Videoconferencing specialist Videoserver Inc has added support for ATM asynchronous transfer mode to its multipoint platform, a year before a standard for sending video over ATM is likely to emerge. The Massachusetts-based company, which has traditionally enabled H.320 desktop systems to videoconference with multiple remote sites over ISDN, plans to produce a NIC network interface card in the fourth quarter which will enable users to do multipoint videoconferencing across multiple network topologies including ATM. The $10,000 NIC, for use with the company’s videoserver series 2000 multimedia conference server, uses First Virtual Corp’s ATM technology, a multimedia operating software which gives users the ability to reserve bandwidth for video applications. People are already using video over ATM by tunneling traffic across ATM using IP or H.323 but they don’t benefit from the higher speeds, said Phil Keenan, vice president for international operations at Videoserver.
