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RealNetworks Promotes Wireless Streaming

Updated Helix Server Unlimited supports streaming multimedia to handhelds.

James Niccolai, IDG News Service

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RealNetworks has released an update to its Helix Server Unlimited software that adds the capability to stream video and audio content to wireless devices.

The software is aimed at organizations that want to stream content to employees, partners and customers. It already supported several formats, including RealNetworks' own RealAudio and RealVideo, Windows Media, QuickTime, MP3, and MPEG-4.

More Protocols

The updated version adds support for 3GPP technology for streaming content to handsets and other mobile devices developed by an industry alliance called the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, RealNetworks said Wednesday. The 3GPP support is offered as an "optional extra," the company said. Pricing wasn't immediately available.

Last year, RealNetworks released software that lets downloaded music from its own store play on a variety of portable devices, even if they're not running RealPlayer.

This update also adds support for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) and a newer version of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), and has better firewall security, according to RealNetworks. It is available for several platforms including Solaris, Windows, and Linux.

Early Users

The City of Seattle, where RealNetworks is based, has been using Helix Server Unlimited to stream television programs to its residents and will now add a service for handsets, RealNetworks representatives said. Virginia's Polytechnic and State University (Virginia Tech) will also use the update to stream content wirelessly to its students, according to the company.

RealNetworks has a few Helix server products. Helix Server Unlimited is the only one for delivering "unlimited" streams, and the other two are capped at 25 or 100 streams. Media companies with more than $50 million annual revenue and ISPs with more than 200,000 subscribers aren't eligible to buy the Helix products, according to RealNetworks' Web site.

The company released the Helix source code so developers could prepare products that support a variety of media formats, in what RealNetworks calls an open-source delivery system.

The products compete with software from Microsoft, Macromedia, and Apple Computer, among others.

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