Intel Corporation and KICU have teamed to launch the Center for Datacasting Innovation (CDI). DTV Plus is one of the first vendors on board and will be showcasing its ability to deliver a national datacasting network using satellite and DTV signals. CDI will serve as a test-bed for datacasting initiatives. As television stations make the FCC mandated conversion from analog to digital there are many new opportunities now available to broadcasters. CDI will help hardware and software vendors develop their products from interesting ideas to commercial grade applications by giving them a place to test on several different levels. Interoperability will be a major issue for vendors, and Intel's model station will provide a neutral environment for such testing.
DTV Plus, one of the first vendors to work with Intel's CDI, is designing a datacasting network using satellite and terrestrial DTV signals to distribute news and entertainment to a national audience. DTV Plus has a satellite receiver installed at the model station, and can feed a variety of multimedia files, including web sites, audio, video, and software. The CDI was the first broadcaster to receive DTV Plus's satellite feed of web sites and multimedia files and rebroadcast those in the DTV signal. This technology and networkability has numerous potential applications.
DTV Plus aggregates content at our Network Control Center, which is located at Microspace Communications in Raleigh, North Carolina. Using tools that we have developed clients can submit their data to DTV Plus via the Internet. We then transmit this data via satellite to digital television stations across the country. These digital television stations will then rebroadcast this data to the receivers deployed in their respective markets.
Today end users receive the data using a PC/DTV receive card and cache the information to their hard drive. Set top box models and DTV interfaces are in the works. The distribution opportunities are tremendous with content possibilities ranging from customized web sites, MP3 files, streaming audio and video, software upgrades, games, and much more. Our network is multicast enabled and designed to accommodate future applications.
DTV Plus aims to combine the dominance and ubiquity of television with the flexibility and power of the Internet to create a new kind of network. As television stations begin the shift to digital broadcasting they will have an abundance of "extra" bandwidth that they can use to deliver more than just moving pictures and sound. DTV Plus will work with television stations to enhance their programming and provide content from across the globe.
DTV Plus is working with Intel's Center for Datacasting Innovation to build and test our system. Through our partnership with Intel DTV Plus is able to broadcast our aggregated content to Silicon Valley, and prove our national model. DTV Plus is also working with WRAL-HD, in Raleigh, North Carolina. WRAL-HD was the nation's first commercial station to broadcast the HDTV signal, and continues to play a leadership role in developing DTV applications.