Wolzien Gets Patent For Caller-Based Talk TV

TV industry veteran Tom Wolzien today received a patent that facilitates transplanting the talk radio call-in format to television with the help of Skype and a unique amalgamation of video, sound reinforcement and proprietary technology.

“I think potentially this is the first new genre in television since reality TV came along 20 years ago,” Wolzien says.

What makes the Video Call Center different from ordinary approaches to viewer or field reporter call-ins to live programming is that the host — not a producer running a traditional production switcher —  runs the show, choosing which and how many Skype callers to put on air.

Wolzien recognized how difficult it might be for a host to switch the show and at the same time concentrate on the comments of Skype video callers, so Video Call Center uses a couple of tricks to make things easier.

First, the host chooses sources with a proprietary control surface featuring an inverse palm mold, complete with grooves for the fingers of one hand to position the host’s fingertips near buttons from which to choose sources, making switching without looking away from the camera focused on the host possible.

Second, the Video Call Center system relies on proprietary automation assist technology called HAT, or the Host Automation Tool, that engages automatic switching of the show. HAT can cycle through one-shot, two-shot or three-shot screens automatically while the host focuses on what is being said and then can be disengaged with a single button push.

Video Call Center has been under development for about four years, Wolzien says. During that time, he has learned that TV talent used to working on unscripted shows as well as talk radio hosts do well running the system. Those coming from highly produced shows have a tougher time.

Wolzien says Video Call Center offers a highly affordable way to produce new, fresh live television programming. Only five or six production and technical personnel are needed. “Video Call Center lends itself to secondary and tertiary cable networks, broadcast groups and larger stations within markets,” he says.

“So it becomes competitive with reruns and that is important for cable networks — MVPDs — that are getting criticized for having lots of reruns and not having original programming,” says Wolzien.

Wolzien, who has 45 years of experience in local TV, broadcast networks and cable television, wrote the first generation of software and built the inventor’s prototype of the system. Larry Thaler, of Positive Flux, has overseen development of the second-generation system.

Video Call Center is moving from temporary digs in a carriage house in Grand View-on-Hudson in Rockland County, N.Y., to a 2,000-square-foot facility 10 minutes north of CNBC in Palisades, N.Y.

Initially, Wolzien intends to offer live Skype call-in program production as a service that will be marketed to the broadcast and cable industries. Eventually, the company plans to market the system so it can be integrated into existing broadcast and cable operations.