Microsoft Envision Television as a Nucleus of Interaction

Microsoft is slowly transitioning its vision of television as a nucleus of interaction into reality. In this regard, at IBC2008, the Redmond company has offered a taste of the next-generation of interactive TV, delivering a sneak peek as a new consumer experience divergent from traditional television. The key to interactivity are applications built on top of Microsoft’s Mediaroom IPTV platform. One such solution was put together by emuse technologies, a company that already has a background in offering applications for Mediaroom, but this time including content from BBC.

Together with T-Home, emuse has already developed and deployed an interactive Mediaroom service for the German market focused on the Bundesliga. The IBC2008 application delivers not only various content from the BBC, including news, but also permits end users to put their own materials into the equation, as well as enjoy the social networking capabilities of the service straight from the TV set. On top of the BBC application from emuse, Microsoft is also showcasing solutions and services built by additional developers, including ES3.

“These applications set the benchmark for a new generation of interactive TV. They show the potential of connected TV powered by Microsoft Mediaroom to deliver consumer experiences that seamlessly blend real-time content and services from the Internet and private data sources with broadcast TV,” revealed Stephen Petheram, director of media services, EMEA and APAC, for Microsoft Mediaroom.

Microsoft’s Mediaroom Presentation Framework provides developers with the necessary resources for the creation of new offerings tailored to the company's Mediaroom IPTV platform. According to the software giant, the framework, made available only to just over 100 testers in May 2008 in Beta stage, will be finalized and deployed by the end of this year.

“With leading service provider customers around the world, Microsoft Mediaroom provides a common platform for content owners to deliver enhanced TV experiences for their worldwide audiences in an exciting and cost-effective manner,” Petheram said.