Oracle’s Media Cartridge

Oracle has encapsulated its media object around the CORBA standard cartridge. This will allow for seamless integration of media applications across multiple operating systems. This is because the CORBA standard is based on Java, which can run off of multiple operating systems that have a JVM (Java Virtual Machine).

With Oracle’s Media Cartridge you could have a media applet that you could run over the World Wide Web and run on any piece of hardware/software that supported a standard browser. Oracle’s media cartridge is simply another packaging of the media product functionality for Web-based applets or intranets (see Figure 32.10).

Figure 32.10.  The video cartridge is only a standard way Oracle hopes to allow video applications to be built over the Web.

A multimedia applet running over the Web revolutionizes Web page design and the whole concept of a passive Web page. By renting, selling, and advertising over the Web using video, we are moving to a much more dynamic set of Web page standards that move in real-time to the motions and whims of the user.

Because Oracle is trying to push this new CORBA standard, they are compelled, almost politically, to offer media support for development of CORBA-compliant multimedia applications. Although this is one path, one could also use a Microsoft environment of Visual Basic and Windows NT; yet this approach creates a limitation, because to build these applications over the Web, one must employ ActiveX, which limits you to a Microsoft-friendly audience.

Summary

Oracle has not dropped the ball regarding media data at all. In fact, Oracle has created a complex and sophisticated product that it hopes will grab the market. Oracle has already worked on some large deals involving huge telecommunications interests wanting to broadcast a media application to millions of users.

Part of this battle between media giants, such as cable companies versus phone companies, will go into the courts and governments of the world. Regardless, Video on Demand (VOD) applications are coveted by both telephone and cable companies that simply want to be able to offer more people more choices, and thus gain greater revenues. Oracle is one of the large players in this arena and is in for a long battle with video, just as it is in for an uphill battle with its NC offering. This is why Oracle today offers a very powerful, industrial-strength video server—because it has to.

Because of Oracle’s commitment to video data, and because video data can be easily organized in a relational database, smaller companies that need video stream applications should consider this product. Simply creating an online training center can save a large company a great deal of money. More importantly, with the ability to use video over the Web, a company will gain a technical advantage over its competitors. Media is perception, and Oracle’s Media Server can completely change the perception of the company that chooses to use it.