SUMMIT TV - the premier local business channel exclusive to DStv - has unveiled the brave new face of media - TV on the Web.
The first South African television channel to bring local TV to the desktop, www.summit.co.za has been running for a month as the system is tweeked to full potential with real time visuals and TV-quality sound.
Viewers can watch SUMMIT highlights in a video window which pops up on their computer screens. The content includes the main news items, hot tips from JSE stock brokers as well as the channel's expertise-endowed magazine shows in their entirety (from e-commerce to personal finance and IT News).
You can also listen to SUMMIT's latest radio bulletins - which include finance news, sport and general news, all updated three times a day, as well as check out real time share prices.
"It's a toy for the wired executive at present, but in a year or so, we figure TV on the desktop PC is going to be mainstream. For a while people have been talking about what's next in the media revolution. The fact is that what seemed impossible two years ago is here," says SUMMIT TV head Vernon Matzopolous "streaming" process which has enabled SUMMIT TV to go on line.
On the back of the digital revolution, a special programme was developed at SUMMIT TV providing for direction of content and the building of pages into a cleanly laid-out, easily-accessed site.
The process starts with SUMMIT broadcast material being "live captured" and cut down to a manageable size as an AVI (standard Windows video format). Through streaming software, RealProducer, the AVI is converted & compressed into a RealMedia file and uploaded to the web site server.
RealProducer is also used for audio.
"The audio bulletins are recorded as a WAV file, converted into a RealMedia file and uploaded," says Jonathan Banks, SUMMIT TV Web/IT Manager. "The headline, financial and sport news are updated three times daily using a Pearl Script web form."
"The beauty is that you can dictate what you see. You set the agenda of what you want & when. If you miss a show on the previous night's broadcast or want to watch something again - a hot share tip for instance - you can log on and get it," says Vernon Matzopoulos.
Share