SAN DIEGO, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ Tulsa based Williams will be introducing
a remarkable interactive in-stadium sports entertainment network at the Super
Bowl. ChoiceSeat(TM), designed in part by Doctor Design of San Diego, enhances
the sights and sounds of sporting events while a fan is actually in a stadium
seat. Over 600 ChoiceSeat(TM) units will be installed at the Super Bowl in
individual seats, club lounges, media areas and luxury suites. The
ChoiceSeat(TM) exemplifies the convergence of television and PC's by allowing
fans to enjoy an experience that is much more interactive and entertaining than
what is merely going on in the field.
The ChoiceSeat(TM) screen is a high-brightness color LCD panel that
combines video and data displays with a touchscreen input mechanism. Simply
touching the desired virtual button highlights the display and allows the fan
to navigate through a huge variety of game enriching options for picture and
sound. Super Bowl fans will be able to view the live action from a number of
individual camera angles in the stadium and on the field, watch replays from
multiple angles and pull up nearly limitless relevant statistics and real-time
information. They can even select other video on-demand, play computer games
and order souvenir merchandise. The video functions also allow the fan to view
other selected telecasts within the main viewing window. Advertising messages
from system sponsors and merchandising concessions are displayed in three
different areas within the overall screen layout. Simply touching these
advertising messages as they scroll by brings up additional information.
"Having Doctor Design involved in the development of ChoiceSeat(TM) from
the beginning of the project has proven to be very valuable," says Barry
Goldberg, ChoiceSeat(TM) executive director and general manager. "Their
extensive expertise in convergence technologies assisted us in overcoming many
technical and logistical hurdles, offering the fan a robust, user friendly
product."
Doctor Design, a specialist engineering design services company focused on
convergence technologies located in San Diego, formed part of a multifunctional
design and implementation team that has been working on the ChoiceSeat(TM)
system for the past year. Doctor Design ensured that the overall system and
screen hardware would be reliable and robust by enclosing the system in a
rugged plastic casing that is able to stand up to sometimes harsh environmental
conditions of real world fan activity but yet still be aesthetically pleasing.
The initial pilot program was developed in cooperation with Williams' Vyvx(R)
video services company, beginning with an installation of only four units. The
project grew to over 400 prototype units during the San Diego Padres baseball
season last summer, allowing thorough proving of all aspects of the system and
the gathering of significant amounts of mechanical, electrical and fan
feedback.
"The entire engineering and marketing team at Doctor Design were enormously
pleased to have worked with Williams to create this unique product," says Marco
Thompson, President of Doctor Design. "Our company experience is rich in
developments that marry sophisticated technologies with intuitive and
accessible interfaces. We look forward to being involved in future
applications of converging technologies that will be found extensively in other
sports and entertainment areas."
Doctor Design implemented a hardware configuration consisting of a cluster
box of ten, 133 MHz Pentium Processors, 32 MB of RAM, a power supply, video
tuners, a high speed network connection and various other elements. Each
cluster box is mounted underneath the stadium seat support with video display
cables fed upwards to the actual seat. Each 8.3" x 6.3" screen is an active
matrix 640x480 LCD screen with 64K colors and a touch screen overlay. The
backlit screen, chosen after extensive testing, works extremely well for both
bright sunlight or night games.
Doctor Design, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Integrated Systems, Inc.
(Nasdaq: INTS), is a leading supplier of electronic engineering design
services focusing on Convergence technologies in the dynamic Communications,
Computing and Consumer Electronics industries. Doctor Design has earned a
reputation for offering innovative engineering design solutions and completing
implementation of these solutions in a rapid and cost effective manner. In
conjunction with ISI, which offers a suite of world class real time systems
development products, Doctor Design can achieve worldwide coverage from its
headquarters in San Diego. For more information on the company, visit
WWW.DOCTORD.COM.
Williams (NYSE: WMB), through its subsidiaries, is the nation's largest-
volume transporter of natural gas and provides a full range of traditional and
leading-edge energy and communications services. Its communications
enterprises include nationwide single-source business communications systems
integration; international video satellite and fiber-optic transmission;
multipoint video- and audio-conferencing; satellite business television
applications; enhanced fax services; interactive technical training, on-demand
distance learning, and Internet and telemarketing services. Company
information is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.twc.com and
http://www.wilcom.com. Vyvx is a registered trademark of Vyvx, Inc. ChoiceSeat
registration is pending. All other products or company names are trademarks of
their respective holders.
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