The DtV Broadcasting System - the Windmill

The Windmill is a lot of things at once. It's our demonstration chatroom, where you can go, even if you aren't a member (username guest, password guest) and see the quality of the video and chatroom. And the Windmill is our logo and mascot, because it represents motion and colour.

First of all, you probably want to see what it looks like, and whether it works on your system. I think it will work on nearly all systems, but you want to check that for yourself. It isn't always live and running, but if you log into the chat, it should notice that you've arrived, and start up.

What you should see, is a picture that's 320 by 240 pixels, with a frame rate of about three frames per second. If you don't have DSL or cable, then it'll be less than that.

The picture includes a clock that's showing the time right now (UK time, of course), with a sweep second hand, so you can see the motion. And there's the windmill; you can tell that what to do (and, unlike the performers on this site), the windmill will do exactly what you ask for. Provided you ask for the right things.

To get into the Windmill Demonstration, use the username guest, password guest.

First, log into the chatroom, by choosing a nickname, and a chatting colour, and hit "Join chat". Then you can give commands.

You can give commands to the windmill:

And so on.

When the windmill is turning, it's actually a very smooth motion. So when you see it on your computer, you can judge for yourself how good the video is going to be in the real chatrooms.

You can tip the Windmill, although I'm not sure why you might want to. Perhaps you want to show your appreciation for the technology behind all this. The Windmill will thank you for your generous tip.