Date: 5th November 1984

Contact: Peter Jones or Mark Southworth, 01-631 3434

 

PHILIPS TO DEVELOP NEW LASERVISION PLAYER
FOR DOMESDAY PROJECT
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Philips will be developing a new LaserVision as a major part of the Domesday project, Mr Jimmy Dunkley, Divisional Director, Philips LaserVision, annonced at today's launch of the Domesday programme.

Mr Dunkley welcomed the project as a bold and creative concept and one with which Philips was delighted to be associated.

He said that the new player, which is due to go into production in Autumn 1986, would be a development of the existing Philips Professional models.

Domesday, is he said, was a project which illustrated all the major benifits, flexibility and potential of LaserVision technology.

"The new player will be a development of the existing Philips Professional Systems which were launched in the latter half of last year, and which have been endorsed by some of the major names in industry and commerce who are now using the system," Mr Dunkley Said.

"In order to store such a vast database and yet give simple access to it, Philips are designing and producing a totally new player which will store not only the currently accepted vast store of pictures - both moving and still - and sound on the video disc, but also the enourmous quantity of digital data required for the Domesday data base.

"There is no other system capable of giving this magnitude of information in such a small and easy to use package.

"This 1986 version of the Domesday Book will allow the normal still and moving pictures from the video disc to be enhanced with high resoloution graphics and text from the BBC Micro. These graphics will be overlaid on top of the pictures or displayed independently all on the same TV screen.

"The interactive style of the operation allows the user to proceed at his own pace by entering commands on the already familiar BBC Micro keyboard. We believe that not only will this product prove to be the ideal carrier for Domesday but for all the follow up programme material that the BBC, and no doubt other software companies, will create for educational applications.

"In our view, this combined operation between the BBC, Acorn and ourselves, not forgetting support from the DTI, sets the scene for a new era in audio visual applications" he said.

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