Playlab.net || Mark Rochefort

Filed under: Photos, London, Random

For those of you who wondered where our evangelist friend with the loud speaker at Oxford Circus station had got to recently during these cold winter weeks - this photo was taken in Sydney last week. He certainly gets about. It looks like he flies south for winter to find warmer preaching grounds.

Filed under: Random

I’ve just heard that Homechoice is considering putting itself up for sale. After last November’s rumours, I’m not sure whether it is true but there’s certainly plenty of vultures circling. I’m sure it won’t be long before we have to sit back and watch them fight over the spoils.

Filed under: Random

Chris McKinstry’s sad and rather public suicide note reveals “the mind is a maximum hypersurface and thought a trajectory on it and the amygdala and hippocampus are Hopf maps of it” - inspired genius, hoax or simply too much LSD? You decide.

Filed under: Media, Technology

Channel 4 have ditched their clunky red button interactive TV service that supports some broadcasts like Big Brother. Some might be shocked by this but, if the truth be told, it makes sense. It’s a bold move that apparently flies in the face of interactive TV “progress” but look at the underlying factors and you’ll see it’s actually a very wise decision. The red button service that Channel 4 offered was only ever delivered over the sky platform, where the initial data associated with the interactive TV service had to be transmitted as part of the broadcast stream via satellite. Over satellite, this broadcast stream bandwidth is very limited and, as you’ve probably seen, results in a very slow interactive experience. Once the base interactive TV application had been loaded, additional data could be retrieved via a sluggish 28k modem. All in all a rather painful user experience. And, believe me, unless you are following a “template” like the i-Ad format (the red button feature for interactive TV adverts, which C4 are keeping) developing for the platform was an even more tedious process! In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the driving force behind Channel 4’s decision were their programme producers. When I left Endemol they were struggling to develop interactive TV applications - it simply did not fit into the way TV is produced. These applications require defining and rigorous testing, whereas TV production is a much more fluid process - with concepts potentially changing completely at the 11th hour. Besides, SMS voting is much easier to shoe-horn into a TV concept as a viable revenue stream.

So, step aside clunky satellite interactive TV and make room for TV delivered via a fast broadband connection. The real interactive TV experience is when you don’t even notice you are “interacting” - where viewing is no longer passive but your involvement (like choosing what to watch, whether live or achived) is very much part of the TV experience. Whether you call it internet TV, broadband TV, IPTV or Video On Demand, the underlying concepts are essentially the same. And Homechoice is already there.

As mentioned before I’m keen to see how the areas of TV content, broadband and search technologies eventually come together. I’m sure it won’t be a clean race.

Filed under: Random

Just what I was looking for. Spotted in an office window round the corner on Poland Street. They aren’t kidding.

Filed under: Random

web2.0 is so last year - let’s welcome web3.0
milliondollarhomepageransom.com
albert’s still searching for answers as he reaches 100 years old

and an interesting radio 4 broadcast from monday evening - in confessions of a crap artist, we learn how Philip K. Dick was still searching too…

Filed under: Media, Technology

Now then, I don’t like it when blogs just re-hash speculation but this one is just too big not to comment on. I’ve just heard on the grapevine that BT *might* be considering making a bid for ITV. Buying such an established UK content provider would certainly realign BT against competition from Homechoice, BSkyB and ntl in this emerging market.

With last week’s news that Sky will be using Microsoft’s Windows Media Center to deliver its forthcoming Sky By Broadband service and Google announcing a new video store, some interesting areas in technology and media are finally starting to come together. It looks like the big players are jostling for starting positions in the race to realise the much heralded interplay of TV content, broadband and search technologies in the UK.

So - who’s next?