Category: Software

MUMBAI: Level 3 Communications has partnered with UTV True Games, the pure-play online game publisher for massive multi-player online games (MMOGs), to provide content delivery network (CDN) services and advanced reporting analytics to support UTV True Games‘ MMOG game titles.

Under the terms of the agreement, UTV True Games will leverage both Level 3‘s CDN services and game publishing software from Solid State Networks. 
 
Solid State Networks will provide its integrated game publishing solution alongside Level 3‘s caching and download services, origin storage, and content analytics reporting service.

“We‘ve been impressed by both the quality of the service as well as the level of responsiveness and collaboration we‘ve experienced with Level 3 and Solid State Networks,” said UTV True Games CTO Mick Giles. “With the insight the companies have provided, we‘ve significantly improved our download process over the past year to our players‘ benefit.” 
 
Level 3 and Solid State Networks offer game delivery solutions for developers and publishers designed to increase player conversion and retention, improve operational efficiency, and provide actionable reporting metrics.

“This is a great example of the benefit of the solutions Level 3 and Solid State Networks provide to meet the specific needs of live game operators,” said Level 3 Sr VP Content Markets Peter Neill.

NEW DELHI: In a major bid to reach more consumers, the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has tied up with Indian Railways and Peacock Media to promote its 3G services.

A three-month campaign has been launched as ‘BSNL 3G branded Rajdhani Trains’. This is a massive campaign in terms of visual area as well, since as much as 25,000 square feet of BSNL advertisement creative would be wrapped onto Rajdhani Express trains with a special quality vinyl approved by Research Design and Standards Organisation.

The campaign is targated to attract 15 million eyeballs negotiating 34 locations across 11 states.
 
The medium deliveries are 85,000 per day eye balls assured through the external vinyl wrap, while internal media are consumed by approximately 1,500 passengers per day. There are approximately 350 panels, 200 table tops and 400 brochure holders inside one train, along with audio jingles, announcements, contest and activation by in-train promoters which would create a great impact and engaging communication for the brand BSNL and its services.

The CSR imagery of BSNL would also gain strength because of the upgraded services experienced by the travelers, including cleaning and maintenance which are viewed to be bought by the BSNL 3G brand.

BSNL’s communication on the Rajdhani trains is focused on 3G services and entices the consumer to ‘get ready for a faster life’ by eye catchy visuals on fast gaming, music download, online movie streaming, video calling, live TV and high speed internet services on the move.
 
 
The campaign was launched with the start of the Chennai Rajdhani from the capital over the weekend.

Rajdhani trains connect all state capitals of the country with Delhi and are an ideal advertising medium to reach out to passengers in platforms and en-route audience effectively.

Rajdhani travelers fall under high affordability profile of consumers and hence strategically placed internal media engages them during the long duration of journey.

BSNL will take care for up-gradation, cleaning and maintenance of Rajdhani trains, which will also add on to CSR activity and to establish its BSNL 3G brand in the mindset of people.

BSNL has done a full train external vinyl wrap for the first time in India including internal media for captive visibility.

Routes being covered by this Rajdhani train are Delhi-Chennai, Delhi-Bangalore and Delhi-Thiruvananthapuram. Another Rajdhani train covering Delhi-Sealdah is also scheduled for launch shortly.

NEW DELHI: A spurt in the Bandwidth Access (BWA) auction even as it approaches its end has led to a rise in the bidding over Rs 100 billion to close at a pan-India total of Rs 106.5 billion.

The bid for Mumbai remained the highest after 92 rounds on the 12th day, touching Rs 18.04 billion, higher than the bid in Delhi of Rs 17.58 billion.
 
 
Tamil Nadu closed at Rs 16.14 billion, Karnataka at Rs 12.77 billion, Andhra Pradesh at Rs 9.12 billion, and Kolkata at Rs 4.93 billion.

While Punjab closed at Rs 3.13 billion, Kerala was at Rs 2.04 billion.  
 
The bids for three service areas remained unchanged: the rest of Maharashtra at Rs 9.16 billion; Gujarat at Rs 5.72 billion; and West Uttar Pradesh at Rs 1.78 billion.
The rest of Maharashtra, Gujarat, East and West Uttar Pradesh are unlikely to see any increase with no applications for price increment for tomorrow’s rounds.

Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, and North-East will also see only minimal with bids of just over Rs one million each.

The operators in the race are Aircel, Augere (Mauritius) Limited, Bharti Airtel, Infotel Broadband Services Private Limited, Qualcomm Incorporated, Reliance WiMax Limited, Spice Internet Service, Provider Private Limited, Tata Communications Internet Services Limited, Tikona Digital Networks Private Limited and Vodafone Essar Limited.

The successful bidders would be allowed to start commercial operations from 1 September.
 

MUMBAI: AsiaSat5 will be distributing live High Definition (HD ) and Standard Definition (SD) television feeds of the 2010 Fifa World Cup held in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July.

Asian broadcasters with broadcast rights to this mega sporting event will receive live coverage of the matches from AsiaSat 5 and then redistribute the television signals through their television networks to billions of football fans across the Asia-Pacific region. 
 
To support the HD and SD broadcasts of all 64 World Cup tournament matches, Eurovision, which distributes sports and news content for broadcast and media platforms, has leased additional C-band transponders on AsiaSat 5 during the tournament period.

Eurovision will transport the signals from the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Johannesburg via its dedicated fibre network to AsiaSat‘s Tai Po Earth Station in Hong Kong for uplinking to AsiaSat 5. These matches will then be received by broadcasters across the Asia-Pacific region.  
 
Eurovision Operations director Stefan Kuerten says, “We have been working very closely with AsiaSat over the past ten years in bringing top quality sports events such as the Olympics, Uefa Champions League and Motor Sports to the broadcasting community. AsiaSat has proven a reliable partner in our mission to put programming exactly where broadcasters need it in a seamless, reliable and cost-effective way”.

AsiaSat CEO Peter Jackson says, “We are thrilled that Eurovision and AsiaSat 5 will be delivering HD television coverage that provides stunning picture and digital surround sound quality of the 2010 World Cup to Asian viewers. We are going to bring Asian television viewers an unparalleled sports viewing experience”.

MUMBAI: US news broadcaster CNN‘s site CNN.com has unveilled its new entertainment section.

This will showcase the latest in entertainment headlines, celebrity photos, interviews with stars, and live video from events, as well as beat coverage of TV, movies and music.
 
CNN.com‘s Entertainment editor Katie Caperton says, “Entertainment is one of those topics that a large cross-section of our audience loves to follow, and we want to give them up-to-the-minute reporting about all of their favorite celebrities.

“In addition to CNN‘s reporting, we hear a lot of buzz from our CNN.com users, especially our iReporters‘ burning questions about movies, the stars and the latest headlines. CNN is in a unique position to take those questions directly to celebrities on the red carpet, giving our audience a voice in our reporting.”
 
Led by former OK! Magazine editor Katie Caperton, the site‘s new entertainment section draws on the strength of CNN‘s global entertainment reporting resources including CNN.com‘s entertainment reporting team, the CNN Entertainment Unit, HLN‘s daily entertainment news show Showbiz Tonight, CNN‘s Los Angeles and New York bureaus and journalists in the field. CNN.com also has partnered with InStyle, People and EW magazines to incorporate more of their sweeping coverage right within the site‘s Entertainment Section.

Utilising a premium design and features incorporating user-generated content and social media activity, the section offers entertainment stories, play-in-page video and photos as well as direct access to its newly stylised blog, The Marquee Blog. Some of the new features include:

• Breaking stories and video spotlighted, along with user comments from CNN.com and Facebook.
• “Click,” featuring the latest paparazzi photos, updated throughout the day and archived in a weekly gallery
• “Quote Board,” highlighting the week‘s most-controversial and interesting things said about and by celebrities
• “Photos & Videos,” showcasing the best multimedia from special industry events like the Cannes Film Festival
• “iReport All Access,” powered by CNN‘s user-generated community, iReport, users can submit questions for celebrity interviews, as well as watch celebrities answer select questions from iReporters

The entertainment section will also introduce a new feature called Trending Now. The story selection here will be user-driven and constantly updated according to the related user activity in CNN.com‘s comments, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Content from the section is also available through CNN‘s mobile website, as well as via the CNN App for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Twitter users also can keep up with CNN‘s latest entertainment reporting on The Marquee Blog by following @CNNshowbiz.
 

NEW DELHI: Even as the auction for the Bandwidth Access (BWA) appears to be coming to a close, there has been a spurt in the bidding which now stands at a pan-India total of Rs 98.37 billion.

The bid for Mumbai remained the highest after 82 rounds on the eleventh day, touching Rs 16.33 billion, higher than Delhi’s bid of Rs 15.91 billion.
 
Tamil Nadu closed at Rs 14.62 billion, Karnataka at Rs 11.56 billion, Gujarat at Rs 5.72 billion and Kolkata at Rs 4.46 billion

While Punjab closed at Rs 2.83 billion, West Uttar Pradesh had a bid of Rs 1.78 billion, Kerala was at Rs 1.84 billion and East Uttar Pradesh at Rs 992.9 million. Madhya Pradesh closed at Rs 890.9 million, while Haryana had a bid of Rs 847.9 million, Rajasthan closed at Rs 738.3 million, and West Bengal was bid for Rs 612 million.

Bihar closed at Rs 202.6 million; Orissa and Assam at Rs 178.6 million each; and Himachal Pradesh, North-East, and Jammu and Kashmir at Rs 151.5 million each.

The bids for two states remained unchanged: the rest of Maharashtra at Rs 9.16 billion; and Andhra Pradesh at Rs 9.03 billion.  
 
The rest of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and West Uttar Pradesh are unlikely to see any increase with no applications for price increment for tomorrow’s rounds.
Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, and North-East will also see only minimal rise with bids of just over Rs one million each.

The telecom operators in the race are Aircel, Augere (Mauritius) Limited, Bharti Airtel, Infotel Broadband Services Private Limited, Qualcomm Incorporated, Reliance WiMax Limited, Spice Internet Service, Provider Private Limited, Tata Communications Internet Services Limited, Tikona Digital Networks Private Limited and Vodafone Essar Limited.

The successful bidders would be allowed to start commercial operations from 1 September.
 

NEW DELHI: A strategic plan adopted at the 5th ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference in Hyderabad will give high priority to assist administrators, regulators, broadcasters and other stakeholders in introducing digital broadcasting and providing assistance to developing countries on spectrum management.

The Hyderabad Action Plan recognized that the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting is a key development in facilitating the dissemination of information and freeing up spectrum. New telecommunication and ICT services, including satellite radio communications, will help connect rural and isolated communities and meet the needs of indigenous communities.
 
While satellite digital sound and television broadcasting services have been introduced worldwide, terrestrial digital television and sound broadcasting is becoming a global priority.

Wireless broadband networks and next-generation networks (NGN) foster the widespread use of affordable and accessible telecommunications and ICTs.

The Hyderabad Action Plan adopted at the conclusion of the Conference outlined a road map to foster the global development of information and communication technology (ICT) networks and services over the next four-year cycle. The roll out of next-generation networks (NGN) and increased access to broadband services, wireless technologies and the Internet were recognised as catalysts to achieve the broader development goals.

The Hyderabad Declaration states that broad access to telecommunications and ICTs is essential for the world’s collective economic, social and cultural development, and the building of a global Information Society. This access brings new opportunities for interaction amongst people, for sharing of the world’s knowledge resources and expertise, for transforming people’s lives, and for contributing to the global development agenda. 
 
The Conference (WTDC-10), held from 24 May until 4 June in Hyderabad, was attended by 924 delegates, including 758 government delegates from 138 countries and 6 representatives from Palestine, 88 public and private sector representatives from 28 companies, 16 representing telecommunication-related entities from 7 countries and 56 representatives from 25 regional and international organisations.
Conference chairman P.J. Thomas, who is Secretary in the Department of Telecommunications, said the increasing role of ICT in the life of the common man cannot be overemphasized. Keeping in view the latest technological developments in ICT, the Hyderabad declaration adopted by WTDC-10 will play a decisive role in the development of the ICT sector across the world, especially in developing countries.

The Hyderabad Action Plan consists of a comprehensive package that will promote the equitable and sustainable development of telecommunication and ICT networks and services worldwide.

MUMBAI: Alcatel-Lucent and Ukrainian Television and Radio Company Ether have announced they have successfully completed field tests that demonstrated for the first time ever in a live network the viability of the DVB-SH format (Digital Video Broadcasting – Satellite services on Handhelds) using the UHF band – a band typically used for residential television broadcasting and mobile broadcasting DVB-H.

This test showed an increase of coverage by DVB-SH through the UHF band (compared with legacy DVB-H networks and technologies). The test results are presented on Alcatel-Lucent’s booth at the Sviaz-Expocomm-2010 tradeshow in Moscow.
 
Ether is Ukrainian telecom operator with a license for digital broadcasting in the DVB-H standard. The scope of this live trial included testing of both the coverage and bandwidth/viability of DVB-SH over UHF and leveraged multimedia broadcast technologyand equipment (modulators and mobile end-user terminals) from Alcatel-Lucent. It also included Alcatel-Lucent system integration and network optimization consulting services which enabled operator Ether to re-use to the maximum extent possible their existing third party equipment.

The DVB-SH standard, part of the DVB family and adopted by ETSI since 2008, is an evolution of DVB-T and DVB-H. As a hybrid system DVB-SH enables direct reception of multimedia broadcast content both via terrestrial repeaters and also to complement distribution via satellite. It also enables hybrid terrestrial broadcasting to both mobile and fixed TV services in the same multiplex. DVB-SH is increasingly seen as the technology of choice for mass broadcasting of television to a broad number of user devices simultaneously.

Ether CTO Viktor Galich says, “Being an innovative company, Ether continues to explore new, cutting-edge technology for consumer applications. That is why we decided to perform analysis of this new technical approachwith Alcatel-Lucent and we are glad to be the first company in the industry, which has tested possibilities of DVB-SH over the UHF band.”

Alcatel-Lucent multimedia broadcast technologies manager Herbert Mittermayr sats, “Alcatel-Lucent has been occupying leading positions in DVB-SH for a long time already. Providing world class technology as well as our multimedia integration services to companies like Ether, we continue in our mission to partner with our customers by delivering them targeted consulting and equipment that they need to successfully validate and launch their multimedia services.”

MUMBAI: Videocon d2h, the direct-to-home (DTH) service provider, is targeting a subscriber base of one million by the end of this month.

Launched in December 2009, Videocon d2h currently claims a base of 850,000 subscribers.

“We have over 850,000 subscribers and will be reaching one million by June end,” Bharat Business Channel Ltd (Videocon d2h) CEO Anil Khera tells Indiantelevision.com.
  
The DTH player, which is offering a choice of satellite TV, DVD or a Satellite Box (STB), is seeing growth across the country but faces problems in two southern markets. “Barring Tamil Nadu and Kerala, we are getting good response from the consumers across India. These two states are heavily dominated by Sun,” Khera adds.

To woo more subscribers with extra services, Videocon d2h is also launching Active Music Space, a music offering with two video and 20 audio channels, from 5 June.

The company claims that it is the only service provider to introduce exclusive music channels by launching ‘Active Music Space‘ and these features are not available with any other DTH operator.
 
Says Khera, “These are free on an experimental basis for some time. Later it will be added to our value added services (Vas) bouquet.”

The 20 audio channels are categorised under – Latest Hits, Romantic Hits, DJ mix, Dance Hits, Sentimental Hits, Tanhaee, Zabardast Hits, Love is Hit, Gurbani, Punjabi Devotional, Punjabi Pop, Punjabi Lounge, Bhojpuri, Hamaar Geet, Meditation, Vandana, Spiritual Lounge, Bhakti, Islamic Devotional and Urdu Devotional.

The two video channels will have Latest Hindi Hits and Romantic hits.

MUMBAI: The Indian Value Added Services (Vas) market, which includes messaging, mobile internet, social networking and mobile payments, is expected to cross Rs 219.40 billion in 2010, up from Rs 166.50 billion in the earlier year.

The usage of Vas with 3G and BWA offers operators the opportunity to adopt differential pricing strategies for video content and caters to both the mass and niche market demands, said MTNL Mumbai executive director Gopal.
 
 
As India makes the transition to 3G and BWA, convergence will become a reality. By the end of the next decade, the distinction between voice and data will fade away, voice will be transmitted as data packets and high-end data applications will offer a wide range of services and benefits for consumers.

Said Gopal, “This trend is clearly demonstrated by the increased adoption of 3G in Asia and other parts of the world.”

Gopal was addressing a Mobile Vas Conference on Impact of 3G and BWA on Mobile Vas, organised by Indian Merchants’ Chambers.  
 
IMC president Gul Kripalani said that there exists a vast world beyond basic telephony that needs to be carefully explored and the entire mobile industry was heading towards it to provide ever more novel options to their customers. Often spoilt by choice, mobile phone subscribers are beginning to choose their operators on the basis of the value-added services they offer.