Microsoft, Intel and Hewlett-Packard will be involved in a high-tech Webcast which will offer viewers a high-definition 1280x720 picture with surround-sound

Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and others will conduct a live Webcast of a concert featuring high-definition video and 5.1-channel sound.

The US-based technology companies, working with Asian service providers NTT East and J-Stream, will broadcast a live concert of popular Japanese musician Jo Hisaishi on 16 April to a preselected audience of 700 people through a Web site, according to Microsoft.

A Microsoft representative told CNETAsia that the concert will demonstrate the use of a broadband PC as a high-quality, audio-video entertainment device. It also aims to show that its server technology can be viable for streaming video into next-generation "filmless" digital movie theatres.

The show's video will comprise a better-than-DVD 1280x720 pixels, meeting the so-called 720p high-definition TV standard. Standard terrestrial broadcast TV produces a picture with around half the image resolution. The sound will be in 5.1-channel surround mode, comprising audio for three front and two rear speakers, and a bass unit.

Microsoft's Windows Media 9 Series player will be used on the PC end, and a server running the upcoming Windows Server 2003 operating system will feed the streams, said the representative.

The collaboration was announced in Japan on 3 December 2002, with the announcement of the streaming test coming soon after the launch of the Windows Media 9 Series on 29 January this year.

Microsoft expects streaming video content to form a strong component of its future business, and the company is on a campaign to see its own system gain dominance over those of rivals such as RealNetworks.

CNET staff reported from CNETAsia.

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