Background: Where we've been, where we're going
With the increased emphasis on consumer oriented digital media tasks at Microsoft, the Windows Media division has become increasingly important to the software giant's image. It's Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) codecs are widely acknowledged as being superior to any and all competition, and consumer acceptance increased dramatically in 2001 as CD players, car stereos, and DVD players were added to the ranks of portable audio players that already support the formats. Microsoft notes that Windows Media-compatible devices are the most often used of any players, with over 350 million units sold.

In a general sense, digital media is everywhere, and the market is experiencing explosive growth in a variety of categories. On the PC, numerous audio/video players exist, including AOL Winamp, Apple QuickTime Player, MusicMatch, Microsoft Windows Media Player, RealONE, and others. Portable and mobile audio players are also popular, including devices from ROM-based devices from SonicBlue Rio, hard drive-based units such as Apple's iPod, car stereos from Aiwa and others, Pocket PC devices, and even cell phones. Home-based units haven't really taken off yet, but 2002 might be the year: In this category, Rio Digital Audio Receivers and set-top boxes from Compaq, HP and others have been joined by the Xbox, Ultimate TV, and other similar devices.

Enter, Corona, Stage Right
To address these expanding markets, Microsoft is creating a next-generation Windows Media platform, code-named Corona. Microsoft says that it hasn't settled on a final name yet, but that they'd prefer that I didn't refer to it as Windows Media version 9, though that's what it is (Windows Media 8 client bits shipped with Windows XP last October; there were no Windows Media 8 server bits). What they will tell me is that the codecs might be updated significantly, which would require player upgrades. This contrasts to Windows Media 8, which didn't require such an upgrade. Whatever happens, the company expects Corona to deliver 20 percent better efficiency on audio and video performance when compared to Windows Media 8.

Corona will include upgrades to all of Microsoft's digital media products. These include:

New Windows Media Server - The Corona Windows Media Server will ship with Windows .NET Server in late 2002, and is currently the only component that's publicly available for testing (as of late January 2002). I'll cover this in more detail below.

New Windows Media Player - When Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP, once known as Windows Media Player 8) shipped, there was no corresponding upgrade for Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0 or 2000. This won't be the case with Corona, when all of these platforms will see a freely downloadable player arrive. The Corona player I saw visually resembled MPXP with just some small tweaks, but that's likely to change by the time it ships.

New Windows Media Audio and Video formats - Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) will be upgraded with Corona. There will also be something called WMA Pro, which will offer 24-bit resolution and 6 channels (or more) of discrete sound for surround sound capabilities. WMA Pro is actually a totally different codec from WMA; Microsoft says that each codec will be used for specific purposes.

New Windows Media Encoder - Currently locked at version 7.1 (which supports the version 8 codecs), the Windows Media Encoder (WME) is designed for content providers who need to convert audio and video into streamable formats. A new version of this graphical tool will ship in the Corona timeframe.

New Windows Media Software Development Kit (SDK) - Designed for applications developers or other third parties that want to integrate Windows Media technologies into their applications, the Windows Media SDK version 7 provides a suite of components, tools, and documentation. This, too, will be upgraded for Corona.

Windows Media Server "Corona"
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