ITV

Category: Software

  • Hungama.com’s ‘Zindagi Ka Sound Track’ campaign creates a digital wave

    Hungama.com’s ‘Zindagi Ka Sound Track’ campaign creates a digital wave

    MUMBAI: One of India’s on-demand digital entertainment storefront, Hungama.com recently carried out a brand campaign which features a voiceover by Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan. The brand campaign titled ‘Zindagi Ka Sound Track’, has lead the Hungama.com app to the number one position across Android and iOS app stores, says the platform.

     

    Speaking on the success of the brand campaign, Hungama.com CEO Siddhartha Roy said, “The digital campaign to amplify Hungama.com’s social media outreach was a resounding success and has helped fortify the brand’s presence across platforms. The campaign has helped create an opportunity for us to interact with our audience and strengthen our relationship with them. With this campaign’s integral message, we promise to continue to engage our audience across digital platforms with innovative and exclusive content.”

     

    The 360 degree campaign was conceptualised and executed by Scarecrow Communications. The campaign took off with a TVC launch, which was amplified across OOH, digital, radio and in-cinema advertising. The agency simultaneously carried out a social media contest with the hashtag #HungamaMusic. Along with the social media run, a twitter contest was also carried out wherein they called in all the twitteratis to complete the sentence ‘Music #Zindagika’. With over 30k tweets, the contest saw celebrity participation too.

     

    The outreach of the campaign across facebook had an average reach per campaign-related post which was over one lakh and a total 40 lakh people approximately influenced. “With interactions going over 2.5 lakh across all social pages and over one million views on YouTube within 30 days of the launch of the campaign, it has got an overwhelming digital response,” the release said.  

  • JustEat.in launches new Android app, offers hAPPy hour to its customers

    JustEat.in launches new Android app, offers hAPPy hour to its customers

    NEW DELHI: JustEat.in, India’s leading online food ordering portals, has introduced a sexy new user interface for its stellar Android app that beautifies the food ordering process. Ordering yummy grub is now just a couple of taps away. To make things all the more exciting, JUST EAT is also offering a ‘hAPPy hour’ to its customers from 24th November 2014. Get attractive deals and discounts every week by placing orders between 4 pm and 5 pm on the new app between Monday to Thursday.

    With the new app’s seamless experience it is now easier to order food with a few taps than call a restaurant.  The hAPPy hour on the new Android app now lets customers enjoy weekly offers like a flat 50% discount or a Rs. 160 off on every order of Rs. 300 among others.

    Ritesh Dwivedy, CEO JustEat.in stated, “At JustEat.in, we are committed to developing superior technology to enhance user experience and constantly bring in path-breaking innovations in the food ordering industry. With the new app, we aim to further reinforce our market leadership position. The hAPPy hour acts as an invitation for more consumers to come on board and discover the benefits of ordering food conveniently through their mobile device.”        

    The Android app also allows users to view their order history with a tap. It features an enhanced scroll experience through the menu pages of various restaurants. An exciting addition is the fact that one can search for specific items on the menu instead of scrolling through each page individually. Searching for ordering options has also become easier as the cuisine filter enlists the various restaurants serving that cuisine. Overall, the new app ensures that less time is spent on searching for and ordering the perfect meal and more time on relishing it!

  • Digitisation to offer great opportunity for advanced services, says CDAC

    Digitisation to offer great opportunity for advanced services, says CDAC

     

    MUMBAI: With the new government focusing on connecting every village with broadband and digitisation of analog cable TV, Centre for Development and Advanced Computing (CDAC) has come up with a number of opportunities for advanced interactive services.

    Set up in 1988, CDAC already provides a number of products and services catering to a large market ranging from health care systems, datawarehousing, multimedia and multilingual technologies, networking solutions to technical consultancy, training and e-governance solutions.

    The company set up a Graphics and Intelligence based Script Technology (GIST) group soon after its origin which built the Indian Language Computing Solutions. Porting of Indian languages onto the video medium with subtitles, this technology is being used by tickers and banners on TV stations, news channels, cable operators, etc.

    Now with the onset of digitisation in India, CDAC-GIST is coming up with new services to broaden the reach of channels by supplementing content in local languages.

    Speaking at Broadcast India conference, CDAC- GIST technical officer Shubhanshu Gupta said, “Digitisation has offered us a great opportunity for advanced services that will offer the viewers day to day information as and when it comes. Our main aim is to enrich the experience of Indian viewers in the grassroot level.”

     “Multilingual subtitle and caption will address the viewers with diverse linguistic background. We plan to transfer television into a multi-lingual university and provide a solution to educate the country in the most cost-effective way. The device will do sub-titling for national as well as some private channels.” he added.

    The company is also planning to facilitate distance learning, public information and alerts, health education on television.

    With a lot of education content already online on various platforms available for e-learning, CDAC will provide a way to re-use the content and disseminate it through television.

    “Our technology will provide the already available content on television through set top boxes. It would also include test whose results could be given to UGC for evaluation and analysis,” revealed Gupta.

    “We also propose getting information regarding the diseases, new medicine, and latest news in the health sector on television with the press of a button to improve the quality of healthcare in the country and keep the citizens more informed,” he added.

    Recently, Doordarshan launched a new channel, DD Kisan, dedicated to farmers, as an extension to their daily programme, Krishi Darshan. It provides full time updates on the latest news on farming. Gupta reckoned that CDAC-GIST will enable interactivity on the programmes.

    “Our technology will give the farmer all relevant information like local market prices, weather information etc in their local languages to help enhance the reach and to incentivize them to use the channel more,” he opined.
    “We are also doing pilot of our Language Independent Programme Subtitles (LIPS) on air digital at four Doordarshan metro DD centres to proliferate Indian language through broadcast media,” he adds.

    LIPS Live technology has made it possible to subtitle movies and programs in Indian languages. Several products like MOVE CG 2001 simplify the titling of video programs with high resolution aesthetic fonts.  

    Another CDAC product MultiPrompter is a solution for teleprompting in Indian languages for TV channels that are mushrooming in the Indian subcontinent.

    CDAC also helped government in launching the bharat domain name in devanagri script covering several languages including Hindi, Bodo, Dogri, Mailthali, Marathi, Konkani, Nepali and Sindhi.

    If a person from Maharashtra opens the website, the home page will automatically open in Marathi while if a person from Tamil Nadu tries, it will open in Tamil, he reveals.

    C-DAC has also helped in establishing standards such as ISCII, Unicode, ISFOC, etc. for Indian language applications on computers and electronic media. It is also working for standardization of W3C (Languages on Web), Internationalized Domain names, Governance, linguistics formats, storage, input, display fonts, etc.

    C-DAC was set up to built Supercomputers in context of denial of import of Supercomputers by USA. Since then C-DAC has been undertaking building of multiple generations of Supercomputer starting from PARAM with 1 GF in 1988.

    It set up National Centre for Software Technology (NCST) in 1985 that initiated work in Indian Language Computing around the same period.

    Similarly C-DAC started its education & training activities in 1994 as a spin-off with the passage of time and it grew to large efforts to meet the growing needs of Indian Industry for finishing schools.

     

  • Amazon’s cloud service, the preferred choice by media industry, says Amit Sharma

    Amazon’s cloud service, the preferred choice by media industry, says Amit Sharma

    MUMBAI: Striving to be Earth’s most consumer-centric company, Amazon.com is a place where customers can virtually discover anything they want to buy online. To prove their consumer-centeredness, the online retail giant in 2006 launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) exposing key infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services, more commonly known as cloud computing.

    Even as a web service, Amazon is as well received and popular as its e-tailer form with clients ranging from MNCs to online agencies and news broadcasters.

    Talking about the base strategy of the company at Broadcast India conference, Amazon Internet Services’ solution architect Amit Sharma said “Focus on content development, leave the infrastructure management to us.”

    The company’s global clientele includes; Netflix, IMDB, Discovery Communications, Samsung, NASA while Hungama, NDTV, DigiCable, India Today Group, Sony among others joined them from India.

    According to Sharma, the company has around 8000 customers in India. “AWS Cloud is a preferred choice by the media industry,” he adds.

    With the rise of the online medium, everything from music to movies and TV shows have shifted online. The old hardware storage has been replaced almost completely by internet, tapes have been replaced by servers and the companies have gone digital. With these paradigm changes happening in the online world, AWS provides a platform for better web services to the company, Sharma opines.

    The company mainly handles issues getting all the content online to provide easy access.

    “Netflix runs almost 100 per cent of its online videos on AWS. In order to transfer the entire library of Netflix to AWS, we used around 1200 servers,” Sharma reveals.

    Similarly AWS provides solutions to problems including; reducing IT cost for new applications, for user profiling, websites and website hosting, business applications, backup and recovery, disaster recovery, data archive, high performance computing, mobile services, digital marketing, game development and digital media.

    Book My Show, uses AWS to analyse users that visit the site while Hungama was looking to reduced 33 per cent monthly costs using AWS.

    The company provides a highly reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure platform in the cloud that has helped a number of enterprises, government and startup customers businesses in 190 countries around the world. AWS offers over 30 different services, including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS).

    Available to customers from data center locations in the US, Brazil, Europe, Japan, Singapore and Australia, the company is planning to expand further and open a data centre in India.

    Recently, software giant Microsoft had said it will set up three data centres in India, offering commercial cloud services, to tap what it estimates is a $2 trillion opportunity. These data centres are expected to be set up by the end of 2015.

     

  • New cell phone software for live crick updates

    New cell phone software for live crick updates

    MUMBAI: With an all important India Pakistan series which is currently underway, cricket mania seems to be rubbing off on almost everybody. The latest to cash in on the series is Chakra Interactive (gaming company based in Mumbai) which launched a revolutionary software system for mobile phones called CricketPal especially for the India-Pakistan ODI series.

    CricketPal will enable mobile subscribers to get live and complete scoreboards on their mobile phones at the press of a button. Also a boon for subscribers is that they need not pay for the numerous and tedious SMS to get latest score updates.
    What’s the score?

    Unlike the dull SMS text score updates, the CricketPal software is rich media based – having vibrant colors and sounds. Once CricketPal is downloaded into your mobile phone, all one needs to do is press one button to fetch latest score updates with live commentary. The system can also be set to auto-fetch latest score every five or 10 minutes.

    “CricketBar is a well formatted, detailed, dynamic complete scoreboard in the palm of your hand,” says Chakra Interactive CEO Vishal Lamba who is the man behind the revolutionary idea. “Cricket lovers can now enjoy ODI’s where-ever they are. The system even makes sounds when a four or six is hit, or when a wicket falls! It’s just a much more fun way of enjoying the game than SMS is.”
    Technology at its best

    CricketPal can be downloaded from www.CricketPal.com. At the website, all one needs to do is to enter their mobile phone number and phone model for the download to take place. The online system will then send CricketPal to their mobile phone over-the-air. The cost of CricketPal is $9.95.

    The phones that support CricketPal are Nokia 40 Series: 3100, 3200, 3300, 5100, 6100, 6610, 6800, 7210, 7250. In the Nokia 60 series: 3650, 3660, 6600, 7650, N-Gage. The versions for other devices like Motorola, Siemens, Sony-Ericsson, Sharp, Panasonic and LG phones will be available shortly.

  • Science Learning comes to your fingertips as Function Space Launches Android Mobile App

    Science Learning comes to your fingertips as Function Space Launches Android Mobile App

    MUMBAI: Function Space (http://www.functionspace.org/), a social learning network for Science and Technology is now available on all Android based smartphones, the company announced today. The fascinating free for download mobile application boasts of magnificent design, superior user interface and science in your pocket aspects. The app grants users complete access to the discussion-based community from anywhere across the globe, putting the power of knowledge right in your pocket. It is designed to cater to the entire community of Science Learners and experts from over 190 countries covering the gamut of colleges and universities of Science and Technology.

    The application comes bundled with real time updates of the latest discussions and opinions which enables users to gain clarity on science concepts through consultations with peer group of science experts. The app also acquaints users to novel scientific concepts and developments through quarter topics and facilitates awareness of latest developments in the science domain, through its news section. Android users can also get access to a large library of insightful discussions and articles covering the entire spectrum of the mentioned topics.

    Function Space app offers a superior immersive user experience through various innovative features. The mobile destination covers all the subtopics of Maths, Physics and Computer Science. The Complexity of topics starts from the high school level and goes up to research level.

    Speaking on the development, Adit Gupta, Founder and CEO, Function Space, said, “We chose the android platform owing to the huge customer base it caters to. Our key goal is to be available wherever our user is. Our Function Space application is the finest way to learn and discuss science, with a community of science learners and experts from over 190 countries. You have a science problem or query, this app can answer it for you. We provide you with free access to thousands of discussions, insightful articles, and an opportunity to interact with the best minds across the world.”

    “In addition, our android app provides users with the easiest way to solve their doubts related to physics, mathematics and computer science, on the go. Users can customize the content and select their learning level from beginner (high school level) to advanced (research level)”, he added.

    The near term goal is to offer Chemistry and Biology subjects for e-learners. Users can avail of thousands of discussions, latest science news, and insightful articles along with information on interesting topics pertaining to science and allied domains.

  • Cartoon Network Digital mobile app ‘Anything’ to launch on 13 October

    Cartoon Network Digital mobile app ‘Anything’ to launch on 13 October

    BENGALURU: In probably a what it claims as a first for a television brand, Cartoon Network Digital (CND) announced the debut of a micro-network specifically designed for the small screen.  Cartoon Network Anything contains content exclusively created for portable mobile platforms, rapidly delivering entertainment in a totally new and fun way. The app is free and available for download now on the App Store and Google Play. Cartoon Network will celebrate the launch of Cartoon Network Anything starting at 7:30 a.m. ET/PT on 13 October.
     

    “We want our audience to have a holistic and unique experience that remains true to Cartoon Network’s DNA on every device,” said CND vice president Chris Waldron. “Cartoon Network Anything is a new kind of network – it’s undeniably the Cartoon Network brand, but specifically tailored for the smallest screens.”

     
    CND oversees the management and production of content for the channel’s official site, CartoonNetwork.com, and all of the network’s mobile properties. A top industry web site, CartoonNetwork.com is the #1 kids’ television network site and a Top 10 Domain with kids and boys 2-12 in the United States oversees the management and production of content for the channel’s official site, CartoonNetwork.com, and all of the network’s mobile properties. A top industry Web site, CartoonNetwork.com is the #1 kids’ television network site and a Top 10 Domain with kids and boys 2-12 in the United States claims a Time Warner release.

     

     
    Cartoon Network Anything is an ever-growing and ever-changing stream of content consisting of games, activities, trivia and video, each lasting an average of 10 to 15 seconds. After each piece of content, viewers can advance to the next piece by simply swiping their screens. The perpetually-updated stream of content is delivered randomly, providing entertainment that feels both immediate and infinite, informs the company.

     

     
    Soon after launch, Cartoon Network Anything will premiere original IP from Cartoon Network Studios, giving an exciting first-look at new animated micro episodes created specifically for this experience. Fans will be able to save items to their favourites for future viewing, and the ‘like’ functionality may also inform future development by gauging fan interest about a particular piece of content, the company adds.
     

     

  • Mobile app launched by Tourism Ministry for tourists guidance

    Mobile app launched by Tourism Ministry for tourists guidance

    NEW DELHI: An ‘Incredible India’ mobile application has been launched that will assist international and domestic tourists to access information about facilities recognised by the Tourism Ministry.

     

    Launched by Tourism Secretary Parvez Dewan, it lists tourism service providers, approved Inbound Tour Operators, Adventure Tour Operators, Domestic Tour Operators, Tourist Transport Operators, Travel Agents, Regional Level Guides, Classified Hotels available in respective cities / Tourist centers. Details of the same will be given through this application to the tourists on their mobile phones based on their current location. Tourists can also query similar details for any other city he plans to travel to in future. In addition to this, the application will provide places of interest.

     

    This mobile application has been developed as part of the initiative of the new government in taking important positive decisions, especially, affecting the general public since its taking over the charge.

     

    This new application developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) will help the tourists in seeking services from government recognised service providers and receive quality and reliable services from them.

     

    The app demonstrates the Tourism Ministry’s commitment to use the technology for service delivery.  Incredible India Mobile Application is available for the Android phones on the Google Play store and for i phone this will available in App Store during the coming week.

  • Yo Yo Honey Singh goes digital; launches album on Hungama

    Yo Yo Honey Singh goes digital; launches album on Hungama

    MUMBAI: From launching Happy New Year trailer on Whatsapp to releasing Mary Kom pictures on social media, the industry is getting innovative with its marketing and promotional strategies and moving more towards the digital space. Yo Yo Honey Singh has also taken a digital leap.

    The latest album of the famous singer/rapper has been launched on the Hungama, a first of its kind initiative. “The main objective behind launching the album on an app was to distribute it to 20-25 million people at the same time who subscribe to the app,” said Hungama Digital Media CEO and MD Neeraj Roy.

    Launched by the press of a button on a smartphone, Desi Kalakaar is the first album of Yo Yo Honey Singh with a romantic angle. The album consists of eight songs. While the video of the title track was released on 26 August starring Sonakshi Sinha with the rapper, the videos of the other songs will be released over time. Shot like short movies with a basic storyline, all the videos will feature foreign locations.

    The album was released exclusively on all digital platforms across Hungama on 26 August, while it will be launched very soon on iTunes, YouTube and other platforms.

    Talking about the marketing strategy for the album, the MD said, “We are looking at a lot of famous forums to launch the album as it contains both music as well as rap songs. We are looking at taking the album to the international Honey Singh fan base through the app.”

    Excited about the launch, Hungama Digital Media COO (Consumer Business & Allied Services) Siddharth Roy said that he is confident that the album will succeed due to the Honey Singh magic and also because the artist has been extensively pushed and promoted by T-series.

    While the COO did not comment on the marketing and distribution cost, he added, “We will distribute the album to telecom giants like Vodafone live, Airtel music etc. We are expecting revenue by the audiences subscribing to the song through hello tunes and caller tunes. We are also looking to launch the album on the DTH platform through a campaign with Tata Sky. While the streaming is free for the audiences, the ads that come during the video will help us generate revenue.”

    The Hungama team may also add gaming element to the album by the second or third video release.

    While Honey Singh, Bhushan Kumar, Neeraj Roy and Siddharth roy were present at the launch, Sonakshi Sinha could not come due to prior engagements.

    Hungama exclusively sources content from 300 providers and distributes it in 60 countries over 500 networks.

  • ‘Aata Majhi Satakli’: Unleash Singham’s fury with two exciting games based on the much awaited movie Singham Returns

    ‘Aata Majhi Satakli’: Unleash Singham’s fury with two exciting games based on the much awaited movie Singham Returns

    MUMBAI: ‘Aata Majhi Satakli’, that’s right you’ll be hearing a lot of it alongside ferocious lions roaring while you play supercop ‘Bajirao Singham’ with two exciting games that have been launched to enthrall gamers. At one moment you could be riding a sports car on a high speed action packed mobile racing game and in the next you could be in an exciting and thrilling running chase behind villains on the streets of Mumbai. The two games are based on the most anticipated movie of this year and it sure won’t disappoint you.

    On the running action thriller, Singham Returns – The Game, players can test their reflexes and collect coins as they jump, kick enemies and wield the famous Singham belt. The game features five stunning and beautiful environments of Mumbai City. Your villains have no chance as the fearless Singham unleashes his rage and hops on a police bullet chasing down his enemies. The game has been localized into Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada so players across India can enjoy the full gaming experience in their vernacular.

    Reliance Games is also excited with their partnership with Roosh Interactive for Singham Returns – TakeDown. This 3D racing game pops open a real map based on your phones geo-location and plots in other players playing the game awaiting a challenge. A selection of rides from exotic sport cars to even a military grade tank makes you feel indestructible.

    “Our vision for India has been to launch a bouquet of games that appeals to the diverse tastes of Indian mobile gaming audiences. Singham Returns presents the perfect opportunity to develop exciting games around a hugely popular movie IP that has captured the imagination of Indian fans worldwide. Gamers can now partake in the same excitement and energy as Bajirao Singham while playing on their mobile devices,” said Manish Agarwal, CEO of Reliance Games

    Deepak Ali, CEO of Roosh Interactive said “It has been a pleasure to partner with Reliance Games for Singham Returns – TakeDown and we look forward to many such associations in the future to launch exciting gaming titles in India”

     

    Celebrate this Independence Day by downloading these thrilling games and unleash the inner lion in you!