The interactive elements of streaming television have yet to be fully realised. With it’s digital elements, it’s easy to incorporate something extra in to the broadcast when it’s web based rather than on television.

Some broadcasters are starting to experiment though, and adding an extra layer to the online TV experience:

The NOS (public broadcaster in the Netherlands) is going to be broadcasting a speed skating championship. Not only on television but also streaming it live on the web.

What is interesting about the website is that the NOS linked the time information to the website in addition to the video stream.

Extra Information On Video Stream

You’re watching the game and immediately you see extra information about the times and the context of these times compared to other ice skaters in the right column. This information stays visible until the game is over.

Watching something on the web is more fragmented. On a television we want a full screen experience, we don’t like it when so called screen-estate is traded for information (picture in picture). 

In web interfaces it’s the other way around. We don’t like a full screen experience. It takes away the feeling of control and interactivity.

We like separate windows with as much information as possible. The speed skating website is just doing this. It is starting to link real time data from a database to the web interface. 

And this is just the start of the things you can do with live data and streaming video.

Written by Wilbert Baan, a media and technology enthusiast. Catch his views on art, media, and technology on Hyper Narrative. This post is licensed under the Creative Commons.

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