High Technology -- Multimedia Exploration -- Asymetrix Discovers A Growing Market For Its Toolbook

Ape Cave, a sinuous lava tube 12,810 feet long beneath the southern slope of Mount St. Helens, has fascinated Jan Utterstrom for more than three decades.

But it wasn't until last year that the Issaquah-based Boeing computer manager thought about building a personal-computer program with Asymetrix's Multimedia ToolBook to share his passion.

Utterstrom, an expert in computer-aided design, is putting together a book on discs featuring photographs, sound, voice and text. The idea is to evoke as much as possible the experience of exploring the cave - a favorite of speleologists and believed to be the longest of its kind on the continental United States.

Utterstrom aims to market his program on CD-ROM - compact discs used by computers for multimedia presentations because they can handle the greater data demands of images and sound. The format is ideal for travel and tourist agencies, and the U.S. Forest Service is considering the program for display on electronic kiosks at the mountain.

But Utterstrom sees a huge additional emerging market for his project as millions of personal-computer users purchase CD-ROM disc drives. Computer users tend to be smart, curious individuals with an appreciation for offbeat wonders such as Ape Cave. In recent months, the availability of new and better applications on CD-ROM, combined with a price drop for drives to the $200-to-$300 level, has

jump-started sales.

"I couldn't have done it without ToolBook," said Utterstrom, whose "symbiotic relationship" with Asymetrix may lead to bundling his program with the Bellevue-based company's ToolBook.

ToolBook lets users manipulate on-screen objects to build programs in a "Lego block" style instead of the traditional way - having to type thousands of lines of tedious code.

"It's a revolutionary program," said Utterstrom. "It was the first out of the gate to show how easy it was to work with multimedia."

Pioneers such as Utterstrom are a welcome sight at Asymetrix, the company that Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen started in 1985 to explore then-rudimentary computer graphics, sound and video technologies. After years of relative anonymity, Asymetrix is quietly building a core clientele in multimedia production and programming, which it hopes to use as seed technology for mass-market products as the industry grows.

In the two-and-a-half years since Asymetrix released it to coincide with Microsoft's introduction of Windows 3.0, ToolBook has become the leading tool for programmers building multimedia applications, whether for corporate, academic or client use. ToolBook is behind more than a quarter of all multimedia PC titles - double the number of its closest competitor. Asymetrix has shipped nearly 100,000 units.

Market penetration for multimedia is still anemic: Only about 3 percent of personal computers were shipped with CD-ROM drives last year. The number is expected to grow to 8 percent to 9 percent next year - a healthy increase but well short of mass distribution.

Nonetheless, "the market is happening faster than we expected," said Bert Kolde, Asymetrix vice president. "On the business side of things, it's really taking off. The home market is developing more slowly."

Asymetrix's technology may be ahead of the curve, observers say, but positions the company to take advantage as the market develops.

"It's the leading racehorse," said Eric Dawes, a former Microsoft programmer whose Center for Multimedia in Bellevue offers a wide range of multimedia services.

Dawes sees the multimedia market repeating the success of the desktop publishing phenomenon, which started with the release of Aldus' PageMaker in 1985 and has grown to a $2 billion-a-year industry. Just as laser printers led businesses to expect greater quality in published work, CD-ROM and multimedia will lead businesses to draw competitive advantages from animation, sound and flashy creativity, Dawes said.

Businesses have used computers to create slide shows with images and sound for several years. But PCs have been unable to handle movie-like animation and special effects, relegating those features to videotape.

The release of Microsoft Video for Windows last fall, combined with the increasing power of personal-computer chips, is expected to allow PCs to develop the kinds of presentations once limited to production studios. Enhanced video configurations, sound boards, microphones and other audiovisual equipment are becoming standard equipment on more and more personal computers.

Nearly half of all corporate training departments are using multimedia tools, mostly for training and presentations but also for making vast company databases easier to access and use.

Because the applications use digital technology, they are more versatile than videotape. Presenters can hop around from subject to subject instantaneously without having to rewind or fast-forward as in analog tape.

"Paul Allen clearly understands the potential and the impact of the digital revolution," said Tim Bajarin, head of Creative Strategies in Silicon Valley. "He's at the forefront of understanding the problems other industries face in going from analog to digital formats. And he's positioning his various enterprises to solve those problems."

Besides presentations, businesses use multimedia for advertising, education and training. Plans for refurbishing Seattle's Paramount Theatre include the ability to offer dazzling multimedia presentations to business audiences from the Convention Center.

Bajarin believes ToolBook also may provide programming for a host of electronic services for future "interactive television," offered via satellite or fiber-optic connection to a huge home market. As the number of cable channels available expands into the hundreds, menus, directories, capsule reviews and other on-screen utilities will be required for consumers to know what's available, and how to distinguish what they want to see.

"ToolBook could be the authoring environment to navigate and maneuver through digital data in a TV setup," Bajarin said, adding that it also may play a role in video mail, next-generation e-mail systems combining voice and video with text or document transferral.

Those applications may be years away, but Asymetrix recently hired a former Microsoft and NeXT marketing whiz, Mike Slade, to coordinate its efforts with Allen's other enterprises, including Starwave, which is looking into managing data services over satellite, cable or fiber-optic networks, and Interval, Allen's Palo Alto, Calif.-based research group.

In the meantime, Asymetrix also is "focused on the here and now," Kolde said.

The company more than doubled its staff to 200 and released six products in 1992, including November upgrades of its entry-level database program, Instant Database, and MediaBlitz!, an easy-to-use program for editing and managing multimedia clips.

Asymetrix also announced agreements with Olivetti Corp., SuperMac Technology Inc. and Sigma Designs to market Asymetrix products on computer equipment they manufacture. Olivetti, the largest PC maker in Europe, will "bundle" ToolBook with its multimedia PC kit for students and academics. SuperMac and Sigma make video equipment for PCs.

Heading the 1993 agenda is better marketing. "We're moving from a single-product, application-development-tool company to a multiproduct, multiuser company," said Elaine Rickman, recently hired from Aldus to be marketing communications manager. Packaging design and marketing will be conformed so "each time you see the term Asymetrix it builds an image in your mind," Rickman said.

"We won't have to re-explain ourselves every time we release a product."