[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] Multimedia and The Press - some quotes

keithh@bwdls40.bnr.ca (Keith Hanlan) (01/08/91)

excerpted without permission from:
Globe and Mail, 91/1/7, page B1: Multimedia coming home
byline: Geoffrey Rowan, Technology Reporter.

	[...]
	Multimedia is the next logical step in the evolution of
	personal computing. It is the marriage of the PC's
	traditional text and graphics capabilities with video and
	audio.

	[...]
	Even though it has been around for about five years, multimedia
	is still very much a concept of the future. But with the
	unqualified support of the companies that drive the computer
	industry - IBM, Apple, Intel, and Microsoft - it seems
	certain to blossom.

	The pioneer in multimedia has been Commodore International
	Ltd. of the Bahamas, which essentially created the idea in
	1985 with the introduction of its Amiga personal computer.

	Since then IBM and Apple have embraced the notion, adding
	audio and video capabilities to their machines. Workstation
	manufacturers such as Sun ...  and NeXT ... are also
	promoting a multimedia world.

	Having launched the multimedia segment of personal
	computing, Commodore has recently redefined it with the
	introduction of a product it calls CDTV - Commodore Dynamic
	Total Vision.

	CDTV is more like a stereo component than a home computer.
	It is a combination compact disc player and Amiga computer,
	but it has no keyboard. It is controlled by a remote control
	device, like a TV remote control.

	'It provides capabilities far beyond any currently available
	entertainment or computer system,' said Tom Shepherd,
	director of marketing for Commodore Business Machines Ltd.
	of Agincourt, Ont.

	With CDTV, a user can quickly pull up audio, video,
	graphics, and text from an electronic encyclopedia or from
	other resource materials that Commodore says will be
	developed.

	The CDTV is being launched in early 1991 for less than
	$1,500 in Canada, the company said. Initially there will be
	about 35 programs available for it, Mr. Shepherd said, with
	plans to expand that number. The disc will cost between $30
	and $100.

	'We do not think of CDTV programs as software,' he said.
	It's an electronic interactive, instantaneously accessible
	library with fiction, non-fiction, reference and
	entertainment titles.

	But because there is relatively little resource material
	commercially available for multimedia, and because there isn't a
	broad set of industry standards to govern how multimedia products
	will work together, no one is predicting that every desktop computer
	will become an interactive multimedia workstation in the near
	future.

	Michael Holman, president of Microsoft, said the industry has to
	agree to standard protocols and hardware prices must come down for
	multimedia to really take off. But 'we continue to be evangelists
	for it.'

The Globe and Mail is Canada's self-proclaimed National
Newspaper.