Intel Corp has invested $30.5m in videoconferencing company PictureTel Corp as part of R&D and support tie-up between the two companies. An Intel spokesperson said that the deal will allow the chip giant to offer full-time specialist support for its ProShare PC-based videoconferencing line and NetStation range. PictureTel has signed a worldwide exclusive distribution deal with Intel and will sell the products alongside its own videoconferencing lines. The firms will also work together to develop the next wave of PC-based videoconferencing products which they claim will offer real-time multimedia streaming over local and wide area networks using IP, ISDN and ATM network technologies. The first products should appear in 2000. The chip giant’s investment in PictureTel reaffirms its interest in what many would see as a less than shining sector of multimedia technology. The Intel spokesperson claimed that previously PC- based videoconferencing had not offered sufficient resolution to be practical and had required wide pipes to deliver the sort of bandwidth needed for data streaming. He said the NetStation addresses the bandwidth problem by allowing multiple ISDN lines to be linked up and said that the Pentium III – which is expected to hit the streets in March – will provide the kind of processing power needed to make videoconferencing viable – as it is able to handle the complex compression/decompression (codec) of data required for videoconferencing without recourse to additional accelerator boards. All intensive activity at the processor end should help to drive demand for higher-end desktop CPUs – like the Pentium III – but the spokesperson decried such suggestions and characterized Intel’s move as a public service, saying it would help replace all these plug-in boards. á
