As details filter in from Oracle Corp’s Walter Cronkite-anchored media blitz from Hollywood on the Oracle Media Server, it is becoming clear that the company went off half-cock with its London launch, leaving out most of the salient details. On Oracle’s own account, the Media Server is accompanied by Oracle Media Objects, a software authoring tool that is designed to enable the rapid creation of multimedia interactive services and CD-ROMs. It includes smart television and set-top software with integrated video menuing and help systems. It includes re-usable objects, graphical tools and an English-like programming language called Oracle Media Talk for quick prototyping, testing and deploying interactive applications. As with HyperCard, a Media Objects application consists of a set of set of stacks with each stack composed of cards. Each card is a full screen of information, which can include text, graphics and controls such as on-screen remote controls for movies-on-demand. Oracle Media Net is a layer of software that hides the complexity of network mechanisms and supports connection of televisions to the Media Server. Chairman Larry Ellison told Reuters he saw the system doubling the company’s turnover to $4,000m in five years: it could generate $100m this year. And among the partners is Motorola Inc, whose Wireless Data Group will work with Oracle to develop wireless access to the corporate data in Oracle databases and the Oracle Media Server. Products from the alliance are planned to be announced later this year, Motorola said. Oracle is also teamed with Kaleida Labs Inc on marrying the ScriptX multimedia authoring language and the Kaleida Media Player with the Media Server. Kaleida Media Players will be available for Windows, Macintosh, OS/2, Unix and set-top terminals designed for interactive television.
