SureWest brings consumer videos to TV

SureWest Communications’ customers in California can actually watch themselves on TV. SureWest has deployed TellyTopia’s  i2TV service as part of its IPTV offering, so its customers can upload their own user-generated video content and see it played on a special channel.

“What’s cool about this is that it’s a channel, channel 702, that provides the best of the Internet content,” said Jaime Montes, product marketing manager for SureWest. “They pull content off different video Websites, so our customers are able to see online video content on TV. What’s extra cool about that is that our own customers are able to upload their video onto the TellyTopia site, so within 24 hours, their content is shown on channel 702.”

The service, launched earlier this year, has inspired SureWest customers to upload things such as Little League games, high school plays or even a child riding a bike, Montes said. TellyTopia provides guidelines for the quality of what is uploaded, and submissions are screened to prevent inappropriate content or commercials, Montes added. “What’s really cool about that is that if there is nothing on TV, then make your TV,” he said. “This enables us to bring together data and video and allow an avenue for our customers to upload content to the TV.”

The content is played in a loop, which repeats itself four times a day, and typically content stays in the loop for a week or more, Montes said. Consumers get an email message to alert them to the fact that their content has been uploaded by TellyTopia.

SureWest’s fiber-to-the-home network enables customers to do rapid uploading of video traffic, Montes said, but the company is also hoping to bring i2TV to its Kansas operation, which is a hybrid fiber-coax network.  

In Kansas, SureWest teamed up with BIAP, which offers interactive applications using the Electronic Binary Interchange Format (EBIF). SureWest’s Kansas customers can do Yellow Pages lookups on TV, make and track eBay auction items, play fantasy football and track local information such as sports and weather.  SureWest also offers Caller ID on the television in Kansas and hopes to bring that to California soon as well.