“Webcasting,” as used by Keyes, refers specifically to the software and hardware required to produce audio and video content and transmit it over the Web. The author states that content is what webcasting is all about (pp. 30, 74), and she discusses the tools required to manipulate that content. The strongest part of the book is the discussion of differences between broadcasting, multicasting, and unicasting (see chapter 3). The metaphor of the channel--as in PointCast or Microsoft Channel Definition Format (CDF), which is not otherwise discussed--is basically a well-disguised pull of content from a single URL. Here, communication is point-to-point, as many times as there are users (unicast). The Internet Group Management (IGMP) protocol allows clients to subscribe to a given multicast address. A router so configured will broadcast (that is, multicast) only to clients that have expressed interest. Bandwidth is preserved on the remaining subnetworks for other purposes. The concatenation of all routers thus configured is called the MBONE. This virtual network floats on the Internet in the form of interconnected multicast islands.

The breakthrough technology, according to the author, is streaming audio and video. Instead of waiting around downloading files, users can enter the world of video capture and accelerator cards, plug-ins, embedded tags, media servers, compression algorithms, acres of disk storage, and protocols such as resource reservation protocol (RSVP) and real-time transport protocol (RTP).

Keyes provides a detailed review of the main media server solutions from Intel, Microsoft, Netscape, and competitors such as RealAudio. Many screen shots and lists of recommended control settings for 28.8K and 14.4K modems, add value to the text. Specifics on digital editing tools are summarized. The high-end vertical market in Hollywood--Silicon Graphics workstations--is explicitly excluded. The last chapter, on audio and video production values, gives explicit advice on producing content. Beginning or intermediate-level digital graphic designers are clearly the audience here.

The penultimate chapter, on digital convergence, contains material designed to provoke discussion and conversation. Basically, the author displays credentials as a marketing expert. She declares herself a believer in the power of the televised media: “Moving images are more appealing than still images, and listening is more appealing than reading” (p. 241). The passivity of the viewer is acknowledged and accepted as an inevitable aspect of the way people are. Thus, the author is skeptical about the future of interactivity. Since expanding bandwidth--cable fiber to the home--is likely to be gobbled up by the streaming video applications described in this book, the author believes that advertising dollars will pay the costs of production (p. 246). This is the content aggregation model of PointCast advertising techniques (p. 247). Gone are the prospects of Nicholas  Negroponte’s  return to multimedia libertarianism and anonymous  Jeffersonian  democracy. Instead, “the access provider will track every action that a consumer takes” online (p. 247). “Content providers” will work closely with access providers, “assured of a complete picture of the behavior and purchasing profile of that customer” (p. 248).

This is a frightening vision. Fortunately, no necessary logical connection exists between one possible scenario of the electronic marketplace and the tools used to manipulate streaming content in that market. Likewise, this payment model (based on transaction hits per Web page) might usefully be supplemented with a briefing on the anonymity required for and provided by digital wallets and e-cash. Otherwise, we may end up inhabiting a dreary version of the Home Shopping Network. As Negroponte pointed out years ago, it is not lack of optical fiber to the home, but lack of imagination, that inhibits Web and multimedia applications. (Still, bandwidth is likely to come in handy wherever streaming video is deployed.) If you have imagination, this book provides an excellent briefing on how to capture it and put it on the Web.

The book contains an index and an extensive list of software and hardware companies to get the reader started on the road to audio and video production. Not provided, but likely to be useful, is a corporate backer with a significant media budget. Still, that budget will be less than would be needed to set up a major television or motion picture studio.