Pat - Do these Vendors combined sound familiar? The Telenor trial in Norway..
Telenor selects Digital for first interactive TV trial in Norway
Telenor, the Norwegian national telecommunications operator, has announced that the first trial of interactive television in Norway will begin in January using Digital's Mediaplex server. Under a $1.5 million initial contract, Telenor has selected Digital, Italtel, Apple and Amati to provide equipment and services for the trial, which will offer a range of programming to selected consumers, including video-on-demand and distance learning.
The trial will take place in Oslo and will initially be conducted at 35 user sites, which will include schools and Telenor offices as well as the homes of Oslo residents. This group will be expanded to cover around 200 subscribers by mid-1996.
Telenor has selected Digital's Mediaplex server and middleware technology to deliver 35 simultaneous video streams during the first stage of the trial.
Digital, in cooperation with Telenor Research and Development, will also develop the user interface for the system. Set-top boxes will be provided by Apple. Italtel and Amati will supply ADSL transmission technologies to enable the communication of video signals over the telephone network. Italtel will also provide systems integration services.
"As this trial is among the first in the Nordic countries, and the first in Norway, we wanted to be sure of a reliable technology solution," said Knut Sinkerud, project manager of Telenor. "The experience of these four suppliers was a key factor for us and their joint solution is very attractive."
The Telenor interactive system will offer a range of services from the beginning of the trial stage, including movies on demand, distance education for both private subscribers and schools, music videos on demand, children's programming, and a variety of consumer information services.
The service will be free during the initial stages of the trial, although Telenor plans to introduce charges and offer a wider choice of programming as the trial progresses. It is working with a number of suppliers to develop other services, including Polygram AS, SF Television (Svensk Filmindustri), the Norwegian Film Institute, NKS Distance Education and TV2.
"Our objective at this first stage is to test all aspects of the technology and the programming," said Sinkerud.
"We want to be sure that we have everything in place before we roll services out to more customers."
Digital is the market leader in interactive information technology, supplying media server solutions for more trials and deployments than any other vendor. Cable television companies using Digital's Mediaplex server architecture include Svenska Kabel-TV in Sweden and Westminster Cable in London. Trials by telecommunications companies using Digital technology include U S WEST's trial in Nebraska, Belgacom in Belgium, and NYNEX and Ameritech in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States.
Digital's servers are also being used in production environments to insert advertising on more than 1,000 channels across 56 cable TV headends served by Adlink in California, and to deliver pay TV and nearvideo-on-demand services by TMN Networks in Canada. |
