Digital interactive television has been much trialled in the UK as in
a number of other countries, and 1998 looks like the year in which fully
commercial services will finally be introduced. Digital TV set-top boxes
will be on sale in electronics retailers or rented to users by the service
providers.
Cambridge-based IT company Acorn Computers has been showing its acTiVe
range of set-top boxes to service providers and potential manufacturers in
the hope that its designs will be licensed by the manufacturers. Acorn’s
pedigree in the field is a long one. It ran the world’s first fully
digital interactive TV trial in Cambridge in 1994, and it is currently
taking part in 57 of the 150 or so interactive TV trials taking place
around the world.
The interface developed by Acorn to show off the features of the box
provides for services ranging from email and on-screen shopping, to web
use and movies on demand - although true movies on demand will only be
possible using the cable-based solution being championed in the UK by
Cable & Wireless Communications. Broadcasters, such as the BIB consortium
led by Sky and the BDB group led by Granada and Carlton, are likely to use
near video on demand. This uses blocks of ’channels’ to broadcast the same
film at staggered intervals, so that the user wanting a particular film
would not have to wait more than five or 10 minutes for it to start.
With digital TV delivered by cable and using a set-top box such as the
Acorn, users would also be able to pause and wind the movie forwards or
back. An area can be set aside on the screen to be used in a similar way
to banner advertising on the web. In the Acorn interface, this is a strip
across the bottom of the screen. In the Acorn demonstration, this displays
a banner for Ericsson while the latest James Bond movie Tomorrow Never
Dies is playing. Navigation on screen can be done using the remote control
or else a wireless, infrared keyboard. Selecting the Ericsson banner, in a
similar way to how links or banners are ’clicked’ on when using the web,
takes the user to the full ad while pausing the film.
The banner could also take the user to an advertiser’s web site, or to
interactive content complementary to whatever ’programming’ is being
watched.
For example, one digital TV trial running in the Far East allows recipes
to be viewed during food programmes, and the ingredients for particular
ones to be ordered online straight away. A jukebox section in the Acorn
demonstration allows music videos to be viewed on demand, and the video or
CD to be ordered online through a partnership with a music retailer.
Acorn points out that the mix of services offered, what they look like and
the interactivity open to advertisers and commercial partners of the
service providers will be down to the providers themselves.
Product: The acTiVe digital TV set-top box
Developer: Acorn Computers
Manufacturer: Not yet known
Price: Will probably retail at around Å“350.
.jpg)
.jpg)