DIY iTV. Production Tools for interactive TV
These are most commonly PC based software packages that allow developers, designers and even producers to create services ready for transmission on a range of target interactive TV platforms – often two or more platforms from the same, single build. Most separate the presentation from the content itself and each tool has a specific type of service it is ideally suited to, eg: magazine wraparounds, quiz or simple games, dynamic data rich services, synchronised content etc: and no one tool will be able to deliver everything (at least not in the forceable future).
The reason many broadcasters are currently evaluating and building real services with these tools is based on a growing need to begin to devolve many of the production of iTV services so that content can be entered efficiently into existing formats, services more dynamically controlled by Production and eventually applications built in traditional Production areas. Of course the broadcasters would need a centralised iTV operation would still need to act as a gatekeeper and manage global navigation, bandwidth and commissioning.
Interactive TV development using production tools will continue to grow and flourish much the same way that they did in the internet. There are four phases of production tools evolution which broadly match those in narrowband web development which was:
1. 1993-6 Small dedicated teams producing all web content, often in note pad – ad hoc liaison with TV Production for occasional content
2. 1996-8 Templates and rudimentary tools allowed Production to turn fact-sheets and other content into sites relatively quickly
3. 1998-00 Broad adoption in TV Production areas of tools such as Dreamweaver, Frontpage etc: to build sites to strict templates set by central control.
4. 2000- Gradual autonomy given to TV Production departments at lower levels of the internet sites to have editorial and presentational choice and to use non-standard proprietary plug-ins. Central control needs to remain to have control over site size, global navigation and testing.
FInally what about the tools one ‘needs’ to build interactive TV. There are quite a few players in this market (the writer having spent eight years at the BBC living with most of them!) all offering the nirvana of one-stop desktop creation, multi-platform/network output and iTV programmes as unique as a hand-coded original. It is true that some of the tools can achieve elements of some of these but we have quite a way to go yet (mostly at the broadcaster, api, network distribution, set top end) before the tools become ‘really’ usuable. Also many of the larger interactive broadcasters and operators have a range of in-house tools and internal standards that they are happy to re-purpose for other infrastructures for a fee.
The most bullish of the small group of independent tools companies at the moment (and active at NAB) are Ensequence. It is worth checking out their latest version of OnQ (pdf brochure) that naturally contains something for the non-techys amongst us, allowing a ‘director, flash, finalcut’ approach to iTV builds. Most of the tools offer builds for broadcast API combinations of OpenTV, Mediahighway, MHEG, MHP, Liberate etc:. and other players in the field (some who I noticed walking the floor of the exhibition at NAB04) include:
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the excellent, very user friendly and fast track builder ModelStream from Emuse
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Plasma Magenta for turning old teletext services into digital text services and more
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NPTV’s wizard, template based iTV factory, for simple builds and network configuration
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DI3 creation and publishing solution called xBrowser used by the innovative and live based iTV broadcaster DITG
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One of the most used tools on the market now is Storyteller, now embedded into Goldpocket’s enormous iTV operations in the US
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For good old Mediahighway (now part of NDS core) there is the Development Kit from NDS integrated with the most stable range of products from NDS
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Very intriguing and innovative interface that is Lanchalot’s interactive TV tool Lois (demo download) which comes packaged with a range of iTV formats
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and many more including a plethora of MPEG4 tools such as 4Mation from Envivio and DG2L’s iVAst Studio Author