BOSTON — America Online will launch a ten-foot user interface to its video services next week in collaboration with Intel Corp.

Using Intel's Viiv video processing technology, AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis said at the VON Conference here that the interface will allow large plasma display and project TVs to interactively access AOL video services. Leonsis said Internet video services will be able to compete with studios in native cable and broadcast environments through the growing popularity of user communities like YouTube.

When combined with the independent production of service providers like AOL's Sessions music productions, "the biggest boost in content for Web 2.0, and for TV in general, will be ad-supported, search-supported IPTV."

Leonsis touted the open nature of AOL's VoIP service, which was launched last month under the "AIM Phoneline" logo. In conjunction with its efforts to turn to free services, Leonsis said that AOL will also turn to near-universal use of open standards such as Session Initiation Protocol and eXtensible Markup Language.