Does a pocket TV sound utopian to you? It is, however, far from that, for a digital TV receiver which works over the Internet has been in test use in downtown Tampere for the past six months. TV programmes have been tested in downtown hot spots, which have a wireless connection to the Internet.
The pocket TV was trialled in homes and cafés. Testers were ordinary families, children and adults, working people and students. The youngest participant was 4 years old, the oldest ones were over 70. Users watched the pocket TV in situations where they would read newspapers or call friends with mobile phones
According to the findings of the trials, users said they appreciated the freedom to watch the pocket TV whenever suited them best. Due to work, studying or hobbies, people are not at home at the broadcast time of programmes. The users found the pocket TV expressly as a television and not as a wireless computer terminal.
Programmes almost in real time. The pocket TV is based on a service in which television programmes are available in almost real time with only a few minutes delay from actual broadcast. Programmes were also archived and available for one week after they had been broadcast. The capability to watch programmes when convenient to the users was considered to be the system's greatest benefit.
Viewers wanted the pocket TV to have the same programmes as normal television, and they were even prepared to pay for TV programmes. Adults' programme favourites were news and current affairs programmes. Entertainment also proved to be suitable for the pocket TV.
Children's interest in the pocket TV surprised the researchers. Even children under the school age were able to use the pocket TV. Screen shots of the available programmes were shown in the programme listing, so even those who could not read were able to choose the programmes they wanted to watch. Children connected the familiar image of Pikku Kakkonen with the respective children's programme.
Elisa participates in the project. The pilot programme was conducted on HP iPaq PDAs and Fujitsu Siemens tablet PCs. The system functions on WLAN-enabled hot spots.
