Authors include: - Connect-World

Broadband
throughout Western Europe, India
andNorthAmerica.
Examplesincludeaudienceparticipation
programmes where by calling a
number,visitingawebsiteorsending
an SMS viewers can vote, provide
feedback or purchase products and
servicesorpurchaseproductsfeatured
ontheshow.Theseactivitiesincrease
thequalityoftheviewers’experience
and drive on-air content, putting the
viewerinthedriver’sseat.
Communitytelevision:where
communicationmeets
entertainment
Most interactive TV services, today,
focusontheinteractionbetweenviewer
and broadcaster through voting,
betting and background information
retrieval.Inthefuture,thisinteraction
willincrease,transformingtraditional
TVviewing.
Technology can create a rich social
experience by introducing communities
into TV or video viewing, essentially
a room-by-room, house-byhouse
activity. It’s like talking about
programmes,notthenextdayaround
theofficewatercooler,butliveasthey
happen.
Whenwatchingafootballmatchyou
can check what your friends are
watchingandsendthemaninvitation
to join you. An avatar, unique onscreen
symbols selected by users to
representthemselves,isdisplayedfor
each member of your group that is
online,soyoucansendmessagesback
andforth.Youcanalsotalkormaintain
video communications using
yourwebcamera,whichisdisplayed
asanoverlay,likepicture-in-picture.
This concept, called community TV,
enablesuserstowatchtheirfavourite
programmes with friends and family,
eveniftheyliveindifferentcities.
Usability research is important when
designing this sort of application. In
the case of community TV, focus
groups and user tests indicate that
many users of chat applications are
already familiar with the concept of
onlinecommunities.Whencombined
with television, online communities
becomeverycompelling.
Personalbroadcasting
Many video on demand and IPTV
deployments only consider major
moviesandbroadcastTVchannelsas
content for which people will pay. In
reality, Hollywood is only part of the
available video content. Many other
types of content appeal to small and
medium-sized‘affinitygroups’including:
- Local issues (e.g., council meetings
andcommunityevents);
-Localproductinformation(e.g.,new
fashion collections and neighbourhoodstoreopenings);
- Community clubs (e.g., local amateurtheatreassociations);
-Homemoviesandphotos.
The personal content trend is driven
bythewidespreaduseofdigitalphotographandvideocamerasthatmakeit
easy to share personal multimedia
contentwithfamilyandfriendsinan
interactive TV environment and, in a
sense,createtheirownTVchannel.
Figure 1: For the user, the essencial elements of
triple play are content, communication and community.
An affinity group is constructed of
individualswithapassionforaspecificprogrammeormovie.Thissegment
would be interested in a video database
service that logged and tracked
programmeepisodesandscenes,taggingthembycharacterandplotline.
This database could be used to cut
scenes together, link episodes, dive
intoassociatedmeta-data,shareinformation
with like-minded individuals
andgroups.
on a PC screen, put them on TV and
theyfeelthateverybodyiswatching.
Examplesabound
The sharing of photos and home
moviescreates‘micro-celebrities’that
gettheirfacesonTVforafewseconds.
Many TV stations now display onscreenmessagestransmittedbyviewersviaSMS,becausepeoplelikeseeingtheirnameonTV,evenifitisjust
forafewseconds.Althoughmostpeopledon’tgetexcitedseeingthemselves
Personalisationcanbetakenevenfurther,
with users assigning ratings to
content, recommending programmes
and subscribing to other community
channels.
The sharing of personal files has
another benefit since the files are
stored on a network drive, users do
notcluttertheirpersonalharddrives
or worry about backups. There are
also many other voice/broadband
services.Youcanshareaphotoalbum
online and have an online slideshow
together with friends. You can send
videos and photos to mobile phone
users. Recommendations and notificationsofnewcontentcanalsobesent
tomobilephones.
Theseexamples,anddozensofothers,
represent real, converged triple play
applicationsinwhichthevideo,voice
and data components are combined
to deliver a sum that is greater than
the individual parts. Unlike existing
triple play deployments where
1+1+1=3, future triple play offerings
will result in a different calculation:
1+1+1=7. Call it the ‘new maths’ of
tripleplay.
Today,tripleplayservicesareproving
to have considerable customer
appeal. Current triple play services
are the first chapter in the convergence
story. To maintain their competitive
edge, service providers look
attoday’stripleplaydeploymentsasa
laboratory where voice, data and
videocanbecreativelycombinedand
integratedintocompellinguserexperiences.
The fusion of content and communication
is the second chapter of the
convergencestory.Fromauser’sperspective,
community services act as
theenablingframeworkforthefuture
evolutionoftheinteractiveTVexperience,
including text messaging, video
communication and personal content
distribution. Community and participationTVareuniqueexamplesofthe
power of merging triple play components
and point the way for further
exploration.
Thelogicalnextstepistheemergence
ofnewTVformatsthatmakefulluse
ofthesenewcommunicationmethods
in a broadcast TV environment. This
will constitute a real fusion of the
tripleplaycomponents.
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