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This
is likely the best way to learn about interactive TV. Provided are countless paragraphs of
important interactive TV related information as well as roughly 500 learning points,
each with reference hyperlinks. If you want to know more about a
particular learning point just click on it's reference hyperlink. Also
included are numerous online demonstrations and relevant online video
clips. There are no questions to answer and you work at your own pace. The
class is
comprised of Lesson
Module
#1 through Lesson Module #6.
For more information click
here.
The
History of Enhanced
& Interactive Television
1) Reference - Winky Dink and You
is often considered the first TV show to offer Interactive Television.
2) Reference
- The first time someone on a telephone called in during a TV show is
thought to have been during NBC's Today Show. That was in 1959.
3) Reference
– Video conferencing pioneer Picturephone debuted at the
World's Fair
in 1964. It cost $16 - $27 for a three-minute call between the special
booths AT&T set up in New York, Washington and Chicago.
4) Reference
- Teletext
is information and
data made available via the unused VBI
lines of the PAL & SECAM broadcasts. Teletext service can
include
interactivity and was the most popular
form of early Interactive Television.
5) Reference
- The National Bureau of Standards and ABC (the network) experimented
broadcasting the time over the VBI television signal.
6) Reference
- TV technicians were initially trying to offer closed captioning services when they developed teletext.
7)
Reference
-
Teletext
was developed by engineers from the BBC and Independent
Broadcasting Authority.
8)
Reference
- The
BBC
version of Teletext was originally called "Teledata" but later it was
changed to "Ceefax". It was based on a Teletext page containing 24 rows
of 32 characters per row while the IBA version, called ORACLE (Optional
Reception of Announcements by Coded Line Electronics,) allowed 22 rows
of 40 characters per row. The Teletext system became operational in
1976.
9)
Reference
(optional)
- Like
Teletext, Viewdata (sometimes referred to as Videotex) provided
a
public information system, but there are significant differences
between it and Teletext. This interactive videotex system was developed
in the late 1970s by the telecommunications department of the Post
Office. It was launched in 1979. Later the name was changed to Prestel.
10)
Reference
- Prestel data was transmitted to a set-top box via telephone lines.
11)
Reference–
Analog (analogue) Teletext technology does not work in digital
televisions. There are no Vertical Blanking Intervals (VBIs) in DTV
streams. (The Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) can carry information
other than video or audio, including closed-caption text and stock
market data.) However Digital Teletext was developed which can deliver
interactive TV advertising with hyperlinks.
12) Reference
- Qube was the earliest commercial service to bring Interactive TV to
homes in the States. Warner Amex, a joint venture between Warner
Communications and American Express, developed Qube for cable customers
in the later 1970s and was first offered in Columbus, Ohio in December
of 1977. Qube offered 30 channels.
13) Reference
(In the reference hyperlink, type in “Qube” in
Pioneer Electronics'
site search field.) - QUBE used the only
manufacturer at the time that had developed adequate two-way
(interactive)
technology. That was Pioneer Electronics.
14) Reference
(In
the
reference hyperlink, type in
“Qube” in
Pioneer Electronics' site search field.) - The idea
for Qube
came when
Steve Ross, the president of Warner Communications, experienced a
Japanese hotel's closed circuit Interactive TV system, which Pioneer
Electronics in Japan had built. This was in 1975.
15) Reference
- In 1988, the BBC broadcasts "What's Your Story?". It's a children's
TV
program where viewers were asked to call in to the show and offer
suggestions on what subjects the show should be about. The best
suggestions were used (presumably).
16) Reference
- Downtown Digital
was a 1990
partnership between Viacom and AT&T
that explored and developed early American interactive television
programming. Downtown
Digital
created programming for kids and gamers,
as well as an interactive version of Entertainment Tonight.
17) Reference
– 1990 - Canadian cable TV provider Vidéotron
starts using its
first
Vidéoway terminals in Quebec (Canada). It’s been
touted as one
of the first interactive television systems in North America.
18) Reference
– In 1996 an experiment using analog TV technology
was
carried out by the JWT agency and the cable provider Videtron. It
showed that advertising using Interactive TV more than doubled viewer
attention when compared with ordinary TV advertisements.
19) Reference
- Videtron (Videotron) presented an interactive Kellogg's Frosties (the
cereal) TV commercial, an Interactive TV milestone. It allowed the
viewer to select different scenarios at different stages in the
commercial.
20) Reference
- In 1993 Bill Gates is said to have called Interactive Television "the
wackiest race in the world".
©
2009 Interactive
Television Institute™. All rights reserved. Do not duplicate.
This
is the end of the sample of module #1. The complete module (which is one of 6) has close to
of 75 learning
points.
Copyright
© 2006 - 2010 The Interactive Television
Institute™
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