Editing Acorn Computers (section)

====Set-top boxes====
In 1994, Acorn established a new division, ''Online Media'', focusing on interactive multimedia client hardware.<ref name="acornuser199409_onlinemedia">{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser146-Sep94/page/n8/mode/1up | title=Acorn launches Online Media | work=Acorn User | date=September 1994 | access-date=11 October 2021 | pages=9–11 }}</ref> Online Media aimed to exploit the projected [[video-on-demand]] (VOD) boom, an [[interactive television]] system which would allow users to select and watch [[video]] content over a network.<ref>{{citation | first = Jonathan | last = Sapsed | contribution = Strategizing under Uncertainty and Ignorance: The influence of knowledge and technological path-dependence on corporate strategies | title = Managing Knowledge: Conversations and Critiques | publisher = [[CENTRIM]] | place = Brighton, UK | pages = 13 | date = 2001-04-10 | contribution-url = http://eprints.brighton.ac.uk/4433/1/Strategizing_under_uncertainty_and_ignorance.pdf | access-date = 2011-05-31 }}</ref> In September 1994 the Cambridge Digital Interactive Television Trial of video-on-demand services was set up by Online Media, [[Anglia Television]], [[Cambridge Cable]] (now part of [[Virgin Media]]) and [[Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd]] (ATML). The trial involved creating a wide area ATM network linking TV-company to subscribers' homes and delivering services such as home shopping, online education, software downloaded on-demand and the [[World Wide Web]]. The wide area network used a combination of fibre and coaxial cable, and the switches were housed in the roadside cabinets of Cambridge Cable's existing network.<ref name="lessonsinlearning">[http://www.mediation.co.uk/lessons1.html Lessons in Learning] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929160345/http://www.mediation.co.uk/lessons1.html |date=29 September 2007}}, white paper, Mediation Technology, last modified 18 June 1999</ref>
[[Olivetti Research Laboratory]] developed the technology used by the trial. An [[International Computers Limited|ICL]] video server provided the service via ATM switches manufactured by ATML, another company set up by Hauser and Hopper. The trial commenced at a speed of 2&nbsp;Mbit/s to the home, subsequently increased to 25&nbsp;Mbit/s.<ref name="camcorners">[http://www.iankitching.me.uk/articles/citv-nz.html Cambridge Corners the Future in Networking] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415092452/http://www.iankitching.me.uk/articles/citv-nz.html |date=15 April 2016}}, TUANZ Topics, Volume 05, No. 10, November 1995</ref>

Subscribers used [[Acorn Online Media Set Top Box]]es. For the first six months the trial involved 10 VOD terminals;<ref name="camcorners" /> the second phase was expanded to cover 100 homes and eight schools with a further 150 terminals in test labs. A number of other organisations gradually joined in, including the [[National Westminster Bank]] (NatWest), the [[BBC]], the [[Post Office Ltd|Post Office]], [[Tesco]], and the [[local education authority]].{{which|reason=There are many in the UK. Was it only one?|date=September 2021}} Having initially deployed set-top boxes based on Risc PC hardware, a second generation of the hardware, STB2, featured the ARM7500 system-on-a-chip,<ref name="acornuser199505_onlinemedia">{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser155-May95/page/n8/mode/1up | title=Big month for Online Media | work=Acorn User | date=May 1995 | access-date=11 October 2021 | pages=9 }}</ref> this having been manufactured for Online Media by VLSI,<ref name="arm7500pr">{{ cite press release | url=http://www.poppyfields.net/acorn/news/armpress/arm7500.shtml | date=18 October 1994 | access-date=11 October 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303192453/http://www.poppyfields.net/acorn/news/armpress/arm7500.shtml | archive-date=3 March 2016 |title=ARM Announces Single Chip Solution for Multimedia and Portable Applications }}</ref> and integrated MPEG video decoding hardware. (The [[C-Cube Microsystems]] CL450 part is evident on the STB20 circuit board,<ref name="chris_stb20">{{ cite web | url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/Pics/OM_STB20FL.html | title=Acorn Online Media STB20 circuit board (hi-res) | website=Chris's Acorns | access-date=13 June 2022 }}</ref> this product being an MPEG-1 decoder introduced in May 1992.<ref name="ccube1994">{{ cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ccube90050alogSpring1994_8607743/page/n7/mode/1up | title=Product Catalog Spring 1994 | publisher=C-Cube Microsystems | date=Spring 1994 | access-date=13 June 2022 | pages=3 }}</ref>) Plans were announced to expand the initiative from 250 homes to 1000, to support NatWest's cable television banking and shopping services, with video on demand provision being strengthened through the deployment of a digital video server from ICL having "a maximum capacity of several hundred gigabytes of fast hard disc storage", connected via a 155&nbsp;Mbit/s link and supplementing Olivetti Research Disc Bricks already acting as smaller capacity video servers. Industry support for the Online Media platform was also announced by Oracle and Macromedia.<ref name="acornuser199505_onlinemedia" />

BBC Education tested delivery of radio-on-demand programmes to primary schools, and a new educational service, Education Online, was established to deliver material such as [[Open University]] television programmes and educational software. [[Netherhall School]] was provided with an inexpensive video server and operated as a provider of trial services, with Anglia Polytechnic University taking up a similar role some time later.<ref name="lessonsinlearning" />

It was hoped that Online Media could be floated as a separate company, and a share issue raising {{nowrap|£17.2 million}} of additional capital was announced in 1995,<ref>{{cite magazine | title=Acorn takes shares to City | magazine=Computer Shopper | date=May 1995 | pages=392 }}</ref> this to finance the division and "underpin Acorn Group finances" against a backdrop of deteriorating financial results partly caused by an increasingly uncompetitive lower-end product range.<ref name="acornuser199504_onlinemedia">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser154-Apr95/page/n8/mode/1up | title=Changes as core business posts another loss | magazine=Acorn User | date=April 1995 | access-date=11 October 2021 | pages=9 }}</ref> Having entered into a deal with Lightspan Partnership Inc. to supply set-top boxes for the US education market,<ref name="acornuser199508_update" /> the order was cancelled and put pressure on Acorn's already straitened financial situation. Various other factors ensured that the predicted video-on-demand boom never really materialised as anticipated.<ref name="ford2007">{{ cite journal | title=Failing to disrupt: the case of the Network Computer | journal=International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning | volume=3 | issue=1 | date=2007 | last1=Ford | first1=Simon | last2=Garnsey | first2=Elizabeth | page=6 | doi=10.1504/IJTIP.2007.013035 | citeseerx=10.1.1.736.4040 }}</ref>

Acorn subsequently planned to incorporate set-top box technology into its product range, launching an initiative entitled "No Limits to Learning" and previewing a range of products under the MediaRange brand, with the MediaSurfer being "essentially an Online Media STB with a World Wide Web browser built in", and with other products in the range being based on "focused applications" of established Acorn products.<ref name="acornuser199603_mediarange">{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser166-Mar96/page/n8/mode/1up | title=Acorn seeks the meaning of its existence | work=Acorn User | date=March 1996 | access-date=15 October 2021 | pages=9 }}</ref> Evolution of the technology continued with the launch of the STB22 model, described as "a cross between an NC (Network Computer) and a STB". This model combined set-top box features such as [[ATM25]] networking for interactive video with more general Internet features such as Web browsing and Java application support. Described as "the icing on the cake", MPEG2 video decoding hardware was provided by a chipset from [[LSI Corporation|LSI]]. Although Acorn were reportedly hoping for the interactive television market to "eventually take off" and initiate "mass deployment" by traditional telecoms operators, corporate intranet applications were also seen as a target market. With more conservative deployments in mind, the ATM25 interface in the product could be replaced by an Ethernet interface.<ref name="acornuser199705_stb22">{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser181-May97/page/n5/mode/1up | title=Acorn reveals most advanced STB yet | work=Acorn User | date=May 1997 | access-date=15 October 2021 | pages=6 }}</ref>