A TV site is a
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...
designed for viewing on a
television set
A television set or television receiver, more commonly called the television, TV, TV set, telly, tele, or tube, is a device that combines a tuner, display, and loudspeakers, for the purpose of viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or using ...
.
Unlike mobile and PC access, the use of internet sites through the TV has been small, mostly due to the poor user experience of many "web on TV" deployments, and the "walled garden" or
closed platform
A closed platform, walled garden, or closed ecosystem is a software system wherein the carrier or service provider has control over applications, content, and/or media, and restricts convenient access to non-approved applicants or content. This ...
business models adopted by many TV network operators.
With the advent of
IPTV
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, ...
and
Broadband
In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
enabled TV Devices web site owners have realized, that like Mobile, TV needs to be considered as a different media, and that Mobile, TV and PC based internet access all present different
user interface
In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...
design challenges in order to make the services usable and acceptable to consumers on the device they are using.
TV Sites can be developed and deployed using a number of different technologies including
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia Computing platform, software platform used for production of Flash animation, animations, rich web applications, application software, desktop applications, mobile apps, mo ...
,
WTVML
{{refimprove, date=November 2011
WTVML is an XML-based and WML-derived content format designed to allow web site operators to easily develop and deploy Interactive TV services, typically it reduces the time taken for web site operators to create ...
,
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
and
HTML
The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...
, although the same design principles apply whatever the development technology.
Typically TV Sites are differentiated from other web sites by having a "wtv." rather than a "www."
subdomain
In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is a part of another (main) domain. For example, if a domain offered an online store as part of their website example.com, it might use the subdomain shop.example.com .
Ov ...
.
Interfaces
The following styles of interface are often considered:
* The "one foot" user experience - used to describe
mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
s, which are typically "personal" and used at a short distance from the device
* The "three foot" user experience - used to describe PC applications, which are typically used "personal" and accessed via a PC, with mouse, windows and a high resolution screen
* The "
10-foot user interface" - used to describe TV applications, which are typically used in a "shared" environment, via a TV, with only a TV
remote control
In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such as ...
as the input mechanism
These interfaces are characterized as follows:
* Mobile: narrow screen 1D scrolling, simplified layout, limited graphics and media types, limited transactional capability, limited keyboard, no pointer (see
Post-WIMP
In computing, post-WIMP ("windows, icons, menus, pointer") comprises work on user interfaces, mostly graphical user interfaces, which attempt to go beyond the paradigm of windows, icons, menus and a pointing device, i.e. WIMP interfaces.
The r ...
)
* PC: wide screen, scrollable interfaces, complex layouts, complex media types, fully transactional, keyboard, pointer
* TV: wide screen, explicit layout, embedded scrolling, limited media types, video support, fully transactional, limited keyboard, no pointer
References
*Ashley Highfield (Director of New Media Technology at the BBC) mentions these types of interface
herein his CES speech.
*Microsoft's "Online Spotlight" for Media Center PC was an early example of the ability to deploy TV Sites to Broadband TV devices, as reviewe
here*Companies in the UK advertise the building of TV Sites, examples
an
Glue4
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tv site
Interactive television
Digital television
Streaming television