Earth Day Sparks Large Interactive IPTV Event

WASHINGTON -- A Virginia telecommunications company has teamed up with the Earth Day Network to offer what they believe will be the largest two-way IPTV (Internet Protocol television) event ever attempted.

On Friday, the Earth Day Network and Communication Technologies (ComTek) will offer a live, two-way IPTV broadcast to about 16,000 high school and college classrooms across the United States. Using ComTek's PowerTV network, students will be able to view the broadcast through a Web browser and ask questions by e-mail.

Saturday, April 22, is Earth Day, the environmental observance started in 1970.

A Broadcast Give and Take

ComTek's IPTV offering combines the power of live television, PCs, and the Web, said Joseph Fergus, the company's president and CEO. "IPTV converges three of the most powerful and pervasive communications in the history of humankind," said Fergus, a former senior scientist at Bell Labs.

Participants in the Earth Day event will ask questions of environmental experts and religious leaders by e-mail, but PowerTV also allows two-way communication by VoIP (voice over IP), Fergus said during a press conference Tuesday. "There is an ability to interact with the Web, including Voice over IP, in a way that's never been done before, with a sort of clarity that didn't exist before," he said.

IPTV can be live or prerecorded and broadcast at any time with DVD quality, according to ComTek, which is based in Chantilly, Virginia.

The ability of users to view PowerTV broadcasts in Web browsers appealed to the Earth Day Network, said Jeff Nesbit, the group's vice president of communications. "None of these classrooms need to sign up for Web conferencing," he said. "None of them have to do anything other than simply utilize their Web connection."

The ComTek Network

ComTek has spent $11 million over a three-year period to develop its PowerTV service, the company said. It is distributed over ComTek's private IP network, which integrates fiber, wireless, broadband over power lines, and satellite broadband.

The "national town hall meeting," broadcast from Washington, D.C., will feature nine speakers, including a group of environmental scientists. Following the scientists will be a panel of religious leaders discussing the environment.