Category: Technology

MUMBAI: On its one-year anniversary Xbox 360, is digitally delivering an initial lineup of TV shows and movies to gamers in the U.S. via Xbox Live, the online games and entertainment network from Microsoft.

Xbox Live Marketplace will now provide gamers with easy access to hundreds of full-length TV shows for download to own and movies for download to rent from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment with more content rolled out through Xbox Live Marketplace every week, asserts an official release.

Expected to be available in 37 countries, Xbox 360 continues to retain record game and accessory attachment rates, according to NPD.

Examples of the download-to-own TV shows and download-to-rent movies available on the network include the following:

– CSI, CSI: Miami,CSI: New York, NCIS and Star Trek from CBS

– Chappelle’s Show, Drawn Together and South Park from Comedy Central

– Pimp My Ride and Punk’d from MTV

– Avatar: The Last Airbender and SpongeBob SquarePants from Nickelodeon

– Skyland and Invader Zim from Nicktoons Network

– Chinatown, Star Trek VII: Generations, Patriot Games, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Sum of All Fears, The Untouchables and We Were Soldiers from Paramount Pictures

– Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Frisky Dingo, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Sealab 2021 and The Venture Bros. from Turner Broadcasting

– Some of the fights from Ultimate Fighting Championship

– Breaking Bonaduce and Hogan Knows Best from VH1

– Perfect Storm, Poseidon, The Shining, Three Kings and V for Vendetta, as well as The Nine and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip along with the CW show Veronica Mars from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Using the family settings feature, parents and individuals can choose the video content that can be played on their family’s Xbox 360. With the availability of this new entertainment content, gamers now can set controls based on movie, TV and video ratings, or they can entirely block explicit and unrated video content for themselves or their children, adds the release.

Pricing is competitive and will vary based on format, media type and whether the content is a new release movie or a classic feature film. High-definition TV shows will be 240 Microsoft points per episode, and standard-definition TV shows will be 160 Microsoft points per episode.

New release movies in high definition will be 480 Microsoft points, and standard-definition new release movies will be 320 Microsoft points each. Classic feature films in high definition will be 360 Microsoft points, and standard definition will be 240 Microsoft points. After purchasing a high-definition TV show or movie, gamers can download the standard-definition version at no additional charge.

Microsoft points can be purchased at retail or via Xbox Live. Gamers can get a 1600 Microsoft points card at retail for $19.99 or 1000 Microsoft points through Xbox Live for $12.50.

MUMBAI: SWAY Studio, one of North America’s visual effects studios has announced its contribution to the new U2 and Green Day music video titled The Saints are Coming.

For this production, SWAY has integrated many photo-real CG elements, including Harrier jets, Apache helicopters, Stealth Bombers and tanks into existing news footage from hurricane Katrina. The result is a thought-provoking and emotional video that shows what it might have looked like had the government responded differently to the disaster, asserts an official release.

Directed by Radical Media‘s Chris Milk this video was produced to raise funds for Gulf Coast musicians affected by the hurricane Katrina disaster. The Saints are Coming has been featured on newscasts such as CNN and is currently airing on VH1 and MTV. It can also be viewed online at mtv.com or vh1.com.

SWAY Studio owner and creative director Mark Glaser said, “This project had a very tight deadline of two and a half weeks from start to finish. This made our work particularly challenging because the CG elements that were integrated into existing news footage needed to have a very high degree of photorealism to be successful.”

SWAY’s main challenge was to make the Iraqi desert storm aircraft and tanks look like they were actually there in New Orleans for the rescue and mass evacuation. Every shot was scrutinised, worked and reworked to ensure its believability, adds the release.

“SWAY also added video degradation to the CG elements so that they would match the original footage, which varied substantially from shot to shot,” added Glaser.

SWAY utilized a variety of off-the-shelf and proprietary hardware and software to compete the project. The most prominently used tools were 3ds Max, V-Ray, Flame, NUKE and After Effects. All of the water effects were done using Real Flow 4.

All proceeds from the sale of The Saints are Coming will go to Music Rising, an instrument replacement fund for musicians located on the Gulf Coast.

MUMBAI: Telecom and broadband will be taking a centre-stage at Telecom and Broadband Summit and Expo 2006, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at the MMRDA Grounds, Mumbai on 23 and 24 November.

This year‘s theme is: India – The emerging telecom hub.

The event has been planned to be a platform bringing together the entire telecom and broadband industry under one floor, as they display some of their technologies, discuss the business opportunities explored and unfold the current issues and future challenges in the sector. The event will have three main sections: the exhibition, the summit and the CEO‘s round table, asserts an official release.

The exhibition will focus on the growth of broadband connectivity and other new technologies in areas such as cellular technology, wireless network, broadcasting, etc, as well as their impact on this emerging market that is rapidly growing in global significance. The event emphasises on the impact of emerging technologies in the real life business environment.

The summit will focus on mobile technology, business applications, next generation networks and broadband communications. It will focus and examine the opportunities existing for business to work in India and to achieve its goal in Telecom sector now and in long term, with the aim of accelerating its developments of convergent technologies and services.

The CEO‘s round table will be one of the highlights of the event, where the industry‘s top minds will gather to deliberate on key strategic issues, adds the release.

The event will have sessions on:

– E-governance
– WiMAX
– Broadband deployment
– NGN
– Mobile telephony
– Billing and CRM
– Digital entertainment

The visitors will primarily be engineers, technicians, buyers, production managers and sales managers from a diverse range of sectors including broadband and telecom.

MUMBAI: Sandy Media, publishers of two magazines, Theatre World and SoundSolutions – Asia‘s resource magazines on motion picture exhibition, and audio/acoustics technology applications respectively – is launching the second edition of Theatre AV Acoustics and Light (TAAL), to be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 1 to 3 December 2006.

The national capital is now the focus of global attention for trade and commerce and therefore is a befitting event location for TAAL. In fact, TAAL will now be hosted alternately in south and north India to sustain the national footprint.

This year the event will be a congregation of prospective cine-mall builders/multiplexes, performance space owners/builders from across Asia, and design professionals, consultants, manufacturers, integrators and people from entertainment industry from across the world, adds the release.

Commenting on TAAL, AV integration expert Kavy Pradeep said, “The tech sessions are too good, they have thrown up many questions which we are not even aware off. It is good that something like this is happening.”

TFEAC and CCFEA general secretary Abirami Ramanathan added, “Though the cinema exhibition industry has been witnessing tremendous changes in technology and management, most cinema owners in India are not aware of these changes. A convention and tradeshow such as TAAL would bring about the awareness.”

MUMBAI: Mobile gaming in Asia/Pacific has been successfully established, with revenues reaching $1.56 billion in 2005, reports In-Stat.

In-Stat analyst Bryan Wang said, “While there is great growth potential with expected increases in mobile subscribers and gaming-capable handsets, current problems are proving difficult to surmount.”

“In-Stat‘s user survey reflects low penetration of mobile games among Asia/Pacific mobile phone users. Fragmentation of the mobile gaming industry, revenue sharing issues, poor user experiences, competition from dedicated portable gaming devices, and game piracy are all issues needing to be addressed,” he added.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

— Mobile gaming in Asia/Pacific will reach $4.4 billion in 2010.

— 3G users spend 70 per cent more per month on mobile gaming than 2G users.

— Interest levels in mobile gaming are low, with more than half of both 2G and 3G users indicating they would be unlikely to play mobile games within the next six months.

The research, Mobile Gaming in Asia/Pacific: Room for Improvement, covers the market for mobile phone gaming in Asia/Pacific. It includes forecasts for mobile gaming revenues in the region, and in four major markets, through 2010. It also includes analysis of results of an In-Stat mobile phone user survey on attitudes and behavior regarding mobile gaming.

MUMBAI: BR Films forthcoming movie Baabul is being launched in form of a game, simultaneously on mobile and online games. Mauj is assigned for the mobile gaming and Gaming Humgama for online games.

The game was launched by the Babul star Amitabh Bachchan.

Commenting on the launch Amitabh Bachchan said, “The Babul game will definitely generate more interest in the film. Its completely new and unique platform to Bollywood as such games based on films involve the audiences actively, while also opening new revenue stream for the industry.”

Hungama MD and CEO Neeraj Roy said, “Gaming is one of the fastest growing avenues on the World Wide Web and is already the in thing among the youth of the country. There is huge potential for Hindi films to explore gaming as a promotional vehicle. Worldwide gaming is an integral part of the entertainment industry and will become a US$ 1 Billion industry in India by 2010”

BR Films business head Sanjay Bhutani added ” The game basically engages the player in the brand, the more he playes the deeper he gets involved in the product, which is very good for the promotion of the film.”

About the game

On Gaming Hungama

Player can play the game as Salman or John. He needs to find Rani Mukherjee who is hidden behind a door. There are in all eight characters including Rani and behind every door there can be any character, asserts an official release.

The game would be available on www.gaminghungama.com.

The Mobile Game

There are two mobile games that Mauj has launched, Babul-The Garland and Baabul-Shaadi Ki Rasam.

In the former once can choose to be John or Salman and has to try to garland Rani whereas the latter is based on finding coins in the water bowl.

The games can be downloaded by sending SMS BAABUL to 7007.The content will be available through both SMS and WAP platforms, adds the release.

MUMBAI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has proposed to direct-to-home (DTH) player Tata-Sky and Chennai-based broadcaster Sun TV Group that they resolve their dispute between themselves.

According to a tribunal official, the two parties are set to negotiate a potential settlement at a meeting in Chennai that is likely to take place by the end of week.

Nonetheless, the tribunal dispute forum has also drawn up the date for next hearing before adjourning the case to 29 November if the attempts to achieve a “lucid response” through the discussion fails.

Tata-Sky had moved the tribunal accusing the broadcaster of refusing supply of its bouquet of channels. The DTH player approached the disputes forum after repeated requests to provide the signals of the channels of Sun‘s bouquet of channels on “non-discriminatory terms” proved futile.

According to the norms laid down by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), all content should be made available to all delivery platforms on a nondiscriminatory basis.

Sun TV promoter Kalanithi Maran has set forth plans to enter the DTH space through the still to launch commercially Sun Direct TV. He runs a string of successful channels, which include SunTV, GeminiTV, SuryaTV, UdayaTV, KTV, TejaTV, UsheTV, KiranTV, AdithyaTV, Sun News, KiranTV, GeminiTV, TejaTV, Teja News, Udaya2 and Udaya News.

The price shot up to Rs 623.80 intraday before closing for the day at Rs 593.20, a hefty premium of 85 per cent with a volume of 7.8 million equity shares on BSE.

The volume on NSE was higher at 11.6 million equity shares, taking the total volume on both the exchanges to 19.4 million equity shares on the very first day.

The company would use issue proceeds to purchase or lease real estate for their office, to acquire companies and use alternative delivery models such as messages through mobiles, etc. ICICI Securities and Citigroup Global Markets India were the book running lead managers to the issue.

The company entered the capital market on 30 October with an IPO of 5.32 million equity shares in the price band of Rs 290 to Rs 320 per equity share. The issue closed on 2 November. The issue constitutes 19.5 per cent of the fully diluted post issue paid-up equity capital of the company.

Info Edge wants to maintain its position as the leading provider of online recruitment solutions in India and further enhance its position as one of the leading providers of internet based matrimonial services. In addition, it seeks to diversify into and establish a position of leadership in the diverse spectrum of the online classified market and also to create such markets in those segments, which are currently catered to by the print media only.

In order to achieve these objectives, it will continue emphasis on innovation and customization of its products and services, enhance and diversify its advertising revenue streams, leverage offline relationships and diversify into providing online classified services in new market segments.

Presently its business activities are limited to primarily providing information exchange services in the recruitment, matrimonial and real estate markets; and the activities are concentrated in India.

Now the Company proposes to diversify into other segments of the online classifieds market such as automobile products, educational products and industrial products and expand its present business to the countries in the Middle East and in South Asia. It also intends to start several initiatives to enhance the features and qualities of its currently existing products and services.

MUMBAI : Asian giants India and China have reached a ground-breaking agreement to promote cooperation in civil nuclear energy. Maybe they should now consider extending that cooperation to space exploration as well.

Four months ago, the launch of India‘s first commercial communications satellite from home soil ended in failure after the the three-stage 414-tonne launch vehicle GSLV-F02 veered off course soon after lift-off, and ultimately crashed into the Bay of Bengal. The GSLV-F02 was carrying the state-of-the-art communication satellite Insat-4C, the second satellite in the Insat-4 series.

China, meanwhile, suffered a setback of a different sort after its first direct-to-home broadcasting satellite, failed less than 10 days after launch, the South China Morning Post reported. While the launch of SinoSat-2, China‘s first domestically made satellite, went off smoothly, the satellite‘s solar panel faily shortly after it went into orbit, the newspaper reported, quoting sources familiar with the situation. The satellite has suffered a serious power failure and appeared beyond repair, the report added.

At the time of launch, the Chinese government-run Xinhua News Agency had said SinoSat-2 would help to provide a broader coverage of TV signals and allow more digital and live broadcast TV services across the country.

SinoSat-2 had been hyped as a broadcaster of digital television signals to China‘s rural areas with no access to cable, and was meant to offer services directly to some 100 million households.

Also Read:
Insat-4C satellite launch fails; Sun‘s DTH plans hit