The Future of TV chat: A Q&A with Integra5’s Steve Borelli

Integra5 made its name offering caller ID on the television set. While the communication infrastructure developer continues to add customers for this technology, the latest being today’s addition of Canada’s Videotron, a new generation of TV viewers has begun to crave a new form of socializing on-screen. Social networking has taken its hold on the PC and mobile handset, and the TV set is quickly coming up to speed as well. It is in this community-based atmosphere that Integra5 this week introduced Media Friends. The first in what will be a series of applications is TV chat, due out in early 2009. The app lets consumers invite members of their online buddy list to join a group chat, displayed on the TV via SMS text messages sent from their mobile phones. Steve Borelli, Integra5’s vice president of business development, spoke with Associate News Editor Sarah Reedy about the application and the future of social communication on the big screen.

On communication’s evolution: Two years ago, we would’ve talked exclusively about TV caller ID, but the market has really evolved. The real change is we are seeing multiple applications deployed simultaneously. Some of our last few customers have deployed TV and PC caller ID simultaneously, and they’ve also personalized it, so their consumers can add pictures and nicknames. They are all starting to be deployed simultaneously. We also recently at the cable show in late May revealed landline-to-mobile caller ID. We’re trying to have more ties and applications to mobile devices.

On the sweet spot: The idea that communication is key really does help drive new applications and new platforms, and that is where we’ve carved out our sweet spot. We’re not developing movies, entertainment or games; we believe in this layer of communication. And it’s really critical to a lot of new applications and how they evolve. We’ve seen, and I think consumers really want this, flexibility to consume – do I want to view that on my PC, my mobile or my TV?