InfoCity NRW a phased approach to multimedia

Abstract

This paper describes the InfoCity field trial which serves as a testbed for the ACTS projects SPECIAL and MUSICIAN. It describes the basic idea of the field trial itself, the type of content providers involved and the main aspects of the technical realisation: InfoCity is a multi-media trial involving 10,000 private households and several hundred professional users in 5 cities in the German state of Northrhine Westfalia. The cities are interconnected via a dedicated fibre optic backbone; the households are connected to the backbone through upgraded CATV systems. Half of the private households will be PC/Cable Modem users, the other half will be Set Top Box (STB) users. The focus of the trial is evaluating the market for various interactive multi-media applications from a consortium of Content Providers. It is not a technology trial — customers will be paying for services and equipment. Prices will be based upon the partners' evaluation of the appropriate price required to achieve a high consumer acceptance level and generate large market volumes during the anticipated large-scale commercial deployment of these technologies in 1999.