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For SLReports.net
The future of Second Life Multimedia Technology has arrived.
"There are new possibilities to develop media and products in Second Life and HI-FIve is going to take full advantage of that." HI-Five™ CEO Tue Torok promised, and the date is quickly approaching when the next phase of this evolution will be available to the consumer market.
The goal for HI-Five™ has been to implement underlying technologies to solve many of the challenges people experience with SL Multimedia products.
Given Torok's dedication to assembling a cutting edge team of designers and visionaries, HI-Five™ has been working at a whirlwind pace to meet and exceed that goal.
Blizzard Lands, an innovative scripting company, has leapfrogged expectations for HI-FIve™ to reach product innovations that only a short time ago were thought to be a distance down the road. Also Torok has assumed the duties of CEO of Tweakz Partz, another design firm that has contributed to the current product lineup.
"Blizzard is behind the core technology in the systems" Torok said,"Very talented people there."
HI-FIve™ has a corporate belief in product driven services, and the new generation of television systems exemplifies this fact.
The current generation of Television Systems have an average prims count of 30 prims. But with the new multiple clicks on a prim that is currently on the next generation this will be reduced to between 14-16 prims on every system.
The new HI-FIve™ Premium Entertainment Console fully supports 16x9 wide-screen resolutions. Youtube will be available via the new menu, with search compatability within the Youtube site. The menu will begin preloading as soon as a user is near the TV, which makes sure it runs fast and smooth. The user can select a menu color of their preference from the menu setup as well. To begin with the menu will come with 3 different themes HI-FIve™ is also developing support for MP-4 streams. This TV will probably the easiest to install in Second Life. All that is needed is to know how the land is owned. If the land is owned directly, simply rez it and click "Install Now". If it is owned by a group, then it needs to be Rezzed, add the television owner to the access list, deed the TV and install it. Users will never need to update the TV again, HI-FIve™ will do that for the TV owner.
Gone are the ugly blue SL Menus on the top right corner. On the new HI-FIve™ TV's, the On Screen Menu is user friend and very fast, from which users can control the TV. This is the first on screen TV menu in Second Life.
The new Electronic Program Guide (EPG) embedded each media system console is centrally managed by HI-FIve™ personnel allowing for proactive monitoring and managing of the streaming content links provided within the systems. All the content in the system can be watched by anyone in-world. If you own the TV you also have the possibility to lock the TV to control who changes the stream/channel. HI-FIve™ is constantly adding new streams and channels and all TV's on the grid automaticly get updated instantly, no action required from the consumer. There is no media rights issues. Since all the streams are linked to pages that have these rights, watching content on the internet is legal and so is watching them on a prim.
Future plans are for HI-FIve™ to generate its own music videos, movies, etc. to be able to provide even more quality content.
All the streams in the new TV are sorted in categories, users can pick their favorite stream and select a track directly from the menu. Fast and easy. Users will no longer have to rely on the playlists that the TV creator has made. Now, with simple clicks, they can create their own playlist out of all the Videos in the TV. After that they can simply click play and enjoy their own favorite videos.
Perhaps one of Torok's favorite innovations is the Support System, which allowers user who have any problems with the TV to click the "Request Support" menu button and get assistance as soon as possible. Simply click the button and HI-FIve™ staff will be in contact, immediately in most cases. Some of the other innovations included a brand new vendor system with some capabilities not seen in Second Life before. One of the most unique new features is a fully integrated Ad Network embedded in each media system console. This interactive Ad network will allow residents to view interactive Advertisements wherever the televisions are used. A survey system that will make it easy for companies to get a feeling from their users and customers about any topic they might find useful. And an avatar tracking system that will provide any land/store owner with some very usefull statistics.
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