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The Product technologies which is used extensively Acorn will be pleased to offer advice and Viewpoint from Acorn is an Interactive in Computer Based Training, Point of support on any application of Interactive Video Workstation designed for ease of Sale and Office Information retrieval and Video which incorporates the Viewpoint installation and use in training and office display applications. The Laservision Workstation. applications. A powerful Interactive Video Disc system allows up to 72 Video system is constructed from just two minutes of video to be displayed from The Application units: the Viewpoint Workstation and a both sides of a 12 inch diameter optical The Laservision player control software Laservision Video Disc Player. With the disc. A disc contains 54,000 video allows the user or programmer to control Viewpoint Workstation, high quality frames any one of which may be the player with simple commands. The colour displays may be presented consist­ randomly accessed for display as a player can be instructed to search for ing of video and sound sequences from still frame or to commence a moving particular video frames and to display the Laservision player combined with sequence. Two sound channels them as moving or still pictures. A computer generated text and graphics. accompany the video on the disc. number of different types of Laservision players are supported by this software. Commands are also included to control the sound output from the player which is heard through the Viewpoint Work­ station's loudspeaker or headphones.

In order to program an Interactive Video session the Microtext Plus authoring language is used. Programs written in Microtext Plus are held on the Viewpoint Workstation's 3.5 inch floppy disc and they may form part of training or information retrieval and display application packages. Microtext was developed by the National Physical Laboratory and it allows programmers to produce material quickly and easily. Microtext is a frame orientated language permitting dialogue with the Work­ Based on the highly acclaimed Model B Laservision Video Discs are already station's user. Information held in each Plus BBC Microcomputer architecture, available to cover a wide range of topics. frame controls the sequence of events the Viewpoint Workstation incorporates In addition, users may decide to depending on the user's response. At the two 1 MByte 3.5 inch disc drives, a commission and produce their own same time commands may be issued to 14 inch colour display screen, a discs using widely available facilities. the Laservision Video Disc Player so that loudspeaker and a 92 key keyboard A single disc may cover a range of text and graphics in the Microtext frames including a separate 20 key numeric subjects with supporting Viewpoint are accompanied by appropriate video keypad. Stereo headphones may also Workstation programs selecting only the disc pictures. be used. The Viewpoint Workstation material required for a particular user. contains a 6512 microprocessor with Illustrated here is the Viewpoint 64 KBytes of Random Access Memory Large amounts of video information may Workstation model AVC900 with a Philips and offers a selection of eight different be presented from the Laservision discs VP831 Professional Laservision Player. graphics and text display modes. in the form of still frames or moving Firmware is contained in 96 KBytes of sequences with data and programs being Also available from Acorn is an Read Only Memory and consists of the provided from 3.5 inch floppy discs. Interactive Video system, model Machine , BBC BASIC, In this way the video information is AVC128, based around the Master the Advanced Disc Filing System, supported by programs and data which Series BBC Microcomputer. This Laservision player control software and can be easily modified or updated. The system offers similar facilities and the Microtext Plus authoring language. Viewpoint Workstation contains the specifications within an alternative necessary components to combine these hardware package. · The Technology two information sources onto a single Interactive Video provides a powerful display screen. Custom Systems Division combination of computing and video Lid .. Fulbourn Road. Cherry Hinton. Cambridge CB1 4JN Telephone Cambridge (0223) 245200

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