Real Pushes Open Source Media Player

This past week at LinuxWorld, Real Networks announced its latest endeavor: an open source digital audio and video player for Linux, Unix and Solaris that meets the quality of the company's flagship RealOne product.

The Helix Player, in conjunction with bundled RealAudio and RealVideo binaries, will conform to Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.0) standards set forth by the World Wide Web consortium. Real's goal is to develop a player for millions of users to experience the same richness of its Mac OS X and Windows brands.

According to a Real Spokesperson, the Helix Player is being built on top of Real's cross-platform open source media engine, the Helix DNA Client. By design, its modular nature is intended to easily port over to all available desktop operating systems, and beyond the desktop to embedded and portable devices.

Initial Linux and Solaris distributions will adhere to freedesktop.org standards using the GTK+ toolkit.

Real contends that its support of open source projects is longstanding. In a statement, Nagesh Pabbisetty, Real's vice president for Helix Products and Solutions said, "For years, RealNetworks has offered Servers, Gateways and other enterprise commercial software on Linux. We are thrilled to now build, in collaboration with members of the Helix open source community, the best media player for Linux, as yet more evidence of our longstanding commitment to Linux."

Older RealPlayer code currently ships with several distributions of Linux.

The Helix Project was formed last year as a "collaborative effort among RealNetworks, independent developers, and leading companies." Its focus has thus far been on creation, delivery and playback. A Helix DNA client, producer, and server have been released as part of the initiative, and the Helix player is intended to complete the circle by reaching end users.

In addition to Real's own codecs, the popular open audio format Ogg Vorbis is being integrated into the Helix DNA client, according to Jack Moffitt, CEO of Xiph.org.

Volunteers are said to be instrumental to this effort. Real encourages commercial developers to sign up for membership in the Helix Community. There is also a fund to drive research, with grants upwards of $75,000 USD available to worthy recipients.

If all goes to plan, timelines on the Helix Community Web site plot out a course to having the first Helix Player build available by next quarter.