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This article mentions TV resolution video and CD stereo audio down a 2400bps
modem. Of course, that may be a misprint. Maybe they mean 28.8kbps.
By NATHAN COCHRANE and MIKE van NIEKERK
The 22-year-old Knoxfield developer claims to have
cracked a conundrum that has stumped researchers for
years - how to deliver broadcast quality sound and
video down a plain old telephone line.
Although researchers have been closing on this goal
in recent years, spending many millions of dollars in
R&D, the level of performance claimed by Clark in
the system he invented in his spare time at home is
considered in the industry as remote as a cure for
the common cold.
His solution, which he calls "Adam's Platform''
is a compression algorithm that can, he says, perform
the miraculous transfer a 1.3 gigbyte video file to a
1.4 megabyte floppy disk.
Clark, director of event management company Centre
Stage Productions, says Adam's Platform can deliver
real-time full broadcast 768 x 576 video and
CD-quality audio streams down a standard 28.8Kbps
modem and copper line.
And indeed, in a system test for IT at his premises,
Clark demonstrated what appeared to be full 768 x 576
video and 44.1Khz stereo audio streaming in real-time
down a 2400bps modem line from the server to the
PowerPC client.
But he declined repeated offers to replicate the
results on quarantined equipment at The Age offices,
citing "security concerns''.
Despite scepticism by industry professionals, Clark,
who has been taken under the wing of Melbourne lawyer
Roger Velik, is confident he will be vindicated.
Adam's Platform revolves around a complex CODEC
(compression-decompression) algorithm, linked to
special server software, which currently runs only on
Apple Macintosh PowerPCs using AppleTalk dialup.
Clark claims compression ratios as high as 1000:1 at
near-broadcast quality. Ratios of 2:1 are more common
with existing professional digital editing and
composition systems like Avid.
The young inventor plans to seek financial backing so
he can continue to commercial release. But he has
still not filed a patent application for the
technology.
Roger Velik said there were concerns about
"disclosing'' the technology, which could then
be copied. "There are people who would love to
get their hands on it,'' he said. Telstra was one
organisation which has been "on Adam's back,''
Velik claimed.
Clark said he got the idea while working on content
for video display walls for the Knox City shopping
centre more than two years ago.
"I sat down day and night for two weeks to
devise a computer algorithm to deliver files down a
standard phone line,'' Clark said. "There were
no high bandwidth lines at the time; it wasn't an
issue.
"The industry is saying they need thicker cables
and fibre optics but that's cost prohibitive. I
looked at it from a different perspective - let's get
the computations right.
"Once I cracked the computation code, the rest
came easily.''
I woke up one morning and thought if I did it this
way, it would work. (Then) I had to get the playback
right. I sent color bars and tone down the line.
"When I got to the shopping centre I cried. I
was so emotional and tired.''
Avid product manager, Kieran Foster, said he would be
"amazed'' if Clark's system worked.
"I wonder what data they're throwing out. We're
at 2:1 at the highest resolution.
"(Adam's Platform) would be some math. That
would be phenomenal. You'd be breaking the laws of
physics.
"I'D be very curious and cautious." Ramin
Marzbani, director of Australian Internet research
firm www.consult, said there was still more work to
be done to prove Clark's claims.
"AOL has a new technology that does something
like that," Marzbanui said. "If it was
through a special server, I'd say OK, but, being
through the Net, I'd find it hard to swallow.
"If he doesn't have a patent, why is he talking
about it?
"What can I say, it requires a little bit of
caution. There's a a lot more testing that needs to
be done to prove it."
Tassos Ioannides, managing director of South
Melbourne TV post-production centre The Facility, and
director of multimedia company Wiser Software, says
the system has "immense possibilities". He
believes it will "revolutionise"
telcommunications and computing and will have an
effect on video production, digital broadcasting,
mobile communications, the Internet, storage,
videoconferencing and telephony.
Ioannides was introduced to Clark by their common
lawyer, Velik, a partner in Collins Street firm Rigby
Cooke, while Clark was working at Knox City.
"I understood what he had was unique. I believe
what he had invented had come to him as a gift from
somewhere. I thought he should offer it to the world,
not see it as an opportunity (to make money).
"The applications are so immense you can't in
one breath count them all."
Ioannides plans to license Clark's software for use
in Wiser's range of educational multimedia videos on
demand, to be served through the Internet.
Clark has spoken to researchers at Telstra Research
Labs in Mulgrave, who, he says, "were
astounded".
"They were thinking the wrong way. I think it's
my different approach. They think there are certain
rules that can't be broken, but I didn't know the
rules. I didn't know my limitations.
A self-confessed non-computer person, Clark says he
needs help with some aspects of the system. He has
drawn on resources provided by Melbourne IT incubator
company, Clearview Technologies.
Bala Periasamy, Clearview's director, says he was
sceptical of the technology when it was first shown
to him. But he has come to believe in it, and now
helps Clark with software security and general
coding.
Clark said he would be proved correct when the
product is released.
"I still believe in my product and I wouldn't
risk my credibility because I have other businesses
on the line," Clark said.
The technology is owned by the registered company The
World of Adam's Platform. Clark, his parents, Graeme
and Linda, and Velik are the four directors. Velik
said his family had a small shareholding in the
company.