Category: Technology

MUMBAI: UK based — Packet Vision, the addressable IPTV advertising specialist, will commercially launch its new TV advertising delivery platform in September at the International Broadcasting Convention 2006 (IBC2006).

The exhibition will kick off from 8 September and culminate on 12 September at Amsterdam.

The platform has been designed to enable both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ advertising: enabling ads to be highly personalized to match viewer demographics, even down to individual household level, and allowing subsequent viewer interaction that is much more sophisticated than is currently possible, according to an official statement.

“Addressable IPTV advertising has huge potential but its development has been hampered by the lack of appropriate technology to deliver it,” says Packet Vision managing director Patrick Christian. “Our platform makes it possible for TV advertising to achieve the level of personalization that tends to be associated more with the internet: not only in how ads are carried and the ways in which consumers can interact with them, but also with regard to their measurability ­ which can be instant and precise.”

The release adds that the demonstrations of the network-based Packet Vision delivery platform, which combines all the functions of video server, splicer, IP router and management system in a small, scalable unit, will be available throughout IBC2006.

Christian envisages that the platform will appeal to a wide range of advertisers, network operators and broadcasters: “It makes TV advertising feasible even for smaller niche or locally-oriented businesses, as well giving large advertisers an easy platform on which sophisticated and highly interactive ad campaigns can be built.”

He adds, “We have taken some lessons from the highly successful internet advertising model and our business model will make it possible even for smaller network operators and those without advertising sales operations to generate income from television advertising.”

MUMBAI: The online digital sheet music, Musicnotes.com, has announced a new, long-term distribution agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

According to an official release, Musicnotes.com will produce and sell digital sheet music and guitar tablature for songs from throughout Sony/ATV‘s extensive catalog.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a joint venture between Sony and Michael Jackson joins an impressive list of music publishers and administrators already offering sheet music for their artists on the Musicnotes.com web site. These publishers include Alfred Music Publishing (encompassing the Warner/Chappell catalog), BMG, Zomba, EMI Christian, Word Music and dozens of additional publishers.

Musicnotes.com will offer digital sheet music downloads for songs from Sony/ATV‘s impressive roster of songwriters. This sheet music includes songs written by Beck, Sarah McLachlan, Richie Sambora, Gretchen Wilson, Stevie Nicks, Oasis, KT Tunstall and Fall Out Boy — as well as the seminal rock and roll group, The Beatles.

“As a music publisher, we are always looking for new and innovative ways to promote our songs and songwriters,” said Sony/ATV chairman and CEO David Hockman. “We are delighted to work directly with Musicnotes.com, whose expertise and large, loyal customer base makes them the clear leader in the digital sheet music marketplace.”

As a result of the agreement, the official release adds that Musicnotes will also be offering guitarists a wide selection of interactive lessons for Sony/ATV‘s songs in Musicnotes‘s popular Guitar Guru Sessions(TM) format.

“The addition of Sony/ATV‘s song catalog to our site is wonderful news for our customers,” said Musicnotes CEO, Kathleen Marsh. “These songs represent some of the best-known and adored works of all-time, and we are extremely excited to work with Sony/ATV in allowing musicians to learn to play these works using our market leading format.”

MUMBAI: The IPTV company, Kasenna has announced that Cavalier Telephone and TV, a telecommunications services provider, has gone live with the United State‘s first MPEG-4-based (H.264) Broadband TV service, powered by Kasenna‘s PortalTV solution.

Kasenna PortalTV, integrated with other MPEG-4 video elements, such as video headend, encryption system, network equipment and set top boxes, has enabled Cavalier to deploy an end-to-end MPEG-4 based broadcast-quality video network.

This will have a Triple-Play package including advanced features such as on-screen caller ID, Broadcast TV and VOD.

According to an official release, Kasenna PortalTV combines streaming server, middleware, management, client, and content offerings into the end-to-end, pre-integrated IPTV solution. The fully interactive electronic program guide lets Broadband TV customers smoothly move through the service suite; from setting parental controls and viewing on-screen caller ID, to watching broadcast, pay-per-view and VOD programs.

“Cavalier offers a world-class, broadcast-quality, interactive television service that gives consumers much greater degree of interactivity and much higher video quality, “said Kasenna CEO Kumar Shah. “We are delighted that Cavalier has chosen PortalTV, the industry‘s first MPEG-4 based IPTV infrastructure, to deliver their customized, advanced Broadband TV services.”

Cavalier CEO Brad Evans said, “Our mission is to deliver a superior and interactive television experience with the industry‘s most advanced voice, video and data services. We are very proud to be the first service provider in the US that has rolled out MPEG-4 based Interactive Broadband TV. Kasenna and its fully-integrated PortalTV solution are key to our success – having enabled us to quickly deliver advanced, custom-branded, interactive IPTV services to multiple cities on our regional network. Furthermore, Kasenna‘s open, standards-based middleware platform allows us to stay on the cutting edge with future service offerings to our customers.”

On completion of the rollout, Broadband TV will be available to two million homes passed with its Triple Play service. In addition, Cavalier is also planning its next-generation services including TV mail, interactive programming and gaming to make Broadband TV even more entertaining and convenient, adds the release. 

MUMBAI: If Rajinikant fans found their screen idol‘s complexion a tad fairer in Sivaji- the Boss than he normally is, digital grafting was responsible for it.

Indian Artists‘ team of 25 technicians worked for a year on the six-minute style song, where Rajini‘s complexion appears fairer.

Says VFX artist Srini who worked on the process, “Director Shanker wanted to change Rajini‘s wheatish complexion to a white European complexion. As a VFX company, this was a challenging task for us because nobody has executed this type of concept in the world.” The team did an in-depth study of the European complexion and arrived at certain conclusions. “We found that white skin reflects more light and has less shadow when compared to dark skin and is translucent in some areas. Therefore a simple color correction of the hero‘s skin would not achieve the desired effect,” says Srini.

“For the shoot, we used an English lady with a fair complexion and flushed cheeks. With the help of cinematographer K.V.Anand every single shot of Rajini was repeated with her because lighting conditions change in every shot. After the final edit all the 630 hero shots and 630 girl shots were scanned in 4K resolution. Each of the 9000 scanned frames ware rotoscoped to separate the body parts (face, hands, legs etc.). The white lady‘s skin was mapped onto the Super Star‘s image using Eyeon digital fusion software,” he says. There were two difficult aspects in this project. One was matching the girl‘s action with the hero‘s action and the second was matching both of their body proportions during mapping.

MUMBAI: Flag Telecom, a Reliance Infocomm company, is stepping up its global operations. The network support and communication services company has signed up with Oman Telecommunications Company (OmanTel) for providing an internet transit point between West Asia and Africa.

Flag Telecom would also lay a marine cable for the Oman-based company. Flag Telecom executive president Punit Garg and Omantel executive president Mohammed Bin Ali Al Wahaibi signed the agreement.

Internet services along with lease circuit services and the Multi-Party Labelling System (MPLS), known to be the fastest electronic link, would begin from September to 12 countries, including the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

“One of the agreements is to make Oman a link between Africa and the Middle East in the Flag‘s loop cable project, relating to the extension of communication links to Egypt and Hong Kong via marine cables with multiple landings in the Gulf region,” says an official release.

Omantel will seek to extend the African cable through a network of marine cables to converge at Seeb and Khasab in Oman.

The second agreement, to start in September, will be to make the country an internet transit point, catering to 12 countries including members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. It will also provide lease circuit services as well as multi-party labelling system, the fastest in electronic telecommunication technology.

“The signing of the MoUs was part of Omantel‘s keenness to boost its investments and to make the country a global communication hub,” says Al Wahaibi .

Flag Telecom has gained from a strong demand for its bandwidth by broadband service providers across the globe. In 2005, it signed major contracts for additional capacity with international carriers and a global internet content provider.

MUMBAI: Convergence has brought together a showcase of overlapping technologies between the media, telecommunications and IT industries at BroadcastAsia, CommunicAsia and EnterpriseIT.

From infrastructure to deployment, the shows gathered vendors with applications and solutions at different stages of the value chain for convergent technologies such as IPTV, broadcasting to handhelds and mobile entertainment. This year‘s events hosted 2,339 exhibiting companies from 67 countries/regions.

A total of 63,814 international attendees, of which 49 per cent were from overseas, saw the latest products and services birthed out of convergence that are expected to change the way consumers and businesses will use and interact with electronic devices. Attendance at this year‘s event has increased by five per cent from 2005.

Singapore Exhibition Services chief executive Stephen Tan said, “The convergence of technology has spawned off a whole new range of exciting digital lifestyle applications many of which were seen on the show floor. Clearly, the focus at this year‘s exhibitions is on content for handhelds and the race is on among content providers to come up with new and exciting applications that will enhance mobility for both consumers and businesses. The increase in attendance at BroadcastAsia, CommunicAsia and EnterpriseIT and reflects a surge in industry confidence as convergence becomes reality.”

Digital lifestyle showcase

Ericsson showcased a video dating service where one can record a personal video message and send to new acquaintances, and a video karaoke where the user can call to see other singers and rate them as well as sing along to text and music and record it on video.

On display at NTT Docomo was a technology that allows pet owners to see their pets as well as dispense food into the feeding bowl through their mobile phones. MyHeart by Philips Research Laboratories monitors a person‘s health using intelligent biomedical clothes. The data is then sent via a wireless personal area network to a mobile phone or PDA and from there to a health care provider.

Other mobile lifestyle applications at CommunicAsia included Bidshot – the first ever auction website that allows members to buy, and sell through their mobile phones, XFinance which is a mobile financial management tool which provides an overview of all your income, as well as Xovulation which is a mobile family planning tool.

At BroadcastAsia, Innoxius Technologies showcased a gadget that turns a PDA into a multi-system mobile digital TV receiver for standards such as DVB-H, DVB-T, T-DMB, DAB and enhanced packet mode DAB standards in various spectrum ranges.

French exhibitor Visiware launches the first triple-play gaming offer available on TV, mobile and broadband. Games can be played on the TV at home then continued on the mobile or internet. BroadcastAsia also hosted a DVB-H, DMB and Qualcomm‘s MediaFLO feature, which demonstrated the capabilities of each standard to bring content onto handhelds.

Launch pad for international players

BroadcastAsia, CommunicAsia and EnterpriseIT remain an important platform for international players to reach Asia‘s markets. This year, China‘s participation at CommunicAsia grew by 45 per cent.

“Participation in premier industry events, such as CommunicAsia, continue to be a good platform for Huawei to not only reach out to key influencers in the region, but also to deepen our relationship with existing and potential key customers. We have participated in CommunicAsia for more than five years and look forward to next year‘s show,” said Huawei Technologies Asia Pacific vice-president Liu Jianfeng.

The Korean presence on the BroadcastAsia show floor has doubled from last year. Korean Broadcasting Commission technology director Park Jun-Seon said, “Last year‘s event was very successful in introducing DMB as one of the latest platforms for convergence services and this year we are here to showcase latest applications available through DMB. BroadcastAsia is a must attend event for breakthrough technologies such as DMB.”

The exhibitions are seeing strong participation from Europe. The European ICT Pavilion, which was at CommunicAsia for the first time, provided an exciting snapshot of new, leading-edge technologies, products and applications for audio-visual, e-Government, e-health, e-security, and telecommunications.

A strategic meeting place

For many exhibitors, BroadcastAsia, CommunicAsia and EnterpriseIT were ideal platforms to showcase their latest offerings, network and meet target buyers.

“We have found the show to be one of the means to launch and showcase our new wireline and wireless service offerings and solutions to our customers around this region. It is also a very good platform for our executives from across the globe to meet customers in this region and understand their needs so as to better our products for them,” said Ericsson Telecommunications Pte Ltd head of communications (Singapore) Jacinta Ong.

Echolab was represented at BroadcastAsia two years back through their agents. However, this year the USA-based company considered the event important for them to book a space on their own. Echolab regional sales manager William Gray said, “BroadcastAsia presented us with a wonderful opportunity to reach some countries that are not easy to reach from the USA and also to rope in potential distributors.”

Commenting on the CommunicAsia Summit, Lucent Technologies Singapore CTO South East Asia region Madhusudan Pandya said, “In-depth discussions on the most exciting and up-to-the-minute technologies, business solutions, and revenue-generating applications made the summit exceptional.”

“I find CommunicAsia going beyond its name. It has truly become an international event, granting participants the world over to connect and converge more effectively and efficiently in a short duration of three days,” he added.

Trade visitors armed with a $4.5 billion sourcing budget came looking to purchase the latest products and services and explore potential business alliances.

“We are here to look at the different types of broadcasting technologies and compare systems to find out which ones will suit us the best. We intend to upgrade our facilities and plan to buy equipment worth millions of dollars,” said Setsiri Trisaksri from the Royal Thai Army Radio and TV, Thailand.

“I‘m a regular visitor here and this is my fourth show in a row. We are looking for small and medium enterprises, which develop niche technology. Here we find these people and we partner with them. We have been very successful in doing that and that‘s why we love coming to CommunicAsia. It‘s a great meeting place,” said Precision Electronics Ltd India president Nikhil Kanodia.

MUMBAI: A new non-profit trade organization, the Association of Electronic Interactive Marketers (AEIM), has been formed in the US.

The intiative has been spurred by the response garnered by MI6: Marketing Interactive ‘06, the special conference that addresses the challenges facing marketers in the interactive entertainment sector. The inaugural MI6 Conference and Awards Show will be be held on 27–28 June in San Francisco.

Peter Moore, corporate vice president, Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division of Microsoft Corp., has been named to chair the new organization.

Jim Chabin, president and CEO of Promax/BDA, is the MI6/AEIM president/CEO while Dale Hopkins, the COO of G4, is MI6 chairman.

Said Moore, “The AEIM will serve to enhance the professional value of video game marketers and will seek to build strong partnerships between the gaming, entertainment, technology, distribution and retail sectors of this business.”

Looking to increase the effectiveness of interactive marketers by spearheading idea sharing within the sector and encouraging communication with marketers in other entertainment areas, AEIM will provide education and training opportunities for marketers. Moving forward, AEIM will assume full responsibility for organizing subsequent MI conferences and developing additional means for contributing to members‘ professional development and education.
AEIM will also be overseeing the Senet-Muse annual marketing and promotion awards program. AEIM will Operate in collaboration with Promax/BDA and will be housed in the Promax/BDA offices in Los Angeles.

Among the future objectives for AEIM are the development of an online community for educating, inspiring and facilitating idea sharing among its fledgling members; regional seminars and workshops, as well as networking opportunities, and, eventually, a certification program.

MUMBAI: Research recently conducted by In-Stat suggest that by 2010 end, mobile TV broadcast subscribers worldwide will reach 102 million, a giant leap from 3.4 million in 2006.

The market research firm stated that for cellular networks to deliver content that millions want to watch simultaneously requires much greater bandwidth than is currently available, thus, carriers are turning to mobile TV broadcast networks, which have a much lower cost per bit for video delivery.

According to an official release, recent research by In-Stat found the following:

– There are positives and negatives to each standard, but each has a vendor eco-system behind it to enable deployment today.
– 2005 was the year of the first deployments, with ongoing trials in many parts of the world.

– Mobile carriers, mobile TV network operators, and content providers will soon be testing business models to determine what mobile phone subscribers are willing to pay to watch and what advertisers are willing to pay to reach them.

In-Stat analyst Michelle Abraham says, “The greatest challenge for mobile TV broadcast operators is to acquire the spectrum necessary to offer services. Spectrum availability may determine which of four standards is chosen, and also impacts the business case for the deployment of a network.”

The research, “Mobile TV Broadcasting Now Out of the Gate” covers the worldwide market for mobile TV services. It includes forecasts for mobile broadcast TV subscribers, average revenue by subscriber and revenues by region through 2010. It also contains analysis of competing mobile broadcast technologies and current deployments and trials, adds the release.

In related research, In-Stat‘s January 2005 consumer survey found that over one in eight respondents expressed an interest in purchasing mobile video services even though those services were not yet available. Interest in mobile video outpaced all other applications such as gaming, downloadable music and broadcast music.

This research is part of In-Stat‘s Multimedia Broadband Service, which provides a worldwide, comprehensive perspective of multimedia broadband markets, analyzing cable, video-over-DSL, DBS, and IPTV services, and digital terrestrial broadcast. It examines subscribers, business models, industry agendas and key cross-market combatants, the release adds.

MUMBAI: The Rajan Raheja promoted Hathway Cable & Datacom, in which Star India has a 26 per cent stake, has launched its broadband service in Chandigarh.

Apart from cable internet services, Hathway is also planning to launch digital cable in the city.

The company has launched a mix of pre-paid and post paid packages to provide choice to the customers. The packages will be available from 256 kbps for Rs 250 per month (download limit of 400 mb) and 512 kbps for Rs 500 per month (download limit of 1 gb), according to an official release.

The company is targeting residential, small medium enterprises and corporates. Hathway‘s broadband services are available in the cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Pune, Nashik, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mysore and Chandigarh.

“We are planning to launch our cable internet services in Kanpur as well. We have close to 90,000 broadband subscribers,” says Hathway & Cable Datacom CEO K Jayaraman.