Being a glutton for punishment, I recorded a few of the demos and screenshots shown during Paul Kagan’s “Getting Personal” conference last week in conjunction with the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. (I’ve gotten in trouble for posting “confidential” video demos shown at conferences before.) This one comes from Ensequence, showing off some interactive TV apps used in a trial with DirecTV and Dish during the Video Game Awards. In case watching TV by itself is not enough, Ensequence demonstrates some of the promise (or distraction) of interactive television: immediate access to relevant information, the ability to collect points for rewards from sponsors, and, my favorite, access to old arcade games on a split screen. Check out the 45-second mark in the video above.
A few things have changed since the first scramble for interactive television circa the late 1990s. Cable systems have gone digital, tru2way/OCAP is a reality, and the cable and consumer electronics industries are at least attempting to play nice with each other. iTV may still be a few years out, but the pieces are falling into place.
Video won’t play for me. Can play youtube videos no problem, but tried this repeatedly… just spins…
Odd. Seems to work now. ???
I also discovered that Ensequence has extensive video case studies on its site, including one for the VGA. You can check out much of the same material posted here on Ensequence.com.
Glenn, without Mari’s knowledge (sorry!) I switched the embed to a higher resolution of YouTube video. It seems to work for most, but I noticed similar behavior on a colleague’s computer… and I suspect it may be related to Flash version or maybe browser? Anyhow, I restored the video to the low def yucky one. Enjoy. ;)
Yup, works now (FF3 on Linux).