Unison and RACE MultiMed: complementary experiments in applications of primary rate ISDN

The Alvey Unison Project investigated the use of 2 Mb/s ISDN in the provision of multimedia communications for office applications. It concentrated on providing the enabling technology for these multimedia services up to the user level. The RACE MultiMed Project is concerned too with the provision of multimedia services over ISDN, but as a means of exploring how real users respond to having multimedia facilities made available to them. RACE MultiMed is interested in professional user groups, exemplified by health care consultants working in hospitals. The paper describes the organisation, communications technology and experience gained in multimedia by both projects and then draws some conclusions on the value of ISDN for this type of research.<
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