Wyse Technology is working with Microsoft to greatly improve the multimedia experience for thin client users. The update to Microsoft's remote desktop technology could address one of the chief drawbacks of a server-based computing architecture and see thin client terminals used more widely in future.

The next version of Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) will include the ability for some multimedia content to be handled by the client instead of the host, according to Wyse. This will allow terminals to better support applications such as voice over IP (VoIP) and web conferencing, which are currently impractical.

"In the past, potential users have said 'we can't have multimedia or rich media on thin clients, so we'll go with PCs instead'. This technology will take that away," said Tarkan Maner, worldwide president for Field Operations at Wyse.

The simplest thin clients are little more than a console displaying the desktop of a user session hosted on a server. This arrangement works well for productivity tasks, but introduces delays when displaying moving video, for example. The forthcoming version of RDP, currently in beta and due to ship with Windows Vista, will allow multimedia content to be streamed to the terminal for local decoding.

"This will minimise delays and frame drops in video streaming," Maner said. The updated RDP will appear next year in Wyse S-class terminals running the firm's own embedded ThinOS code, he added.

The inflated hardware requirements of Windows Vista may renew interest in server-based computing, according to Wyse, as organisations are likely to seek an alternative to replacing desktops with costly new high-end PCs.