Here’s how you could log in with your TV set

So you don’t have a computer or an Internet connection. Could you still access the internet? Sure thing, if you go by these three young entrepreneurs. Just one condition: you ought to have a TV set.

A second-year student at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Amarendra Sahu, along with two friends, Jitendra Jagader and Krishnan Varadarajan, struck upon an idea that could allow people to access the Internet over television. They’ve called their invention, which they have patented, Brizz TV. Soon, they’ll be presenting their interesting new idea at the University of California, Berkeley, United States.

Teams from across the world will be converging at Berkeley for the International Entrepreneurship Challenge, between November 15 and 19.

Nearly 40 teams are expected to compete. Work on the Brizz TV project began a year ago. The three youth have already bagged the ‘Next Big Idea Contest,’ which was held by the department of science and technology of the central government, in collaboration with Intel.

The system allows users to make videos and post them over a television set, in combination with satellite, digital TV and set-top box technology.

“Any person can log into the website, brizztv.com. Users can upload photographs and videos. Privacy will be protected, as the system will require one to specify the Direct-to-Home user subscription identification number,” said Sahu.

And no cause for worry, it is not as if content that is posted will be telecast like a TV show. “The unique feature of the product is that content will reach only the intended person. This will be the first time that such a service will be available. If a serial is aired on a TV channel, it reaches all users. With our innovation, however, only the intended recipient will get the material,” said Sahu.

Sahu understands that the idea is not so easy for a not-so-tech-savvy person to understand.

“Let’s say, for example, a student who is studying in Bangalore wants to share photographs with his parents in Orissa. Many parents may not know how to use the Internet, but all they have to do with the new system would be change channels on TV,” explained Sahu.

Sahu said that he and his friends first conceived Brizz TV when they saw that Internet connectivity in India has remained very low. “In a population of around 1.17 billion, there are only around 81 million Internet users,” notes Sahu. Also, in the country’s rural areas, there are few people who possess computers, whereas the penetration of TV is relatively higher.

Brizz TV was incubated at the NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), a part of the IIM-B. The product is expected to be launched early next year.