October 17, 2000

Why wait?
Streaming data on mobile devices, today?

With mobile devices packing more functionality than ever, it's no wonder data delivery is struggling to keep up. For wireless carriers who want to deliver more Internet content to their subscribers, companies like SolidStreaming are creating systems that enable streaming of audio and video to both current and next-generation wireless devices.

The SolidStream System is a plug-and-play product that claims to permit the transmission of live or pre-encoded data, video, and audio to mobile devices, as well as enabling two-way audiovisual communication between devices. Basically, it allows mobile users to access all the streaming media they have on their desktops from any mobile device.

The system reads all video codecs, allowing for easy deployment--via Internet downloads, OEM embedding, or at the time of device activation. A server application, which allows a customer to stream content, is combined with a client application, which allows for the reception and playing of the stream. SolidStream will convert existing data files (such as QuickTime and AVI) into formats that can be delivered to the client by the server application in an on-demand fashion. The system is fully compatible with current operating systems, including Java, Pocket PC, Palm, EPOC, Nokia, and other current proprietary OSs, according to SolidStreaming.

But all this doesn't amount to a hill of beans if folks can't start using it now. So, SolidStreaming created a 2G solution that enables immediate deployment of the system over current wireless networks. Using either the Wavelet, Motion JPEG, or MPEG I-Frame video codecs, the lightens the demands on the mobile device. So it smoothes over some of the rougher edges often associated with data transmission over wireless networks, such as inconsistent bandwidth, limited scratch memory, and low CPU power.

For 3G networks, SolidStreaming employs an MPEG-4 server that sends multiple streams of data. Since the system supports several codecs and can deliver raw data, users can choose the optimal codec for the task at hand. Once content is encoded, the company claims, it can be delivered at bit rates anywhere from 9.6 to 768 kbits/sec or higher, depending on network capabilities.

—Leah Jiorle