Selection of test households
Fessel-GfK, the market research organization commissioned to conduct research to accompany the project, was responsible for recruiting test households and (in cooperation with the evolaris research laboratory in Graz) for the necessary technical inspections in the run-up to the project. Fessel-GfK and evolaris also equipped the households with the required reception hardware (DVB-T and MHP-compatible set-top boxes and antennas).
Technical Prerequisites
As the applications were tested intensively for their return channel capabilities during the pilot project, only those households which had an existing analog fixed-link line were recruited. Two thirds of the households had set-top boxes equipped with analog modems and were provided with an analog Internet package (AON Flash). In the remaining households, in which Ethernet-compatible set-top boxes were installed, a broadband ADSL connection was set up (AON Speed).
Within !TV4GRAZ‘s terrestrial broadcasting area, which was determined by RTR using a simulation program, households with fixed-link telephone lines and at least one television were randomly recruited by means of telephone screening. The resulting pool comprised 825 addresses. The final recruiting stage was carried out by means of personal interviews accompanied by a technical inspection.
The digital reception quality on the household‘s main television was checked at the very beginning of the recruiting interview. If the reception was insufficient (ORF 1,
ORF 2 Steiermark and ATVplus without pixellation and outages), the digital antenna was inspected. In addition, the technical means of connecting the digital receivers (set-top box) to the television set was recorded, and the required length of the telephone cord (and whether it could be plugged into the existing socket) was checked.
From the pool of 825 interested households, 244 addresses were visited in person. In the end, we were able to include 178 households in the pilot project.
