DOUBLE-DUTY MODEMS\Devices send simultaneous voice, data.

Byline: Yardena Arar Daily News Staff Writer

The game is Doom, the action intense. You've caught your best buddy in the sights of your plasma rifle and - BLAM! - she's toast.

"Yessssssss!" you scream triumphantly - and halfway across town, she can hear your gloating loud and clear thanks to a new kind of modem that lets you simultaneously talk and share computer information over a standard analog telephone line.

But digital simultaneous data and voice technology - or DSVD, as it's commonly known - isn't just about playing computer games while chatting with friends. It allows workers at remote sites to tinker together with documents, home shoppers to converse with salespeople while looking at merchandise, and technical support representatives to actually see what's going on at the customer's end.

"It's quasi-video conferencing," said Sultan W. Khan, president of Newcom Inc., a Westlake Village multimedia company that began shipping its $199 NewTalk 2000 DSVD modems in February.

DSVD modems such as Newcom's take advantage of the relatively small bandwidth required for voice communications - only 7 to 8 percent of the capability of a 28.8 Kbps modem, Khan said.

The technology involves "cycle stealing" to slip in the digitized voice data alongside the computer data.

Modems such as Newcom's, U.S. Robotics Corp.'s Sportster Vi, Multi-Tech Systems Inc.'s MultiModemPCS line and Eiger Labs' HeadOn are relatively new to the retail market, but the technology has been brewing for some time.

The first to hit market in a big way was Radish Communications Systems Inc.'s VoiceView, a set of technical specifications which became available for licensing in 1994 and which Microsoft, as a licensee, requires in modems designated as Windows 95-compatible.

VoiceView - which is featured in some modems by Cardinal Technologies, Boca Research, Hayes, U.S. Robotics and Zoom as well as computer systems by NEC, Packard Bell, AST and Hewlett-Packard - is not true DSVD because data and voice are not exchanged simultaneously but separately.

"The modem is eavesdropping on your voice call," said Radish assistant product manager Angie Clark. "When you go to an action, the modem is issued a start tone and begins to transfer data, and the voice is muted. At the end, you hear a click, and it goes back to voice."

While Windows 95 comes with software for file transfers using VoiceView, Radish's main business is companion software, VoiceView TalkShop, that ships with most VoiceView modems and several major manufacturer computer systems equipped with the technology.

Clark said VoiceView TalkShop is already being used for electronic commerce by such companies as Blockbuster Music, 1-800-FLOWERS, Wells Fargo Financial Services, Delta and American airlines, and National Lookup Service.

"They use it to add functionality to customer service," Clark said.

For example, a Blockbuster Music customer who calls using VoiceView will see visual representations of menu options on his computer screen and choose using a mouse, as opposed to hearing a spoken menu and choosing using push-button phones.

However, because VoiceView can handle only voice or data at any given moment, it's unsuitable for real-time action games such as Doom or for any applications where simultaneous data and voice communication is desirable.

True DSVD was pioneered by Multi-Tech Systems of Mounds View, Minn., about three years ago, and the company now holds three patents for DSVD technology.

However, until recently the company did not sell at retail, preferring to distribute at higher margin to a smaller group of corporate customers.

"One company we know was using it in a security system, where they could get pictures of remote areas and sounds at the same time," said Multi-Tech President Raghu Sharma.

Another happy Multi-Tech client is Steve Bernet, sales manager at Labtronics Inc., a Guelph, Ontario, Canada, company that specializes in software that collects data from laboratory instruments and feeds it into databases. Labtronics has bought between 15 and 20 units for its customers, Bernet said.

"The typical scenario is we provide software and a Multi-Tech modem and remote-control software, which allows us to control the customer's computer, which is running our software," Bernet said.

"This is great, because we can see exactly what's going on on the other end. We can see how the customer is using the software and can easily identify the problems they're running into."

Bernet said that when technical support is performed over a DSVD modem, the customer has access to the expertise of an entire technical support team as opposed to relying on a single representative who might be dispatched to the site at considerable expense to Labtronics.

His company also uses the modems to demonstrate software for distant customers, which helps sales representatives gauge the level of interest before investing in the expense of an on-site visit.

Companies that have developed DSVD technology say the main reason it has not come into more widespread use on the consumer end is the lack of industry standards, which means that one caller's DSVD modem may not be able to communicate with another brand at the end of the line.

The International Telecommunications Union-Telecommunications Standardization Sector has been considering a DSVD standard and is widely expected to act by the end of the year.

"In the fall, it will take off because there will be a common standard," Newcom's Khan predicted.

He said that unlike some competing products, Newcom's DSVD modem will be ready for whatever standard is adopted because its software is upgradable, meaning that the standard can be set using a program that will be made available over Newcom's bulletin board.

In the meantime, the company - incorporated in 1994 as a division of El Segundo-based Aura Systems Inc. - is seeking to raise its public profile through an aggressive marketing campaign that included a slick, computer-generated graphics spot broadcast during the Super Bowl.

DSVD is one of several new technological bells and whistles that enhance telecommunications over existing wires.

"What you're seeing now is the maximization of technology on a regular phone line," Khan said.

Also coming are a new 33.6 Kbps standard; asymmetric digital subscriber line or ADSL technology, which allows data to be transmitted over regular phone lines at speeds up to 6.1 megabytes per second; and the widely publicized cable modems capable of speeds up to 25 megabytes per second.

Lisa Pelgrim, telecommunications analyst at San Jose-based Dataquest Inc., said DSVD will come into widespread use as people begin to appreciate its applications.

"It's going to take a little while," she said. "A lot of end users aren't familiar with the technology . . . and it involves changing the way we work.

"Right now, we work very independently on computers. We don't share while we're working for the most part.

"But the technology is being made available, and people are starting to use it. It's similar to having fax capability on the PC - at first people didn't use it. But once they realized they could send a fax without having to hang up on someone, they loved it."

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Photo (color) President Sultan Khan, left, and Vice President Asif Khan of Newcom Inc. use one of their modems to speak to each other as they share computer data. Myung J. Chun/Daily News illustration