A university has been showing off the technologies many analysts predict will become more popular than the internet.

The University of Brighton demonstrated its new digital television (DTV) studio and laboratories, which will support a series of courses for new media specialists at its Lewes Road campus.

The suite is being used by the first intake of the MSc in DTV management and production, which the university claims is the UK's first degree course of its kind, developed with Brighton-based Victoria Real.

The DTV studio contains 25 PCs running software for platforms, including OpenTV and Liberate. More than £100,000 worth of computers and equipment was supplied by Hewlett-Packard for the studio.

The personal technologies laboratory is unique to Brighton and one of only a few outside London. It can be used to observe how people use interactive TV, games consoles and other technologies in a room arranged to resemble a domestic lounge, with sofas and a TV. The occupants can be observed through a twoway mirror and recorded by remotely-operated CCTV cameras so their interaction with the DTV content can be evaluated.

The desktop laboratory enables designers to test out desktop software with potential users, using three video cameras, screen capture and a digital multiplexor to capture video for subsequent analysis.

By 2003, it is estimated over half of UK households will have converted to DTV.

www.brighton.ac.uk
www.victoriareal.co.uk
uk.jupitermmxi.com/home.jsp