AOL Developing Cheap Switch for Audio Streaming

legaleagll writes: "According to a Fortune magazine article and a follow-up article on ZDNet, AOL is developing a cheap switch that can handle streaming audio for 10,000 users, versus current technology of 100 - 1,000 users per box depending on expense of system. The code name for the product is Ultravox and was apparantly spurred into existence because RealNetworks is now offering internet service for cheaper than AOL. I'm a little skeptical because I'm not sure how the use of an intelligent router would eliminate the need for the expensive systems to stream the audio. Wouldn't moving the software for streaming onto the router make for a more expensive router and still require the expense a box outside of the router anyway?"

Comments

RealNetworks?

[saintlupus]

Gee, I hope the sound is of the same pristine quality I've come to expect from .ra files. It'll have to be, if they want to compete, right?

Here's hoping for streaming audio that sounds like it was encoded in my basement, beneath an overturned copper bathtub, during a torrential downpour.

--saint

Re:KIRsty MacColl?

[demastri]

It's Kirsty, you anonymous f-tard. "Kirsty" by her parents...