You won't find Telecom Beach(tm) on any San Diego map. And yet,
some day, this could become the region's most popular and well-known
destination if the creators of a new Internet-TV program, called
"DigitalTalkTV," make their dream come true.
Telecom Beach is a unifying concept around which the show's creators
hope that San Diego's high-tech community will rally -- and the rest
of the world will recognize -- much as Silicon Valley has worked in
Northern California.
But Telecom Beach is also a nondesript building in Kearny mesa,
pumping the multimedia titles and video productions of Mike Larsen's
Lightning Corp. out the front door and nurturing the dreams,
ambitions and visions of DigitalTalkTV Inc. in the back.
Starting in August on Friday nights, Lightning's cavernous main
production studio will be the source of a live multimedia talk show
that, without the help of a major TV network, will be broadcast live
around the globe, with the opening greeting "From the heart of
Telecom Beach...."
In concept, "DigitalTalkTV" is out there on the far edges of the Net,
harnessing all the latest television and Internet communication
technologies into a half-hour whirlwind of live discussion, audience
participation, Web searching, e-mail broadsides, Internet Video
transmission, RealAudio playback and more.
As the PC and TV begin to merge, "DigitalTalkTV" seems ideally poised
to captialize on the best aspects of both.
The on-line delivery, at least until Internet bandwidth catches up
with ambition, promises to be less spectacular -- but groundbreaking
nonetheless.
How It Will Work
Here's how "DigitalTalkTV" will work: Program host Roger Hedgecock
and four gests will tackle the day's issues and developments in
multimedia communications and the internet." As a show model, think
of Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" devoted to high-tech
talk.
But wait. There is more. Much more.
As guests talk in front of a live and involved audience, four World
Wide Web reseachers in an "engine room" are tracking down Web sites
that will supplement the dialogue. A court reporter is transcribing
the discussion.
The home viewers are thrashing out the show's topic on-line, in a
chat room called the "DigiTalkBox" on the "DigitalTalkTV" Web site
(http://www.digitalktv.com). They could be watching the show on local
cable; perhaps on syndicated TV; or on the Net through CU-SeeMe
broadcast software. Or they could be listening to it on the Net
through RealAudio software.
As Hedgecock, the popular KSDO radio talk show host, orchestrates the
discussion, a nearby "media jockey" is mixing the Web sites, e-mail,
chat room dialogue, video images, audience responses, other research,
video and animation and distributing it across what the show creators
call a "digital video mosaic array" -- video flat screens
strategically located around the studio. Chat room dialogue could
flow across the bottom of your TV as watch from home, too.
The World Wide Web
Meanwhile, on the Web page, the transcript of the show is being
merged on the fly with hypertext links to related Web sites. This
creates a document of record, depth and utility that promises a long
shelf life after the show has ended.
Besides the talk show segment, "DigitalTalkTV" will have news and
features, a segment highlighting high-tech gadgetry and one that
focuses of groundbreaking multimedia.
The result is a high-density, high-contact, high-content,
impact-oriented, interactive half-hour. Bits and pieces of the shows
technology have been used before, but nobady to my knowledge has
tried to cram this much into a single broadcast.
"This show doesn't just talk about the technology, it uses the
technology," says DigitalTalkTV's board chairman and executive
producer, Tom Kihneman, "It pushes the technology out there and shows
people where they fit in...everything 'DigitalTalk' proposes is
possible today."
"DigitalTalkTV" has had several warm-up shows on local cable TV
during the past few months and will have a final one on July 26 at 7
p.m. on Cox (Channel 4), Southwestern (Channel 5 or 15) and Daniels
(Channel 4) cable systems. The developers are in discussion with a
major TV syndicator to run the show nationally. The weekly show will
also be available globally through CU-SeeMe Internet video software
on your PC.
Test Runs
The warm-up programs have not been in the proposed
"DigitalTalkTV" format. They are fast-paced documentaries which
elaborate on the show's concept. They tell about the making of the
show and give the illusion of live Internet interactivity.
Indeed, during the show's airing, the DigiTalkBox chat room has been
open. The chat during a recent airing was less than inspiring--little
more than CD radio banter. That is likely to improve however when
actual programs begin airing regularly in August, each tied to a
specific topic.
"DigitalTalkTV" got its start nearly a year ago at Insights '95, the
annual Chamber of Commerce confab at which world figures spend a day
"enlightening" San Diegans during a series of briefings. Kihneman,
who doubles as director of video services for Lightning Corp. entered
Insights with an idea for a high-tech oriented talk show.
During a demonstration of World Wide Web capabilities at Insights,
Kihneman's talk show concept took a sharp turn onto the information
superhighway. Since then, a number of key local notables in
multimedia production, television and high-tech have helped shape the
"DigitalTalkTV" juggernaut.
They include President and CEO, Douglas Foxworthy, Vice President of
Technology Jeff Kelley, Lightning Corp. owner Mike Larsen, Vice
President of Communications, Edward J. Keyes, Marketing Director,
Dana Witt and Strategic Relations, Makoto Nonaka.
Corporate partners include Sony Corp., which Kihneman and Foxworthy
say will be providing millions of dollars worth of digital equipment.
Local high-tech giant SAIC has created the "DigitalTalkTV"
interactive Web site, the show's bridge between TV and PC.
Other key corporate sponsors include Cox Communications,
Southwestern/Time-Warner, American Digital Network and TeleVideo
Corp. Lightning Corp. is hosting the production facilities of
"DigitalTalkTV."
Hometown Support
If a recent meeting of San Diego's Digital Multimedia Association
is any gauge, the local high-tech community is soundly supporting
"DigitalTalkTV" with generous praise and words of encouragement, at
the least. During the program at the U.S. Grant Hotel, called "The
Future of Internet Television." nearly two dozen politcal, corporate,
organizational and education leaders tooks tuns standing at a podium
to briefly drop kudos on the show that has yet to air.
Barbara Bry, director of programs at UCSD CONNECT (a high-tech
start-up incubator), said, "We're very excited about 'DigitalTalkTV.'
We see it as a way of linking our companies up with venture
capitalists."
Jonathan Shipman, assistant director of the Regional Technology
Alliance, called the show "the next wave in San Diego...the beginning
of a new seed."
Elizabeth Forbes, president of the local chapter of the International
Interactive Communications Society, said the show "can only help all
of us by spreading the word."
Cox Communication's Bill Geppert hinted at how that word will spread.
Within one year, he said, high-speed cable modem connectivity will be
available to every home in the Cox system. The region, he added, "has
the ability, the Ph.D.'s., the PCs, and the fiber optics to make it
happen."
At the end of this DigitalTalkTV, Inc.-organized tribute fest, a Bill
Gates look-a-like strolled into the room and began praising
"DigitalTalkTV." The Microsoft founder's double encouraged the local
high-tech community to get behind the program and make it happen.
"If you don't," he added with a catlike grin, "then we'll make it
happen in Seattle."
The audience laughed but the message wasn't lost on anybody.