QuickTime Conferencing Kit

Features

New functionality

• Enables audio conferencing or white-board collaboration over the Internet with a 28.8 modem (limited frame rate video conferenc-ing capabilities)
• Enables screen sharing using Timbuktu Pro, from Farallon Communications, Inc. (included in kit)

Comprehensive, affordable solution

• Includes all software and peripherals needed to activate videoconferencing on supported platforms
• Preserves your investment because the open QuickTime Conferencing architecture can be easily extended to provide new capabilities
• Leverages the built-in features of Macintosh systems, enabling videoconferencing to be implemented primarily in software instead of additional hardware

Industry standards plus unique Macintosh advantages

• Takes advantage of Macintosh architecture to make a complex technology easy to use
• Supports leading compression and decom-pression standards for audio and video
• Works with popular networking standards such as Ethernet, AppleTalk and TCP/IP

Expandability

• Adaptable to create videoconferencing applications for specialized needs
• Extensible to support new capabilities and future standards easily

Ease of use

• One-click installer gets QuickTime Con-ferencing up and running quickly
• Color camera hooks up to your Macintosh system in moments
• Apple Media Conference software lets you easily send and receive document images while you videoconference

Description

The Apple QuickTime Conferencing Kit is an all-in-one package of video-conferencing software and accessories for Macintosh systems. Just add a network connection and you're ready to communicate with other QuickTime Conferencing users over an Ethernet LAN or the Internet. In true Macintosh tradition, QuickTime Conferencing takes advantage of the powerful built-in capabilities of Macintosh systems to make videoconferencing -- usually a complex, expensive technology -- easy to use and surprisingly affordable.

The QuickTime Conferencing Kit provides robust data-sharing capabilities for videoconferencing and collab-oration. You can annotate and edit on-screen images of other people's text and graphics, share sounds and QuickTime movies, broadcast video over your network to any number of users -- in short, do much more than just exchange pictures of faces. The kit is an inexpensive, easy-to-use solution for people needing to work together from different locations.

The kit's primary software is the QuickTime Conferencing system ex-tension, which comes with a one-click installer. There's also a QuickTime Conferencing Camera 100, a high-resolution color camera that you can put wherever you like or even move around to show items in your office. And an easy-to-use videoconferencing and collaboration application called Apple Media Conference enables you to share and exchange files and on-screen docu-ments as well as images captured by the camera while you videoconference.

The QuickTime Conferencing Kit builds on Apple's QuickTime technology, which makes it easy for Macintosh users to view movies, animation, and other dynamic media on their computers. Because QuickTime Conferencing software is based on proven, extensible Mac OS technology, Macintosh developers can easily enhance QuickTime Con-ferencing for specialized purposes such as video mail or medical imaging.

The QuickTime Conferencing Kit is the first in a family of Apple video-conferencing products. The QuickTime Conferencing ISDN Kit interoperates over ISDN networks with any other system that adheres to the ITU-T H.320 standard for videoconferencing.

Technical Specifications

QuickTime Conferencing system extension

Network protocols supported

• Ethernet
• AppleTalk
• TCP/IP

Network protection features

• Flow control for real-time media
• Multicast media distribution
• Low bit-rate video coding algorithms
• Bandwidth monitoring and control via a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) station

Video input formats supported

• NTSC
• PAL
• SECAM

Audio and video compression standards supported

• ITU-T H.261
• JPEG
• Apple Video
• MACE
• G.728
• µ GSM
• H.263

Apple Media Conference application

• Provides shared white-board capability for:
  • Sharing of text, images, sounds, and movies
  • On-screen annotation of document images
• Allows editing of shared white-board objects
• Supports point-to-point and multipoint videoconferencing sessions
• Supports video broadcasts over LANs and the Internet
• Records conferencing sessions as QuickTime movies
• Permits any combination of connection types, such as:
  • Audio and video both directions
  • Audio and video one direction, audio only the other direction
  • Audio and video one direction, video only the other direction
  • Audio only
  • Video only
• Includes an interactive, on-screen tutorial
• Supports file exchange, enabling two or more users to share files
• Provides automatic redial with QuickTime Conferencing calling cards

QuickTime Conferencing Camera 100

• 320-line, high-resolution color
• Automatic focusing
• Manual focusing for extreme closeups
• Tilt adjustment
• Built-in stand, allowing placement wherever desired

Network connection

Ethernet

• Using TCP/IP or AppleTalk protocols

Volume- and site-license packages of Apple Media Conference software are available. Please visit the QuickTime Conferencing web site (http://qtc.quicktime.apple.com) for ordering procedures and other QuickTime Conferencing information.