ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 30, 1996 TAG: 9605300079
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
By fall, you can show
your face on the phone
NEW YORK - Video telephone conversations may become more common with a new technique that lets personal computers ship video signals over ordinary phone lines.
The innovation, which Intel Corp. demonstrates today, will be placed in many new personal computers sold this fall, executives from Intel and computer makers said Wednesday.
It builds on Intel's experience with its ProShare product, sold to businesses to allow video conversations through PC networks and higher-speed phone lines called ISDN.
Intel has improved a technique that compresses the video signal, allowing it to move through ordinary phone lines, rather than the higher-speed ISDN, at the same time the voice signal does.
``It's something that's been talked about for 30 years and never been made cost-effective,'' said Rod Schrock, a vice president at Compaq Computer Corp., which will include the product in most of its Presario line this fall.
Cameras needed to transmit the picture will be sold as an accessory for less than $200, Schrock said.
Andy Bose, president of Access Media International USA Inc., a media ventures consulting firm in New York, said he expects the feature to be popular with people who work at home. |-Associated Press 2 Botetourt towns
OK toll-free calls
Callers in R&B Telephone Co.'s Fincastle exchange have supported a plan that would let them make toll-free calls to Bell Atlantic Corp.'s Buchanan exchange, the State Corporation Commission reported.
R&B customers in Eagle Rock have supported toll-free calling to Bell Atlantic's Roanoke exchange.
Of 1,573 ballots mailed to Fincastle, 735 or 47 percent were returned: 419 or 27 percent of all customers approved the plan; 316 or 20 percent turned it down, the regulators said. The plan would require Fincastle customers to pay an additional $1.35 per month for basic service.
Of 739 ballots mailed to Eagle Rock, 493 or 67 percent were returned: 305 or 41 percent of all customers voted for the plan; 188 or 26 percent voted against it. Eagle Rock customers would pay an additional $6.50 a month for their basic service.
Exchange customers in Buchanan and Roanoke will get an opportunity to comment after cost studies are completed on each plan, the commission said. |-Staff report
Briefly ...
* McDonough Bolyard Peck, a construction management and engineering firm, has expanded its Roanoke office and increased its staff from two to 10 people in the past six months. Jordan B. Peck III, who heads the Roanoke office, said it has leased more space at its site at 3959 Electric Road. The company also has an office in Fairfax.
* Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., Riverside, Calif., producer of recreational vehicles and manufactured housing with operations in Rocky Mount, said it has completed the sale of its Fleetwood Credit Corp. finance subsidiary to Associates First Capital Corporation in a cash transaction valued at $157 million. Fleetwood said it would realize a gain on the sale of about $55 million after expenses.
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