Re: Black Diamond Consulting

[James Franklin <james@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Microsoft always "owned" the Surround Video technology, but Black Diamond
invented, produced and sold the software. Black Diamond were a Programming
Consultancy used by the likes of Microsoft and Intel. About two months ago
the front page of their web site changed to a duplicate of Intel's but with
broken images. They didn't respond to their email or anything.

A few weeks ago I heard a rumour from their European suppliers that they
have gone under, surround video is no more apparently (unconfirmed). Except
for the Microsoft version (SVJ), which is not supported outside Microsoft
and MSN. I always thought the Microsoft svj version was brilliant, it was
the smoothest of all the different immersive imaging technologies out there,
the quality of the images as you panned around was excellent, it even
smoothed and anti-aliased when you zoomed in so that pixelisation was
reduced.

Live Picture no longer sell or support their Reality Studio either, although
Photo Vista is still available. So what is happening, the plethora of
technologies we once saw seems to be reducing. Is Java the way to go or will
IPIX swamp everybody. I don't know, only time will tell.

James Franklin
Panormania

www.panormania.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Tod Kuwahara <tkuwahara@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 'panorama-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' <panorama-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 20 April 1999 23:52
Subject: RE: Black Diamond Consulting


I think they were acquired by Microsoft.  I thought I read this somewhere.
As you may have noticed, Microsoft uses their own modified version of
Surround Video as their panoramic viewer for CarPoint.  About a month ago, I
was trying to hit www.bdiamond.com.  Instead of getting the Black Diamond
web site, I was getting some sort of Microsoft page that kept crashing with
a script error.  It looked to me like they were in the process of moving
their site to Microsoft.

> ----------
> From: Paul Andrews[SMTP:ac297@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Reply To: panorama-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 1999 3:23 PM
> To: panorama-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Black Diamond Consulting
>
> Black Diamond Consulting. These guys produced Surround Video. Their web
> site
> has gone and mail has bounced. Have they gone under? Anyone know what
> happened to them?
>
> Paul
>