Omnimedia Plc, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey is best known for its CD-ROM titles but the company has developed a whole suite of proprietary tools and compression algorithms, and it is some of these that have caught the eye of Oracle Corp. Oracle has signed Omnimedia to develop its interactive MPEG authoring tools for Oracle’s Video Server environment in the hope that it will enable corporate users of the Video Server to play interactive MPEG software applications over the Internet and corporate Intranets more effectively. Omnimedia says its tool kit produces fully interactive multimedia content and that in combination with the Video Server enables distribution of broadcast-quality interactive content. Based on OmniMedia’s existing MPEG to ols, the new kit, called Rainbow, will enable users to produce on-line as well as CD-ROM content without any additional work. Users will also be able to add dynamic on-line capabilities. Omnimedia expects to demonstrate a prototype of Rainbow at Com dex/Fall in Las Vegas in November and aims to launch it at the Natiional Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas in April 1997. The tool kit will be sold both by Omnimedia and Oracle re-sellers.
