Digital Video Everywhere (DVE)

• Open Communication Software Architecture Eliminates Technology and Standards "Obsolescence Risks"
• The Most Standards-Compliant Architecture in the Industry
• The Interoperability of DVE Architecture

Open Communication Software Architecture Eliminates Technology and Standards "Obsolescence Risks"

Video computing and communications. Collaborative workgroup computing. Desktop multipoint videoconferencing. The integration of these dynamic distributed applications are stepping out beyond the early-adopter stages and into mainstream, enterprise-wide information systems strategies.

Desktop video technology and collaborative computing are opening up new, more effective channels of worldwide communication. From Wall Street to Main Street, the Pentagon to your local government, and around the world and beyond.

And the reasons are obvious: reduced expense and time otherwise spent travelling to meetings, increased flexibility and timeliness of communication, enhanced involvement of all participants needed for an effective meeting, and a direct medium through which to respond to dispersed global activities.

So when it comes to making a significant purchasing decision on technology that will revolutionize the way you do business, look to MDL, a world leader in communications software, collaborative computing, desktop conferencing, and distributed digital video.

The Most Standards-Compliant Architecture in the Industry

The underlying architecture of all MDL products is DVE. Recognized by the teleconferencing industry as "The Most Significant Advancement to Desktop Videoconferencing in 1994", DVE gives MDL applications complete hardware independence from video and audio subsystems, desktop computers, and local/wide-area networks such as Ethernet, Token Ring, ATM, Frame Relay, ISDN, and SMDS.

Its open architecture facilitates rapid integration of emerging technologies and standards, eliminating many of the obsolescence risks associated with desktop collaboration and conferencing.

In a period of rapid technological innovation, having a durable user software architecture can mean the difference between integrating new technology into a changing environment, or chaos.

Unlike traditional room-based and point-solution desktop conferencing offerings, which are tied to a single platform, a single network, and a single compression algorithm, MDL DVE-based solutions maximize existing network, desktop system and application software investments.

It eliminates the need to install costly, high-bandwidth services strictly dedicated to your videoconferencing or digital video application. More importantly, it allows you and your users to hold multipoint conferences and view full-motion digital video without a video board. DVE includes software multipoint capability and a powerful software CODEC.

DVE-based MDL applications make desktop video a pervasive application by substantially lowering your cost-per-seat while encouraging more spontaneous and interactive communications using existing computing environments. DVE is now available as a application development toolkit, called OpenDVE, which gives 3rd-party and corporate application developers the ability to write interoperable collaborative and conferencing functionality directly into their software solutions.

The Interoperability of DVE Architecture

DVE software consists of multiplatform Application Programmer Interface (API) designed to enable rapid integration of new video board technology. A "software bus" architecture permits various compression algorithms to interoperate in a multiplatform session.

As a result, DVE-based MDL products are not tied to any 1 emerging video standard, but can be engineered to rapidly support new standards.

Another strong component of DVE is its software digital compression/decompression layer (CODEC). This layer not only handles the various compression algorithms, but also serves as a software digital multipoint control unit.

MDL's Network Abstraction Layer (NAL) provides for a seamless digital convergence environment, enabling distributed multimedia applications to run transparently and interoperably across packet, telephony, and cell networks. It is state-of-the-art in distributed multimedia networking technology.

In addition to highly synchronized audio and video transmissions, DVE enables direct Software Digital Video (SDV) to disk for store/forward and record/playback applications. It provides a visual interface so icons, menus, and video buttons are represented in digital video. This video interface makes MDL products easy-to-use for users who speak several different languages.