Category: Technology

MUMBAI: Renowned CGI and VFX supervisor Ben Cowell-Thomas has joined the Mumbai commercials division of Prime Focus.

In his new role, Ben would be responsible for overseeing seamless delivery of VFX commercials in Mumbai.

Ben will work along with creative directors Huzefa Lokhadwala and Prakash Kurup to expand Prime Focus’ recently revamped Khar facility. In addition, he will further develop the international production pipeline working with Juan Pablo Brockhaus, recently appointed VFX supervisor in London, and Jake Braver managing VFX supervisor at the newly launched New York facility.

Ben has created award winning commercials and short films across a wide variety of media including CG, live action, stop-motion and interactive. Awards to his credit include a Grand Prize (Ottawa), BTAA Silver Award, Grand Prize (International 3D Awards) and an Oscar nomination. His work has taken him around the world with stints at Condor Post in London, Ambience Entertainment in Sydney, Australia and as a 3D Animation and VFX lecturer for Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore.

Some of the recent projects Ben has been involved in include Intel The Chase, Honda This Unpredictable Life, Coca Cola Avatar, Coca Cola Videogame and Toyota Scion Transformer.

Said Prime Focus co-founder and creative director Huzefa Lokhandwala, “Ben’s appointment is of great essence to us. His talent and invaluable experience will complement the incredible talent we already have at our VFX Studio. We look forward expanding our Khar VFX offering with Ben on board.”

Said Prime Focus VP for films and commercials in India Niraj Sanghai, “Ben joining the team in India is of great significance not only to what it will bring to our Mumbai offering, but also to our global offering. The appointment of Ben, Juan and Jake at our key offices in Mumbai, London and New York respectively will allow us to present high-end creativity to local markets whilst utilising our Global Digital Pipeline to unite these cities.”

MUMBAI: Jump Games, Reliance Entertainment Digital‘s mobile and web games developer and publisher, has launched a series of games under the title ‘Indian Warriors’.

Indian Warrior allows gamers to adapt a role of their favourite freedom fighter- be it Shivaji Maharaj , Rani Lakshmi Bai, Bhagat Singh or Tipu Sultan.

Each of this individual game is based on their favourite freedom fighter and will offer circumstances and situation to escape death from the Britishers. It will offer a glimpse of freedom fighter’s life.

Jump Games business head India Chaitanya Prabhu said, “This series is been made in conjunction to the Border War series. With Border War we got the insight that Indians love to be a part of freedom fights and games based on patriotism evoke a very strong emotion. Hence Jump Games is once again living up to its motto of Think Global – Play Local. We are expecting the series to hit some great numbers on all leading operators and on Nokia Stores.”

The game will be available on all leading operators like Vodafone, BSNL, Idea, Docomo. Priced at Rs 50, it has been made for Java, Blackberry and Android technologies.

The various features of the game series are a classic arcade game with very vivid and crystal clear graphics; two game modes; simple controls for pick-up and play; innovative power-ups; and easy to use controls.

NEW DELHI: ZengaTV, offering 2.5 G mobile video streaming, has entered into a partnership with ETV to make all the 12 ETV channels available for free.

Zenga TV claims 55 million video views month on month at an average viewership of over 12 minutes.

ZengaTV CEO Shabir Momiin said, “it is a proud moment for us as this addition of 12 channels from the ETV Group now takes our offering of channels close to 100. This partnership has further strengthened our commitment to offer our viewers the best of entertainment through mobile screens including mobiles, laptops and tabs. The 12 channels from ETV group gives us the chance to offer viewers regional channels and to reach out to those who are more glued to channels pertaining to their mother tongue. Our focus in future will be to add more regional channels to our platform.”

ETV Network‘s bouquet consists of 12 regional channels: ETV Telugu, ETV2, ETV Bangla, ETV Marathi, ETV Kannada, ETV Oriya, ETV Gujarati, ETV Urdu, ETV Uttar Pradesh, ETV Rajasthan, ETV Bihar and ETV Madhya Pradesh.

ZengaTV is an operator agnostic service and can be accessed through any mobile operators as well as on the web.

MUMBAI: iMusti.com, an audio and video content provider, has partnered Shemaroo Entertainment to distribute the latter‘s collection of more than 500 classic Hindi as well as contemporary titles on DVDs and VCDs in USA and Canada.

The online content provider will also sell Shemaroo’s regional collection including those in Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Bengali albums.

Said Shemaroo Entertainment Director Hiren Gada, “We have been making constant efforts to be present on every platform wherever our consumers are present. Through this tie up we will offer original high quality content on an affordable price point.”

MUMBAI: Tata Docomo, the telecom brand of Tata Teleservices (TTL), has announced the launch of first of its kind e-commerce initiative by a telecom company.

The company has introduced a Twitter application for its GSM pre-paid customers that will allow them to recharge and activate a Value added service/ application through Twitter with the use of hashtags.

The e-commerce initiative, called Twittcom, has been developed by the team at TTL.

TTL head of brand marketing Ritesh Ghosal said, “As a brand, Tata Docomo has always differentiated itself with its innovations, whether it is 1p/sec pricing for calls, or advertising, efforts have always been made to add value to the lives of consumers. With the increasing consumption of Internet and the rise of social media it makes ample sense to be present on the medium where people are spending time at present or they are likely to spend time in the future. Our community on Facebook is amongst the strongest in the world and Twitter too will reach the same levels quite soon.”

For registering their numbers, customers have to go to the twitter handle of the company @tatadocomo, type in #reg and they will receive a pin code for verification through SMS. Once the verification code is received, customers need to go to the twitter handle again, key in #code and they will get a retweet confirming registration.

For activating value added services, a customer needs to go to the handle (@tatadocomo) and key in #act#. They will get a tweet back confirming activation of the service.

MUMBAI: Digital agency Red Digital has created a TweetMob for PVR Cinemas in their attempt to engage “Twitterati”.

According to the company, the result of the TweetMob was that PVR became the most talked about thing on twitter for the day- across India in a short span of 60 minutes.

Red Digital is expected to further build and execute strategies that will help PVR Cinemas reach and engage their target audience. It will play a key role in generating online buzz on new movie screenings at the multiplex, by launching various campaigns and hosting engagement activities.

Red Digital co-founder and managing director Harsh Jain said, “Social media provides seamless opportunities for brands. We are glad to have a partnership with PVR, which opens up a new array of interaction for us. Red Digital is focused on taking the exclusive PVR experience to the online world. We plan to focus on high levels of engagement for PVR fans and create a convergence for them between the online and offline worlds. Our innovative ‘TweetMobs‘, which take the concept of Flash Mobs to Twitter, have proved Red Digital‘s ability to focus on digital innovation aimed at bringing value to our clients.”

PVR Cinemas group president Pramod Arora added, “Realising the immense power and the connect that the medium has with Youth, there was no better time to start than the release of our home production Shanghai which will be hitting theatres on June 8. We are pleased to partner with Red Digital for this initiative to ensure there is a high level of engagement and traction for PVR Cinemas as a brand. PVR is India‘s leading lifestyle entertainment provider and we want to entrust the same experience for our fans and followers in the digital world too. The phenomenal response to our first activity on twitter clearly indicates the love and connect that people have with our brand. ‘Happy Movie Days‘ have just begun in an all new fashion.”

Red Digital had launched two hash-tags: #PVRFriday and #PVRTweetHour for PVR Cinemas under the aegis of ‘Men in Black-3‘ (MIB3) and ‘Shanghai‘. Using #PVRFriday, Twitterati were asked to Tweet who their favorite agent was between Agent J and Agent K in the MIB series and why? The Twitter handle of PVR Cinemas (@_pvrcinemas) trended in India and reached over 86,170 Twitter users, the company said.

#PVRTweetHour was used for promoting the movie Shanghai (a PVR Pictures release) in a span of 60 minutes with 10 questions that were tagged with #PVRTweetHour. As per the company, before the end of those 60 minutes, the hash-tag saw over 281,761 PVR branded impressions within an hour, and reached 34,142 twitter users. The activity saw close to 4,700 PVR branded impression being seen every minute for one hour.

MUMBAI: LazyCounty.com, a free online entertainment content provider has launched. It offers social networking, online communications and entertainment which encompass a TV, radio and a games station at one platform.

LazyCounty.com allows users to create their own radio channel and earn some money while at it. Positioned as India’s first and only free of cost digital TV showcasing over thousands of national and international TV channels apart from thousands of radio stations, and games (both national and international), LazyCounty.com aims to take it to another level with the mobile interface which is accessible through any mobile device in the world enabled with basic GPRS connectivity.

The core idea was based on one observation that individuals are basically too lazy to look for different websites to cater to our tastes in music, television or essentially any other form of entertainment. The Social Broadcast channel allows a user to simply register and broadcast himself on his very own channel, whether a lecturer to his students across the globe or a CEO to his employees across offices. LazyCounty.com aims to connect entertainment and friends from the world over through one single window. Now a user can view and share unlimited music, movies, shows, concerts, lectures, conversations etc for free of cost.

Lazycounty.com CEO Ankur Sachdeva said, “We are glad to introduce a platform where a billion mobile internet users (GSM/CDMA) across the world apart from 381.40 million in India can combine the power of mobility with that of digital TV, Radio and Games. By reaching out to maximum users, we wish to verify the potential of the unlimited range of entertainment provided by this portal in the Indian market. We are aiming at entertaining at least over 100 million subscribers over the next 2 years.”

LazyCounty.com also offers an application called ‘Hear Me Out’. This setting allows a user to create their own radio station by uploading audio tracks of their choice.

One can also Live Chat with friends while sports teams battle it out, comment on an international movie and share reviews on the go, enjoy a few hours daily with ones own radio station and connect with friends all over the world. With over 100 million users being able to access chat from any mobile device, Lazy Messenger (LM) is all set to give IM Services a run for their money within the next two years.

MUMBAI: The promoters are upping their stake marginally in Indusind Media & Communication Ltd (IMCL) to 93 per cent, after converting preference shares into equity.

The government has permitted the Hinduja-owned company, which runs the cable TV business under the Incablenet brand, to convert seven-year cumulative non-convertible redeemable preference shares into equity.

Amas Mauritius, a promoter group company, had earlier invested Rs 740 million in IMCL, a source said. The cost per share works out to Rs 121 as preference shares being issued is 6.1 million.

With the equity being expanded, the other shareholders will get marginally diluted. IndusInd Bank holds 5.8 per cent and Kudelski, a leading digital security and convergent media solutions company for delivery of digital and interactive content, around 2.2 per cent.

The company had applied for FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) clearance. With the FIPB giving its nod, the decks are cleared for the promoters to increase their stake marginally in IMCL.

The media subsidiary company of listed entity Hinduja Ventures Ltd is gearing up for digitisation and recently acquired controlling stake in two small-sized cable networks in Kolkata. It already has a strong presence in Mumbai and Delhi, the other two metros which fall under the first phase of government-mandated digitisation. In Chennai, the fourth metro to come under digitisation in the first stage, Incablenet does not have a presence.

IMCL, which has a pan India cable TV presence, is toying with the idea of a reverse merger that would enable it to list and raise funds up to Rs 5 billion through qualified institutional placement (QIP). Earlier, the company had plans to raise $100 million ahead of an initial public offering (IPO).

IMCL posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 632 million on a total Income of Rs 4.81 billion for the year ended March 2012.

Also Read:
IndusInd Media mulls listing via reverse merger

IMCL sets foot in Kolkata, acquires two cable networks

IndusInd Media plans to raise $100 mn ahead of IPO

Mumbai: Reliance Home Video and Games, a Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company, has tied up with a Japanese game developer, Namco Bandai, to distribute and promote movie based games in India.

As per the deal, the two companies will first launch a game based on ‘Madagascar 3 – Europe‘s Most Wanted‘.

It will launch around the release of the movie in India, and will be available on both, PS3 and Xbox 360. It will allow the gamers to travel across Europe and also enable them to play as one of their favourite Madagascar characters in a combination of action, adventure, and circus party.

Reliance Home Video and Games operates in the toys and games licensing and merchandising industry.

Reliance Home Video and Games COO Sweta Agnihotri said, “We are happy to have Namco Bandai on board with us for their movie based games. Namco Bandai is a leading player in the gaming industry, with a diverse portfolio, since a long time. With this alliance we are looking forward to working with them and bring to India the best of games across categories.”

Namco Bandai general manager Kelvin Seah added, “We are happy to be associated with Reliance Home Video and Games in India. The company has a very strong distribution network in India and we hope to continue this association in the future.”

Madagascar 3 – Europe‘s Most Wanted will be available at bookstores like Landmark, Crossword and e-commerce portals like Flipkart, amongst others.

MUMBAI: NDS, the technology solutions provider for digital pay-TV, has been appointed by ADN Networks to provide the enabling technologies to support the launch of its digital cable TV service in central and Western Delhi.

The company will provide an end-to-end technology suite including MediaHighway set-top box software, VideoGuard conditional access, a customised electronic programme guide (EPG) and a host of interactive functionality such as games and TV applications, including regional content, to compliment ADN‘s current channel offering.

NDS will also enable additional revenue streams by providing regional advertising capabilities via the EPG home page and banner ads supported by NDS Dynamic Advanced Advertising technology.

NDS India country head & GM Jayant Changrani said, “With the digitisation of cable TV in India rapidly progressing, cable operators are looking to swiftly migrate their existing platforms to digital. This announcement underlines our commitment to provide operators with the enabling technology to meet the government‘s digitisation mandate and enable a superior subscriber offering.”

Established in 2000, ADN Networks has a subscriber base in central and Western Delhi. ADN Networks director Tejinder Chawla said, “With its raft of innovative, affordable technologies and strong support framework, we are confident that NDS is the right technology provider to enable the launch our digital cable TV services.”