Apr 7, 1997 12:00 PM,

Web over the airwaves IBM, NDS bring broadcasting paradigm to data services

SHIRA LEVINE, New Media Editor

Data broadcasting is expected to be big news at this week's National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas, with at least two major manufacturers introducing solutions that will help carriers deliver high-speed, limited Web access.

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IBM's LogiCast digital broadcasting system lets carriers transmit up to 10 compressed digital streams on a single channel. Because LogiCast uses MPEG 2 as a transport protocol, both video and data can be carried in the transport stream, so the carrier can integrate video and data at an application level-linking a television advertisement to a Web page, for example.

Carriers are looking for ways to deliver high-speed data service without a return path, said Bill Beckmann, vice president of video-enabled solutions at IBM. Using the LogiCast system, they can transmit Web pages stored in a data carousel at the headend to a set-top box at the home, which pulls the requested page for delivery to either a television set or a personal computer.

News Digital Systems' data broadcast system broadcasts Web content to the same 18-inch digital broadcast satellite dish that is used to receive video programming. The content is then delivered via coax to an integrated receiver decoder in the PC, where it is stored on the hard drive.

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OFF-LINE The White House Rolodex I Clinton officials may have pressured Sprint, Pacific Telesis and Time Warner into hiring Webster Hubbell after his fall from grace at the Justice Department.

The White House Rolodex II This news follows the Washington Post's report of Al Gore's 1996 phone call to DSC Communications to acknowledge a $100,000 donation after the Commerce Department assisted with a $36-million Telmex deal in 1995.