Toronto’s Warp 10 Technologies is launching its high-speed atm network system into the post industry with its first installation at Toronto post facility Command Post and Transfer.

Warp 10, established in June 1995, provides ultra high-speed networking and communications solutions to the graphics multimedia and video industries. The company’s hardware and software systems address the needs of home users as well as huge bandwidth hogs like post houses.

‘For people who have higher bandwidth requirements, we utilize fiber-channel technology which can give you speeds anywhere from 260 megabits per second to one gigabit per second,’ says Warp 10 vp of marketing John Mitchell.

Mitchell says the company is striving toward applications based on super-computer technology, both proprietary and open architecture.

Command Post is the first local area network installation of Warp 10’s vivid system. The post facility is working with Warp and Ottawa’s Newbridge Networks to implement the high-speed system first at Command Post and then extending it to the company’s other arms, Medallion pfa and Manta Eastern Sound.

Command Post has an existing fiber-optic connection between the three facilities and is looking at increasing speed and extending the scope of the network with Warp 10’s system.

Command Post vp of engineering Ernie Medori says the goal is to extend the Command Post ‘campus’ network to a metropolitan area network and eventually to a worldwide network. Medori says if Warp 10 successfully enlists other post facilities and businesses, technologically speaking the metro network could be operable by the end of the year.

Medori says the Warp 10 system combined with other gear, including Leitch equipment for video, increases the speed and productivity of sending material between the three divisions. The system allows realtime work on video and audio projects, at CCIR 601 spec 270 megabits per second.

For computer data, Medori says the facility can achieve 155 megabits per second, and ultimately plans are to increase to 622 megabits per second.

‘We’re doing realtime video and audio now,’ says Medori. ‘It’s not like we’re sending files that have to be captured on disk drive. If we’re doing a special effect at Command Post for inclusion in an mow at Medallion, we can play it for them and they can make suggestions which can be modified at Command Post almost immediately, almost as if we were sitting in the same facility.’

Medori says Command Post is also running the company’s support and administrative systems using the technology, and that the upshot of a speedier system is ultimately cost-effectiveness. He points to the work-sharing that takes place among different facilities and says a metro area network, with work being bounced easily from transfer to edit shop, would mean increased efficiency for everyone concerned.

Mitchell says Warp 10 forecasts earnings of $3 million this year. Sales projections for next year are $40 million and $140 million in three years time. Warp 10 will be attending the Multimedia show in Toronto in May to demonstrate the vivid product.