Technology is taking over your television. Remain calm. Do not attempt to adjust your antenna. Over the next six-to-18 months, you may notice some changes in the way you communicate with your TV. Websites will be broadcast live into your living room from your DVD player. Pictures, movies, messaging, and videos will all be available, streaming through your hi-def pixel box at blistering speeds. This is aVia, a new technology platform bringing the power of the web to your TV. So get ready because this time, the revolution will be televised.
It is no secret that television is changing. The same way the home phone is becoming obsolete, many viewers have boycotted cable providers, instead watching their favorite shows online on their schedule. Many websites from Netflix to Hulu now offer streaming television services to allow yet another platform for their web-based advertising. While this trend is just beginning, the techie whiz kids at State College’s Videon Central are ahead of the curve. They have created aVia (audio-Video integration architecture), a compatible platform to help BlueRay players more effectively navigate web-based television. In its latest round of funding, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA awarded Videon $250,000 to quicken the delivery of new applications. From Pandora to Flickr to YouTube, your whole web-based life will soon be on TV right alongside Seinfeld reruns and reality shows. And Videon CEO Todd Erdley can’t wait.
“Ultimately, designers will start to create very purposed websites for the TV experience,” says Erdley. “You are going to start moving between a TV channel and that website experience just like you would switch between channel 2 and 3.”
Just like apps on a smartphone, these TV websites will offer features available only on the specific platform to allow a more seamless exchange of information. Think fantasy football stats running like a ticker across a football game in real time or chatting with friends about how funny The Office is while you watch it. Device compatibility is a must if this dream is ever to become a reality. And that’s where the Ben Franklin dollars come in. Videon has been working to sell the idea of aVia to companies who may be looking to implement it. But with funding from Ben Franklin, Videon can develop its ideas into workable, finished products, making aVia a no-brainer. In short, the takeover has begun.
“A BlueRay player is no longer a BlueRay player, a TV is no longer a TV because you have website applications that can run on your TV, streaming content,” says Erdley. “We sit in the heart of these DVD players so that we can support more streaming capabilities like movies, more developing software so you can search the web while watching TV, and bringing all those features together for you when you buy a BlueRay player.”
Source: Todd Erdley, Videon Central
Writer: John Steele
