JSE-listed black empowerment IT company, Casey, has signed a contract with Best Media and the SABC that will see it make use of Vertical Black Intervals (VBI) used in TV transmissions to transmit data.
Casey will use this wireless datacast technology for distance education. Nigel Vaz, GM of Caseynet, Casey`s Internet division, says the company -- although entitled to use the VBI for general broadcasting of data -- has exclusive rights to use VBI in the remote educational market.
"A major problem facing the Internet and indeed, communications in general, is bandwidth. By using this wireless datacast technology bandwidth restrictions are no longer a problem. Best Media, which has been negotiating with SABC for a number of years, has the go-ahead to use two of the vertical lines used in TV transmissions."
There are a total of 26 vertical lines in any TV transmission, which cannot be seen with the naked eye. Vaz explains: "A special Intercast Reception Card will need to be installed inside a PC before a user can receive these encrypted messages, which will be sent out via the SABC 2 channel -- reaching 35 million South Africans or 85% of the population.
Vaz adds that Best Media found a way to take data out of the virtual lines and by using a special decoder to encrypt the information is able to transmit this data -- which could be any kind of information -- to any PC containing a special Intercast Reception Card.
VBI applications include billboards, pay radio, distance education, paging, real estate, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, vertical market information (eg for doctors), time tables for public transport, and catalogue and pricing information.
Both Microsoft and Intel have endorsed the VBI standard. Microsoft calls it Web-TV, while Intel calls it Intercast.
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