|
SEVERE TIRE DAMAGE: THE FIRST BAND ON THE INTERNET STD became the first live band on the Internet on 24 June 1993 by using the just invented "MBone". Since then, STD has added the first live video remote-cam and the first remote audio mixer to the first worldwide live video interactive show. The MBone is easier to use and more widespread every day. But, it's not quite as easy as downloading a Netscape Plug-In... yet.
WHAT IS THE MBONE?MBONE stands for Multicast Backbone. It lets live video and audio signals be sent and received over the Internet. Because it uses an extended addressing method to transmit data, not every Internet Service Provider is able to "see" the MBone.
WHAT IS MULTICASTING?"Broadcasting" is what television stations do. One single source transmits to a zillion people. Your local TV station sends airwaves to everyone around you. All of the information is flying around all of the time. "Unicasting" is how email and the WWW work. You send a letter to a single person. You click a button on the Web and the page you request comes only to your computer. Information goes to a single place as needed. "Multicasting" is in the middle. It takes live information and transmits it, but only where, and as, needed.
WHY MULTICAST?
Television broadcasting works because the signals don't travel at full strength forever. Viewers in
California don't see what's on the Munhwa Broadcasting Company in Korea. Cable television companies
already have too many channels to choose from and can only offer 100. Or 200. Or 500.
But, of course, we all want a billion tv channels available on our computer all the time, don't we?
If it worked like the Web, every viewer would have a stream of data. Ten people in Chicago watching the
same show originating in California would use ten channels worth of bandwidth. Yuck! But if no one
were watching it, we don't even need to send the information at all.
WHERE IS THE MBONE?The MBone is still in its infancy. Until recently, it took major wizardry to make it happen. The difficulties involve making the packets of information distinguishable from normal internet packets, making them only go where they're wanted, and getting them to the right place at the right time (to name a few). A Multicast Backbone was set up that understood multicast packets and had the high bandwidth necessary to transmit video and audio in realtime. Both the originator and the recipient have to be on the Multicast Backbone, or "MBone", to make it work. Since the amount of information traveling to a viewer is a continuous stream of data at ISDN or bigger (up to MUCH BIGGER), not all Information Service Providers (ISPs) want to provide this service, fearing it would quickly use all the bandwidth they can provide.
HOW DO I GET IT?
Right now, it's likely to be a bit of work. It may be impossible this month. Contact your ISP
or Network Administrator to find out if the MBone makes it to your corner of the 'Net. Then
get the appropriate software for your platform of choice. You may need to purchase it, however.
Run an AltaVista search, the field is always changing. A decent place to start looking for the
technical info you need can be found at
http://www.mbone.com
WHEN CAN I GET IT?The good news is that the MBone will soon be coming to a computer near you. In the same way that software gets more features with every revision, the Internet also gets updated occasionally. The next revision IPv6 (Internet Protocol version Six) is already being used in some places and will eventually be ubiquitous. IPv6 includes the addressing scheme that the MBone relies upon. So every single computer on the Internet will have the capability of getting on the MBone. Grandma will be able to talk to you live from her home far away. You'll be able to phone your entire family, and converse live with pictures. This won't just be the 500 hundred channels that the communication giants and government have been arguing about. Five billion channels. Live. Worldwide. ...And you think you have bandwidth problems now?
THE FUTURE
So sit back and wait for it to happen around you. Or do a bit of work now and be the first on your
block to be on the MBone. The MBone and what it implies go a long way towards providing the future
of the Internet. What is currently called "The Information Superhighway" is actually only a few one-way
roads. The MBone is the first place where you can actually change lanes.
Watch for the Severe Tire Damage channel. Tune in and invite other people to watch too. Talk back to the band, make requests. Enjoy being a part of history!
|