ITV

Category: Technology

  • Digicable upgrades to Conax Contego Plus content security solution

    Digicable upgrades to Conax Contego Plus content security solution

    MUMBAI: Conax, global provider of leading solutions for securing multi-device and digital TV services, has said that Digicable has upgraded to the Conax Contego Plus content security solution.

    The pan-Indian MSO already achieved one million digitized subscribers, but has also recently contracted an additional 600.000 secure client devices from Conax to meet expansion and pay-TV growth demands of the many regions the MSO serves cross-India.

    The Conax Contego Plus upgrade is providing Digicable with a future-oriented, secure solution that supports advanced, flexible, interactive on-demand services enabling a bouquet of rich features, viewing options and services for subscribers, while ensure Digicable content revenues are secure.
     
    Digicable CTO Asif Khan said, "We are very pleased with the personal level of 24/7 operational service and integrity provided by Conax and are highly confident that Contego Plus will play a strong role in positioning Digicable into the future. Conax offers an excellent security record, flexible solutions and provides a forward-thinking policy towards partners, allowing us to select from a wide range of Conax security-certified devices and vendors that best suit our operational needs."

    Conax VP Asia Sales Are Mathisen said, "Conax is proud to that Digicable has reconfirmed their partnership with Conax and selected the Conax Contego Plus solution for driving their operations and secure consumer offerings to the next level. Digicable has achieved a significant milestone in digitisation race and has now taken an additional leap forward in positioning for the long term with a partner that provides both the highest level of security and the most flexible, cost-saving pre-integrated multiscreen solutions in a market which offers tremendous growth potential."

  • Eutelsat commences commercial service of 70B satellite

    Eutelsat commences commercial service of 70B satellite

    MUMBAI: Eutelsat Communications said that it has commenced the commercial service of the Eutelsat 70B satellite at 70.5° East.

    The company transferred all the traffic from Eutelsat 70A satellite which was carried out overnight by Eutelsat‘s control centre, working in close collaboration with clients and providers of uplink services.

    Eutelsat 70B has been custom-designed to optimise resources at 70.5° East which has been occupied by a Eutelsat satellite since 2002 and is a point of reference for data services, broadband access, GSM backhauling and professional video exchanges.

    With high frequency reuse, four powerful beams with coverage of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia are connected to 48 Ku-band transponders, more than doubling capacity at 70.5° East.

    The new satellite‘s entry into service releases Eutelsat 70A which will be redeployed to 25.5° East until the launch of Eutelsat 25B in the middle of 2013. Eutelsat 25A will be redeployed from 25.5° East to an alternative location.

  • Jayaraman resigns from Hathway Cable & Datacom

    Jayaraman resigns from Hathway Cable & Datacom

    MUMBAI: K Jayaraman, long serving chief executive officer and recently appointed vice chairman of Hathway Cable and Datacom, has put in his papers.

    In a restructuring last month, Hathwayappointed former Reliance Media and Entertainment President Jagdish Kumar as MD and CEO of the company, while Jayaraman was made vice chairman. Kumar was directly reporting to the board.

    “Jayaraman has put in his papers. But his resignation has not been accepted. He will have to serve a six-month notice period,” says a source.

    Indian cable companies are in the midst of a transition from analogue to digital mode of delivery. The first phase of digitisation kicked off in November and the second phase across 38 cities is from 1 April.

    Also read:

    Jagdish Kumar new Hathway Cable CEO; Jayaraman made vice chairman

  • InCablenet to deploy Entropic’s STB SoC technology

    InCablenet to deploy Entropic’s STB SoC technology

    MUMBAI: India‘s leading cable multi-system operator (MSO) InCablenet has deployed Entropic‘s set top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) technology, the CX2448x.

    The deployment of Entropic‘s STB SoC will enable advanced digital broadcast and broadband services to the 8.5 million cable-connected TV homes InCablenet serves across India.

    The partnership with Entropic will allow InCablenet to gain access to a state-of-the-art solution with advanced features such as DVR capability that will give them a competitive edge throughout the digitization transition.

    "India‘s cable TV market is poised for a broad network upgrade to provide compelling, interactive and affordable digital services to more than 130 million subscribers," said IMCL MD Ravi Mansukhani.

    "This opportunity has led us to strategic partners like Entropic, who have a reputable local presence with Standard-Definition SoCs, can minimize new product time-to-market with pre-established Conditional Access relationships, and can help us increase revenue by enabling value-added digitization services."

    "Given the ‘analog sunset‘ timeframe and the number of potential set-top boxes to be deployed, we worked closely with Entropic to customize a silicon solution for InCablenet‘s client devices," said Novabase Digital TV MD Michael Pauli.

    "Our set-top boxes leverage Entropic‘s advanced silicon and software, which allowed us to focus on delivering a product-to-market quickly while ensuring flexibility, functionality, and cost optimization all remained high priorities."

    The Entropic SoC had several security features including advanced Conditional Access (CA) integration with Nagra for protection against piracy; an advanced one-time-programmable (OTP) memory technology to personalize individual STBs with unique serial numbers and encryption keys; and uses embedded cryptographic technology for secure authentication of any STB system software loaded into the Flash memory.

  • I&B Ministry presses for convergence regulation

    I&B Ministry presses for convergence regulation

    NEW DELHI: Information & Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Wednesday said he would talk to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal to impress upon him the need to create a statutory mechanism to address issues related to convergence across media, entertainment and telecom.

    "Convergence across media, entertainment and telecom space specially with digitisation kicking in, is inevitable. Therefore, at some point in time there will have to be an overarching (legal) architecture which looks at it holistically," Tewari told reporters on the sidelines of Convergence India 2013.

    Admitting that convergence is a reality which cannot be ignored, he said: "I will talk to my senior colleague, the minster of telecom (Kapil Sibal) and see if we can work out a modus operandi whereby we can put a statutory architecture on the convergence format."

    Efforts have earlier been made to have a legal framework for convergence of the three sectors. A Convergence Bill was tabled in Parliament more than a decade ago. The bill has sought to create an autonomous commission to regulate carriage of all forms of communications, and for establishment of an appellate tribunal and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

    The bill aimed at promoting, facilitating and developing in an orderly manner the carriage and content of communications (including broadcasting, telecommunications and multimedia). The Convergence Bill had sought amalgamation of Information Technology (IT), Telecommunications and entertainment industry by replacing the Telegraph Act of 1985 and the Indian Wireless Act of 1933.

    Tewari admitted that the convergence bill tabled earlier could not be worked on. "The EGoM (empowered group of ministers) will work on the prevalent conditions," he said.

    Need to encourage production of indigenous STBs

    Tewari said one of the government‘s primary concerns now is to ensure that digital set top box (STB) manufacturing happens in India as the whole process is going to lead to revenue expansion of about $4 to $5 billion, according to a Trai estimate.

    "As we speak today, most of that business is not coming to India. So, that is an overriding priority for us as to how we are able to build an indigenous STB manufacturing model on to it," he said.

    Tewari also said STBs should be inter-operable and wanted enough operators for the consumers to switch to.

  • Times Internet develops mobile apps for Gaana.com

    Times Internet develops mobile apps for Gaana.com

    MUMBAI: Time Internet (TIL) has developed mobile applications for its flagship online music portal, Gaana.com.

    Simultaneously, Gaana.com is now available as an app for Android, iOS, Blackberry and J2ME devices, giving consumers access to millions of songs on their mobile phone.

    TIL CEO Satyan Gajwani said “We are so proud of the Gaana experience on mobile. Indian consumers love their music, and we‘ve built a product that matches their expectations for excellence across every screen that matters to them. Gaana on mobile is feature-rich and intuitive to use, and we intend to use this as a base to build even more functionality and offerings for our users, across all platforms.”

    According to the company, Gaana‘s mobile apps have been built to provide a full-service music experience, creating more depth than any offering available today. Some of its features include: access to over 1 million songs, including Bollywood, Hollywood, Tamil, Telegu, and regional music, Social listening: see what one‘s friends are listening to and My zone: an ability to see history, favorite songs, playlists, albums and artists across computer or mobile phone.

  • Govt wakes up to the power of social media, begins monitoring

    Govt wakes up to the power of social media, begins monitoring

    NEW DELHI: Stung by the campaigns on the social media both in the Delhi gang rape case as well as on the India-Pakistan exchange of fire on the Line of Control, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has set up a group to monitor the various social media channels on the internet.

    While the anti-corruption campaign and gang rape messages on the social media showed how people could be mobilised to come onto the streets, the campaign relating to the killing of two Indian soldiers also exposed the fragility of this medium to creating tensions between nations.

    It is learnt that the group has been instructed to give a weekly report to I&B Minister Manish Tewari on what the social media is saying on crucial issues. The team is tracking all social media including Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

    The ministry has not just begun monitoring the social media channels, but also increased its own presence on the internet. Even as it had earlier launched a page on Facebook on digitisation, the ministry as well as All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD) have created separate accounts on Twitter.

    The ministry also launched itself on YouTube late last year and publicised this at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in November. This can be downloaded on android phones and will soon be made available on other smart phones through a special download application.

    India has over 120 million Internet users – Twitter has about 16 million subscribers and Facebook over 60 million from India. The penetration of 3G will mean more exchange of data. Mobile sales may soon touch the 250 million mark in India.

  • YRF films now available on Spuul

    YRF films now available on Spuul

    Mumbai: Spuul.com, the streaming service for Indian movies and TV shows online, has announced an agreement with Yash Raj Films (YRF), to make the studio‘s movies instantly available on Spuul.

    Bollywood buffs worldwide can now watch YRF‘s movies like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Dil To Pagal Hai, Dhoom and Band Baaja Baaraat on their desktops and mobile devices with Spuul.

    According to the company, the proliferation of the internet, together with the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets, has catalysed demand for Indian movies online. Spuul is harnessing these trends to offer netizens, especially the young tech savvy users, the convenience of anytime, anywhere access to their favorites movies.

    Spuul South Asia head Prakash Ramchandani said, "It is great to partner with Yash Raj Films, a studio that has produced some of Indian cinema‘s finest and most memorable movies. From old classics like ‘Kabhi Kabhie‘ and ‘Silsila‘ to new-age smash-hits like ‘Ek Tha Tiger‘ and ‘Ishaqzade‘ we are delighted to offer our users such a robust collection of movies and will continue to work with our partners to regularly expand our offering."

    Yash Raj Films general manager – digital and new media Anand Gurnani said, "In line with the evolving digital landscape, we endeavor to have our content present on all legitimate digital touch-points globally. A digital distribution platform like Spuul, provides us a window to connect with our viewers and also enable them to access our evergreen catalogue of films at their convenience."

    Spuul has recently launched its app for Facebook, which allows users to watch full-length movies on Facebook while they chat, check feeds and notifications.

    Spuul is also available as a free mobile app for iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) and as a web service.

  • OTT opportunities emerge in South Asia as 2Mbps+ broadband subs set to double by 2017

    OTT opportunities emerge in South Asia as 2Mbps+ broadband subs set to double by 2017

    MUMBAI: Apple finally opened its iTunes Store in India in December, joining services such as BigFlix, NyooTV, Eros Now, hungama and DittoTV from Zee New Media. In Malaysia, pay-TV provider Astro has launched Astro-on-the-Go to compete with TonTon, Maaduu, DETV and Fine TV.

    But will flagging broadband speeds prove an insurmountable barrier for the development of OTT in the region? To answer this question, Farncombe undertook a study of the broadband markets in five key SEA developing countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Farncombe analysed fixed and mobile broadband service offers, technologies, nominal and actual bitrates and pricing plans.

    The company is a professional services firm offering technical and strategic support across all digital media sectors, with a focus on TV. Farncombe‘s study shows that around 30 per cent of the existing fixed broadband residential subscriptions offer speeds that are equal to or higher than 2Mbps – the threshold required by many OTT service providers for delivering video content to connected devices, including TVs.

    The company forecasts that this percentage will reach almost 50 per cent by the end of 2017 – with more than 25m fixed broadband connections ? 2Mbps across the six countries by then. India will lead, accounting for 28 per cent of the households in this segment, followed by Vietnam and Thailand.

    Farncombe‘s research shows that ADSL technology will remain the dominant fixed broadband technology in the region, but its share will drop from 84 per cent in 2012 to 65 per cent in 2017.

    Cable (especially in India) and FTTx will gradually increase their presence in the main cities and will increase with CAGR 2013-17 of 31 per cent and 36 per cent respectively. Wireless Broadband Access (mostly WiMax) and other technologies (e.g. Satellite, Ethernet, etc. ) will remain niche alternatives with limited market shares.

    Malaysia emerges in top position in terms of FTTx connections across the six SEA territories, with the average download bitrates increasing at a CAGR of 25 per cent in the final three years to 2017. However, the average bitrates in India, Indonesia and Vietnam are increasing at a CAGR of less than 10 per cent , bringing the average regional speed up to just 1.5Mbps by the end of last year.

    Most fixed broadband plans now include unlimited usage, unlike mobile packages, which are typically ‘capped‘ – an issue that still inhibits OTT usage over mobile broadband. Farncombe compared fixed and mobile broadband costs by looking at how much each charged ‘per Mbps‘, taking into account actual bitrates and mobile usage caps. The company found that on average mobile broadband users would have to cap their monthly use at 1-3Gb to obtain the same ‘per Mbps‘ price-performance as a fixed plan.

    Similar results were derived across all six markets, demonstrating that despite the significant increase in mobile broadband users – which we expect to reach nearly 0.5 billion subscribers by 2017 with a CAGR of 37% across the six countries – fixed broadband remains a much more cost-effective choice for video use.

    As competing two-way platforms will require substantial up-front investment, especially for countries with challenging landscapes like India, Indonesia and the Philippines, OTT platforms can offer significant opportunities for players in these regions to reach audiences and capture market share more cost-effectively and with tighter launch-schedules.

  • Amazon Instant Video available on Nintendo’s Wii Console

    Amazon Instant Video available on Nintendo’s Wii Console

    MUMBAI: Online retail major Amazon has announced the launch of its Instant Video app on Nintendo‘s Wii console, providing customers with access to the Amazon Instant Video library of more than 145,000 movies and TV episodes.

    The app is already available on Nintendo‘s new Wii U console that launched on 18 November and is being enjoyed across the US. In addition, the app gives Amazon Prime members access to more than 33,000 movies and TV episodes to stream at no additional cost.

    Amazon said that bringing the Amazon Instant Video app to the Wii console means that it is giving customers even more ways to easily and instantly watch the videos they want right at home.
    The free Amazon Instant Video app can be found in the Wii Shop Channel for customers to easily download and install on the console. The Wii Remote Plus controller lets customers easily browse and search for titles.

    Amazon.com VP of worldwide digital video Anthony Bay said, "We‘re focussed on providing our customers with many choices to make their entertainment experience enjoyable and as easy as possible – whether it‘s offering a wide selection of hit movies and popular TV shows, or a variety of ways to instantly stream all the content available in the Amazon Instant Video library.

    "Today, bringing the Amazon Instant Video app to the Wii console means we‘re giving our customers even more ways to easily and instantly watch the videos they want right at home."

    Nintendo US senior VP Network Business Duncan Orrell-Jones said, "Since it arrived in November of 2006, Wii has been a cultural phenomenon. With more than 40 million units purchased in the US alone, the addition of Amazon Instant Video means more choice across a significant portion of the American entertainment landscape."

    The Amazon Instant Video app for Wii provides customers with a comprehensive Amazon Instant Video experience including:

    • Instant streaming of more than 145,000 titles from the Amazon Instant Video library and more than 33,000 Prime Instant Video titles for Prime members
    • Smart lists such as Recently Watched, Watchlist, Genre Recommendations and Your TV Shows that allow customers to easily manage their viewing choices
    • Your Video Library gives customers access to purchases from Amazon Instant Video on the Wii or any of the hundreds of other devices enabled for Amazon Instant Video. For a list of compatible devices click here
    • Parental Controls and Kid Zone features that allow parents to manage access to age appropriate content and also easily navigate specific categories to find family-friendly programming by age
    • Whispersync lets customers seamlessly switch from one device to another. Start streaming a movie on Kindle Fire, then pick up right where you left off on your Wii console – avoid the frustration of having to find your spot

    The Amazon Instant Video app for Wii offers more than 145,000 movies and TV episodes to browse, buy, rent and stream, including the latest new release movies like The Dark Knight Rises, Brave, The Amazing Spider-Man, Taken 2, The Bourne Legacy, Marvel‘s The Avengers, ParaNorman, and Frankenweenie, and popular TV shows like The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, American Horror Story, Revolution, and Big Bang Theory. Most current TV shows can be purchased by individual episode or at a discount with a TV season pass.

    In addition to receiving free two-day shipping on millions of items and access to thousands of books from the Kindle Owners‘ Lending Library, Prime members can instantly stream more than 33,000 TV episodes and movies, all for just $79 a year. The Prime Instant Video library includes popular TV shows such as Fringe, Parks and Recreation, Downton Abbey, Parenthood, Glee, and The West Wing, new release movies such as Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Hugo, Thor, The Adventures of Tintin, The Expendables and Rango, and popular kids TV including SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, and Phineas and Ferb. Non-Prime members can start their free one-month trial.