New $250 "Information Appliance" brings low-cost interactive TV and Internet access to consumers' homes through TV Set-Top box; ViewCall Europe PLC's In-Production Set-Top box to beat competition to market with January 1996 U.K. launch...(SEDOL SEDOL Stock Exchange Daily Official List SEDOL Special Education District of Lake County (Illinois) Ticker: 0929309 and OFFEX) today announced the ViewCall Set-Top Box The cable TV box that sits on "top" of the TV "set," although it is often located several feet away in an equipment rack. The set-top box descrambles the premium channels and provides a tuner for the higher cable numbers that very old TVs did not support. (STB See set-top box. STB - set-top box ), a powerful easy-to-use "information appliance See Internet appliance. (hardware) Information Appliance - (IA) A consumer device that performs only a few targeted tasks and is controlled by a simple touch-screen interface or push buttons on the device's enclosure. " with a built-in Web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. that connects directly to a regular TV and enables consumers to access the Internet and on-demand personal services personal services n. in contract law, the talents of a person which are unusual, special or unique and cannot be performed exactly the same by another. These can include the talents of an artist, an actor, a writer, or professional services. . Access to online services - including shopping, information, financial and entertainment - is provided through ViewCall's STB and managed by a simple television-type infra-red remote control device. By simply pressing any of 4 colored buttons on the remote control, the ViewCall "Short-Cut" navigation system A GPS-based electronic system in a car or truck that provides a real time map of the vehicle's current location as well as step-by-step directions to a programmed destination. See GPS and vehicle tracking. instantly connects the user to the Internet or to ViewCall's own "consumer-simple" home pages through a standard telephone line. The ViewCall STB differs in several critical ways from the stripped-down PCs being proposed to take advantage of the market's call for simple, TV-based Internet access See how to access the Internet. devices; ease-of-use, price/performance, and availability. To set-up the system, the user simply plugs one lead into the television and the other into the telephone jack, turns on the STB and uses the remote control to navigate through the Internet and ViewCall services. The $250 price of the STB makes the Internet affordably-accessible to all consumers, while patented fast navigation and image compression Noun 1. image compression - the compression of graphics for storage or transmission compression - encoding information while reducing the bandwidth or bits required techniques ensure quick delivery of text and broadcast-quality pictures. Additionally, ViewCall's STB will be available to the U.K. market beginning in January 1996, months ahead of proposed "Internet Lite"-type PCs. Said John Bentley, founder of the European video rental industry and chairman of ViewCall Europe, "We began designing our low-cost, easy-to-use interactive Internet access device more than 2 years ago with the vision of giving consumers all the benefits of the Internet and online services without the high expense and specialized learning skills required to purchase and operate PCs." Continued Bentley, "ViewCall takes the concept of interactive television and harnesses the content resources of the Internet to deliver a value-based reality for all consumers, not just techno-crats." Bentley emphasized that with ViewCall, users can access a myriad of personal convenience services including shopping, home banking, e-mail, local news and research through the television in their den. The ViewCall system incorporates unique fractal image compression techniques that deliver quick-loading broadcast-quality pictures to a standard TV demonstrably faster than currently available PC-based Internet access systems. Additionally, it includes sophisticated anti-aliasing algorithms for clear display of text on TV screens. ViewCall Europe has teamed with Netscape Communications to incorporate its World Wide Web software into ViewCall's non-PC-based Internet access method. It has also entered into a development partnership agreement with Sun Microsystems, the company providing the Web server back-ends for the system. The ViewCall STB incorporates the latest in ARM RISC processors as used in the Apple Newton and Oracle's next generation of cable boxes. To ensure breadth and variety to users, ViewCall has entered into agreements with a number of major European and international companies to provide services and content in a U.K. launch commencing January 1, 1996. ViewCall Europe PLC was founded to bridge the rich/poor, PC literate-non-literate technology divide by delivering low-cost, easy-to-use Internet access and interactive television to all members of the public. It is traded in London on OFFEX and is in the process of moving from its current dealing arrangements to the new AIM market. ViewCall Europe PLC is located at Chesham House, 150 Regent Street, London, WIR WIR Wilhelm Imaging Research, Inc. WIR When It's Ready (Borland) WIR Walk in Robe (real estate ads, Australia) WIR World In Review (news magazine) WIR Weekly Intelligence Review 5FA; -44 (0) 171-439-3187; fax -44 (0) 171-734-4166; viewcall@easynet.co.uk. -0- Note to Editors: ViewCall Europe is providing personalized demonstrations of the ViewCall STB at COMDEX/Las Vegas from November 13-17 in an executive suite on the 26th floor of Bally's. Meetings can be arranged by contacting Nancy Klentak or Wayne Roberts, Ketchum Public Relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most at 404/877-1800. CONTACT: Ketchum P.R. Nancy Klentak/Wayne Roberts, 404/877-1800 or ViewCall Europe PLC John Bentley, 011-44-171-439-3187 |
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