From: wierda@ltb.ltb.bso.nl (Gerben Wierda)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Subject: Re: NeXT on TV
Date: 8 Sep 92 10:01:11 GMT
Organization: BSO/LT, Baarn, The Netherlands

In <1992Sep6.220039.16837@dart.de> wbeeck@dart.de (Wilfried Beeck) writes:

>NeXT is on television every day in many countries in europe ...
>... but few people know. Although they could even be part of it.

(but not all at the same moment...)

>But let me explain:

>As part of the DOCUMENTA a multimedia workgroup from Hamburg, Germany has made  
>an experimental installation of interactive television, which is broadcasted by  
>German Television 3SAT every day.

At 4.00 AM

>For the one or two people on the net, who don't know what DOCUMENTA is: It's  
>the world's biggest art exhibition which is held every four years in Kassel,  
>Germany. Sort of the Olympics of arts. It started in June and continues until  
>sometime in September.

Yep. I was there in August. This year it is a little bit less surprising than
previous years. But there were a few nice things though.

>One of the big projects at DOCUMENTA is an Electronic Media Art Lab, done by a  
>workgroup called Van Gogh TV. These people, who have gathered from all over  
>europe, have done an experimental installation of interactive television.

>You might wanna ask: What is interactive television?

Well, that is what I did. I asked them.

>Van Gogh TV has integrated many different communication methods in a computer  
>network of PCs, Macintoshes and NeXTs, which is then broadcasted live together

Hm. NeXTs? There was one NeXT and it was used only to render incoming faxes so
that it could be used elsewhere.

>on a single screen.
>They support 2 modem lines, a fax-modem, 2 phone-lines, a picture-phone, an  
>on-site video-camera, etc.

So from the million viewers, only a couple can influence the system at one
moment. You send a fax and - hey - it's on TV! Impressive!

>So you can dial into the system with a modem and watch what you are typing live  
>on TV. Or fax to them and watch your fax on TV. Or you can just call them and  
>talk on TV, exchange messages with other people, who are maybe connected to the  
>system via modem or picture-phone. And if you happen to have a touchtone  
>telephone, you can play videogames on TV, or music notes by hitting different  
>numbers. And so on. It's a weird combination of modern electronic communication  
>tools. Last year, when we planned this, we thought it would be the most extreme  
>example of Interpersonal Computing. To comply with the newer NeXT marketing  
>strategies, we're now also emphasizing on the mission critical part.
>If you watch Van Gogh TV, you will find that it really has some aspects of  
>complete chaos as well. And this certainly complies with the NeXT marketing  
>strategies that we've seen in the past :-)



>Van Gogh TV uses a NeXTdimension configuration as part of the system. For  
>instance the incoming faxes are received by a DSP-modem from i link and are  
>then transferred to the broadcasting system using the NeXTdimension video  
>output.

Which is the *only* thing the NeXT is used for.

>So if you are in Europe, you can watch this on 3SAT, which is available on  
>cable TV or Satellite ASTRA in many countries in Europe. It is also broadcasted  
>by some local stations in other countries, like even Lituania and Russia. The  
>project is called "Piazza Virtuale". On 3SAT it is broadcasted sometimes at  
>lunchtime, but mostly at night.

After the last regular program. The lunchtime sessions are a few in a couple
of months.

>If you don't just wanna watch it, but be part of it, be warned: There are only  
>about a dozen lines into the system and at certain times the telephone company  
>has measured more than 40.000 calls per hour. So it might take some time until  
>you get a connection.
>And if you finally get one, you should be careful with what you do: a lot of  
>people are watching you!!

>Fewer people, but still some tenthousand, are also watching a NeXTdimension  
>display every saturday. And this one is really big: It's the large 30 feet  
>video display at the football stadium of Karlsruhe.
>A special software supports features like animated graphics, a picture database  
>of every player, etc.
>And during the break you can watch the largest NeXT advertisement you've ever  
>seen. In case you don't wanna come to Karlsruhe to see this (although it's a  
>really beautifull place), stay tuned: It's only the first installation in a  
>row.

Well, let's make a couple of comments here:

- With thousands of viewers and 12 people making a live program through
telephone/fax/modem connections it is a bit overstating to call it
"interactive television". Sure, it is a new way of creating a television
program, but seeing your fax on TV is not such a big deal. I asked them if
they had given thought to this, but they weren't interested.

- Stating this is a NeXT thing is also not correct. I saw Apple, Atari, Amiga
(I think, but I'm not sure), PC's and 1 NeXT. NeXT plays a very small role in
this (but it's nice to see them playing at it at all). You will see
programmers doing something very simple in BASIC on one of the other
platforms. The project has absolutely nothing to do with MCCA or interpersonal
computing. It's just hacker galore.

- Don't misunderstand me: these people are creative hackers who have the luck
(and intelligence) to get financed by Telecom and computer organisations to
fool around, but technically it hasn't very much body. No new things, just
nice but unproductive things. But it's very funny to see.

- The most impressive thing about the project was it's ratio of
hardware/software investments versus its usable result...

To paraphrase: The most "interactive" about this project is its name.

Flames by e-mail please.


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wierda@ltb.bso.nl (Gerben Wierda) || I speak for myself and not for my employer.
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