Interactive multimedia services to residential users

Despite the business risks involved in the introduction of digital video and interactive television, vigorous investments made by the telecommunication industries and content owners clearly demonstrate the belief that such services are going to happen. In this paper, a complete scenario for the provision of interactive multimedia services from the residential user's point of view is considered, focusing on software components. Initially, a reference architecture configuration, based on the DAVIC paradigm, suitable for the provision of residential interactive broadband services is presented. In addition to hardware capabilities, the system will be considered successful only if it is easy to learn, worth the time and cost-effective. Consequently, a set of possible service requirements is introduced and a development process for distributed interactive multimedia applications is proposed. Finally, based on experience gained from the implementation of applications in different residential trials throughout Europe, guidelines and methodologies for user interface design are illustrated.