January 2, 1983, Sunday, BC cycle

By D.J. ROSENBAUM

DATELINE: FAIR LAWN N.J.

Two communications giants are joining forces in northern New Jersey in their drive to get computer terminals into everyone's home.

CBS and the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. have entered into a joint venture they hope will show them what people would do with an electronic data bank in their living rooms.

The system is called ''videotex,'' and if predictions prove accurate it will revolutionize the way we view the world.

About 200 families in Ridgewood have been given a special computer terminal -- some with a color television monitor attached -- hooked up by telephone lines to a facility in neighboring Fair Lawn. There, graphic artists, technicians, computer programmers, news writers and market analysts all work to find out what the users think of the whole procedure. ''We're trying to find out how much they like videotex, how much they'll use it and how much they'll pay for it,'' says Harry Smith, a CBS vice president.

AT&T provides all the technical support for the Ridgewood test - the terminals, the computer programming, the lines. CBS is responsible for all the content: the pictures, the text and the advertising.

''No two people would use it the same way,'' said Smith. ''I guess the ability it has to respond to each person's individual information need and desires is probably its single greatest single attribute.''

It works like this: a user turns on his television set, then punches a button on the computer terminal that automatically dials the main computer.

A greeting picture -- called a ''frame'' -- appears on the screen with information for everyone on the system, and the user enters his password, giving him access to his own electronic files.

The user is then presented with a list of nine main catagories to select from: a community bulletin board, electronic shopping, several news services, kids' activities and the like.

''You type the number associated with the choice and type the 'send' key,'' explained the system's senior editor, David Schnaider.

A new list, called a ''menu'', then appears, and another choice can be made, and so on down the line until the desired information is displayed.

Videotex, as practiced by AT&T and CBS, is only one of a number of ways textual material can be displayed on a television screen. Another method is the ''closed captioning'' some television programs display for the hearing-disabled, and a third is a similar system but carried over interactive cable TV. Yet another is the European ''Prestel'' standard, now being tested in Britain and France.

''We're in the videotex field because we've been in the communications field for 100 years,'' said Len Young, an assistant manager for AT&T. ''Videotex is an adjunct to existing means of communications. It's the use of a TV screen to transmit information.''

Young said there is no technical reason why home computers could not be used on a videotex system instead of specially designed terminals, although industry-wide standards have yet to be set.

With videotex, it is possible to order products from a JC Penney or Eddie Bauer catalog or buy merchandise from listings put out by a number of area stores, including a supermarket.

There also is a list of restaurants cross-indexed by location, type of food and price range.

Most of the ads are two lines of text long and entice you to press a key for more information.

This fall there will be a market test in the Miami area, signing up users and charging them for the service, which will be provided via cable by AT&T and the Knight-Ridder newspaper group.

CBS's Smith, who put the price of commercial service at about $20 per month, says it would be 1984 at the earliest before videotex is a full-fledged commercial reality.

''I think we all feel we're on to something exciting,'' he said, ''that videotex may be a very basic new information medium with some things allied to print and some things allied to broadcasting, but one that like any new medium will find its own place.''