---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Third Party Product Announcements SunFLASH Vol 50 #20 February 1993 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Warehouse eXpress (CIM, Warehouse and Distribution Control) DiskWright: Fast, Easy Install of SCSI Disks RAD ScreenPlay: Screen Recording Software for Sun -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Warehouse eXpress (CIM, Warehouse and Distribution Control) From: corson@infodyn.COM (Tom Corson) Org: Information Dynamics Address: 18337 Swarthmore Drive Saratoga, California 95070 (Voice): 408-370-1572 (Fax): 408-370-1809 Information Dynamics, a systems integrator and supplier of high technology material control system solutions for the manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution marketplaces, will introduce Warehouse eXpress TM, its flagship product, which provides an integrated environment for both Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) and Warehouse and Distribution Control, at CeBIT '93 in Hannover, Germany on March 24-31, 1993. Warehouse eXpress functionality includes: * Receipt and Putaway of Material * System-Directed Location Selection * Order Processing * Order Picking by Zone, Order, or Group * Fast Order Picking * Replenishment of Fast Pick Locations * Shipping * Material Movement and Relocation * Inventory Management * Lot Tracking and Control * Management Reporting * Host Order Processing / MRP Interface Warehouse eXpress incorporates hand held and vehicle mounted Radio Data Terminals (RDT's) for on-line communication with plant and warehouse personnel as well as specialized interfaces for devices such as Conveyors, Carousels, Mini Load Storage Systems, Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS), Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems (AGVS), and Pick to Light Systems. The product software incorporates an intuitive, easy to use Graphical User Interface (GUI) and is fully internationalized for use in European countries. Warehouse eXpress is offered on Sun Microsystems TM and other UNIX based platforms. The Company will be exhibiting its product at CeBIT '93 in the State of California group exhibit in the upper floor of Hall 8, Stand A38/B37 and is seeking strategic marketing partners for its product throughout Europe. For further information, contact Thomas W. Corson, President, or send email to marketing@infodyn.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: sila!bb@sequent.com (Bill Brown) Subject: DiskWright: Fast, Easy Install of SCSI Disks Org: Sila, Inc. Address: 9385 NW Murlea Lane Portland, OR. 97229 FAX: (503)292-9316 Email: islabs!sila!diskwright-info@sequent.com SILA, INC. ANNOUNCES THE AVAILABILITY OF DISKWRIGHT - INEXPENSIVE SOFTWARE FOR THE FAST AND EASY INSTALLATION OF SCSI DISKS ON SPARCSTATION AND COMPATIBLE COMPUTERS. The DiskWright software package provides for the setup of 3rd party SCSI disk drives on SparcStation computers without the need of a format.dat entry. All disk label information is learned from the drive and partitioning is automatically determined for sd0 (boot) drives based on disk and memory size. The software has a simple command line interface and is compatible with Suninstall for initial system installations. FUNCTIONS: * Display existing label and partitioning * Create new disk labels automatically without a format.dat * Partition the drive automatic defaults for sd0 and other drives or by explicit user input * Repair label "magic number" or checksum * Set disk sector size to 512 bytes on configurable sector size drives COMPATIBILITY: * Sun SS1, SS1+, SS2, IPC, IPX, SS10, and compatibles * SunOS 4.1.1, 4.1.2, and 4.1.3 (NOW) * Solaris 2.1 (Q2 93) PRICING: Single user license, 3.5" media and documentation...................$89 Site license, 3.5" media and documentation......................INQUIRE Expedited delivery at additional cost. DiskWright is a trademark of Sila, Inc. All other products mentioned are trademarks of their respective manufacturers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: RAD ScreenPlay: Screen Recording Software for Sun Org: RAD Technologies, Inc. Address: 2639 Terminal Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043 tel: 415-968-4800 fax: 415-940-1961 email: info@rad.com ScreenPlay provides a powerful digital video screen recording solution for software demonstration creation and distribution, Computer Based Training (CBT), system troubleshooting, on-line documentation, maintenance, and service manuals, CAD/CAM/CAE, visualization and imaging, and military and security security applications. ScreenPlay movies integrate easily into FrameMaker and Interleaf documents, Sybase and Oracle databases, and other leading desktop applications providing full motion digital video from network desktop desktop computers or CD-ROM. For Free ScreenPlay Demo, email: info@rad.com =============================================================================== RAD Digital Media Backgrounder =============================================================================== Summary Each year, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on production and delivery of video within corporations for sales, marketing, training, and corporate presentations. In advertising, and the broadcast and entertainment industries, tens of billions of dollars are spent creating and delivering video information. In today's world, competition demands the ability to access, create, and present information and ideas fast and accurately to the widest possible audiences. The growth of video as a means of communication in the corporation further enables businesses to get the right information at the right time in a form customers and the sales channel can effectively use. Video has the ability to convey more information, with greater accuracy than text, graphics, or still pictures. It is also more powerful because it is exciting, engaging and entertaining. RAD is providing powerful new digital video tools for capturing, editing, and payback of digital video allowing audio/video information to be easily incorporated in the all of today's most popular applications from publishing, databases, and word processing, to CAD/CAM/CAE, CASE, and data visualization tools. RAD Digital Media brings digital video to mainstream computing today. RAD's first product, ScreenPlay*, provides a powerful screen animation capture and editing application which removes the most costly and difficult problems in the production of video-production of the source material. With ScreenPlay, any user can simply select the window or region of the screen to be captured and ScreenPlay automatically creates digital video, without the costs of editing equipment, video boards, or directors, producers and camera crew. ScreenPlay* provides a turn-key solution for creation of all source materials for on-line training, documentation and help systems, sales and marketing demos and presentations, CD-ROM video catalogues, and integration with all of today's leading applications. Future RAD Digital Media* products will grow the family of offerings to include a software-only video editing suite, and support for a wide range of video capture devices including all popular videodisks, videotape, and cameras. In the following pages, this backgrounder will examine: o Effectiveness of digital video communications o Markets and Applications o Challenges of digital video computing o RAD Digital Media overview o Evolution of digital video in the coming decade Effective Communications Employing Digital Video Video computing has the potential to completely transform the way we do business by making vast pools of knowledge available to anyone at any time. Video makes daily communications more effective because it combines both moving pictures and sound. A 1992 study by Market Vision found that 43 percent of corporate executives found their business meetings boring, and 40 percent acknowledged they had fallen asleep during business presentations. The same study found that the most effective presentation aid was video. According to a 1991 study by Inteco Corp., video presentations can cut meeting time by 40 percent - and improve audience retention of information by up to 38 percent. The above findings point to possibilities for major possibilities for improvements in business communications, training, and the delivery of sales and service information to the customer. Digital video is a powerful tool in many applications: o Business Communications o Corporate Training o Sales and Marketing o Technical Computing o Manufacturing and Maintenance o Technical Documentation o Information Delivery While text, graphics, and charting has long been available to computer users, the cost on integrating analogue audio and video has been to date prohibitive. With over 1 million digital audio boards now installed and growth of new video technologies including Apple QuickTime*, Microsoft Video for Windows*, and MPEG video compression tools, digital video now has the technology foundation available to have widespread use. Advantages of digital video computing over previous video technologies such as analogue and laserdisks: o Digital video is available to any desktop computer o Digital video can be distributed for the cost of a CD-ROM o The search for information is improved by fast, random access o Copies can be easily reproduced with no loss of image clarity o Interactivity and integration with any application o Images and be edited and manipulated o Rapid transmission is possible across local and wide area networks o Digital video is available on-demand at the place of greatest need Digital Video Applications Business Communications. Digital video allows companies to leverage existing investments in video, greatly expanding its audience and applications. Videos can be accessed and viewed on demand and tightly integrated into the context of each business situation, especially in the information industry. o Electronic slide shows o Educational seminars o Customer testimonials o Product catalogues o Electronic sales brochures o Product demonstrations o Video e-mail o Sales and marketing presentations o Staff meetings o Corporate communications o Advertising Corporate Training. Today, average sales and service personnel spend two months a year in event-based training, often with little relevance to their day to day job. On demand interactive video removes need for unproductive training time implementing job-specific training where it is needed - on the desktop. o Product and service training o Electronic 'courseware' o Interactive software textbooks o Maintenance and safety o Task and skill improvement o On-line help and tutorials o Employee orientation o Human resource policies and updates o Electronic employee newsletter o Executive communications Sales and Marketing. Video is the ultimate marketing tool giving both high image and demanding audience attention. Video not only supports the sales but in many cases can actually replace the need for sales and service personnel, enabling companies to refocus their marketing resources on closing deals, not educating the customer. o Automated product demonstrations o Product and strategy education o Retail point-of-sales kiosks o Parts and upgrade brochures o Integration services overviews o Sales force and end-user training Technical Computing. The high-end imaging and graphics world of CAD/CAM/CAE, scientific visualization, GIS and mapping, defense and intelligence, medical imaging, and data analysis all can gain great gains in power by employing digital video to complex tasks and problems. o Database Application Tutorials o IC Design CAD/CAM/CAE and AEC Session Recording o Animation, Simulation, and Computer Graphics o Scientific Visualization and Research o Medical Imaging o Geographic Information Systems o Security Applications o C4I Military and Intelligence Manufacturing and Maintenance. Just in time production and fast product changeovers demand constant retraining and skill improvement. With digital video, all procedures and line production tasks can be made available at each work site. As well, video can be used for monitoring production and recording in real time all activities. o Workcell task and skill training o Machine servicing, maintenance and repair o General process overviews o Line simulation o Process monitoring and control Technical Documentation. Digital video integrates easily into on-line service and repair manuals through context sensitive help. A picture is worth a thousand words, and video provides the most effective means for reference on procedures and tasks. Interactive manuals will soon replace the thousands of pages of unused user and reference manuals with engaging and entertaining on-line documentation. o Interactive electronic manuals o On-line help and reference o Software user manuals o Procedure demonstration o Complex task walk-thrus o Repair and maintenance Information Delivery. Huge amounts of resources are devoted each year to production of video. Digital video promises to make video even more useful and accessible to more authors due to its lower production and distribution costs. With CD-ROM and world-wide networks, digital video can now be available on every corporate desktop. o Interactive television o Company advertising o Travel guides o Electronic courseware o Product catalogues o CD-ROM video games o Video databases o Reference Guides o Encyclopedias o Home entertainment o Airport, museum and retail kiosks The Challenges of Digital Video Digital video pushes all areas of current technologies used in corporate computing - networking, microprocessors, memory, display graphics, audio, disk storage, and analog/digital integrated circuits. Full color, full motion video contains tremendous amounts of information, with each second of video requiring up to 25MB of data. Primary challenges faced and digital videos long-term acceptance and leading solutions today are: Challenge Solutions Performance New Intel-based 486 Pentium and RISC (SPARC, MIPS, PowerPC) CPUs Compression MPEG, DVI, fractel, and other codecs in both hardware and software Network Bandwidth New ethernet-based protocols, ATM, and FDDI, as well as telephone services such as digital cellular and ISDN Image Quality Compression technology as well as filters and software for optimizing video across multiple graphics platforms Compatibility Emergence of two major digital video standard in 1993- Apple QuickTime and Microsoft Video for Windows. Integration Common file format standards, object linking & embedding (OLE), and Media Command Interface (MCI) from Microsoft allows for insertion of multimedia in any application and work seamlessly with a wide variety of video devices. RAD Digital Media Products Digital Media is RAD Technologies' solution for bringing digital video computing to the mainstream. Digital video is a key component of RADs' long-term vision of enterprise multimedia computing and visual communications. RAD's vision includes digital video authoring tools, interactive electronic presentations, distributed information management and delivery, and on-demand access. RAD Digital Media is both an architecture and a family of retail products sold to end-users and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). RAD's goal is to provide enabling applications technologies and products to increase the productivity of users, groups, and the entire global enterprise by enhancing the flow and sharing of useful information in the corporate network. Multimedia computing brings the right information to users in forms of communications they can readily understand and use more effectively. RAD Technologies is providing a family of tools to make the use of video as wide-spread as the word processor. RAD Technologies has solutions for access, storage and retrieval of digital video and electronic presentations over local and wide area networks. ScreenPlay ScreenPlay turns any workstation or personal computer into a digital video capture and editing server. Specific components include: Viewer enables playback of ScreenPlay video on any workstation or personal computer with full API links. Recorder is a fast and simple tool for capturing digital video from any window or region of the screen. Editor provides a selection of In/Out marks for cutting and pasting clips, image enhancement, zoom and snapshot tools, with built-in Media Viewer. Multiple compression/decompression (codec) algorithms. These codecs offer a range of compression ratios, color depths and frame rates, with support for scalable hardware-assisted video, giving developers and users flexibility in adapting ScreenPlay to their needs. Video Catalogue, a simple utility for creating interactive video databases with a simple thumbnail browser interface. A CD-ROM disc containing Video Catalogues of sample ScreenPlay video clips that users can use for technology demonstrations and can immediately incorporate into their documents and presentations. ScreenPlay digital video software is an innovative solution for recording, editing, and sharing video information over Ethernet local area networks (LANs) and with CD-ROM. ScreenPlay software provides the first software-only digital video solution for recording and playback of product demonstrations, training and tutorials and on-demand video. ScreenPlay addresses the requirements for the widespread use of video on today's corporate networks, including: o Software-only recording and playback o The fast and easy recording of video from any desktop o File compression for minimal file size o Editing and Playback tools which integrate with any desktop application o An easy-to-use VCR-like interface o A Programmatic API for recording and viewing control o A common video file and compression format across all major computing platforms o Universal access across enterprise networks of digital video and electronic multimedia information o Video Catalogue tool for organization and display of video libraries o Support for both network and CD-ROM delivery VideoCam VideoCam builds upon the same technology base as ScreenPlay extending RAD Digital Media architecture to provide analog video capture and compression on powerful workstations servers, with the same Video for Windows-standard video playback across all major computing platforms. VideoCam includes all required tools for full-featured video editing using the TimeLine, VideoRecorder analog video capture and compression, VideoServer video production engine, and VideoNet stream and video over network management. All Digital Media products have an Application Programmers Interface (API) exposing all recording and playback functions for scripting and integration with popular publishing, database, and monitor and control applications. o Capture Video from VTRs or laserdisk o Timeline Editor o Audio Processing o Frame Accurate Editing Evolution of Digital Video RAD is providing the tools which address the technical and application issues that inhibit the access, creation and delivery of multimedia electronic presentations and videos in enterprise local and wide area networks. RAD products allow hundreds of users access to gigabytes of Interactive Visual Information (IVI) information including videos and electronic presentations through simple point-and-click and object management and delivery tools. RAD's goal is to use the rapidly expanding infrastructure of global corporate and public dta networks to provide client server solutions for multimedia computing, enabling gains in productivity far beyond that of electronic mail. RAD is building its vision of client/server multimedia to work seamlessly across all major computing platforms. The Digital Media family of video applications are designed to make the use of video as wide-spread as the word processor, and provides a long-term architectural foundation for a powerful family of enterprise visual communication solutions. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For information send mail to info-sunflash@Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@Sun.COM. Archives are on solar.nova.edu, ftp.uu.net, sunsite.unc.edu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. Please contact your local Sales Representative for details of pricing and product availability in your region. Descriptions of, or references to products or publications within SunFlash does not imply an endorsement of that product or publication by Sun Microsystems. John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@Sun.COM. (305) 351-4909.