Being able to interact directly with a live television broadcast was the biggest single benefit identified in a threeyear research project for which Lancashire multimedia company Enlightenment Interactive was chosen to partner Volkswagen in Germany. The aim was to test the potential of Interactive Television as a future medium for staff training, particularly in smaller companies.

VW already puts out regular interactive broadcasts to its dealer network, especially in Germany and Austria, where around 80 per cent of dealer staff tune in.

WHAT IS INTERACTIVE TV? It’s a live broadcast in which viewers have simultaneous internet links to the TV studio. They can put questions to the presenters and get an immediate answer on air. Presenters can involve the audience in quizzes or votes and the results appear on screen.

In VW’s case, several broadcasts a week on technical, marketing and management issues are beamed out by satellite from studios run to the same standard as a broadcast TV station.

A professional presenter will host a typical VW broadcast, with technical experts providing the detail and fielding questions. Up to 600 questions may be submitted and those that cannot be answered on air are posted, along with an answer, on the VW intranet.

THE LEONARDO RESEARCH PROJECT The EU’s Leonardo training research programme sponsored VW and its partners in the UK, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Greece, France and Austria to see whether the Interactive TV concept might work as a means of delivering training to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Panels of viewers in each country watched a series of test broadcasts, while Enlightenment Interactive developed an interactive test broadcast in English, based on our Understanding Accounts training.

WHO WOULD WANT TO WATCH INTERACTIVE TV? Interactive TV works for VW because the car company generates a lot of time-sensitive information that people need now, such as the details of new models, technical issues for servicing and so on. There is a strong community of interest.

The Leonardo research project gave the medium an 80 per cent rating as an effective method of delivering training to SMEs, which increased during the three-year project. The ability to ask or be asked questions was seen as its greatest potential strength, with an 88 per cent rating.

Almost all partners said they wanted to use Interactive TV in the future, provided they could find a suitable TV production company and the costs were right.

Community of interest is key. We are probably not going to see a successful Interactive TV channel built on general topics – how to market a small business, basic health and safety etc. It is going to work where information changes rapidly, where that information is key to business success, and where a lot of people need that information now. The law, financial services, franchises and medicine are likely communities of interest, or any major company with many branches or partners.

LANGUAGE: A MAJOR PROBLEM FOR MULTINATIONALS One of the greatest problems for the Leonardo project was language.

VW broadcasts in German with simultaneous translation, usually into English. The UK test panel did not enjoy the experience of simultaneous translation, especially when one interpreter was translating several different presenters. But there was even more difficulty in countries where German is not spoken and English is a second language; their audiences found it extremely frustrating.

Later broadcasts produced in various languages by native speakers were vastly more successful, so any ventures into pan-European Interactive TV will have to be prepared to make separate language versions for each and every broadcast.

COMING TO A PC NEAR YOU VW chose its ‘satellite out – internet back’ model in order to be able to broadcast a high quality picture. Many car components are black or dark grey and it would be impossible to see what a technician was demonstrating with the sort of picture quality that was available over the internet at that time.

Technology is already overtaking that decision and making the medium potentially much cheaper. An ‘internet out – internet back’ model is starting to be practical. Already we are seeing a boom in IPTV, with broadcasters like ITV running local TV over the web, and internet TV channels like the Country Channel and Cycling TV catering for specialist audiences. More and more, these are offering scheduled broadcasts like a normal live broadcaster. Interactivity will certainly follow along.

Adrian Tayler is a director of Enlightenment Interactive. He can be contacted on +44 (0)1695 727555 or at adrian@trainingmultimedia.co.uk

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