Category: Technology

MUMBAI: Conax, a global provider of solutions for protecting multi-device content distribution, announced it has strengthened its Latin America strategy, adding additional regional sales, pre sales and support resources.

This week at Jornadas Internacionales, the company will introduce its new brand launched recently at IBC Expo to the LatAm market – a new profile and updated approach for enabling multi-media content distributors to establish their position within highly diversified markets. Conax will also feature its Conax Xtend Multiscreen solution throughout the show.

Conax Xtend Multiscreen will enable operators of all sizes to easily integrate support for multiscreen and OTT services to broadcast operations. The highly cost efficient solution will considerably reduce time-to-market for delivering new services to connected devices such as Catch-up, Network PVR, VOD, Live broadcast and more.
 
Conax VP Americas Rohit Mehra said, “In addition to energized new branding and our new multiscreen solution, Conax has a revitalized organisation in place and has added additional resources to its Latin America team. With a well-established customer portfolio, our highly forward-thinking partnering approach and new offerings, Conax is guiding long-term customers looking to define a new roadmap for launching advanced services – ensuring while taking these new steps that their business and content revenues are secure.”

Mumbai: BigFlix, online Movie on Demand service from Reliance Entertainment Digital, has announced its new offering of a collection of Malayalam movies.

Classics like CID Nazir, Chembarathy and Agni Pareeksha and films like Mazhatethum, Manathe Kottaram and Moonam Pakkam that were made for International audiences will also feature in the catalogue.

According to the company, these full length feature films can be watched in a “DVD like print quality” on preferred smart device sans any advertising with one login and more can be availed by subscribing in to BIGFLIX.

BigFlix offers this service on laptops, tabs and mobile phones of Windows, iOS and Android users at Rs 249 per month ($4.99 for international subscribers).

Reliance Entertainment Digital CEO Manish Agarwal said, “Being the first mover in the video-on-demand space, our aim has always been to offer our subscribers the widest range of movies on a single platform. In addition to Bollywood, movies from South India, especially Malayalam, have a high interest from online users. Our new Malayalam catalogue features both recent hits and classics giving subscribers ample variety in terms of content. While we are currently launching with 200 movies, over the next few months we will expand our Malayalam catalogue to over 500 movies.”

The Malayalam catalogue which is available to viewers from 25 September features films like Mission 90 Days, Boeing Boeing, Nadodikkaatu, Thenmavin Kombath, Aaryan.

MUMBAI: Sports entertainment company WWE has announced a multi-year agreement that will bring WWE programming to Hulu Plus.

Hulu Plus will offer WWE fans unlimited instant streaming access, additional content and programming on-the-go, as it becomes the exclusive home for next-day access to all WWE TV programming. Hulu Plus subscribers can also go to Hulu Latino to see WWE‘s digital show, ‘WWE En Espa?ol‘, the Spanish-language magazine programme that recaps WWE‘s most exciting moments each week.

Hulu Plus delivers one more way for WWE fans to access content and experience the WWE, offering the chance to relive or catch up on all of the action from WWE‘s weekly television programmes the next day. Subscribers can access content across mobile phones, tablets, PCs, internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes (STBs) and gaming consoles. In addition, the Hulu Plus subscription service offers hit TV shows and award-winning movies anytime in HD when available for $7.99/month.
 
WWE chairman, CEO Vince McMahon said, “As a clear leader in digital content delivery, Hulu is an ideal partner for WWE. Hulu delivers more ways for our fans to experience WWE programming than ever before.”

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Tribunal (Tdsat) has scuttled a proposed move to switch off genre-wise analogue signals of television channels before the 1 November deadline for digitisation in the four metros.

The Tdsat has sent a strong message to multi-system operators (MSOs) that they cannot switch off analogue delivery of any popular channel to force cable TV consumers to buy digital set top boxes (STBs) well in time for a complete switch over to digital delivery from 1 November.

TDSAT has directed that a senior official of the Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (BECIL) be appointed to make surprise checks at the premises of MSOs named in a petition by ESPN Software.

The sports broadcaster had alleged that MSOs had stopped re-transmission of signals of its channels – ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket — with a view to ensure the order of the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry for digitisation of all networks in Delhi is implemented.

At the same time, Tdsat chairman S B Sinha and member P K Rastogi observed that there cannot be any doubt or dispute that a broadcaster cannot indirectly put pressure on MSOs or local cable operators to place its channel on higher frequencies without payment of any placement charges or carriage charges.

TDSAT also refused to allow the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to be impleaded at this stage, having regard to the fact that it has already taken cognizance of the complaints made by the petitioner ESPN.

The matter has now been listed to come up after four weeks, with the report of the commissioner on the inspection carried out at the premises of DEN, Hathway, WWIL and INCable.

The bench noted that there was no reason to disbelieve the MSOs who had denied the charges, particularly as ESPN is the sole distributor of some important international sporting events.

However, TDSAT felt that BECIL being a public sector undertaking, it may be asked to appoint a senior official to go as commissioner not only to visit the head-ends of the respondent MSOs but also make some surprise inspections.

The Commissioner may also, if necessary, obtain the technical assistance of the parties. It was made clear that the fees and other expenses incurred by the BECIL shall be borne by the petitioner.

Also read:

Channels may be pulled out genre-wise from analogue before 1 Nov

MUMBAI: 9XO, the international music channel from 9X Media, is launching an international online music store in association with Techzone, aggregators, developers, publishers and distributors of Entertainment content.

The online store will be called www.9XO.56060.in.

It has collection of the “best” of international music which can be downloaded by music enthusiasts on to their computers and personal devices, the company said.

Besides the international music store, 9XO in association with Techzone has also created WAP Portal to download videos, wallpapers, ring tones and audio packs 9X Media SVP- digital Vibha Gosher said, “9XO viewers can now consume the best international music through the online store and the WAP portal. The availability of a large repertoire of international songs on the store will definitely make it the preferred destination for international music enthusiasts.”

The 9X Jalwa WAP portal revives the golden era of music where users can browse and download the Timeless Bollywood Hits from movies including Sholay, Abhimaan, Silsila, etc. The WAP destination offers full Songs, Dialogues, Wallpapers, Videos, and Audio Packs,” Gosher added.

Techzone director Naveen Bhandari said, “Our users are mobile and internet savvy and the online store is a part of our efforts to make the entire gamut of international music available to consumers legally and at a very affordable price. Besides, we have also launched a WAP portal for 9X Jalwa offering Timeless Bollywood Hits. We are sure to delight our users with the large library of songs and video titles available through our online store and on our WAP portal.”

MUMBAI: 7Seas Entertainment has signed an agreement with India based mobile games distribution company, Mauj Mobile and their global apps store Mobango for distribution of its Android-based mobile games in India.

The games are ‘The Dark Man‘ and ‘Full Fill‘. While ‘The Dark Man‘ is a physics-based puzzle game, ‘Full Fill ‘ is an arcade game.

7Seas Entertainment Limited MD L Maruti Shanker said, “We are delighted to be working with Mauj as they are pioneers in providing mobile internet services in India. With the mobile gaming industry being an attractive market in India, we are planning to enter into more channel distribution tie-ups in India.”
 
‘The Dark Man‘ challenges the user to get through each level till 30 levels. In this game, the player dons the role of an archer and there are different interesting targets (apples) on the characters‘ heads. The player needs to shoot the apples off their heads without shooting the characters. If the player misses the target and gets to shoot the person, the player fails to move to the next level.

‘Full Fill‘ game contains 100 levels. The aim of the game is to fill at least 75 percent of the space with shaped objects to complete a level. The player can enjoy the game in two modes- Level Mode and Challenge Mode. In the Level mode, the gamer has to fill one-third of the area with the given lives. Other game modes include ‘Time challenge mode‘, ‘Life challenge mode‘, ‘Number challenge mode‘ and ‘Shape challenge mode‘.

MUMBAI: Technology Community Portal from Times, TechGig.com, has launched its mobile webapp – m.techgig.com for easy access to the latest news, tests and webinars in the technology space.

The webapp aims to cater to the mobile demands of the community of Indian Techies.

TechGig Mobile is a culmination of everything related to technology, a mobile platform exclusively for IT professionals to synergise, share, exchange ideas, facts and information as well as showcase their work and express their views on the vast repertoire that the IT industry encompasses.
 
TechGig Mobile head of mobility Saurabh Goel said, “We are highly focused on collaborative learning and sharing, hence our mobile solutions have social integration for easy sharing of articles, webinars, tests etc on your social network so that your friends and peers can always be up-to date. With the mobile platform joining the plethora of tools on TechGig including our popular tech webinars, hand-picked technology news, challenging skill tests, dedicated skill based forums and much more, it‘s definitely a place where technology enthusiasts have a lot to learn and a lot to share.”

MUMBAI: TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm, has completed a buyout of SpeedCast, a leading global network and satellite communications service provider, from Asia Satellite Telecommunications.

SpeedCast provides very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite-based broadband access services, managed networking solutions and value-added services in more than 30 countries primarily in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

SpeedCast‘s customers include telecom carriers, Internet service providers, governments and non-governmental organisations, and other enterprises requiring communication services in locations where wire-based communication is not possible or practical, or where mobility is required.

Through its SeaCast offering, the company serves the broadband needs of the maritime and offshore oil and gas industries. The company utilises 16 teleports (satellite ground stations) across the globe and more than 20 VSAT hubs, and operates eight sales and support centers.

Founded in 1999, SpeedCast is headquartered in Hong Kong, with offices in Beijing, Singapore, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The multi-system operators (MSOs) are considering the option of pulling channels out of the analogue cable system genre-wise in phases, ahead of the digitisation deadline of 1 November in the four metros.

The meeting was held under the aegis of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials along with the broadcasters.

The ‘knock-out‘ channels would be available for consumers only through digital set-top boxes (STBs). The idea is to give digitisation a push and make consumers realise that they will have to buy digital STBs to view television programmes after 31 October in the metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

“We discussed about how to make digitisation a reality this time. One of the ideas discussed was removing channels genre-wise before 1 November,” a source said on condition of anonymity.

The government has mandated the shutting down of analogue cable TV by 31 October midnight in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

“The idea has been conceptually appreciated broadly by the broadcasters and the MSOs. The I&B officials were listening to the suggestions,” the source added.

What this means in effect is that a particular genre of channels will not be available on analogue cable in the four metros in different time periods before 1 November.

“This will push consumers to buy STBs. The start would be in some genre, followed by others in succession. This way the broadcaster will also not feel that it is being punished unfairly,” the source said.

The implementation of this will, however, not be easy. “Carrying this on the weaker genres may be easy, though it will require some convincing from the ‘victim‘ channels. The tougher genres will resist. Let us also not forget that we are approaching the festive season and there is a general slowdown in the market,” said a media analyst.

Meanwhile, the Government today reiterated that there would be no further extension of the sunset date for switching off analogue systems and asked broadcasters to spell out their strategies for going digital.

I&B Ministry officials today held a meeting with representatives of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and stressed that digital STBs must be in place in every cable home by 31 October.

The broadcasters were asked to get back to the Ministry on the exact situation on the STBs seeded by the MSOs they work with.

Apart from I&B Joint Secretary Supriya Sahu, Director (Broadcast Policy and Legislation) Rejji Mohan was also present on behalf of the Ministry.

The meeting was attended by Multi Screen Media CEO Man Jit Singh, Dish TV MD Jawahar Goel, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) MD and CEO Puneet Goenka, Den Networks CEO S N Sharma and President (Legal & Regulatory) at Zee Network A Mohan.

NEW DELHI: Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal today said there would be no restrictions whatsoever on the use of internet.

Addressing a curtain raiser ceremony of ‘India Internet Governance Conference (IIGC)‘ to be held next month here, he appealed to the stakeholders to help evolve a consensus so that a clear-cut roadmap could be developed for the sector. The curtain raiser was organised by FICCI in association with Ministry of Communications & IT and Internet Society.

Sibal described the internet as an indispensable tool for governance in a free democracy, a tool that could help deliver services to the people transparently and eliminate the go-betweens between the government and the people.

The theme of IIGC is ‘Internet for Social and Economic Development: Building the Future Together‘ which would provide a platform for an open and inclusive policy dialogue involving the government, business, civil society, technical community and academia. It will traverse a wide range of topics: from network neutrality, to global internet governance models; from effective management of the transition to IPv6, to making broadband access available to all; from the challenges the internet poses to traditional media, to the challenges hate speech online poses for all.

R Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications & information Technology, Government of India, stated that internet today impacts both the users and non-users. With the use of internet, public interest is at stake and all stakeholders need to reconcile the divergent issues and then take them up appropriately at the international forum.

N Ravi Shankar, Administrator, USOF and CEO, Bharat Broadband Project, said that under Sibal‘s guidance National Optical Fibre Network for Broadband Connectivity to Panchayats and National Telecom Policy 2012 have been rolled out to embrace the internet revolution in the country. The National Optical Fibre Network has been termed as a Public-Private-Panchayat partnership as the effort is to connect the village Panchayats with the rest of the country.

Anu Madgavkar, India Head and Senior Fellow, McKinsey Global Institute, remarked, “India ranks low when it comes to internet penetration and contributes directly 1.6 per cent of GDP which amounts to $30 billion. It could reach $100 billion by 2015 if we are able to connect the nation virtually.”

To achieve this target five things needed are: internet reaching the smaller towns, cities and villages; reduction in total cost of ownership; enabling large scale digital literacy; increase in the range of internet use in new areas and a favourable business environment.

FICCI Vice President Sidharth Birla pointed out the challenges that internet is posing today. With the increased penetration of internet, we need higher standards of governance to ensure cyber security. The stakeholders should aim to provide broadband accessibility at a reasonable price, he said.

Virat Bhatia, Chairman, Communications & Digital Economy Committee, FICCI, said, “The Government‘s initiative ‘Bharat Broadband‘ can only be successful if it goes out of Delhi and reaches the interiors of the country.”

FICCI, he said, had already initiated a drive under which multi-stakeholder meetings were being organised with respect to internet governance. He invited all stakeholders to participate and voice their opinions and concerns freely in the conference to be held in October.