How good can Internet video get? Research Channel, a consortium of research institutions, has been trying to find out. Together with the University of Washington, it has been developing an application it calls iHDTV, with the goal of providing wider access to high-definition content. iHDTV, which sends high-definition video over IP networks, was first demonstrated in 1999 and now allows streaming video at speeds up to 1.5 Gbps with very low latency.

The iHDTV project explores how research — and the world in general — might change if studio-quality HD video could be sent over a general-purpose Internet in near real time. Besides entertainment, the technology can be applied to collaboration, telemedicine and interactive visualization.

iHDTV is being demonstrated this week at the SC06 conference, and you can see sample clips here. If you're lucky enough to have very high-speed Internet access, you can watch the stream that's been optimized for 19 Mbps bandwidth.