Bryan Adams lied to you

I'm always interested in when anachronistic technology pops up in the media. Whether it's Kelly Rowland trying to send an email using Excel, or people in spaceships developing film photographs, or futuristic moonbases which use BS 1363 plugs - I just love it!

So, I was watching that absolute banger of a tune "When You're Gone" by Bryan Adams (featuring Mel C) - when I noticed this:

It appears to be a desktop videophone! The interlacing looked artificial to me - but I've noted before that people think degraded images are somehow more authentic.

But something was niggling me. Were there really videophones of that ilk when that song was released in 1998? Well, yes and no.

There's a long history of prototype video-telephony - and by the mid-1990s there were some consumer products available.

This sweet number would set you back $1,600 (About $3,500 today). Better hope you had at least one rich friend who also had one.

If you scour eBay, you can find videophones from that bygone era. They are few and far between because they were a commercial flop. Video compression technology was in its infancy and modem speeds were poor. Even if you paid for an ISDN line, the video quality was guaranteed to be crap.

But what about this specific phone? Well, here I must reveal the disappointing news that Bryan Adams is a big fat liar and his music videos are full of falsehoods and shouldn't be trusted for serious historical researchers.

Ahem.

That's not a videophone in the music video.

Thanks to the sleuthing of Taig McNab and Stuart Langridge we can see that the phone is the Uniden Axis H0100

I found one on eBay - here's what it looks like after a few decades of use:

The logos at the top and bottom of the screen have been covered with black rectangles - which is what made me think there was a camera embedded in the unit.

Far from a full-colour screen, this video shows the screen is a pretty rubbish LCD affair. White background and a choice of blue or grey for text. Indeed, it was used as a glorified calendar with address-book capabilities. Judging by contemporary reports it could connect to CompuServe - but, as with early videophones the reviews were not ethusiastic. And no mention of video-calling.

So, there you have it. Music videos should only be used for entertainment purposes and nothing more serious.