--Summer Conference Demo Leverages FourthWall EBIF User Agents, BigBand BMR, Cisco STB's
BackChannelMedia--a company that offers a technology called Clickable TV, which allows viewers to forward or "bookmark" information from their TV to a personal Web portal or to their email account (note: the company says that the technology will be deployed by Knology Communications next month, and that it has reached deployment agreements with around 80 local TV stations--for more on Clickable TV, see the article published on itvt.com, December 9th)--said Tuesday that it has partnered with TelVue, the company behind the HyperCaster multichannel IP line of digital broadcast servers, on an end-to-end "Interactive Multichannel Infomercial" system. The companies have been demo'ing the system at this week's CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone, CO.
According to BackChannelMedia, the system provides operators with a suite of products for managing and deploying infomercial channels that leverage EBIF and allow viewers to click once with their existing remote control to learn more about a product featured in an infomercial. "We are very excited to add TelVue, a well-respected cable equipment vendor, to the list of vendors whose technology is fully interoperable with Clickable TV," BackChannelMedia CTO, Madeleine Noland, said in a prepared statement. "Direct response commercials are a natural fit for our unique electronic fulfillment-based 'Request For Information' application. Now consumers don't have to remember they were interested in the product or write down a phone number. One click of the remote, and they get the reminder and product info sent to their Web portal or email." Added TelVue senior systems engineer, Mark Myslinski: "Through integration of BackChannelMedia's Clickable TV, the HyperCaster can serve infomercials from regional facilities with interactive television features. Now today's operators and content suppliers can have a means to solicit viewer interest directly from the television and increase the ROI of existing and new local origination channels."
BackChannelMedia says that its Summer Conference demo has seen its own and TelVue's technologies working with BigBand Networks' BMR, FourthWall Media's EBIF user agent, Cisco set-top boxes and infomercial content from Revenue Frontier, in order to showcase the delivery of interactive infomercials to consumers. Among other things, BackChannelMedia and TelVue claim that the demo shows that "deployment of advanced interactive television services is possible today, utilizing existing commonly deployed industry-standard cable infrastructure and technology, from the headend level to the set-top box in the viewer's home."
