AT&T's VoiceSpan: a new edge for gaming … and more

RELease 1.0, April 18, 1994

Normally, voice and data don't coexist on analog phone lines without expensive equipment to digitize and multiplex the signals, then regenerate them at the far end. VoiceSpan, a technology developed by AT&T Paradyne and AT&T Bell Labs, dramatically reduces that cost. Though it is currently embodied in a chip set, VoiceSpan is ultimately the intellectual property behind a set of software algorithms. A VoiceSpan-equipped modem turns a standard phone line into a very flexible pipe that can transmit voice, data and faxes -- simultaneously or in various combinations. You can have all the functionality of a 4.8 Kbps (kilobits per second) fax/modem plus an audio conversation, all over the same line.

The first VoiceSpan product from AT&T is the DataPort 2001 Multimedia Communicator, which AT&T Paradyne introduced in 1993 and now sells for $500. With a DSP from AT&T Microelectronics inside, the DataPort 2001 splits a phone line into a 4.8 Kbps data link, an audio channel with the same properties as a normal phone line, and a low-capacity signaling channel. The audio channel is not digitized; instead, the analog voice signal is added to the digital data signal, then reconstituted at the far end. VoiceSpan can allocate each channel dynamically and can set the channels up or tear them down in milliseconds (though initial synchronization takes about six seconds).(2)

Pleasant presentations and handy helpers

When you have voice and data on the same line, things that are otherwise difficult suddenly get easier. Take, for example, remote presentations. Typically, Phil sends his colleague Zoe a fax or FedEx package, waits until she gets it, then tries to guide her through his hard-copy presentation over the phone with no way to point to things or make sure she's looking where he thinks she is. (Meanwhile, he has changed his version and the page numbers no longer match.)

With VoiceSpan-enabled software, Phil can show his presentation on Zoe's monitor directly while they both talk -- and without a special (or second) communications link, with all the complexity that entails. He can use a cursor to point to items or perhaps run an application. (Of course, this is much easier if Phil and Zoe use the same kind of computer, but that's another problem...er, opportunity.)

It might even pay for a company to supply its audience with VoiceSpan modems and software, much as Redgate Communications has armed analysts with satellite equipment to send them vendors' broadcasts. Similarly, graphics designers can view and edit copy or art work in real time. If they agree on changes, they can make them on the spot; both parties sign off with a real copy of the document.

Online assistance will likely be transformed. A Microsoft product support specialist could ask a confused user, "I can check your autoexec file from here. Is that OK?" Or, with a remote-control program, the support person could take over execution of the PC, never losing the audio link. Tasks that require expensive gear, such as multi-site conferencing, are opportunities for service providers.

Third parties, including modem, phone and PC manufacturers, as well as silicon merchants and independent software developers, will launch VoiceSpan products in the second quarter of 1994. By the end of 1994, AT&T Microelectronics expects to have a one-chip, ROM-coded DSP implementation. Other AT&T divisions will announce products and services based on VoiceSpan, too.

Games on the forefront

But kids are likely to turn on to VoiceSpan before adults do, because this holiday season it will transform multi-player computer games with AT&T's Edge 16 for Sega Genesis (see box, page 6). Over the past few years, on-screen pyrotechnics have progressed from 8-bit graphics through 16-bit to the 64-bit Jaguar from Atari. Animation has moved from 2-D to 3-D(O), and has begun to include simulated environments and require virtual-reality gear. Sega has introduced a game with a CD-ROM; others are following.

As graphics and animation have improved, so have communications. Games have evolved from single-player to several players in one spot (one machine, two Joysticks) to multi-player data-only (point-to-point, as in Spectrum Holobyte's Falcon, or multi-player, as in AT&T's ImagiNation Network). The next frontier is multi-player, multi-mode, which means folding audio and perhaps video into multi-way data exchange. The trick is to make this work transparently, inexpensively and over today's communications infrastructure, so anyone can participate from any standard phone simply by buying the kit at a store and plugging it in. (Contrast this with waiting for ISDN, or for cable tv operators to upgrade their networks to something better than video-on-demand.)

Transparency at last?

VoiceSpan's easy switching between voice, data and voice/data makes for a smooth user experience. In a game setting it might go like this: Phil calls Zoe using his Edge 16-equipped Sega Genesis unit (with an on-screen soft keypad that autodials). She picks up any phone and hears Phil's voice.