In 2010 we found some pictures of an unknown CD-i player that was used in medical environments (hospitals) in the professional area. This was a USA unit which makes it rare as we are not aware of high professional activity in the field of CD-i. In Europe, on the contrary, the professional area was booming a lot more, even after the commercial era of CD-i was already over. In the USA however, one company was specifically developing professional companies in a lifespan of four years (between 1996-2000). This was already late as Philips Media of America closed its office in 1996, after releasing its final CD-i titles in 1995. The company Independent Interactive saw an opportunity to give new life to CD-i in the professional field and bought a lot from Philips Americas.
We spoke to Jim, who started the company Independent Interactive in 1996. Jim: "CD-i was the first interactive platform that incorporated MPEG playback, meaning it could play full-screen video. This might seem like nothing now, but back in the late 90’s, you had to get a special card for your computer to play video.I did a couple dozen CD-i titles for companies like Abbott Labs, Ken Cook Co., Jack Morton Productions and others. I closed the company after 4 years after a CD-ROM we did all about the Green Bay Packers failed to sell enough to cover our costs."
Abbott labs is a chemical company that works with photo chemistry. Ken Cook and Jack Morton are active in the field of training, marketing and promotion. Jim: "We were also active in several hospitals and when we discovered the potential in healthcare courses, we needed to approbate the CD-i player for use in medical environments"
When you want to use electrical equipment in a medical place, you need to apply for certain rules before the government gives its approval (like UL approbation). In this case the player shell was not suitable enough, it was not strong to withstand long travel conditions, but it was not dust-tight as well. The openings were there for the thermal management. Jim: "It was clear from the beginning we needed a custom-made player. As the interest in health courses was substantial, we ventured with Intercare who was a supplier of medical equipment. Intercare designed a metal close case for one of our players. At the time we bought a lot of 550 models, including video cartridge. This was the most compact model available and Philips had quite a stock left in their distribution centres."
Interactive Independent developed safety courses for Abbott and a wide variety of other courses for Jack Morton and Ken Cook. Jim: "Once we built an engine for course material we developed several trainings that ran on this software. This was done to keep the costs low. All training material was based on full motion video which was unique in that time."Together with Intercare, they developed the Healthcare Advisor, which is also the name of the software title. Jim: "One of our wishes was to lock the unit so we could leave it in the hospitals. We had around 150 of these units available, but not all of them were used in the end."
The player could be connected to a printer so the training results were printed, which is a nice feature. The connections on the back of the player are generally the same as the original player, although the antenna output is new, as well as the printer port. Aside from the outer metal case, the insides are exactly the same as the Philips CD-i 550, although Jim assures us these were branded Magnavox :)
The black round hole on the back was used to power the console. In fact the same power supply was used but there was an extension cable available. It seems like the RF modulator was integrated inside for easy access to hospital televisions.
Philips CD-i was generally interesting because it was both active on the consumer field as in the professional field. While in Europe I discovered more stories on specific kiosk systems, this is the first custom built handheld player that was used for training purposes. Philips alwasy positioned CD-i towards the professional and educational field. Jim told me this unit was also used in universities in studies about medicines. He described it as 'resistent to vandalism' which already sais enough :)
On the side, on the exact same place, you will find the on/off button. I was surprised to learn this unit could lock the on/off button, so it was possible to leave it in a kiosk system, unattended without being afraid that someone would turn off the player. So you could lock the tray, but you could also lock the button, although he was not sure anymore if this was also by key (not by the looks of it :) )
[Thanks, Jim from Independent Interactive, John from Intercare, with permission]