Avid did have their own booth, but instead of showing ePublisher (still no word on when they will enable an Undo function in the program), they were showing Avid Xpress DV 2.0. Having started my NLE career on Avid systems, I was intrigued to see an inexpensive yet powerful product that can allow one to edit and then deliver streaming video content from a laptop computer. I really can't say much about this program right now; I would really like to review it more than the five minutes I was able to play with it at the show floor. I'll try to get a review unit in soon, and give it a thorough testing.

The rest of the people I visited with were those groups that had the exact same thing to say, "blah blah blah, we are the best. Blah blah blah, push to the edge of the Internet. Blah, blah, blah, no one can beat us. Blah, blah, blah, look how great we are." To be honest, I don't mind listening to that kind of hype coming from companies because that is what they should be saying. The problem I do have with that kind of talk is that many of these companies seriously believe it, and it would be considered blasphemy toward the company if they thought any other way.

At last year's Streaming Media West show, I ran into many companies that had the same dogmatic beliefs. These are the companies that strut around with their fancy painted PT Crusiers, proclaiming they have cornered the market on B2B solutions, while all the rest are nobodies. Guess what. Those companies were the first to suffer the fall out from the dot-bomb explosions. Were they at this year's show? If they were, I didn't see them, or else they were in the DMZ with a single podium booth. Instead of running from booth to booth looking for who had the neatest toys to snag, the exhibitor attendees should have been spending more time on what their competition was actually saying and showing at the convention. By keeping an open mind, and tight lip, many of these companies could learn and adjust instead of being the next bombing run.

Which brings us to the Digital WebCast Best of Show Award.

The award winner for this show is one of those companies that at fist glance many might say, "So what? Big deal." Let me assure you, this is not one of those companies.

SRSWOWcast Technologies debuted at the show, with their latest product to improve the quality of streaming audio. If you have Windows Media Player you are probably familiar with the SRS Wow button located in the audio panel. SRSWOWcast Technologies is a spin off of SRS Labs. With their first product, SRS-APC, those in the encoding, post-production and media services communities will be able to improve the quality of the audio streamed. SRS Audio Processing Center can deliver stereo and surround sound audio at extremely low bit rates. Imagine you are a mom and pop Internet Radio Station. You know that the better the audio signal you send out, the more bandwidth you will be taking up, and the more money will have to be spent in broadband delivery. Now image that you can make a 12k audio signal sound like a 48k without having to spend more money. The word you are looking for is WOW.

SRS APC Center comes in three forms. The first is a software-only package which can improve voice material with VIP or WOW Voice filters to improve intelligibility and restore a natural quality to the voice instead of the "tinny" sound that is common with low bit rate streams. Audio can also be processed prior to compression with WOW, SRS Truebass, FOCUS and 3D Mono. TruSurround can also be applied to deliver a virtual surround sound experience for the end user. There are also hardware options available to those who need to output many different signals at the same time.

The last configuration is a prototype box that routes audio from your system and then into your sound card. This prototype allows you to do many of the same functions as the software only unit, but for those who like to have a real hands on approach to tweaking their audio signal, you will definitely want this one.

If you would like to see SRSWOWcast technology in action, click here (http://www.srswowcast.com/clips/default.asp# ).

So what will be on the line up for the next Streaming Media West show? Will the exhibitor Ghost Town continue to grow as more dot-coms become dot-bombs or will we have a complete turn around as more and more companies recognize the need for streaming media in their daily workflow? We won't have long to wait as the next Streaming Media West show is set to begin in April of 2002.