Westminster Cable Ltd, the British Telecommunications Plc-owned cable television operator for the London Borough of Westminster franchise, is to implement Digital Equipment Corp’s media server to provide a video-on-demand service to its cable customers. Westminster Cable said it will be able to offer a more advanced service because part of the network is constructed from switched star technology, which was developed by British Telecom 12 years ago for a video jukebox and home shopping service tested in the mid-1980s. That trial failed because the technology at either end was not reliable enough – windscreen wiper motors from cars were used to pull laser disks out of a rack. Unlike traditional tree-and-branch cable, switched star has a built-in return path so the server can more easily receive a signal back from the customers. The drawback with switched star is that it wasn’t designed with the massive channel capacity of tree-and-branch, carrying only 27 channels at the moment, rising to 36 by year end. The beta trial will run from November until March next year, involving 100 cable customers, who will be able to choose from a regularly-updated video library of about 200 titles. Westminster Cable said the trial will complement British Telecom’s interactive multimedia services trial because it will be testing reactions of seasoned multi-channel viewers.
