The company's RealSystem iQ multimedia delivery platform uses peer-to-peer computing to double the speed of content-delivery services and increase both their reliability and the number of simultaneous sessions they can support, according to the company.

RealNetworks launched the RealSystem iQ architecture Monday at the Streaming Media West trade show here, alongside several other content-delivery companies also showing upgraded audio- and video-delivery products.

RealNetworks' RealSystem iQ platform consists of the company's RealSystem Server 8, RealSystem Proxy 8, and RealSystem Producer 8.5. All of them will be available in final commercial form beginning Dec. 18.

RealNetworks' upgraded platform will deliver higher performance on individual servers as well as load-balancing across multiple servers that will provide redundancy and higher reliability for all types of content-delivery services, says Richard Doherty, director of research at the Envisioneering Group.

"All of the leading media distributors want to give their customers the most effective use of the bandwidth they're leasing," and the boost in performance provided by the new platform will address that requirement, Doherty says.

In addition, the improvements contained in the new architecture will offer noticeably better-quality audio and video broadcasts when customers listen to or view content on the Internet through RealNetworks' players, rather than through competing platforms such as the Windows Media system from Microsoft, he says.

RealSystem Server 8 is a digital server software package for broadcasters, Internet service providers, nonmedia businesses, and content distributors that's intended to provide greater reliability and availability of multimedia content, with lower administrative and bandwidth costs.

RealSystem Proxy 8 is a streaming-media proxy-cache product that helps ISPs and companies manage digital media content and provide higher-quality content delivery services at lower costs.

RealSystem Producer 8.5 works with the company's new server and proxy offerings and is used for content creation, according to RealNetworks.

The RealSystem iQ enhancements are capable of delivering content twice as fast as previous products, according to RealNetworks. The architecture also works with multiple operating systems, including Sun Solaris, Windows, and Linux, and supports as many as 45 media types so it can deliver content to a wide variety of devices, including PCs, MP3 players, cable-television set-top boxes, cell phones, and personal digital assistants, company execs say.

RealSystem Server 8 Basic is free, with RealSystem Server 8 Plus priced at $1,995. RealSystem Producer 8.5 is $149.95. Pricing for RealSystem Proxy 8 has not been finalized.

Also at the show, privately held Internet radio company TuneTo.com Inc. is demonstrating how its Internet radio technology can be used to transmit audio material to handheld computers equipped with 19.2-Kbps wireless data modems.

The demonstration showed how TuneTo.com's system can be used for more than the company's own Listener-Powered Internet Radio service by delivering audio using 19.2-Kbps cellular digital transmission services that are usually too slow for high-quality audio services.

In other streaming-media news, Inktomi Corp. and satellite maker Hughes Network Systems said last week that they've agreed to build a worldwide caching and content-distribution network that can deliver IP-based multimedia content directly to businesses and homes through the installation of Inktomi's Traffic Server caches at Hughes' network operations centers. The two companies also will develop for installation at customer sites caching and content-distribution software that will be optimized for satellite delivery of content. The companies will combine the Traffic Server software with Hughes' DirecPC satellite-based Internet-access services.