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Technology Stocks : IATV-ACTV Digital Convergence Software-HyperTV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stealhead who wrote (4643)	6/10/1999 8:05:00 AM
From: Mikee Hughes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13157

As a 30yr long-term investor and 3yr short term trader and continuous lurker I'm still getting up to speed on pertinent up-to-the-minute research and news so this article may not even be relevant. Does anyone have thoughts about today's ZDnet story about NBC and TiVo. BTW, very long IATV since 3,7, & 12. Thanx all.

To: Stealhead who wrote (4643)	6/10/1999 11:07:00 AM
From: Bruce Cullen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13157

tvbroadcast.com === === === === === === === Four Channels, One Game By Joseph Maar DALLAS, TX--In a move likely to change the way fans watch sports on television, a new service begins this fall that gives Dallas area cable viewers the option to choose among four channels when watching a single sporting event. New York-based ACTV has been testing production and delivery to a limited number of TCI cable households in the Dallas area, running area baseball games throughout the summer. Production executives plan the full service area rollout to include Dallas Mavericks NBA games and Stars NHL contests. With many stations on the verge of digital television, ACTV will likely become a role model for those broadcasters who plan to multicast a program and enhance commercial advertising. The company augments live telecasts on Fox Sports Southwest using their own control room, isolated cameras and stats person. Viewers operate a remote control to select which channel they prefer to watch, the content changing continuously on each one. The primary telecast stays on a screen that technicians often squeeze-up to reveal additional channel options. The service, called "Individualized Television," is a variation on multicasting. "It's a program that allows people to custom tailor what they see, based on what interests them," said Brent Imai, ACTV's vice president of programming and production. "Individualized Television allows the viewer to say, 'OK, at this particular time, this is more interesting to me than the main feed.'" The additional channels always have a small box running the live game so viewers don't miss any action. According to Imai, a typical baseball game might include channels showing "a player interview, a close-up shot of the batter with additional statistical information around him or a highlight package" of scoring. He added, "What we do is present different options throughout the show that viewers can selectÉ based on their interests." ACTV's research discovered that viewers don't want to be the director, constantly switching channels to see the flow of a play. Instead, they prefer content. So if Mark McGwire is batting on one channel, another might show replays of his home runs, a third might show a pre-game interview with McGwire and a fourth could show him on an iso-shot with statistics. Many of the options include moving video. According to Imai, the reply channel is very popular. "You might see all the home runs in a game, all the scoring plays in a game, a package of errors we call 'Oops'É or something called 'On Fire' where you see a bunch of strike-outs by a pitcher." ACTV's production team works in a control room away from the stadium. Only three people are at the game: a statistician, a camera operator and a routing person. The camera operator hears ACTV's producer/director and works to isolate whatever is necessary. The routing position is in the main production truck and can feed any shot back to the control room. Also on the crew are three editors, two Chyron operators, two technical directors, a producer/director and a studio host. Two of the editors use Tektronix Profiles to build real-time highlight reels and playback elements. The third works on an Avid, playing back features and sound bites. The Chyron operators run up to four character generators. Since some have dual-outputs, the operators control a total of six graphics channels simultaneously. For audio and switching, there is only a computer. "One of the things you'll notice when you walk into our control room is that there's no switcher," said Imai, "because you'd have to have an octopus for a TD who could simultaneously be pushing different buttonsÉ on four channels." As a result, ACTV uses a sophisticated switching, routing and audio computer that can change images on multiple channels at the same time. One TD runs this switching system while another controls a computer that delivers data to set-top boxes. The data includes anything from trivia contest information to regulating remote control features. ACTV can also enhance commercial advertising. "We might ask which Toyota car is of interest to you, list four different kinds of cars and let (viewers) choose which one of those cars they want to watch at the commercial break," remarked Imai. "It's much more effective in terms of advertising if you let the person have some authorship in what information is being sent to them." The system requires a subscriber to have a newer, digital, set-top box. At present, ACTV works with General Instruments' model DCT 1000 cable box, which TCI is installing into many of its digital cable homes. ACTV is working on future arrangements with other manufacturers. For transmission, ACTV compresses their four channels into an MPEG-2 signal taking up only 6 MHz of bandwidth. Thus technicians can fit the entire service on a single satellite transponder plus conserve space on cable TV lines. After Dallas, the company has announced future plans to move into other markets, including Fox Sports Bay Area (San Francisco) and Fox Sports West (Los Angeles). The challenge of producing four telecasts simultaneously is a new and creative one for production professionals. In addition, future ACTV productions will include non-sports programs such as game shows, children's programming and even newscasts. For more information on ACTV call (212) 262-2570.

To: Stealhead who wrote (4643)	6/10/1999 11:24:00 AM
From: art slott	Respond to of 13157

Worhy of a repost. To: +Robert Cohen (1973 ) From: +Stealhead Tuesday, Apr 13 1999 10:44PM ET Reply # of 4647 The garden… Last month Liberty Media invested in Interactive Pictures Corp., a firm that's turning two-dimensional photos into interactive, three-dimensional images delivered over the Internet. Liberty did not disclose the amount of its investment, although a spokesperson a Liberty was quoted as saying "it was small by Liberty standards, which means it was just a few million.". From the horse's mouth… An article in Broadcasting & Cables magazine dated 2/19/99 quotes John Malone as saying "In the technology world, you involve yourself in what you think are strong ideas. Some work out, some don't. The typical venture capital investment is a couple million bucks. Only when you have what you think is a home run do you start pouring capital in. Liberty is a great environment for this. Because of our financial position, there's not much we don't get to see." The purpose here is to illustrate the significance of Liberty's interest in ACTV. Today we learned that Liberty is investing an additional $9 million into our little company. In addition, they have the opportunity to put up another $86 million so they can enjoy a 25% interest in the company. Acknowledging these facts, you'll begin to understand that Liberty's interest in ACTV is an investment in a home run, versus some sort of risky venture capital investment. From today's release… Lee Masters, president and CEO of Liberty Digital, said: ''ACTV has continued to develop a suite of innovative applications which fit very well with Liberty Digital's strategy of bringing new digital and interactive applications to the marketplace.'' Considering some of the Liberty's holdings that have Interactive initiatives, like TCI Music, TV Guide Interactive, Discovery Channel, USA, QVC and News Corp. (Fox Sports Net), factor in Mr. Masters comments and it becomes abundantly clear that ACTV's technology will play a huge role in these ventures. Now consider the equipment manufacturers; Liberty recently upped its stake in General Instrument (an investor in ACTV) to 18%. Come on guy's this ain't rocket science! ACTV is on the radar screen at Liberty in a big, big way and we haven't even talked about value they see in HyperTV yet. There are several companies playing in the streaming video and audio world, but most notably is Real Networks who traded today as high as $263.75. A lot of their recent jump can be attributed to some key alliances with companies like Globix who produces and broadcasts live and on-demand content for the Internet and Intranets. HyperTV will become a major player in this market in the near future and will most likely form relationships of a similar nature. I say this because most of these companies who want to provide interactive programming content, like Discovery, Fox Sports Net and TV Guide Interactive will want to make sure that their respective programming efforts will not be interrupted due server availability issues like the Fiesta Bowl or the Victoria Secrets venue. So considering this, it's within reason that a relationship with a state-of-the-art hosting facility who can meet the unique demands of sophisticated, multi-vendor, mission-critical Internet operations is on the horizon. IMHO - SH P.S. If RNWK can hit 263, we can too! And another thought, remember the little investment in @Home!!!!!!!!!!!! (Bob, I know you see the big picture here)