DIGITAL L.A. : PLAYBOY AIMS FOR LINGERIE WEBCAST THAT WON'T FALL FLAT.

Byline: David Bloom 

Remember the big Victoria's Secret lingerie show on the Internet last winter? The show was a qualified success, drawing a record crowd of online viewers willing to put up with a tiny, jerky picture to watch supermodels in skivvies.

But the bigger story was actually the people who couldn't watch the show. Though Vickie's and partner Broadcast.com (now merged into Yahoo! Broadcast Services) could boast a huge audience, they spent more time explaining why so many people couldn't get in.

Playboy faces the same challenges with an even more ambitious online broadcast this week of, well, more good-looking women wearing underwear. But Playboy officials promise they and their partner, San Diego-based Intervu, will be able to handle the load.

``The technology has really changed leaps and bounds since Victoria's Secret did it,'' said Eric Deutsch, vice president of worldwide production for Playboy Entertainment.

One difference is the way Intervu - as with some of its major Webcasting competitors - sprinkles its computer servers around the country, distributing the viewer demand and reducing the network load to manageable levels.

``With the Victoria's Secret Webcast, they tried to route everyone through one location that was sending out signals all over the world,'' said Michael Manley, a producer for Playboy's Cyber Club subscription site (cyber.playboy.com). ``Instead of having them all go down one tunnel, this is taking them closer out to where their access point is.''

The actual event is tied to the debut of a new Playboy video, called ``Club Lingerie,'' and the company will hold a fashion show with its models wearing the lingerie, much of it branded with the Playboy label. And when the show's over, the video and most of the lingerie will be sold online at Playboy.com (www.playboy.com/clublingerie) in an admirable bit of Web-savvy marketing and promotion.

The fashion show and party will be broadcast live on the company's pay-per-view cable TV network. And the company will have two Webcasts, one without charge or nudity from the catwalk that will be shown on the main Playboy.com site.

The other Webcast on the Cyber Club site will be more risque - going behind the scenes of the show and party - and expensive, at $5.95 per viewer.

Troma-tic experience

Speaking of brave and crazy Web events tied to the Playboy Mansion this week, the wacky folks over at Troma Entertainment will be christening their vastly expanded and revamped Web site on Monday with a live Webcast from there, where they're shooting the next ``Toxic Avenger'' sequel.

Among other things, Troma will be filming the ``killing'' of the fan who won their latest contest (The upside? He also accompanies Tromites to promote the movie at the Cannes Film Festival).

New York-based Troma specializes in sex and gore schlockfests such as ``Tromeo and Juliet,'' ``Attack of the Killer Tomatoes'' and the just-released ``Terror Firmer.''

With Tromaville.com (at www.tromaville.com), the company plans to vastly expand its film library, offering about 1,000 horror and similar B movies, along with chat rooms, Troma gear and much more. It should also be horrifyingly good fun.

Come on feel the Webnoize

A year ago, MP-3s were just starting to hit it big, and the Webnoize conference at a Universal City hotel deftly brought together a lot of heavy hitters trying to figure out what music on the Net would mean. Well, things have changed a bit in 12 months, and here comes Webnoize '99 to talk about it.

``What I think you're going to see is a lot of companies try to justify this year what they theorized last year,'' said Webnoize chairman Ted Cohen, the music-business veteran who organized the two conferences.

``Last year was, `How crazy is this MP-3 thing?' '' said Joanne Marino, CEO of the conference's eponymous parent company. ``This year, it's, `How are you going to make money?' It's sort of like, `Let's get down to business.' ''

The conference has moved this year to the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City and runs Monday through Wednesday. As with last year, there are more worthwhile sessions than you'll probably be able to attend, an array of exhibitors showing off their music technology, and plenty of networking opportunities. For more information, go to www.webnoize99.com.