AT&T Co reckons it has cracked the problem of how to squeeze videoconferencing and full-motion video capabilities into the desktop personal computer, video telephone, teller machine or point-of-sale terminal. The video codec compression decompression – technology is an outgrowth of research at AT&T Bell Laboratories, which will be implemented in AT&T Microelectronics’ chips, to enable economical digital processing of decent video images and sounds compatible with the various emerging standards. NCR Corp’s Self-Service Systems division has committed to implementing the compression chip technology in its new interactive kiosks, and it will also be used in future video and multimedia desktop products from AT&T’s Business Communications Systems unit and NCR’s Workstation Products division. Following the launch of the VideoPhone 2500 earlier this year, AT&T recently announced its Group Video System – a compact, rollabout system which can extend digital videoconferencing throughout a business. This is based on PictureTel Corp’s System 4000, while some of the technology implemented in the VideoPhone 2500 is sourced from Compression Labs Inc. AT&T’s teleconferencing and multimedia technology will take the form of a three-chip video codec (compresser decompresser), the AVP-1000. The codec performs full-motion that is up to 30 frames per second – video compression and decompression according to the various international standards. The chips conform with transport standards like ISDN, and are compatible with, for example, AT&T’s line of video-capable network transport services, including its recently announced Global Business Video Services offering. The codec chips will also implement multimedia standards including MPEG, JPEG, and Px64. A number of systems vendors are expected to have products incorporating the AT&T chips in the market in 1993. The teleconferencing chips – to take the form of a three-chip video codec badged the AVP-1000 – are due to sample in the fourth quarter, full production expected mid-next year, for under $400 in production quantities. The AVP-1000 chip set will comprise an encoder, decoder and system control chip. The codec technology is complemented by AT&T’s integrated multimedia development environment, recently announced, based on the AT&T DSP3210 multimedia processor and the VCOS real-time operating system. And PictureTel Corp, now apparently relocated from the picturesque sounding Peabody to the more prosaic Danvers, Massachusetts, says that it has agreed a joint effort with AT&T Microelectronics to establish interoperability between the new CCITT H.320 (px64) video codec chip set and PictureTel’s family of visual communications systems. The two are also working to support common extensions to the H.320 algorithm, many of which were developed by PictureTel.
