REPORTS AND SURVEYS

1. Insigma Technologies Insigma Technologies’ N-Xec package enables companies to develop Web sites including audio, video and other bandwidth gobbling features and speed up delivery by scheduling the way these are sent to end-users. A small Java controlling program is sent first, to organise memory at the user end. The other features are then sent as software components in a specified order: for example, text can be sent quickly first to capture the user’s interest, then some music. Music and video can be split into packages, with each being repeated by the controlling program if necessary while waiting for others to arrive to complete a sequence or while waiting for other features, such as a voiceover. Features needed, say, two minutes after the opening sequence can be sent and set up in memory while other information is being displayed. The control program can be set up to run a summary of a Web page while the next is being loaded in response to a request by a user. ‘The system is especially good for e-commerce and adverts,’ says chief technology officer James Booth, who was an IT manager before co-founding Insigma three years ago. ‘Companies are using it to help people fill in on-line order forms’. He adds, ‘This technology will transform the commercial potential of the Internet, intranets, network computers, online personal digital assistants, Internet TV and any future narrow-band services. Insigma has been going three years with venture capital support. The first two years were spent on development but it is now finding market success with customers including book seller Waterstones, music specialist HMV and publisher Addison Wesley Longman. The package starts at £79. N-Xec has also been awarded Millennium Product status in a scheme run by the Design Council and launched by prime minister Tony Blair to recognise the UK’s most innovative products. Contact: www.insigma.com.