IBM has announced the first products offered as part of its Ultimedia Tools Series partnership with 15 other multimedia Independent Software Vendors. Big Blue says the Tools Series is a key component in IBM's strategy to bring multimedia solutions directly to customers.

IBM Ultimedia Tools Series products offer an opportunity for multimedia application developers to select from more than 30 special tools. IBM says the package "will aid in unifying the industry by following a common architecture defined by Tools Series partners." The partners include MacroMedia, AimTech, Assymetrics. Mammoth Micro, Fractal, Humancad, Vision Imaging, and Allen Communications.

"The IBM Ultimedia Tools Series addresses several important requirements of the multimedia industry," says Lee Reiswig of IBM Personal Systems Programming. "These include the emergence of multimedia tools' standards, more cost-effective multimedia application development, and improved access to the wide variety of innovative application development tools."

Tool Series products run on either 0S/2 2.0 (with Multimedia Presentation Manager/'2/A/), Windows 3.1 or Windows 3.0 (with Multimedia Extensions), or DOS operating environments. They are intended for all user skill levels: casual, advanced and professional.

The products fall into five categories:

* Authoring tools that permit the developer to integrate text, sound, graphics and motion video into a multimedia production. IBM's Storyboard Live! 2.0 and Network Technology's MEDIAscript are examples.

* Graphics tools such as Color Tools from Time Arts, Professional Draw from Gold Disk, ZSoft's PhotoFinish 2.0 and IBM's UM Workplace/2. They include paint and draw programs that enable the user to create still graphics, images and special effects. Other programs enable the developer to manipulate digitized photographic images.

* Animation tools including Autodesk's Animator Pro and Multimedia Explorer, enable the developer to ad motion to graphics.

* Audio tools such as Turtle Beach Systems' Wave for Windows, include capture and edit programs that enable the user to record sound and modify it. Passport Design's Master Tracks Pro 4 MIDI Sequencer also adds a musical dimension to multimedia applications.

* Video tools used to capture digital video images from their original source and edit them. Personal Picture Processor from Montage is one example.

IBM says additional categories of software used to enhance multimedia development include "canned" video, audio, animation and special effects.

Prices for Ultimedia Tool Series products are available upon request. For more information, contact MediaSourcery Inc. at 800-228-8584 or a local IBM reseller.

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