, but it is an entirely realistic future.

 Comments?

 regards,
 jon
=============================================================================
 Jon Steer -Toolsmithing,Device Drivers,Communications,H.320 Systems Consulting
 BitScout Software,Inc	40 Berkeley St, Nashua N.H. 03060
 phone:(603)889-1185	video: (603)889-1125  E-mail: [email-masked]

---

From: Jon Crowcroft <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 95 15:10:23 +0000

> I am sure that Microsoft knows about multicast, they have support for it in

in wolverine, yes....

 > can be used on top of a WinSockets stack.

but T.120 is inappropriate for multicast -its based round a classic
telco/ITU request/response/indication model.....it doesn't scale (well, it
scales in messages as O(n**2) with n particpants)

 > desparately wants videoconferencing.

yes, it certinaly looks like they are heading that way - though the
internet assistent smacks of a replacement for Notes:-)

 > Comments?

agree completely that this is a (sadly) plausible future
scenario!

 jon