Microsoft Corp is moving into yet another area of broadband data delivery, having already thrown its weight behind cable and ADSL modem standardization efforts, this time promoting broadband data transfer in the vertical blanking interval of TV broadcasts. This will enable high speed one-way broadcasting of web-based information to consumers. Originally, Microsoft’s WebTV Networks Inc’s division wrote off the technology, when it was announced by Oracle Corp’s Network Computing Inc division in August 1997. WebTV’s co-founder and chief executive Steve Perlman dismissed NCI’s proposed Enhanced TV product as 1980s technology. He also said that many of the cable companies block vertical blanking signals to stop unwanted use of their networks. But last month NCI demonstrated a working version of the technology at the consumer electronics show (CI No 3,323). Now, Microsoft is to provide the equipment for trial with 12 US TV broadcasters, including Cox Broadcasting and The Paramount Stations, and trials start later this year. The broadcasters will be provided with NT servers, specialized vertical blanking interval hardware, and IP multicast software. Personal Computer users running Windows-98 with a TV tuner card, and upgraded WebTV users will be able to receive web pages and other IP based services, if they are in the trial areas. The service is effectively a higher technology version of the UK’s videotext services -known as teletext- which started life in the late seventies.
