I had originally planned to make my way down to Long Beach, California, about a two and a half hour drive from the office, to catch some panels at the Digital Entertainment Box (DEB) Forum, organized by Jon Peddie Associates . But, I also ended up paying a visit to Streaming Media West 2001, which was being held at the same time at the Long Beach Convention Center. The DEB Forum was interesting to me because, it included lots of nice market data charts, and industry luminaries from the PC multimedia, and console worlds. Before I get to that, I have to get something off my chest.

Streaming Media West bills itself as, and I quote, "The World's Largest Internet Audio and Video Event." Hmmm. No problem parking. No problem getting a cup of coffee or lunch. No long lines. No packed crowds. I know I am in the right place because, there's signs all over the place saying it's the Streaming Media West conference and expo. Hmmm.

So, I was left to ponder the significance of the event, and it came down to streaming content seeming to be a nice place to setup a pitched battle between Twiddle Big Bad Boy, and Twiddle Big Bad Wannabe. Yes, I am talking about Microsoft and Real Networks.

As far as I can understand, Microsoft and Real are fighting tooth and nail to shape the "standards" for streaming media on the PC platform. No news there. Granted, both companies probably feel that they go beyond the PC, but let's be honest, when Microsoft gets aggressive, as it is doing with the WMA file format, it's only at the service of Windows, and nothing else (Microsoft is giving away the license to create WMA content, and pushing WMA server technology on Windows 2000 and XP). As for "standards": hah! Streaming video and audio formats from either company work real good together. Right?