Ailing Informix enters multimedia database arena in bid to boost purse

Ailing database vendor Informix has thrown its hat into the multimedia database ring in a bid to enrich its offerings.

The company last week in Hong Kong unveiled a system that will help tie together content management and distribution and give broadcasters quick access to audio, video and data files from a Web browser.

Media360 is an offshoot of the Informix database technologies - Data Blades and Internet Foundation 2000. It optimises data for the Web and can work only with the Informix database.

'Media360 is the result of work done by Informix with the British Broadcasting Corp [BBC] and Cable News Network [CNN],' said Carolyn Layne, vice-president of i.Informix, the company's media business unit.

'CNN recently completed a project to consolidate its internal production units into one media centre with Media360 at its heart.' A growing number of media organisations are realising the need for content management. During the past five years, with the Internet and convergence as major drivers, many of the larger media companies have been digitising their data and consolidating it on to a single, centralised multimedia database.

The Media360 software sits on top of the database to help catalogue, index and organise the stored multimedia content. Its main competitors are The BullDog Group and IBM.