Animated Anchors.

WHY NOT GET YOUR NEWS FROM A CARTOON? WEB FIRM MAKES IT POSSIBLE

SOME people think TV newscasters already act like animated talking heads, but one local company is taking that comparison literally.

V-Star Inc. has developed a fast and easy way for animated characters to read news reports online, complete with emotional tones that reflect the subject matter of the stories.

While other companies have created online talking heads, like the much-publicized international news "anchor" Ananova, V-Star's technology differs because even Web surfers with low-speed Internet connections can watch V-Star's high-resolution animated news broadcasts.

"Even if you have a 28.8 modem, you can click on the show and it will load and play instantly. Nobody else can do that," said Geoff Nathanson, communications manager for V-Star.

The only problem is finding a market for the technology. V-Star is targeting local news stations in major media markets, which could use the system on their Web sites.

L.A.'s KNBC-TV Channel 4 was the first to pen a deal with V-Star, and animated versions of the station's Fritz Coleman and Fred Roggin now frolic in comedy skits on the NBC4.tv Web site.

"We were very attracted to the low bandwidth requirement of this technology," said Grant Morrow, head of new media at the station. "It was a 'critical to quality' part of this."

Even though "bandwidth" is the buzzword of the digital age, most people still have dial-up modems working at speeds of 56K or less. Streaming video, which is used for other online newscasts, uses up a lot of transmission space and can be choppy and unsatisfying to watch with a slow modem. Woodland Hills-based V-Star's online animated news and entertainment broadcasts don't take up a huge amount of bandwidth, though.

The secret is a CD-ROM, a format scoffed at these days by many of the tech elite, but which satisfies the needs of the masses who don't have bandwidth speed. A free CD-ROM available to be ordered at V-Star's 1KTV.com Web site contains most of the graphics and software used during V-Star's animated characters' news reports.

Making those graphics available on individual desktops instead of sending them through the Internet cuts down on the massive amount of bandwidth taken up by most streaming video netcasts. When one signs on to the Web site, data is transmitted to work along with the software on the CD-ROM, so current news stories can be "read" by animated newscasters.

Because it allows anyone to experience rich media content no matter what the connection speed, the company fills an important role as broadband grows. An analysis done by Forrester Research estimates that by 2004, 52 percent of online households will have broadband access. While that is a significant jump from the 10 percent estimated today, almost half the people with Internet access will still have slower connections.

The company's animated characters -- humans, animals, and even aliens -- serve up news, weather, sports and entertainment at two Web sites run by V-Star: 1KTV.com and the L.A.-focused 1KTVLA.com. News for V-Star broadcasts is provided by the Associated Press and United Press International and is updated up to three times a day.

When a user selects a report to watch -- say, Daffy the Dragon's guide to kid's stuff -- the computer simply opens the text of the newscast, which only takes a tiny 1,000 baud to transmit over the Internet. (Hence the 1K in 1KTV.com.) Cues embedded in the text signal what tone of voice characters should use to read the story, so serious stories are conveyed in somber tones and lighthearted features are read in a fun manner.

The picture of an animated newscaster talking on the screen is not being sent over the Internet, but has been taken from the graphics already stored in the computer. The result is a more satisfying experience than squeezing a large file through a connection that can only handle smaller files.

"I saw the possibilities," Morrow said. "I thought, 'I've gotta' have this for our Web site.'"

KNBC hired the company to create virtual Fritz Coleman and Fred Roggin animated characters after Morrow saw a demo of V-Star's technology.

It was a perfect opportunity to take Fritz and Fred, who are known for pulling entertaining stunts on TV, and exploit their popularity for the Web, he said. Pulling users in with the animated programs also helps introduce them to the information contained on the NBC4.tv Web site, he added.

The station has shipped more than 5,000 CD-ROMs, with more orders flooding in every day, and plans to hand out 9,000 additional discs at upcoming community events.

"It's amazing how much interest has been generated by this," Morrow said. "We've gotten calls from stations all over the country, requesting information about the technology, asking how they could get their people animated on the Web as well."

With calls flooding in as a result of the KNBC deal, V-Star is currently in talks with stations in other cities, but likely will not offer its services to another station in L.A. The animated features are meant to give an entertainment and marketing edge to whichever station signs on with V-Star, so only one local station in each market will be able to make such a deal.