Free access is available over the Internet to 18 video programs, each featuring a different Alberta artist.
The Alberta Artists Initiative coincides with the beginning of Art Week in Calgary. The initiative will help promote the work of Alberta's artists and showcase the technology that allows web users to view high-quality programs in an interactive environment.
This initiative will run for a one-month period at least. Further access will be dependent upon the popularity of the service.
"We are extremely excited about this initiative," said Peter Temple, president of Media One Communications which is making available the free access. "These video programs showcase the fact that the web is becoming a very viable medium for the dissemination of high-quality information in the form of interactive, video-based multimedia.”
To view the video programs on the web, users must have Macromedia's Shockwave and Real Video's Real Video Player plug-ins installed in the plug-ins folder of their web browser. These plug-ins can be downloaded free.
For maximum quality, the user should have a cable modem or similar high-speed access to the web.
The programs can be viewed by going to Media One's website at www.mediaonecom.com and following the links.
The 18 vignettes of about seven minutes in length feature Leslie Nielsen as the moderator and have been shown on CBC nationally, ACCESS Television and PBS in the United States.
The programs were originally funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
Art Week in Calgary runs from Sept. 14-21, 2001. Media One's Alberta Artists Initiative will run from Sept. 14 through the middle of October, 2001.
Calgary-based Media One Communications, formed in 1979, makes use of advanced media technology in commercial and corporate communication.
