The year 1992 holds many exciting things in store for Europe, but perhaps none quite so exciting as the consumer introduction to Compact Disk Interactive. CD-I is a publishing standard for multimedia products developed by Philips Interactive Media Systems in conjunction with Sony and Matsushita, which Philips is heralding as the delivery mechanism for home entertainment in the 90s. Well, it would wouldn’t it? CD-I, having just entered the professional market with Philips’ recent launch of the first two professional CD-I players (CI No 1,535), is up against Intel’s competitive Digital Video Interactive multimedia technology which is endorsed by IBM, Olivetti and Microsoft. Furthermore, Intel has just announced a chip set – the i750 video processor – that enables personal computers to produce and interact with digital, full-motion video pictures and stereo sound.

Direct competition

Says Intel’s Dave House, the reduction of multimedia capabilities to a couple of silicon chips, which cost UKP60 in volume quantities, means that multimedia can be offered at an affordable price – a benefit that CD-I is currently lacking. Says Intel, hardware manufacturers will now be able to put multimedia capabilities into desktop environments for under UKP600 in retail in 1991 – somewhat less expensive than buying the cheaper of Philips’ professional CD-I players which costs UKP1,250. Besides the fact that DVI is oriented to the personal computer whereas CD-I is centred around the TV, the two multimedia standards are in direct competition, which is undoubtedly why Philips has chosen now as the time to begin promoting its 1992 consumer launch – while DVI is focused strongly on the professional market at the moment -Alan Priestly of Intel says plans are afoot to introduce the technology to the consumer market in a couple of years, but it hasn’t begun shouting about it yet. When Intel does decide to start promoting DVI as a home entertainment medium, it is likely that there will follow a repeat of the confusion that surrounded the video recorder market with the competing standards of VHS and Betamax. David Marshall of Spin UK – a partnership set up between Philips and Shell to develop CD-I applications – doesn’t acknowledge a problem here. He is confident that with the backing of Sony and Matsushita, CD-I is the international standard for multimedia. Similarly, Alan Priestly of Intel thinks DVI’s success will centre around the condensing of multimedia capabilities onto a motherboard, which Intel hopes to have embedded in the personal computer by the year 2000. It’s not difficult to see what multimedia technology has to offer the professional market training and education seem to be the one area where interactive multimedia will be a hit. And IBM sees important applications for retailing – for example, sales staff can interact with head office to discuss stock levels and so on. –

By Sue Norris

Intel has just announced an agreement with Picturetel Corp to develop chips capable of both multimedia and videoconferencing applications, which will enable the move of videoconferencing to the desktop and will enable the visual monitoring of, and interaction with, remote office or retail locations from a central office. One business application for CD-I, that Spin UK is developing in conjunction with ICI, is designed to help company delegates to prepare for business trips abroad – the package, which will include different language modes, will provide cultural information about the country being visited; general etiquette advice – example: if invited to your Greek host’s home for a meal, remember the Greeks pride themselves on the uniqueness of their food, so don’t liken the food to Turkish dishes; and a crash course in greetings and useful expressions. And Maxwell Communications has signed a letter of intent with Philips with a view to setting up a joint venture multimedia publishing company – to be known as Maxwell Multi Media – to produce and sell self-teaching language courses for the office, school and home, to be launched at the end of next ye

ar. CD-I will be targeted at schools, says Spin UK’s David Marshall, as soon as prices of CD-I players come down – something he anticipates will follow the consumer launch. The benefits there, he says, will be that it will inspire in the pupil a new enthusiasm for learning – the I want to try it myself mentality. So, what will CD-I offer for the consumer? Says Philips, just by hooking up the TV set to the CD-I player (which can also be used for audio-only compact disks and also, Philips promises, for Eastman Kodak’s Photo CDs) the consumer will be able to enter a world of pre-school interactive learning, challenging and life-like 18-hole golf games, juke-box simulations – the possibilities are endless. But, easy as it is to get carried away with the marvels that the technology seems to offer the consumer, is there a real need for multimedia capabilities in the home, or is Philips simply offering another way of keeping up with the Jones’? UKP1,000 – the price Philips is estimating for its first consumer CD-I player – seems a lot of money to fork out for a glorified video game.

Blockbuster

What is it that will make CD-I take off in the consumer market? Julie Davies of Philips Interactive Media Systems admits there isn’t yet one blockbuster consumer application for CD-I and, pleading for time, she points out that there are still 18 months in which one could be discovered. But the point is that the technology, which Philips has from the very beginning intended for the consumer market, is being developed without a need. What Davies does say is that CD-I will mean different things to different people, and the different software packages being developed will make the system accessible to people of all different ages and backgrounds – by the time CD-I is launched for the consumer market, there should be at least 100 titles available. But, if Intel is set to begin pushing its DVI technology at the consumer market in 1992, CD-I is going to have to be firmly in place by then. Who can say which the consumer will prefer to spend his money on – an elaborate personal computer or an elaborate CD player? One possibility is that customer demand will direct CD-I more towards the consumer market, whilst DVI concentrates on the business market.