Most
of the iTV Course's Topics:
Section #1 -
"Major Events in the History of Interactive Television." Topics
discussed/defined include: Winky Dink and You, Picturephone, Teletext,
Teledata, Ceefax, ORACLE, (Optional Reception of Announcements by Coded
Line Electronics), Viewdata, Videotex, Prestel, vertical blanking
intervals (VBIs), Digital Teletext, Qube, Warner Amex, Pioneer
Electronics' Interactive TV, Vidéoway, What's Your Story? (the TV
show), the groundbreaking interactive Kellogg's Frosties (the cereal)
TV commercial, cable/satellite TV developer TV-Answer, Cablesoft,
Microsoft Media Server (Tiger), “Twenty-first Century Vaudeville"
(Produced by Telemorphix in 1993-94), "21CV", Full Service Network
(FSN), Acorn Computers, Apple Interactive Television Box, nCUBE,
nVision, Tele-TV, Americast, The Lightspan Partnership Inc., WebTV,
WebTV Networks, The Interactive Channel (IT Network's
Interactive Channel), Source Media, Teacher's Assistance Program,
enhanced versions of the TV shows "Moesha", the WB network hour-long
thriller "F/X" and the Sunday-night USA Network feature "Pacific Blue",
"WebTV for Windows", Hauppauge, Hong Kong Telecom launched "iTV",
Singapore ONE, Television Par Satellite, NetChannel, Wink
Communications, NBC Interactive Neighborhood (NBC-IN), WebTV Plus,
WebTV Classic, WorldGate Communications, Hongkong Telecom (HKT)
launched "iTV", AOLTV, Excite@Home, Sky News Active, WINfirst, "the
pusher", "the changer", the "Lazy Bone", The Venus Project (Microsoft),
"thick" set-top boxes, "Thin" client set-top Boxes, The British Academy
of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the Interactive Services
Association's ICEY Award for Innovation in Interactive Television,
First Annual ITV All-Stars Reunion and Awards for Leadership in
Interactive Television, AFDESI International interactive TV Awards,
Electronic Multimedia Awards (EMMA), British Interactive Media
Association Awards (BIMA), New Media Age and the Revolution Awards,
Value-added Services.
Section #2 - "Major Definitions in Regard to Interactive Television
including Application, Middleware, Platform, Architecture, Various
Interactive TV Standards & Specifications." Topics
discussed/defined include: Applications on computerized
devices, Middleware, the software stack, open standard specifications,
Linux4.TV, Client/server, Client side TV middleware, Osmosys, consumer
premise equipment, OpenTV Core™, MediaHighway™ middleware solutions,
NDS, TV platform, Interactive TV platform, application programming
interface (API), core middleware, Windows API, architecture,
Microarchitecture, client/server architecture, peer-to-peer (P2P)
architecture, P2P networking, peer-to-peer network architecture, P2PTV,
BitTorrent, torrent, swarming, BitTorrent networks, Joost, Instruction
set architecture (ISA), RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer), CISC
(Complex Instruction Set Computers), System-on-a-chip (SoC), Advanced
Television Enhancement Forum (ATVEF), Transport A (ATVEF-A), ATVEF
specification, triggers, ATVEF system triggers, SMPTE, SMPTE DDE, ATVEF
Transport B or (ATVEF-B), Multimedia Home Platform (MHP), Global
Executable MHP (GEM) specification, DVB-MHP, DVB (Digital Video
Broadcasting), AltiCaptor™, MMDS (Multichannel Multipoint Distribution
Service), Multichannel Video Distribution System (MVDS), DVB-CA,
DVB-RC, Digital Video Broadcasting - Return Channel, DVB-S2, Direct
Broadcast Satellite (DBS), ACAP (Advanced Common Application Platform),
DTV Application Software Environment DASE specification, Cable
Television Labs’ tru2way™, (Open Cable Application Platform, OCAP)
& related specifications, DASE - (Digital Television
Application Software Environment), ETV-BIF (Enhanced Television-Binary
Interchange Format, EBIF), Ensequence interactive TV authoring
software, TVWorks, the MetaTV application, Liberate Technologies,
JavaTV, MHEG (Multimedia and Hypermedia Experts Group), MHEG-5, IMPALA,
OpenCable™ initiative, OpenCable project, CableCARD Host Interface
Licensing Agreement, CHILA, Interactive CableCARD 2.0, bidirectional
(interactive), ARIB, Association of Radio Industries and Businesses in
Japan, DOCSIS, Data Over Cable Systems Interface Specifications (for
cable modems), DOCSIS 2.0, DOCSIS 3.0, CMTS (Cable Modem Termination
System), DOCSIS architecture, CableLabs® Certified™ Cable Modem
project, Terayon’s DOCSIS 2.0 system, EuroDOCSIS, DOCSIS® 3.0 Channel
Bonding Initiative, logical channel, physical channel, IPv6, DVB-S,
Digital Video Broadcasting – Satellite, DVB-S2, Digital Video
Broadcasting - Return Channel via Satellite (DVB-RCS, also Return
channel over system), DirecPC, HughesNet™ (formerly named DirecWay),
S-DOCSIS (Satellite - Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification),
MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, MP3, MPEG-2, H.264, MPEG-4 Part 10 compression
technology, Internet-connected TV, TV Widgets, Over-the-top TV (OTT).
Section #3 -
"Enhanced TV, More on Interactive TV, Advertising using Interactive
Television, Targeted Advertising" Topics discussed/defined include:
Red-button Interactive TV, Press Red, Press Green, BBCi, CBeebies, BBCi
Index, BskyB, Enhanced TV, eTV, enhanced TV programming for "The
Match", “Brainiac”, “How Gay Are You?”, “Battlestar Galactica”, “Shock
Treatment”, Ensequence, Disney Channel Kids Awards: Buried Treasure -
This interactive broadcast, synchronized interactive {TV} components,
Interactive TV polling, live synch, BskyB's subsiduary's SSSL (Sky
Subscribers Services Limited) certification, Ofcom (which used to be
Oftel), Softel MediaSphere broadcast infrastructure, Carousel (for
Interactive TV), DSM-CC, an object carousel, data carousel, DVB Object
Carousel, stream events, DVB multiplexed transport stream, Interactive
TV Broadcast Servers (Interactive TV Content Broadcast Servers),
dynamic carousels, MediaSphere, niche groups, specialized communication
strategies, Contextually targeted (TV) ads, behavioral targeting (TV)
ads, ChoiceStream, personalized advertising, Google AdSense, “Best
Paper” award for its Interactive TV work, Euro Interactive Television
Conference, “Google TV Ads,” Interactive TV from Dish Network,
addressable advertising, Cablevision's targeted TV commercials, Visible
World, “System and method of inserting advertisements into an
information retrieval system display.”
Section #4 -
"Video on Demand, Timeshifting (DVRs), Walled Gardens, IPGs/EPGs."
Topics discussed/defined include: Impulse video on demand (IVOD),
Subscriber video on demand (SVOD), Free video on demand
(FVOD) (a.k.a. free on-demand {FOD}),Appointment TV (Linear
TV), IP-based Video on Demand, encryption/decryption management method,
Quasi Video on Demand, Time Shifting (Timeshifting), Aggregators, VOD
Aggregators, iN DEMAND Networks, Internet-based Video on Demand,
Routers, VeohTV, Internet-based VOD providers, Personal TV,
Placeshifted, Ampex, Network DVRs, headend, Video encapsulation,
Transcoding, TiVo, ReplayTV, SONICblue, Thomson Multimedia, Churn,
PickProgramToRecord, TiVo's WishList, TiVo OnlineScheduling, Intranets,
Interactive TV applications, walled gardens industry (UK), TV-based
walled gardens, Canal Plus, Backspace Communications, CloverLeaf, WAP
(Wireless Application Protocol), TV Guide, Prevue Guide, The Prevue
Channel, Prevue Networks, Gemstar-TV Guide, Tribune Media Services,
Microsoft, activating an IPG or EPG, Main Menu, I-guide, Quick Menu,
Mini-Guide, PSIP (Program and Systems Information Protocol), XMLTV,
XMLTV-based EPGs, Freevo, MythTV, PiCoGuide, SageTV, EPG v4.
Section #5 -
"Set-top Boxes, Media Centers, Media Center PCs, Home Servers, Digital
Media Adapters, Digital Media Receivers, {Windows} Media Extender."
Topics discussed/defined include: Data port, Nintendo game box,
firmware, decode, decoder, decompress, encode, encoder, compress, video
compression technology, analog (analogue) TV, computing and digital
media file format, multiplexing, codecs, MPEG, redundant data, MPEG-2,
MPEG-4, DVB-S2, H.264, narrowband, buffer, memory, data stream,
metadata, Digital Media Adapters, Digital Media Receivers, Windows
Media Extenders, Media Centers, Media Center PCs, CableCARD,
CableCard-ready, Motorola, Scientific Atlanta (Cisco), Pioneer, Pace
Micro, AT&T Broadband, "Thin" client set-top boxes, "Thick"
set-top boxes, Multimedia Home Entertainment Center, Home Media DVR,
Home Server, Home Media Server, Multimedia Gateway, Home Media Center,
entertainment-based digital media based files, fully integrated media
center, wireless keyboard, Moxi by Digeo, Moxi media centers,
conditional access systems, "Digeo™ iTV service", "Charter iTV," Vulcan
Ventures Incorporated, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Integrated Digital
Televisions (iDTVs), digital tuner, MediaSmart TV, Microsoft® Windows
XP Media Center Edition (XP MCE), Windows Media Center PCs, embedded
set-top boxes, Windows Media Center PC remote control, "Freestyle",
Microsoft's "eHome" inititative, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004,
"Whistler", "Harmony", "Emerald", "Runtime", "Symphony", "Windows XP
Media Center Edition 2005", Windows .NET 2001, Media Center TV guide
service, Windows Media Center PC, memory card, picture-in-picture,
LinuxMCE, Ubuntu, Windows Portable Media Center, Viiv, Axentra's
HipServ™, Windows Home Server Drive Extender, HP MediaSmart Server, Web
Servers, Apache HTTP Server Project, DMA, Media Adapter, Home Digital
Media Adapter, Home Media Adapter and Network Media Adapter, DMR,
Integrated Digital Media Adapter, Toolkits, Windows Media Connect,
Apple TV, Windows Media Extender, Media Extender, desktop Media Center
PC, Media Center Extender set-top box, Xbox’s Windows Media Center
Extender technology, transcode, Media Center Extender for Xbox”,
Windows Media Center Extender (WMCE) for Xbox, PlaysForSure (PFS), XBMC
(Xbox Media Center).
Section #6 -
"Web TV, IPTV, Internet TV." Topics discussed/defined include: Web TV,
WebTV Networks, WebTV for Windows, Hauppauge, WebTV Plus, WebTV
Classic, Excite@Home, Netchannel, Microsoft TV platform, WindowsCE,
Microsoft's Venus Project, Acorn's Concord network computer (NC), WebTV
browser, MSNTV, Installing Windows Media Connect on your PC, Chris
Wade, MSN TV2, Linux on the MSNTV2 player, The MSN Companion, Microsoft
Windows CE, multicasting, unicast delivery, IPTV content aggregators,
Brightcove, Lasoo, TELECHANNEL, Kingston Communications launched KIT
(Kingston Interactive Television), Hong Kong’s PCCW's IPTV service, NOW
TV", niche programming, media player, using Internet TV for brand
recognition, bonded DSL.