Category: Software

MUMBAI: THX has announced enhancements to its popular THX cineSpace colour management software, the de facto standard in film and television post-production for image colour accuracy and consistency, with support for 64-bit operating systems on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms, in addition to 64-bit support in cinePlugin versions for Adobe Photoshop, Apple Shake, Eyeon Fusion, Nucoda Film Master and Nuke.

THX is exhibiting the new software at IBC in Amsterdam. The plugins are tightly integrated into the workflow and functionality of the associated systems and enable highly efficient display calibration and LUT selection.

The latest THX cineSpace offerings also add support for the new X-Rite i1 Display Pro colorimeter and the Datacolor Spyder line of colorimeters, providing facilities with more choices in terms of price, quality, accuracy and functionality for display calibration devices.

THX cineSpace products are used in major post-production, visual effects and animation facilities worldwide to calibrate monitors and projection systems, and establish an end-to-end colour pipeline. It ensures that visual artists are able to see how an image will appear in a wide range of target environments, including film projection, digital cinemas, plasma monitors and LCD consumer displays.

The THX cineSpace product line includes software programmes optimised for use in animation and visual effects workstations as well as products for use in Digital Intermediate and mastering facilities.

THX senior VP Rick Dean said, “The combination of our new color science tools, THX Media Director and critical viewing Room Certification are key components in our initiative to help post houses optimize workflow and ensure that artists are working in room environments that support their best creative efforts. THX cineSpace is one of the most advanced and flexible colour management systems on the market and is used by leading facilities all over the world.”

THX has given the example of Tippett Studio, which produces animation and visual effects sequences for films ranging from fantasies, such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Smurfs, to dramatic productions, like the upcoming film, Hemmingway and Gelhorn.

Tippett Studio colour pipeline supervisor Page Frakes said, “Realism is key to producing compelling effects sequences. It’s absolutely critical that our artists know that what they see on their workstations translates well and tells the story properly when it makes it to the big screen, and then later to the home environment. It’s a non-trivial technical challenge and a requirement for success. The THX cineSpace color management software gives us the tools we need to calibrate our displays accurately and also emulate virtually any target viewing environment, from 2D and 3D digital cinema to LCD flat screens used in the home.”

Nice Shoes is a full service, artist-driven design, animation, visual effects and colour grading studio specialising in high-end commercials, web content, film, TV and music videos. Nice Shoes grades and finishes commercials for brands, such as adidas, Cartoon Network, Coca-Cola, Ford and Google. Its work is seen in digital signage, on movie theatre screens and in hundreds of millions of homes.

MUMBAI: US broadcaster NBC has announced that its NBC.com app for iPad now offers fans full episodes — mirroring the online experience.

Additionally, the network‘s co-viewing application, the NBC Live app, has upgraded with a number of key new features, including the ability to watch video clips, play games and scroll through photos without ever leaving the app.

With these new features the NBC Live app is set to make the broadcasts of ‘The Office‘, ‘The Sing-Off‘, ‘The Biggest Loser‘ and ‘Chuck‘ interactive experiences.

NBCUniversal Digital Entertainment president Vivi Zigler said, “We are thrilled to offer our fans full episodes via our NBC.com app. Now the app truly reflects the deep fan experience that we have created online at NBC.com. And our fans are going to love the latest update to the NBC Live app which now offers them more content, better access and a unique social television experience.”

In addition to full episodes, the NBC app for iPad, which launched in June 2011, gives fans access to content from their favourite shows and features such as thousands of video clips and highlights, exclusive photo galleries, recaps, games and news, making it all customizable from the myNBC dashboard.

The NBC Live app is a companion-viewing tool that provides a real time social experience where users can engage with fellow fans in a moderated social stream, and interact with exclusive content synced to the on-air broadcast while they watch their favourite shows on television.

MUMBAI: Digital Rapids is providing a preview of its upcoming,carrier-grade StreamZ Live Broadcast hybrid encoder as part of the company‘s range of live encoding solutions being showcased at the IBC 2011 exhibition in Amsterdam.

StreamZ Live Broadcast combines the quality and flexible, multi-screen output capabilities of Digital Rapids‘ StreamZ Live encoder family with robust features for the unique demands of broadcast, cable, telco and satellite television operations.

StreamZ Live Broadcast features simultaneous encoding for ‘traditional‘ television and ‘any-screen‘ streaming delivery to a broad range of devices — including mobile phones, tablets, PCs, IPTV set-top boxes, game consoles and more — in a single 1RU encoder.

StreamZ Live Broadcast provides H.264 or MPEG-2 encoding for broadcast distribution while concurrently outputting standard or adaptive bit rate (ABR) streaming formats. StreamZ Live Broadcast features the same rich adaptive streaming support as the proven, award-winning ABR models in the StreamZ Live family, including the latest adaptive bit rate technologies from Adobe(r), Apple(r) and Microsoft(r).

StreamZ Live Broadcast is also easily extensible to support new streaming formats and technologies as they emerge. In addition to live transmission, StreamZ Live Broadcast can simultaneously archive its outputs to files for subsequent on-demand distribution, providing a streamlined path to additional revenue opportunities.

StreamZ Live Broadcast can encode from uncompressed baseband inputs or transcode from compressed live sources. Input options will include SDI (3G/HD/SD), IP and ASI signals, with IP and ASI output configurations. Redundant inputs, outputs and power supplies ensure high reliability. It can be managed and controlled through an intuitive web interface, local front-panel controls or through the scalable Digital Rapids Broadcast Manager multi-encoder management software for multi-channel automation, scheduling, monitoring and failover. SNMP management support enables seamless integration into existing television operations.

Digital Rapids senior product manager, Broadcast and Live Tony Huang said, “Multi-screen initiatives have become an integral part of television and content providers’ business models, and their technical operations are converging as a reflection of that. The StreamZ Live Broadcast hybrid encoder provides a unified, flexible encoding platform to support this convergence while minimizing workflow complexity and reducing operational costs.”

MUMBAI: A new report from Knowledge Networks shows “over the top” (OTT) video viewing in the US has grown dramatically in just a year – both streamed and downloaded, on stationary as well as mobile platforms.

Smartphones, videogame consoles, and video rental services are the main drivers of this trend, with Generations X and Y and Baby Boomers all increasing their OTT viewing.

The number of platforms that account for significant video viewing is approaching a dozen. In the 13-to-54 age group, monthly use of an alternative method for viewing TV programmes or movies grew by over one-third in a year, from 26 per cent in 2010 to 35 per cent this year. This includes content streamed or downloaded to view on a TV, computer, laptop, smartphone, iPod Touch, or tablet.

Monthly use of any digital service connected to a TV rose almost 50 per cent during the year — from 13 per cent to 19 per cent — within the 13-to-54 population. The study also found that a number of key metrics have doubled since 2010 for this age group:

The report demonstrates the strong generational differences in OTT viewing; compared to Baby Boomers (ages 46 to 54), Gen Y (ages 13 to 31) is almost four times as likely to report weekly mobile video viewing (30 per cent versus eight per cent), and they are twice as likely to watch streaming video weekly (56 per cent for Gen Y, 28 per cent for Boomers).

Knowledge Networks VP, Group Account Director David Tice said, “The number of platforms that account for significant video viewing is approaching a dozen. This poses a variety of challenges – in measurement, accountability, planning, and targeting. But every challenge contains an opportunity to find new efficiencies in reaching key audiences, adding relevance to ads. Video is increasingly un-tethered, but the core elements of the video experience, and the rich context it provides, remain remarkably intact.”

MUMBAI: For next year’s Olympic Games in London, BBC plans to enrich video streams online by providing context-sensitive data overlays. These overlays can then allow embedding of direct links to content.

So if fans are watching the fencing, for instance, they could click on the athlete‘s name in the data overlay on the video to jump straight to his profile page.

The digital plan to cover the sports events was outlined by BBC Future Media GM for news and knowledge, Phil Fearnley. He is responsible for the delivery of the Digital Olympics.

“The BBC holds digital media rights for the Games, and more licence-fee payers than ever before are now connected: according to Ofcom 74 per cent of people now have broadband; more than a quarter of adults (and half of all teens) own a smartphone; and one million internet-enabled TVs were sold during 2010. London 2012 provides an unparalleled opportunity to make the sporting and cultural celebration the most connected and inclusive yet,” he said.

 
The Olympics is also an opportunity to offer audiences unprecedented choice. Last month the UK pubcaster had outlined its intention to deliver to audiences over 2,000 hours of live sport online via 24 High Definition streams – every sport, from every location on every day – but it‘s not just about choice of content. In line with the ‘Delivering Quality First‘ strategy for BBC Online, it plans to make services available across four screens: computers, mobiles, tablets and connected TVs.

“We‘re developing a new publishing platform that delivers pages that are dynamically and automatically created. Content can be tagged with an identifier that can be automatically pulled into the relevant page to provide a real-time, extensive, and trusted companion to events. We delivered a page for each country, squad and player during the World Cup in 2010 using this model and we‘re scaling this up for next year to deliver unparalleled up to the minute detail on each athlete, country and event. Delivering such a detailed and broad service via traditional editorial curation would be cost prohibitive,”said Fearnley.

He adds that pulling all this together is a user-experience based on horizontal navigation, consistent across all devices. “This highly-visual “stream” allows us to give greater prominence to video and encourage browsing beyond this, making the breadth of content more accessible. Already popular in smartphone and tablet design, this natural and intuitive way to browse content is just like flicking through a magazine. Filters too, would enable users to tailor content on the page, like opting for more video according to their preferences.” 

Mobile will be integral to the way many follow events and interact with others. “We‘ll be leveraging the distinct benefits of devices to improve London 2012 for audiences. With half of teens now owning a smartphone (and 60% considering themselves to be ‘highly‘ addicted to them – especially for social media) the mobile experience is going to be important for them. We envisage a digital experience that‘s as seamlessly social on mobile as on the web – with geo-location used to identify activity near to where users are and tools to share with friends on the move,” said Fearnley.

Connected TV is another area of focus. Analysts are forecasting that around 36 million TVs with built-in Internet capability will be in homes by the end of 2016, and forthcoming innovations from the likes of Google TV and platforms such as YouView will help increase the penetration of connected TV before the games.

“Our BBC iPlayer product for connected TV is available on over 300 devices (most recently Sony PS3), and we recently launched a BBC News app for connected TV which we‘ll be rolling out across further devices this year. For the Olympics we‘re developing a similarly structured product, with a navigational panel allowing users to flick between the 24 live streams via their remote control, and access stories and updates in full from the internet on the living-room TV.”

MUMBAI: Kaleidescape has launched an application for iPad, which introduces a new way to browse and select movies and music on a Kaleidescape System using an iPad.

The free app offers the convenience of browsing without interrupting playback, so a user can guide guests through the best moments in the collection. For example, one can filter instantly by actor, director, or genre, so that while friends and family enjoy the famous Dead Parrot sketch, one can select another great John Cleese scene.

One can also just select any room to see what‘s playing or even start another movie. The company‘s founder, chairman, and CEO Michael Malcolm said, “Indianapolis is a special place for Kaleidescape. It was here that we won the Electronic Lifestyles award for Best Video Product when we launched the Kaleidescape System eight years ago. We‘re excited to be back here with our biggest lineup ever, especially our new Kaleidescape-designed iPad app that lives up to our reputation for simple user interfaces.”

The Kaleidescape App for iPad will be available worldwide on the App Store late in the fourth quarter of this year.

MUMBAI: As part of its IPTV project development schedule, Russian satellite TV provider NTV-PLUS has added Amino to its list of recommended set-top box suppliers in the framework of the IPTV project development schedule.

With over two million customers, the satellite provider dishes out a range of entertainment services including proprietary sports and movie channels, across Russia and Ukraine.
 
It is the first company in Russia to start broadcasting HD channels and the first one to offer 3D channel. Now NTV-PLUS is planning to launch IPTV services through the supply of premium content, encoding services and set-top boxes to broadband operators.

Said Amino CEO Andrew Burke, “This is an important recognition by one of the major entertainment providers in Russia that our set-top boxes met their high quality threshold. We look forward to working with NTV-PLUS on their IPTV deployment plans”
 
Added NTV-PLUS Technical Director Oleg Kolesnikov, “We execute meticulous selection process for STB vendors to be sure that quality, performance and reliability characteristics of devices are mature. Amino set-top boxes are robust, reliable and proven performers and we are glad to introduce them as a part of our offering”.

Initially, NTV-PLUS selected the Amino AmiNET 130MHD set-top box for their approved list.

MUMBAI: AOL is in talks with bankers on the possibility of a merger with Yahoo!.

AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong has initiated talks with private-equity firms and investment bankers from Allen & Co who work with Yahoo!
  
The news comes three days after the search engine fired chief executive Carol Bartz, citing her failure to revive the fortunes of the struggling Internet pioneer in her three years stay with it.

AOL is fighting to regain its prominent role on the Internet after dramatically losing audiences when the rise of broadband connection decimated its previously dominant position as a dial-up Internet service provider. 
 
Earlier, Bartz had rebuffed Armstrong when he approached Yahoo! about a merger. But with her exit, Armstrong has revived the merger plans.
 
 
 

MUMBAI: Nokia Siemens Networks will unveil its new technology that lets end-users to enjoy their content and services anytime, anywhere and on any device — at IBC2011 in Amsterdam.

Nokia Siemens Networks aims to demonstrate its position as a future-proof partner for entertainment solutions due to its open architecture and modular solution approach. This combines its own products alongside those from industry partners, allied with consulting and integration capabilities.
 
Nokia Siemens Networks now extends this offering – delivered via a single backend from the operator – with hybrid STBs.

These combine digital video broadcasting (DVB) via satellite, terrestrial or cable, with Internet access allowing their services to reach a wider audience helping operators to generate more revenue through broader content delivery.

Nokia Siemens Networks will showcase a multiscreen environment (across multiple devices and networks) with a harmonised, fast and intuitive user interface offering Internet and DVB based TV programmes, while ensuring a consistent quality of user experience. 
 
Another showcase will demonstrate how communication and TV services can be blended.

This approach allows people to hold voice calls or online chat while watching video content on their smartphones, tablet PCs or TV sets.

Integration of this TV solution into an operator’s network environment, including its IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)** and customer databases, would enable services such as automated user authentication on every device. The service concept, developed together with an existing customer, enables service providers to blend TV and media with communications as well as Internet services.

Nokia Siemens Networks head of entertainment solutions Brook Longdon said, “The new capabilities enable operators to offer interactive, unmanaged OTT-TV services in addition to IPTV’s managed quality of service (QoS) to fixed subscribers, and via DVB. With this, they can not only attract more customers but also allow existing users to access the same services over various networks.”
 
 

MUMBAI: Consumers in Western Europe value multi device access to recorded TV programmes, over other new video services, including access to live TV, a new research has said.

Given a choice of new TV features, including 3DTV, online video access, and multiscreen services, 47 per cent of broadband households in Western Europe’s largest countries selected viewing recorded programmes on any Internet-connected device as one of their top three features.
 
By comparison, 30 per cent selected live TV as one of their top preferences, according to Parks Associates’ consumer study in Europe, Connected Consumer.

Preference for viewing recorded content on a computer, tablet, smartphone, or other Internet-connected device was consistent across all countries surveyed.

The greatest difference was among French households, with 51 per cent selecting recorded content versus 30 per cent picking live TV. 
 
Consumers in the UK valued both multiscreen services, with 48 per cent choosing recorded TV and 36 per cent selecting live TV, and multiscreen services overall were the least popular in German homes.

Parks Associates director research Brett Sappington said, “Multiscreen access to live and on-demand TV programming is available across Europe, but consumers want access to their recorded content. Consumers use PVRs to record their favourite shows, effectively creating a personalised TV playlist, and they value unfettered access to this programming.”