Rosemarie Christopher-Mason (Editor: Nancy Stubbs)

CD-I stands for Compact Disc Interactive, the first multimedia technology aimed at a mass audience. As an entertainment and information system, it plays digital data stored on a compact disc, connected to a television set, color monitor, or CD-I player. In 1986 N.V. Philips of the Netherlands and Sony Corporation of Japan jointly created and designed CD-I technology to a worldwide standard so that CD-I discs would run on CD-I players anywhere in the world. CD-I was designed for the home, but of greater significance, is its use in education, business, military, training, point of information, and sales applications for meeting individual as well as targeted audience needs, and selling to mass markets.

CD-I technology integrates a wide variety of media on a single compact disc, including high quality audio and images. Some discs provide Full Motion Video (FMV) and store movies over one hour long. Self-booting CD-I discs, not requiring additional software, are the same size as a CD-ROM disc. CD-I system components include the disks, player, monitor, and input devices (mouse, remote control or trackerball). CD-I players can play CD-I disks, CD-Digital Audio (CD-DA), CD + Graphics (CD&G), Photo-CD, and with a Digital Video cartridge, Karaoke CD and Video CD discs, but not CD-ROMs. CD-I technology allows the multimedia designer to blend different media (visual, audio and graphic) and computer data into a single experience allowing user interaction with information on the disc and guiding the presentation in a meaningful way. Because of its ease of use CD-I technology is useful for home entertainment, education, and business (CD-I FAQ 1998).

Although initially targeted for the consumer entertainment market, CD-I technology has emerged as a significant tool for the professional, educational, training, and information markets. Major manufacturers of CD-I players include Philips, Sony, Samsung, Goldstar, Matsushita, Sanyo, and Kyocera. Software development players sold by Philips Interactive Media Systems contain floppy disc drives, connections to keyboards, emulators, and other computer peripherals, and have software testing and debugging features. Philips also sells a professional portable player used for point of information and sales presentations. Content producers and developers for CD-I software concentrate on professional applications (see WHO'S WHO IN CD-I [http://www.icdia.org/who.html]. 4 April 1998) and, according to Philips, costs of CD-I programming, ($5K-100K+) are directly impacted by production values, level of interactivity, and whether or not new or existing templates are used. CD-I is the lowest-cost interactive medium available today. CD-I players are half the price of a multimedia PC and can work with an ordinary TV set. "Plug-and-play" simplicity cuts set-up costs to nearly zero, while durable construction makes CD-I players almost maintenance free for up to four years (35,000 hours) of continuous play.

'CD-I's powerful combination of attention-getting program quality, involving interactivity, ease of use, data storing capability, sturdy reliability and affordability make it ideal for a wide variety of applications, (Philips Electronics 1997). Whether used in mall kiosks or face-to-face sales presentations, CD-I’s interactive features allow the prospective customer to linger on aspects pertinent to their needs while quickly passing over peripheral information. The technology allows for the collection of customer data for analysis, and has the capability of recording sales transactions. CD-I ‘s usefulness as a training tool makes it feasible to train one or thousands. Organizations, like the Bill Glass Ministries, using CD-I as their information delivery format, trained 30,000 volunteers recruited to participate in their prison outreach program. Interactivity allows volunteers to access specific information and answer questions at the push of a button.

Businesses using the technology train sales reps to answer customer inquiries more effectively. The trainee learns at their own pace, reviewing material, making queries and receiving feedback. GM’s Goodwrench Service has found that CD-I technology allows customized presentations for audiences. Further, the portable plug-and-play nature of the CD-I system allows hundreds of slides, plus video clips and music to be incorporated on one disc. Low cost, simple installation and ease of use make CD-Is a smart choice for kindergarten students or adult learners. Hundreds of educational titles in science, history, grammar and literature utilize CD-I’s interactivity feature to improve learning and retention. Of particular value is their interactive nature, which makes the experience more effective than static displays because participatory learning results in higher understanding and retention. Point of information displays in museums and state parks exhibit information presented creatively, so that visitors can access what interests them about the exhibit and pass on the rest.

Its interactive features make CD-I ideally suited for point of information displays, training from one to many, education, sales, and presentations. General Motors utilizes interactive showrooms so prospective customers can design their own car. Cadbury Beverages uses CD-I to provide consistent worldwide training. The Allied Van Lines CD-I sales program has improved closing ratios, shortened the sales cycle, and enabled sales associates to reach more prospects. Low cost of production and format flexibility allows Iacom Medical’s rehabilitation clinicians to produce personalized home exercise videos for their patients right on-site. CD-I’s major driver, its 'interactivity' as Esther Dyson would say, is necessary in our 'attention economy' in which only those businesses will succeed that have figured out how to grab our attention and rescue us from drowning in static information.

Unlike computers, CD-I has one standard worldwide. In 1987, Philips built an extension of its original Yellow & Red Book Compact Disc specifications called the Green Book CD-I. It "supports the new stand-alone CD players that feature full-motion MPEG video and audio decompression technology" (General Information CD-ROM. 1998 http://www.pc.be.philips.com/osc/cd-rom/geninfo/index.html). One worldwide standard and low barriers to entry (no content developer license fee; $5000 player/disc manufacturer license fee) make CD-I a cost effective business solution. The very factors that made it a "killer application" for the professional market - proprietary hardware, operating system (OS9), data compression solutions, mainly MPEG-1 - became "killer issues" constraining its diffusion as a consumer product.

Because of its lack of backward compatibility and its perceived high cost, CD-I, as a consumer medium, has been overtaken by DVD. "CD-I potential for the professional market is much brighter’" says Heidi James, a project manager for McGill Multimedia, "CD-I is a primary medium and will not become obsolete for quite a long time" (Phone interview 1998). Incredibly versatile, its economies of scope and scale make it an attractive, and powerful communications medium.

CD-I FAQ-Question # 1. [http://www iinc.com/~spooky/erik/cdi/FAQ/q001.html], 15 March 1998.

Dyson, E. (1997) Release 2.0: a design for living in the digital age, New York: Broadway Books.

General Information CD-ROM.. [http://www.pc.be.philips.com/osc/cd-rom/geninfo/index.html], 15 March 1998.

James, H., Phone interview, 13 April 1998. McGill Multimedia, Detroit, MI. (800) 335-0028.

Philips Electronics (1997) 'Discover the power of CD-I', product brochure #P16285.

Pozo, L.F. (1994-97) 'Glossary of CD-ROM and DVD technologies', [http://www.sigcat.org/resource/gloss697.htm], 15 March 1998.

'Who's who in CD-I: directory of CD-I suppliers', [http://www.icdia.org/who.html]. 4 April 1998.

Goldstar

Kyocera http://www.kyocera.com/

Matsushita http://www.matsushita.com/

Philips Interactive Media Systems http://www.philips.com/

Samsung http://www.samsung.com/

Sanyo

Sony http://www.sony.com/

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