The Intercast medium offers content providers a powerful mechanism for enhancing the programming they offer to their audience. Furthermore, Intercast programming represents a way for broadcasters to deliver the Internet experience that viewers are demanding, while taking advantage of their strengths in television programming.

Enormous potential exists for content providers to sharpen their competitive edge, increase audience share, and retain customer loyalty by creating and sending Intercast content that offers consumers a variety of innovative and interactive "infotainment" options. For example:

• Receiving more in-depth information on a given program topic
• Getting "behind-the-scenes" information on their favorite programs
• Taking part in polls and surveys
• Competing in contests

• Ordering merchandise or tickets to events
• Participating in chat sessions that attract viewers with similar interests or tastes in entertainment
• Taking advantage of new avenues in advertising, such as linking to the advertiser's website to get more detailed information about products, where to purchase them, and so forth

The following sections explain how content is generated and prepared for sending to Intel Intercast technology-enabled PCs.

Intercast content can originate as new web pages created specifically for television airing, or it can derive from existing web pages already posted on the Internet. Because web pages created for use as Intercast programming are essentially the same as those created for the Internet, standard HTML authoring tools can be used. As Figure 4 illustrates, newly created Intercast content is typically generated at an HTML authoring station in a content provider's creative department.

The Intercast content consists of the following: "pages," each a single HTML-format web page and the resources associated with it; "page sets," a hierarchical unit of web pages dedicated to a single topic or intended for a specific programming segment; and "packages," which include all page sets to be transmitted during a given program.

Content providers can insert Intercast programming in the VBI via three methods: manual airing, automatic airing, or laying to tape.

The manual method of airing Intercast content can best be illustrated by the manner in which NBC used the technology in its coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. NBC created a variety of web pages for several Olympic events in advance of the broadcast using its standard HTML authoring stations and tools.

One event for which web pages were developed was diving. Just before the diving event, the production person downloaded potentially appropriate web pages from the authoring station to the Intercast Air Station. During the actual broadcast, the production person viewed the event along with other viewers nationwide. When an event occurred, for example, a new diver approaching the board, the producer used the Air Station to select and transmit a web page containing the bio of that athlete.

Another application conducive to the manual airing method is news. Prior to a news broadcast, a web page author could use the authoring station to create pages appropriate to the evening news broadcast. Just before the show aired, a production person, typically sitting in the control room, would download the appropriate pages from the authoring station to the Air Station. Then, when a new news segment began, for example, a news segment on Iraq, the production person could use the Air Station to select and transmit a pre-composed web page containing a map of Iraq.

After the operator sends the pages from the Air Station, they flow via a computer network to the Master Encoder PC, which is typically located in the engineering area. The Master Encoder adds protocols and sends the data to the VBI inserter. The VBI inserter, an off-the-shelf device, performs the actual insertion of the web data into the TV signal's VBI.

The manual airing method described in the preceding section is typically used when a program is live and the video content is aired at times not precisely known in advance. In instances when the timing of video programming is planned in advance, the web pages can be sent based on time of day. That is, the web pages can be marked with a time tag and sent at specified times.

Two software applications, the Time Code Station and the Sequencer, provide this function for Intel Intercast technology. The Time Code Station essentially makes it possible to associate a time tag with a page. Once time-tagged, pages for a program are imported into the Sequencer, which monitors time of day and sends the correct web pages automatically as the specified hour arrives.

For illustration purposes, consider NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street program, which airs at the same time each week. If the show begins at 10 p.m. Friday, a production person could look at the tape of the episode in advance of airing and determine that, for example, one web page should air at 5 minutes into the show, a second should air at 10 minutes into the show, and so forth. The production person would import those pages into the Time Code Station (where the time tags are associated with the pages) by dropping the pages onto a timeline. Once this process is complete for the show, the operator generates a "package" that includes all the pages earmarked for that particular episode, along with their respective time tags. This package is later imported into the Sequencer. When importing a package for a show, for example Homicide, the operator of the Sequencer specifies that the package should start to run at 10 p.m. Friday. The Sequencer later transmits the pages at the preset times specified in the package.

Note that during typical operation, the Sequencer will be loaded with many packages. Specifically, there may be one package for the Homicide show, additional packages for other programs, and still more packages for commercials.

As was the case with the Air Station, data from the Sequencer is sent to the Master Encoder PC and then to the VBI inserter for airing.

If a broadcaster has web pages on its actual Internet website that are appropriate for Intercast content, the Sequencer can also be programmed to "grab" certain pages from the website at specified times and send them to viewers using the Intercast technology. Note that the use of this method makes it unnecessary to time-tag the pages using the Time Code Station.

In the preceding example, the Sequencer typically is located in an engineering or production area and needs to be programmed on a regular basis. As an alternative, Intercast content can be placed on videotape, resulting in a tape that contains both the audio/video content and the Intercast content. Consequently, a broadcaster need only play the tape on air to transmit the audio, video, and data content. This simplifies operations for the on-air production staff, who play the tapes per normal procedures. This process requires, of course, that the Intercast content be added in post-production.

The post-production process is similar to the steps outlined earlier for Homicide. The pages are authored on a standard HTML authoring system and time-tagged on the Intercast Time Code Station (described in the "Automatic Airing Method" section). However, a recording device (VCR) and VBI inserter are also needed to place the content on tape.

After time-tagging the web pages on the Time Code Station, the operator activates the "Lay to Tape" function on the Time Code Station. This causes the playback and record machines to roll. The Lay to Tape software then starts to monitor timecode coming from the playback machine. When the given time is reached, it sends the web page marked with that time tag to the VBI inserter which places the web page data in the video signal. The resulting video signal with the web page data is then recorded. This process is similar to that used to add closed-captioning to videotapes.