Project Results: Talking Back
to the TV
Being able to give your own input to a live broadcast, that was the
biggest single benefit identified in a three year research project for
which Enlightenment Interactive was chosen to partner Volkswagen
in Germany. The aim was to test the potential of Interactive Television
as a new medium for staff training, particularly in smaller companies.
VW already put out regular interactive broadcasts to their dealer
network, especially in Germany and Austria, where around 80% of dealer
staff tune in regularly.
What is Interactive
Television?
It’s a live broadcast where the viewers all
have simultaneous internet links back to the tv studio. What this means
is that they have the chance to put their questions to the presenters
and get an immediate answer on air. At the same time the presenters can
involve the audience by setting quizzes or getting them to vote on a
particular issue.
In Volkswagen’s case, several broadcasts a week on technical, marketing
and management issues are beamed out by satellite from the TVN studios
in Wolfsburg, which are set up and run to same standards as a broadcast
tv station.
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A typical VW broadcast will be hosted by a
professional presenter with one or more technical experts providing the
detail and fielding questions. Up to six hundred questions may be sent
in to a particular broadcast. Those that cannot be answered on air are
posted, along with an answer, on the VW intranet.
The Leonardo project
The European Union’s Leonardo
training research programme sponsored VW and its partners in the UK,
Spain, Italy, Sweden, Greece, France and Austria to see whether
Volkswagen’s interactive tv concept might work as a means of delivering
training to SMEs. Particular issues to be investigated included the
subject matter and style of presentation that might attract a regular
audience and how to overcome language barriers when viewers in different
countries had an interest in the same material. Panels of viewers were
recruited in each of the partner countries to watch a series of test
broadcasts.
Who would want to
watch?
Interactive tv works for Volkswagen because the car company generates a
lot of time-sensitive information that people need, now. Details of new
models, technical issues for servicing, and so on. There is a strong
community of interest.
The research findings, which were collated by a team of German
academics, gave the medium an 80% rating as an effective method of
delivering training to SMEs whether in the motor industry or in other
sectors. This rating actually increased during the course of the three
year project. The ability to ask or be asked questions was seen as the
greatest potential strength of the medium, with an 88% rating.
Almost all partners indicated that they
wanted to use interactive tv in future, provided they could find a
suitable tv production company and the costs were right.
“Community of interest is key,” comments Enlightenment Interactive’s
Adrian Tayler. “We are probably not going to see a successful
interactive tv channel built on general topics which people can pick up
anytime, anywhere – how to market a small business, basic health and
safety, that sort of thing. People have tried pushing generic training
at SMEs either through tv broadcasts or over the net, but the take up
and drop out rates have been discouraging. Interactive tv is going to
work where information changes rapidly, where that information is key to
business success and where a lot people of people need that information
now.” The law, financial services, franchises and medicine he sees as
likely communities of interest, as is any major company with a large
number of branches or partners.
The language issue
One of the greatest problems for the project was that of language. VW
produce their broadcasts in German and, to avoid the cost and time
commitments of creating identical broadcasts in other languages, they
use interpreters to provide simultaneous translation, usually into
English as the common denominator language of business.
The UK test panel did not enjoy the experience of simultaneous
translation, especially when one interpreter was translating several
different presenters on screen. But far more difficulty was experienced
in countries where German is not spoken and English is a second
language; audiences found these early test broadcasts extremely
frustrating. Later broadcasts produced in the various language by native
speakers were vastly more successful, so any ventures into pan-European
interactive tv will have to be prepared to make separate language
versions for each and every broadcast.
Changing technologies
Volkswagen chose their “satellite out – internet back” model in order to
be able broadcast a high quality picture. Many car components are black
or dark grey and it would be impossible to see what a technician was
demonstrating with the sort of picture quality that was available over
the internet at that time.
Technology is already overtaking that decision and making the medium
potentially much cheaper. An “internet out – internet back” model is
starting to be practical. Already we are seeing broadcasters like ITV
running local tv over the web and there are internet tv channels like
the Country Channel and Cycling TV catering for specialist audiences.
More and more these are offering scheduled broadcasts like a normal live
broadcaster. Interactivity will certainly follow along.
“In the UK we still have some way to go,” comments Adrian Tayler, “BT
will need to invest in new infrastructure. The old copper cables are not
going to cope with higher broadband speeds plus greater demand. There’s
a similar issue in corporate intranets. IT departments designed these to
handle basic business operations and not seeming luxuries like the Chief
Exec addressing all his staff and answering their questions live on
air.”
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