WHO’d want to skip an episode of Friendsjust so their flatmate could
write an e-mail on the TV screen? That’s exactly what we are being asked to do
by broadcasters, like Sky Digital in Britain, who are adding e-mail, Web access
and shopping services to their TV channels. Pace Micro Technology, Europe’s
largest maker of digital TV receivers, believes arguments over screen sharing
would ultimately prevent the TV set becoming the nerve centre of the wired
home.
Needless to say, Pace has come up with an answer: it’s worked out how to
switch e-services delivered to your TV to a computer and a separate home
shopping terminal—leaving the TV free for programmes.
Pace’s Gateway Expander system is a base station that conforms to DECT, the
standard for digital cordless telephones. It connects to your digital set-top
box and phone line and feeds data at 552 kilobits per second to a PC for
Internet surfing, to a special handheld device—like a Palm Pilot—for
home shopping and a standard cordless phone. The system has a 50-metre indoor
range.
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Pace, based in Shipley, West Yorkshire, will launch the Gateway base stations
some time this year for around £150—shopping terminals are extra.
Pace hopes broadcasters will be able to earn revenue using Gateway technology,
as families will simultaneously be able to watch TV shows and respond to
electronic offerings—so the broadcasters may eventually give the Gateway
hardware away free as a lure to subscribers.
Pace decided not to use the computer industry’s nascent Bluetooth wireless
home networking system, which connects devices using 2.4 gigahertz radio waves.
“Bluetooth microchips are unstable and its 10-metre range is too short,” says
Andy Trott, Pace’s technology director. “Most homes would need several repeater
stations if we used Bluetooth.”
