Fiber optics applications advance video expansion; interactive video looms on horizon as technology simplifies.

The age of technology transfer has provided direct benefits to industry, with applications ranging from automated telephone tracking services to satellite delivery systems. But, perhaps one of the most unusual areas where new technology is achieving major advances is in a pilot program that uses fiber optics to produce an interactive video communications network.

The system can execute the simultaneous transfer of voice, data, pictures, or microscopic images between computers and telephones, a process difficult to perform with conventional telephone lines. It also makes videoconferencing more accessible to general use by reducing the need for hardware or special equipment.

GTE Corp., based in Stamford, Conn., designed the video services network that operates on fiber optics. The Federal Communications Commission-approved project is being test marketed in 240 homes in Cerritos, in a joint agreement between the firm's local subsidiary, GTE California, and Apollo Cable Vision.

Although this application of fiber optics technology is still in the experimental stage, its potential to business is already recognized, said Daniel Smith, state administrator of communications for GTE California, based in Thousand Oaks. He would not provide information on capital outlays for the video/voice transmission system, saying this information was proprietary.

GTE's advanced communications network operates on a system of interrelated hardware or software on either end of the fiber optic network which determines what information is relayed and the capacity of the transference, said Larry Cox, state manager of public affairs for GTE California. The hair-thin fiber optic component are impervious to noise and transmit hundreds of thousands of pieces of information or conversation simultaneously.

GTE's long-range proposal entitles the company to a 25 percent share of services that operate on the network. The other 75 percent would be available to anyone who pays to gain access to the service.

Smith admitted some consumer groups have objected to GTE's strategy, concerned the company would comprise a monopoly and charge telephone customers higher rates to compensate for implementing the fiber optics system.

New technology has also enabled telemarketing firms to overcome their greatest obstacle to reducing costs, said Todd Stephenson, director of telecommunications and end-user services for American Telephone & Telegraph's American Transtech unit, based in Jacksonville, Fla. Automated systems have made telemarketing less people-intensive and introduced more efficient methods of processing data.

For AT&T, most technology changes are devised for the company's own use to record reactions from consumers. The company implemented an electronic tracking system, capable of monitoring incoming calls and determining which agents are available to respond to customers' requests.

The system has the ability to activate the message center if an agent is unavailable or to automatically disconnect the line.

Some of this technology has been applied to the company's consumer marketing program. Telephone-calling campaigns use a computerized system that tracks the number of connected calls, alerts the operator to a low response rate and suggests a new list be obtained.

In general, what AT&T has done is to find new applications for technology that is already in place. This same principle was applied by a company called Cycle Sat Inc., a subsidiary of Winnebago Industries Inc., headquartered in Forest City, Iowa. John K. Hanson, chairman of the board of Winnebago, was one of the first backers of Cycle Sat, a satellite delivery service. It was introduced to the advertising industry about five years ago and permits instantaneous satellite transmission of 30-second commercial spots from an advertising agency to television stations around the country.

Cycle Sat owns transmitters in Los Angeles, New York, Detroit and Forest City and contracts with 28 other uplink sites around the country. In July 1991, the company was issued a patent for its receiving device, which it leases out to broadcasters at a cost of $1 a year. About 100 of a possible 800 stations nationwide presently have units installed.

Station owners are turned on by the system because it loads the transmitted broadcast onto their videotape machines automatically, said Marty Meyer, manager of studio facilities for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. It eliminates the need for a middleman to load and process the tape.

One local advertising-agency user, the Los Angeles office of Chicago-based Foote, Cone & Belding, located in Brentwood, finds the system benefits major clients, like MCA/Universal, Mattel Toys Inc., Mazda Motor of America Inc. and Sunkist Growers Inc., because it eliminates shipping costs, said Meryle Welch, Foote Cone vice president and traffic director. The agency, which is Los Angeles' largest, has been using the service for about two years.