Startups

This Delaware trade school wants to change the way you watch television

Stop live tweeting and get live chatting.

Inside ACT's headquarters. (Photo by Nijeria Thompson)

According to ACT, you’re totally watching TV the wrong way.
Launched in Wilmington in 2016, ACT Generation is billing itself as Delaware’s first and only hybrid trade school and private business. They’re all about audiovisual and communication technologies, and they’re “on a mission to enable individuals and organizations to engage, survive and thrive in the digital age,” said ACT Product Director, Nijeria Thompson.
ACT Boom, its latest product, is an online streaming service for “viewer-focused” content, Thompson said. It has channels from both local and international producers with live and prerecorded programming. With their new subscription-based model, ACT aims to push the envelope for what they say is a currently “out-modeled television experience.”
They want to completely eliminate the need for viewers to live tweet while watching their favorite shows by providing a way for the community to comment directly on the ACT Boom platform. Viewers also get to be directly engaged with the producers of their favorite shows through the platform. It’s available on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon FireStick and streams directly to all of your favorite devices.
One drawback, though, is that it doesn’t broadcast more mainstream TV shows, so you can’t get that kind of chatroom engagement with every show that you like.
ACT’s not the only Delaware-based org that’s tackling TV: last week, we profiled Ed Grobes, who runs a religion channel on Roku and produces TV programming for organizations through his Nazca Network.
ACT has a lot in store for 2017. It’s approaching their first full year in operation and have the lofty goal of raising the technical competency for all generations in and around Wilmington. Look out for its upcoming Mass Communications 360 networking event later this month, its tech initiative to train high school and college students in social media marketing and its drone certification classes. Oh yeah, and its version of painting with a twist.
We’ll keep you posted.

Engagement

Join our growing Slack community

Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!

Donate to the Journalism Fund

Your support powers our independent journalism. Unlike most business-media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational contributions.

Trending

How Ballard Spahr helps startups navigate common legal questions

This Week in Jobs: High five for these 24 tech career opportunities

Investors’ immigration experiences led to DC’s new $56M fintech fund

Yes, it’s OK to use AI as a job applicant, but don’t be sneaky about it

Technically Media