Starlight to manage multimedia

Multimedia software specialist Starlight Networks will announce a new tool next week that provides management of streaming media servers, including those provided by Microsoft and RealNetworks.

A new software package called StarCenter essentially acts as a broker between the multimedia end user and the back-end server systems providing the audio or video content, offering a central administrative point for a variety of streaming applications.

The debut of the software could signal maturation in the multimedia software market, with customers who have deployed multimedia-based applications looking for better ways to manage them, according to Paul Slakey, director of product marketing at Starlight.

The new StarCenter software package supports Microsoft's NetShow servers, RealNetworks' multimedia servers, and Starlight's homegrown servers.

StarCenter, currently in beta and due to ship this summer, includes functions that allow popular video or audio content to be automatically replicated across several servers, adds authoring capabilities so that multimedia content can be added to Web pages, and adds usage tracking and replication features that offer billing options for popular multimedia presentations, for example.

The new StarCenter software costs $25,000 for one managed media server and unlimited client licenses.