Category: Technology

MUMBAI: TiVo is all set to launch the TiVo Guru Guide recommendations. TiVo‘s newest feature will allow subscribers to discover exciting programming and automatically record great collections of shows, recommended by editorial experts at some of the nation‘s top consumer magazines and news sources.

Guru Guide recommendations will create a virtual television channel from each of these authorities, while leaving the ultimate selection and choice to the consumer.

Gurus from Entertainment Weekly, Star, Sports Illustrated, Automobile, Billboard, CNET and others will offer TiVo subscribers program recommendations based on popular television categories including sports, films, music, comedies, drama and more. As an added benefit, TiVo subscribers will be able to automatically record Guru Guide recommendations via the company‘s online scheduling feature.

“TiVo is the proven brand for innovation and personalised home entertainment, making it the perfect partner to bring Star magazine to life on television. Making Star‘s editorial experts available to TiVo subscribers is a unique, cutting-edge way for us to reinforce our brand awareness beyond print into a powerful electronic medium,” said American Media chief editorial director and executive vice president Bonnie Fuller.

For TiVo, Guru Guide recommendations are the latest in a series of innovative offerings like recently announced TiVo KidZone and TiVo Mobile, and is designed to distinguish TiVo‘s product and service from any other DVR in the marketplace.

“Providing our users with a better, smarter way to enjoy their favorite television is at the core of what we do at TiVo and how we transform television viewing for consumers,” said TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers.

TiVo vice president and general manager programming Tara Maitra said, “By matching up TiVo technology with engaging Guru Guide recommendations from trusted sources, we are empowering TiVo subscribers with a brand new way to find, organize and view their favorite shows in an increasingly crowded television environment.”

Each TiVo Guru Guide recommendation will offer between five and 10 programs of television per week and recommendations will be updated at least once per month to ensure that viewers always receive the freshest and most interesting content on television. Using TiVo‘s online scheduling feature, subscribers will have the option of recording an entire TiVo Guru Guide selection, or they can pick individual programs from a given category based on their personal interests.

“Music programming on television and the integration of music into shows has come a long way. Our recommendations are an eclectic assortment of programs aimed at enhancing the music discovery experience. Through Billboard‘s Guru Guide recommendations, TiVo subscribers will enjoy some of the freshest new shows out there,” said Billboard Magazine group editorial director Scott McKenzie.

“With so much sport-related content on television today, it‘s easy to overlook some really great shows. Sports Illustrated‘s Guru Guide will provide viewers with recommendations compiled by our editorial team which will feature an interesting mix of television programming-everything from the best match-ups of the week, to the history of rugby, to the impact of exercise on childhood obesity,” said Sports Illustrated‘s website‘s managing editor Paul Fichtenbaum.

TiVo Guru Guide recommendations help viewers find engaging programming in popular content areas such as sports, music, TV, movies, beauty and fashion, technology, and urban culture. Other key partners to offer the very first TiVo Guru Guide recommendations include CNET, Automobile Magazine, and H20 (Hip Hop On Demand.)

Additional TiVo Guru Guides categories will become available to subscribers throughout the year at no additional cost.

BANGALORE: Intel Capital, the venture capital investment arm of Intel Corporation, announced new Wimax (Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access) investments today in Orascom Telecom Wimax Limited. Both deals underscore Intel Capital‘s continuing support for the deployment of low cost broadband internet access through Wimax networks around the world.

Orascom Telecom Wimax Limited is also the first investment from the Intel Capital Middle East and Turkey fund announced in November of 2005.

Both deals are collaborations between Intel Capital and established telecommunications companies which will bring significant experience of network deployment, marketing and operations to the newly formed joint ventures. Orascom Telecom Wimax Limited will focus its efforts on working with governments and companies throughout the Middle East and parts of Asia to obtain suitable spectrum licenses for the deployment of Wimax services.

Enertel Wimax N.V. is targeting the deployment of Wimax services in the Netherlands. In addition to funding and personnel, Enertel is also contributing an existing 3.5 GHz spectrum license to support this new joint venture.

Both new companies will be majority owned by Orascom Telecom and Enertel respectively, with Intel Capital as the lead investor. Intel Capital will also provide access to the significant technical and marketing resources of Intel Corporation.

“Intel Capital is a leader in promoting the deployment of low cost Wimax based internet access” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital. “These latest agreements build on the foundation of existing Intel Capital investments to bring the benefits of low cost, high bandwidth internet access to consumers around the world and support the vision of a World Ahead that Intel CEO Paul Otellini outlined earlier this month at the World Congress on Information Technology”

Over the past year, Intel Capital has announced investments in a number of Wimax and wireless broadband service providers around the world including: PIPEX Wireless in the UK, DBD in Germany, Unwired Australia, Neovia in Brazil, and MVSNet in Mexico. Intel Capital has also been active in supporting Wimax infrastructure through investments in Navini, a provider of Wimax base stations and modems and Beceem, a provider of mobile Wimax chipsets.

“We see the creation of this new wireless service provider as an incredible opportunity to provide new services to major cities in the Netherlands,” says Enertel executive chairman Cees Meeuwis. “Enertel Wimax N.V.will offer wireless access and services through a wholesale relationship with a number of resale channels. This wireless broadband access service will uniquely complement the existing fixed line Broadband Access services already offered in the Netherlands.”

“Orascom Telecom Wimax Limited is an exciting first step towards bringing the advantages and opportunity of internet connectivity to the people of the Middle East, and beyond, many of whom have never had such an opportunity before” says Orascom CEO Franco Grimaldi. “Together with Intel Capital, we will work closely with governments and companies in the Middle East and Asia to make this vision a reality.”

MUMBAI: Star India is beefing up its “response mechanism”, 7827 – the short code – to explore the burgeoning mobile entertainment market in the country.

Starting today, the website www.star7827.com will sport a new look as Star expands the 7827 services from television-focused interactivity to entertainment, specially created and aggregated for the mobile screen.

In another major foray, Star India will launch a dedicated multi-lingual mobile audio channel, Star Voice in July. The mobile-based interactive voice system will offer consumers entertainment and other personalised updates.

“We would like to be the first player going at the property,” says Star Entertainment India CEO Sameer Nair indicating the growth plans Star India has conceived to tap the mobile entertainment sector. “Star 7827 will be one of the key focus areas of our business and is expected to contribute significantly to our revenues over the next three to five years. Our proven programming and marketing abilities should ensure that we become one of the key players in this space.”

“Since the last three years, we had been doing a detailed study on the subject and the expansion of the short code 7827 is one of the results,” says Star senior VP, Interactive Services, Viren Popli.

As part of the revamping, www.star7827.com has been completely redesigned to reflect the new push in content aggregation. A special section to help visitors learn more about their phones, talk about mobile content and services as exchange views and experiences has also been created. In accordance with the 7827 revamp, a WAP site for mobile internet users has also been created from where visitors will soon be able to access a range of mobile content including videos.

When queried on Star‘s strategies to explore the segment, Nair said it was a learning process which still continue. “We have more questions than answers. These are early days and we are looking at a difficult and different market. We will continue pushing our television content on the mobile platform. We will have variations as it progresses. Once we start producing separate content for the mobile platform, we will definitely switch to a subscription model,” says Nair.

“As the first step towards creating properties in-house, Star will be unveiling a game on its popular Channel [V] character Chimpu,” adds Popli.

The revamped 7827 will offer community based content services: personalised products such as ring tones, wallpapers; entertainment products in the range of games, video and audio; information products like news, astrology and jokes. The cost of downloading games from the website will range from Rs 3 to Rs 350, while other services such as ring tones and wallpapers will be available in the range of Rs 3 to Rs 6.

Speaking on Star‘s association with digital content producers and its plans to accomplish self-sufficiency on this front, Nair said the company was looking to associate with as many companies as possible. “We want to do the products of our own. But, even then, we will be keeping these producers in the loop. We want to rope in as many partners as possible. This is a give and take process as we can learn new things out of our associations,” he says.

Star 7827 in its new avatar will be creating, distributing and marketing content through tie-ups with Indian and International companies. “We will be taking the platform abroad. We are in talks with various international companies for technology and other solutions,” says Popli.

Star India has also finalised a major publicity overdrive to promote the new initiative. The first set of creatives, promoting 7827 breaks across media platforms today. The company has also entered into a product placement arrangement with cell phone manufacturer Motorola for the promotions. As per the deal, the 7827 promotional creatives will be sporting a Motorola branded cellular phone

MUMBAI: Pay TV operator in Germany and Austria – Premiere – has chosen the NDS MediaHighway middleware solution to set-up an interactive platform paving the way into advanced digital TV services.

The middleware-based TV platform will enable customers to interactively use innovative add-on-services – all with the ease of using their remote control via a return channel over the internet. Based on the NDS MediaHighway middleware, Premiere will launch this innovative platform that will offer a range of TV services to Premiere subscribers from August 2006.

NDS MediaHighway, running an open middleware language, will play a key role in operating the interactive TV architecture, that combines broadcast and IPTV technologies into a single service on a hybrid STB. The cornerstone of the new platform will be a middleware enabled easy-to-use STB user-interface, that ensures the same look and feel over a variety of STBs and provides convenient and instant access to the services. The new infrastructure will enable Premiere to further extend its exclusive content offering combined with maximum usability for the viewer.

The technological architecture of the platform unites the advantages of classic broadcasting with the individual and on-demand features of the internet. While the viewer will enjoy a premium quality TV experience, customers will be able to use interactive applications such as making pay-per-view orders at the touch of the remote control on their STB. Premiere will build up its range of interactive applications and add-on-services progressively based on open application standards.

NDS is working closely with Premiere to launch this platform that will mark the start of middleware-supported and advanced interactive TV services in Germany and Austria. The agreement is a major reference for the NDS MediaHighway middleware solution and the first large scale customer win for NDS in Germany.

Premiere CEO Dr. Georg Kofler said, “NDS is the ideal partner for us for establishing our interactive platform. NDS MediaHighway middleware has proved itself around the world, and is already running on more than 38 million set-top-boxes. It is extremely powerful and flexible and covers all the functions that we need, from interactive and add-on services to advanced PVR technology. We are thus gaining a fast and efficient entry into modern, interactive television.”

“We could not think of a better reference than Premiere for our NDS MediaHighway middleware and hybrid TV solutions. We are delighted to be working with Premiere as our first large scale customer win in Germany. NDS will be supporting the company now to unlock the opportunities of advanced, interactive television,” said NDS France vice president and general manager Caroline Le Bigot.

MUMBAI: Nokia has won a GSM network expansion deal with Sichuan Unicom, a subsidiary of China Unicom.

Under the agreement, Nokia will deploy its GSM radio and core networks, including the Nokia MSC Server mobile softswitch, in four cities in the Sichuan Province.

Deliveries have started and the network expansion will be fully operational by August 2006, informs an official release.

The is Nokia‘s first agreement with Sichuan Unicom and is a milestone for Nokia, entering the GSM market in Sichuan and West China.

The deal also highlights Nokia‘s position in mobile softswitch systems deployment in the China area. The Nokia MSC Server mobile softswitch is a circuit core network architecture fully compatible with GSM/Edge and WCDMA 3G.

“We are extremely delighted with our progress in the GSM business and deepening cooperation with mobile operators in China. The mobile market and the number of subscribers in China are growing fast and steadily. With our global experience and strong end-to-end localization commitment, we support mobile operators in bringing state-of-the-art mobile services to their customers,” said China Area Networks Nokia vice president Yuan Wei

MUMBAI: The US-headquartered Amaru Inc., a global player in broadband media entertainment business, has secured a multi-year deal with Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) for video-on-demand rights on film titles from both Sony Pictures Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for M2B viewers. The agreement has been done through Amaru‘s Hollywood-based company M2B World Inc.

The distribution deal, initiated at the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) conference held in Las Vegas in January 2006, allows for first-run films to be available, on-demand, to subscribers of Amaru‘s Global Broadband TV service (M2BTV), accessible through the company‘s soon to be launched Set-Top Box, informs an official release.

In addition, a selection of films will be available via pay-per-view on Dimension88 — a Singaporean premium movie channel offered at www.Dimension88.com that can be accessed via a broadband Internet connection. This deal will give M2B viewers access to SPTI product in the window after local video release.

The deal reflects the rapidly developing interest by consumers worldwide in the at-home on-demand entertainment market. An independent study commissioned last month by the M2B brand on consumer attitudes towards broadband entertainment found that 72 per cent of domestic respondents alone were interested in accessing first-run Hollywood films online. Through distinctive content and distribution agreements over the last few years, including this agreement with SPTI, the M2B brand has been a visionary leader at the forefront of the transforming entertainment market, the release adds.

“This agreement is a result of the unique synergy that traditional Hollywood entertainment companies are looking towards. It is essentially the melding of the highly recognizable content that viewers are looking for with easily accessible distribution vehicles, such as our broadband channels, that offer consumers the highest quality feeds in a way that fits within their limited schedules,” says Amaru Inc. CEO Colin Binny. “Our philosophy has always been to offer wide-ranging content as our viewing demographic continues to broaden — and partnering with Sony Pictures Television International is reflective of that intention. We look forward to working with SPTI, and expect that the addition of these titles will be extremely well-received by our viewers.”

“Viewers worldwide have been receptive to VOD and we‘re pleased to make our extensive library available to M2B viewers”, adds SPTI‘s vice president pay television Paul Littmann.

MUMBAI: China is planning to launch digital cable television across the country this year. The country had tested the switch from analogue to digital through a three-year pilot programme and the positive result has inspired the government to go ahead with the expansion plan.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television administration vice director Zhang Gaitao said at a national conference on cable TV that the right time had come for China to popularize digital cable TV, as the country now has the technology and hardware following the three-year trial program.

Reportedly, the pilot program has been testing the switch from analog cable television to digital cable television in 49 areas since 2003. The digital switch has already taken place in the cities of Qingdao, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Mianyang and now the process has moved to municipalities including Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong and Guangxi.

China has more than 120 pay television channels licensed by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, with over one million digital cable TV users