News from Online Media - PR 03/30.09.94

Under embargo until 12.00 noon on 30 September 1994


Online Media Goes Live With World's First Digital Interactive
Television Trial In Cambridge

In Cambridge today, Online Media will be 'switching on' what is believed to 
be the world's first interactive television trial to be based on ATM digital 
technology.

The trials are being launched by a consortium of Anglia Television, ATM Ltd, 
Cambridge Cable and Online Media.  The consortium, set up by Cambridge 
Cable, is headed up by local firm, Online Media, also selected to supply the 
intelligent, digital set-top boxes for the trial.  The technologies involved 
are Online Media's set-top boxes, ATM Ltd's digital ATM (Asynchronous 
Transfer Mode) networking technology and Cambridge Cable's fibre based cable 
network, which is already available to some 67,000 homes in the region.

Commenting on the launch of the trials, Online Media's chief executive, 
Malcolm Bird, said: "After all the hype about multimedia and the information 
superhighway this is a real application, running into consumers' homes.  It 
is a milestone for the multimedia industry and will help establish digital 
ATM technology as the industry standard."

The technology involves linking a set-top box, which looks like a smaller 
version of a video recorder, to the television set in people's homes.  They 
will then have access to a variety of services from a control centre in 
Cambridge.  Multimedia telecommunications allows video, voice, data and 
other services to be mixed at will on a single telecommunications network.

The "on-demand" services on offer include movies and local news and weather 
from Anglia TV.  Subscribers can access these as and when they wish and 
manipulate them - by fast forwarding, pausing and rewinding - using a remote 
control as if the film were playing from their own video recorder.  Online
Media is currently working with ITN to develop national and international
news programming.

Educational software applications will be available through the system, from 
companies such as educational specialists Sherston Software and another 
local firm, Cambridgeshire Software House.  Anglia TV's CD-ROMs are also 
being converted to run on the system.  Other services being developed for 
the system include: interactive shopping, audio on demand, music videos, 
sport and banking.

Games originally used on Acorn's 32 bit RISC computers are being converted 
to run on the set-top box.  In the future, another compelling feature will 
be a range of games which can be played "across the network".  With a 
football game, for example, several homes linked to the system could be 
connected to the same game at the same time and would be able to play as a 
team against another home or groups of homes.  This adds a whole new 
dimension of human interaction and team dynamics to the game.  Fantasy 
adventure games based on the same concept will be an option in the future.

Barry Mallett, one of the first handful to receive the set-top box today, 
said: "We are overjoyed to have been chosen for the trials and are really 
looking forward to the prospect of being able to watch what we like when we 
like.  The only problem I foresee is deciding which service to try first!"

The trial, intended to test the technology and act as a platform on which to 
develop networked multimedia services, will initially be placed in selected 
employees' homes in Cambridge.  The aim is to install further set-top boxes 
into many more homes of the general public by the end of the year and to 
move into four figures by the end of 1995.  Initially, subscribers will not 
be charged for the service although an experimental pricing formula will be 
introduced during 1995 to further test the market.  The consortium expects 
the venture to be fully commercial from mid-1996.

Online Media, since its launch in July this year, has already had to move 
into new offices to house its influx of staff - expected to be in excess of 
50 by January next year. Bird says: "Cambridge is the ideal base for a 
dynamic, high technology company such as ours.  Here, we are surrrounded by 
companies offering complementary technologies, with which we can form 
powerful partnerships."

Online Media is a member of the Acorn Computer Group and has the full 
strategic backing from Acorn's parent company, Olivetti.  It has been 
established to provide interactive multimedia products for the markets 
emerging from the digital superhighway including: interactive television, 
video on demand and networked multimedia.  Exploiting technologies developed 
by the Acorn Computer Group and Olivetti, Online Media's first product is an 
intelligent set-top box designed to connect a home television to the 
information superhighway.  Alongside hardware products, the company offers 
authoring systems, services and consultancy in service development, as well 
as other areas.  All Online Media designs are available under licence.

Based in Cambridge, Online Media is working in partnership with a number of 
world leading companies, including: Acorn Computers Ltd, Advanced RISC 
Machines Ltd, Advanced Telecommunications Modules Ltd, BNR/Northern Telecom, 
ITN, Anglia Television, Oracle and Cambridge Cable.

The Acorn Computer Group is a holding company for Acorn Computers Limited, 
Acorn Australia, Acorn New Zealand, Acorn GmbH and Online Media. Acorn 
Computer Group owns 43% of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.

For further information, please contact:

Kevin Coleman                   or      Rebecca Young/Maggie Walshe
Acorn Computer Group                    Text 100 Limited
Tel: +44 (0)1 223 254479                Tel: +44 (0)181 242 4100