They dealt with the unexplained mysteries of the world, and provided information to the viewer as to how to visit the places mentioned in the program.
The subject matter included lost technology and civilizations, pyramids, comparative religions, unexplained architecture, and psychic phenomena. The show was financially successful for the broadcasters, airing reruns for 8 years, from 1996 to 2002 in the US on PBS, as well as in Canada on Vision TV, The Life Channel, The Learning Channel, and CTV Travel.
Digital Photography
While we were collecting footage for our travel series, we shot a lot of photography on 35mm film. When the PhotoCD format was invented by Kodak, a CD manufacturer asked us to create the first royalty free images of the world on CD-ROM that could be bundled with new computers and sold in stores. That product became known as “WorldPhoto Essentials Image Library” and millions of copies where sold all over the world.
The Search For Ancient Wisdom CD-ROM
My experience with the Apple Macintosh for desktop publishing, and corporate television production introduced me to a new form of media that was interactive. It started with a touch-screen kiosk, which I adapted the form so that it could be used on CD-ROM, and eventually in home computers. Using still pictures and digital video clips from our travels around the world, we selected content that was deemed to be too controversial for public broadcasters to create an interactive CD-ROM that could be sold in book stores.
At that time I was a freelance technical journalist and consultant for Apple Computer specializing in digital video and desktop publishing workflows. I introduced the project to the Apple’s content managers looking for content to be included with new Macintosh computers that had CD-ROM drives. Apple ended up licensing the CD-ROM, called it “The Search For Ancient Wisdom” and gave the CD away free to all K-12 schools who purchased a new Macintosh computer with a CD-ROM drive. It was one of the very first interactive commercial CD-ROM ever produced. The Search for Ancient Wisdom was also licensed for playback on Windows computers, and sold in all major book stores.
Broadband Internet
When high speed internet access became affordable to the home user, I decided to abandon the CD-ROM delivery format to develop online initiatives. I received the very first grant from Bell Canada’s Bell Fund, and several additional grants to develop and produce free broadband video programming for the internet. One-hour TV specials called Virtual Europe and Virtual Canada were produced for The Canadian Learning Channel. When the programs aired, they directed viewers to re-experience the travel destinations online in video, and as a downloadable eBook with links to online video.