Broadband Week for August 24, 1998:
To Converge or Not: More than
Wording
By Gary Arlen
Contributing Curmudgeon
Suddenly, Intel doesn't like "convergence."
The chip-maker's content team -- which has been
underwriting dozens of digital-TV and cable-modem
program ventures -- is skittish about using the term,
especially if it suggests bringing TV and the Internet
under the same umbrella. There's apparently some
concern that problems on the Web, or merely dismay
about its narrow capabilities, will be translated into digital
or interactive-TV implementations.
It's an interesting attitude, especially in an environment
that generally extols Internet interactivity as the training
wheels for broadband services, including the next
iteration of interactive TV. It's also awkward, since
ventures such as Intertainer (in which Intel holds a very
minor stake) look an awful lot like that old interactive-TV
staple, video-on-demand, delivered through cable
modems.
But Intel's anti-convergence posture is also
understandable at a company that is pushing "enhanced
broadcasting," which does not necessarily rely on the
Internet. From its Intercast product (computer TV plus
customized content on-demand) to its support of the new
Advanced TV Enhancement Forum, Intel is promoting
services that don't need the Internet to deliver
value-added video.
Nonetheless, it's fun to watch Intel wiggle free from its
occasional digital-TV ally, Microsoft, which constantly
demonstrates its digital-TV visions in conjunction with its
Internet initiatives.
Convergence has long been a sketchy concept, offering
ersatz promises of TV sets and computers blending into
a single product, or phones and video services
intersecting. Another new company, TeleWorld Inc.,
which is developing its TiVo "personalized TV
programming," similarly dances around the convergence
concept. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based start-up talks about
"TV broadcasting nearing a merger with true
personalization" and describes its "service and content"
as "enabled by the intersection of new mass-storage,
semiconductor and communications technologies."
"Intersection." "Merger." They sound like "convergence"
to me.
TiVo's vision -- which will be more fully unveiled to the
cable industry next month -- draws on VOD and VCR
experiences. Using a set-top device that can be hooked
into broadcast, cable or satellite transmissions, viewers
will be able to select programs from a customized
on-screen guide, use "Extensible Time-Shifting
Architecture" and even pause live broadcasts.
Of course, this could be a traditional advertiser's
"nightmare," exceeding even the commercial zapping
that generally goes on in VCR viewing of time-shifted
shows. As TiVo points out, however, the personalization
capability allows even more targeted advertising and
interactive electronic commerce into the broadband
space -- just like on the Web (although that precedent is
skirted).
At several recent Internet/digital-marketing conferences,
the organizers declared "convergence" verboten -- or at
least pass‚. But that's an impossibility for insiders who
see the migration path and the synergies that emerge
from the proper blend of tools and content.
To underscore these inherent convergences, consider the
new "Video RetrievalWare" from Excalibur Technologies.
Excalibur has sold text and imaging asset-management
software for more than a decade. Its latest product is an
Internet protocol-based system, allowing video users
(from newsroom producers to instructional TV archivists)
to search analog or digital video resources. Storyboards
are created and edited via a Web server, drawing from
traditional video sources.
It's a real collaborative media blend.
Excalibur's image-recognition and tracking system takes
advantage of the tools available on the Internet and in
traditional linear media to create something new.
That's what convergence is really about: not just shoving
different technologies into the same corner and hoping
they will work together -- rather, convergence means
creating entirely new applications that can exist only in
the interactive/digital format.
The reality of convergence is most vividly demonstrated
by streaming video and audio -- popular software that
makes the Web look like slow-motion TV (for now: faster
later). Up to 50 percent of Web users have downloaded
streaming software -- a reminder about the appetite to
bring high-impact visual experiences to the Internet.
In fact, fast-growing Web-multimedia sites are often
denoted as "media-rich" applications (a term that Intel
happens to adore). These intense graphics, animation,
sound and services -- enhanced, of course, by
high-speed access -- are considered the future of the
Internet and of the digital-TV world.
One nontechnical approach to convergence is bringing
together killer applications. Gaming and communities are
hot on the Internet right now.
Mpath Interactive, an online-games creator and packager
(mplayer.com), is introducing a new technology that
blends gaming with cyber-communities. The combination
enables interactive services ranging from interactive talk
shows, entertainment, online polling and surveys to
virtual classrooms and online customer support. Not
surprisingly, GTECH Corp., best known as a
lottery-technology vendor, is building communities online,
allowing virtual lottery players to get together in
cyberspace.
That's the real convergence: technologies and
applications. And customers, congregating under the
right umbrella.
I-Way Patrol columnist Gary Arlen's current sermon
deals with convergence, divergence and emergence.
Amen.
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