Editing Digital Equipment Corporation (section)

==== Video and Interactive Information Server ====
The [[Video-on-Demand]] project at DEC started in 1992, following Ken Olsen's retirement. At the time the company was rapidly downsizing under Robert Palmer, and it was difficult to gain funding for any new project. DEC's Interactive Video Information Server architecture gained traction and excelled over those of other companies, in that it was highly scalable, using a gateway to set up interactive video delivery sessions on large numbers of video and information servers. Initially high-end VAXes were used, then Alphas.<ref>{{cite press release|title= Digital Equipment Corporation Enters Video-on-demand Market|date=October 19, 1993|publisher=Digital Equipment Corporation|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/1993-10-19/digital-equipment-corporation-enters-video-on-demand-market}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite book|publisher=IGI Consulting, Inc|title=Video Dialtone & Video-on-Demand, Market & Technology Assessment Study|date=1994|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bPlY3VCWdyUC}}</ref>

The scalability feature allowed it to win contracts for many of the video-on-demand trials in the 1993–95 timeframe, since the system could theoretically accommodate unlimited interactive video streams and other non-video content.<ref>{{cite book|first=Daniel|last=Minoli|title=Video Dialtone Technology : Digital Video over ADSL, HFC, FTTC, and ATM|publisher=[[McGraw-Hill]]|date=May 1, 1995|isbn=978-0070427242}}</ref>

The design was proposed and incorporated into the [[MPEG-2]] international standard.<ref>{{cite ISO standard|csnumber=25039|title=ISO/IEC 13818-6:1998 Information technology — Generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information — Part 6: Extensions for DSM-CC}}</ref> Its [[object-oriented]] interface became the mandatory user-to user core interface in [[DSM-CC]], widely used in video stream and file delivery for MPEG-2 compliant systems.

Commercially, DEC's Digital and Interactive Information System was used by Adlink to distribute advertising to over two million subscribers.<ref>{{cite press release|publisher=Digital Equipment Corporation|title=Adlink selects Digital to implement new video ad insertion system|date=January 11, 1995|url=http://www.digital.com/info/PR003R/PR003RSC.TXT|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961220125337/http://www.digital.com/info/PR003R/PR003RSC.TXT|archive-date=December 20, 1996|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor-first1=Borko |editor-last1=Furht |title=Multimedia Technologies and Applications for the 21st Century: Visions of World Experts|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|date=November 30, 1997|doi=10.1007/978-0-585-28767-6 |isbn=978-0-585-28767-6|url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-0-585-28767-6}}</ref>