Category: Software

Research findings from Korea presented at the Mobile TV Forum at BroadcastAsia showed that there is no concept of primetime during the day for viewers of mobile TV, contrary to the assumption that commuting time will be primetime. Similarly, research showed that 30 per cent of mobile TV subscribers are above 40 and the age group under 20 is less than 10 per cent.

Addressing the Mobile TV forum at BroadcastAsia, CNBC Asia Pacific Managing Director Jeremy Pink said players have to invest prudently in content which is king to ensure pragmatic growth in a field which is highly competitive.

Moderated by SeedFund managing partner Mahesh Murthy, the discussion hovered basically around key metrics that investors would examine while investing in Web 2.0 models in India and how they would evaluate emerging media business models.

IDG ventures India MD Manik Arora articulated on the prospective business model, the team working on it and the amount of localisation possible in the venture, as key areas he would look to while investing in a Web 2.0 model. He said, “I‘m not convinced that some Indian copy of Orkut or Myspace is going to work in India, unless there is a compelling reason to do so. We would be looking into the speed of implementation through a local language, mobile optimisation, user generated content (UGC) potential and also an offline presence for the model.”

Matrix Partners MD Rishi Navani, who‘s invested in India‘s first online movie rental site Seventymm, appeared highly skeptical of any Web 2.0 model. “To me, Web 2.0 in India is a misnomer. We‘re currently going through a Web 0.5, I guess. However, we are open to investing in ventures, where Web 2.0 features can be incorporated in a Web 1.0 site.”

Insisting on perseverance with Web 2.0 in India, Helion VC MD Kanwaljit Singh said, “Optimism is there in India and since its a long term investment, we‘re willing to wait. Ultimately, the Web 2.0 model founding team should be living the phenomena. Having said that, I think advertising based models will only succeed.”

On being asked what factors he would examine within the model, Singh replied, “I‘d like to test the possibility of setting up the model online, offline and on other channels.” Citing the example of Just Dial as a success, he insisted that Web 2.0 models offering local information and taking up local issues had potential to succeed in India.

Cleartrip travel services CEO and Sherpalo ventures partner Sandeep Murthy was brief in his vision of a Web 2.0. He said, “We‘ll focus on what customers need and we‘re particularly not worried whether it is a Web 2.0 or 1.0.” Naming Ebay and Bazee.com as copy-paste models, when asked whether an adaptation of a US-based model would be a cause for worry, he said, “I think a cut-copy-paste model is inevitable in some ways, but we‘ll address firms which are relevant to the Indian context.”

Navani however, said, “If we fund something in India, it‘s quite likely to be similar to a US based model. We‘ll first find out whether there is a large business opportunity and second if there is differentiated content.”

Nexus India Capital Advisors founding director Suvir Sujan asserted that Web 2.0 is a difficult model to execute in India. “In Web 2.0, your market is building your product. Since websites like Orkut already have engaged users so deeply, entrepreneurs must figure out whether similar models are needed. If yes, then they must come up with a sufficiently different product.”

All panelists agreed upon need for advertising-driven business model. Navani pointed out that a good user interface is a precursor for any Web 2.0 model, which would attract more advertisers. Murthy opined that bringing classified advertisements from print, would be a feasible idea only if the firms had the required ground fleet to do so. Agreeing, Sujan said that the challenge for Web 2.0 would be to get advertising at the right time.

Many customers across the region still regard the PDA-phone as a business tool,” said O2 ceo -Asia Pacific and Middle East, Mark Billington. ” With the Xda Atom Life we really want to open up the converged device market to more customers by demonstrating that PDA-phones can manage your life on all fronts – seamlessly fusing work and play; and meeting your needs, be they connectivity, productivity or creativity, in one compact unit.”

Weighing only 145 grams the Xda Atom Life is smaller than its predecessor – the Xda Atom and is designed to be a multimedia-centric device for personal entertainment. The Xda Atom has a brilliant 262k-colour 2.7-inch TFT QVGA LCD screen, and the O2 MediaPlus interface – first introduced with the Xda Atom enables one to read comic strips, watch manga clips or use the in-built 2.0 mega pixel camera with macro focus.

The other features include MP3 and FM radio tuner with RDS function, SRS WOW HD surround sound and dual stereo speakers. HSDPA and 3.5G-enabled, the Xda Atom Life lets one make video calls, add music podcasts, watch clips on YouTube or stream sports clips. Built-in Bluetooth® and Wireless LAN are the other connectivity options that the phone has. The device also comes with a 1GB of onboard memory

The Xda Atom Life comes also with a turbocharged Intel XScale ® PXA 270 processor that clocks in at 624MHz on the Windows Mobile® 6 platform.

The Xda Atom Life will retail this month at Rs 34,990 (all taxes included) across India at all major cities in the country with one-year local warranty.

According to Casbaa, if regional administrations allocate C-band spectrum to much-hyped WiMAX services, the impact of a “spectrum grab” from Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) technologies could be disastrous.

Over 180 decision-making executives from the satellite industry drawn from around the world participated in the Singapore event, exchanging industry insights and addressing issues facing the Asia Pacific market.

“Unlike BWA, which can be located in other spectrum bands, satellite providers do not have the option of changing frequencies. We cannot go anywhere. We cannot change frequencies for satellite services tomorrow,” said AsiaSat CEO Peter Jackson.

In addition to WiMAX, various 4G mobile telephony initiatives are targeting the entire range of C-Band spectrum in meetings of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), officials attending the meeting from India, China, Hong Kong, Pakistan and Singapore were warned, states an offcial release.

“Indeed, the entire satellite industry in the Asia Pacific could be affected, with operators forced to shut down satellite services along with hundreds of TV channels. If this proposed bandwidth grab is finalised, the effects on the media and satellite industries could be catastrophic,” said Casbaa CEO Simon Twiston Davies.

That‘s why Asia Pacific satellite industry leaders have been calling on governments to take a considered approach in the allocation of existing satellite services. Processes to consider such allocations are under way in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Australia, Taiwan and the Philippines, among others.

The provision of “open skies” with unrestricted access for satellite services to domestic markets was also discussed at the forum. Once again, Casbaa delegates were united in a call for governments to allow the industry to realize the full opportunity of such policies.

“Satellite has great potential to bridge the digital divide,” said, Inmarsat regional director Asia Pacific Ken Cheong. “As a worldwide provider, the more markets we can reach, the more we can bring down pricing and increase affordability. We can support rural and social development programs across Asia and do so in an affordable way.”

Nevertheless, while the operating environment in the region has been improving, the further adoption of best practices — both technical and regulatory — and the introduction of new satellite investment are essential factors for enhancing industry growth.

“The good news is that we are making progress and there have been substantial positive steps in the right direction. As we have more successes, we can provide better and cheaper services throughout Asia,” said Asia Broadcast Satellite president Gregg Daffner.

The 180 decision-making delegates in Singapore also heard that the demand of mobile TV, Direct to Home (DTH) and HDTV services will be key drivers for future growth.

Emerging mobile TV services are sweeping the world with the Asia Pacific market benefiting from that development. TU Media president and CEO of South Korea Dr. Young-Kil Suh delivered a keynote address on the growth of Mobile TV in his home market, where TU Media serves 1.1 million consumers via handheld TV devices. “Customers expect the same quality and coverage of our service as they get with voice mobile. Indoor is as important as outdoor,” he said.

Asia is also set to be the single most important DTH market in the world. For example, India‘s DTH market has grown to 5 million subscribers in just over two years and the rest of Asia wants to follow.

Mass audiences in Asia are also slowly gearing up for High Definition TV(HDTV) services following the US, where 24 of the 48 million HDTV sets in the US are effectively connected to HD content. HDTV has become a key demand driver for TV audiences the world over and 100 per cent conversion is just a matter of time, delegates were told.

“Today‘s gathering highlights the need for a technically enlightened, lightly regulated environment for our industry, which has made billions of dollars in long term investment in equipment and services,” said Intelsat‘s regional VP, Asia Pacific and Casbaa Satellite Industry Committee chairman David Ball.

“Open Skies, technologically neutral and open markets are essential for the growth of the media and telecommunication sector – and it will continue now in Asia – if our regulator colleagues can grasp the nettle of technological change,” said Casbaa‘s Twiston Davies.

Here is perhaps the most surprising statistic for those who believe that mobile TV is for the youth. 30 per cent
of mobile TV subscribers are above 40. The age group under 20 is less than 10 per cent.

In door is as important as out door in terms of mobile TV usage. People use it at home and in the office. There is no concept of primetime during the day. It happens at any hour. The assumption has always been that the commuting time will be primetime.

Also the running time of content is not very important. Subscribers request variety of content. Korea’s T-DMB is a terrestrial free service with seven video and 11 audio channels. S-DMB is a satellite pay service nation-wide with 15 video and 20 audio channels.

It is forecast that there will be 21 million DMB users in 2012 in the country. TU Media says that it is the sole S-DMB Operator in Korea with more than one million subscribers. It operates its own Mobile TV network.

It cooperates with all three mobile carriers in Korea. There is a consortium of major companies in S-DMB Value Chain. SK Telecom is the largest shareholder. EchoStar, Samsung, LG and Broadcasters are shareholders.

In terms of its revenue model, the monthly fee is a major source. Ads, content distribution and technology distribution are a second source. TU Media’s price strategy has aimed to be affordable to the mass: $11 a month. The firm offers 15 video channels in different genres including sports, news, drama.

At one session of the Radio Asia Forum at BroadcastAsia in Singapore, MediaCorp Radio’s Mark Richmond dwelt on how the youth stations could tap new media to make better radio.

“Also a station needs personality. So the branding should have key words that listeners can easily relate to. For our station, we decided to be cheeky, creative, informative, energetic and personalized. It also helps if stations focus on local musicians. So stations should get in touch with local musicians. Sometimes you can do an exclusive deal with undiscovered talent.”

He gave the example of Don and Drew who have now become popular abroad through podcasts. The station owns the copyright to their songs. The group even did a cheeky song about the scare of dengue fever in Singapore. Also new media means that stations have to focus on product selling as opposed to just the feeling.

“With listeners getting more empowered, stations should look to put listeners on-air as much as possible. Those listeners will then blog about it and give the station free publicity. The station can then approach the advertisers and tell them to check out the blogs. That would be proof that users are tuning in.

“The station has a user control session on Sunday morning. DJs should also be blogging. Stations should have a Youtube account. A station should always take advantage of anything free on new media. What we did once was to have contest asking users to create a TVC. The winning entry was shown on Youtube and the winner got $15,000 which was the marketing budget.”

European Broadcasting Union Radio News & Sport’s Michel Mullane says that now radio stations are pursuing listeners online. They have to do that as the young generation is increasingly going online. Stations are now engaging in conversation as opposed to earlier when they would take feedback and laugh. Online stations can make podcasts interactive through voice messaging software like Odeo.

Stations are now going online without losing their core strengths. Station should have their own branded channel on Youtube. They can post photos of their operations of Flickr. A blog post on Youtube can have videos of DJs working which is what BBC Five Live is doing in the UK. They filmed episodes of their film review programme and pasted it online. They also had clips of the films being reviewed.

The technology has been proven on every continent and is available now. HD Radio broadcasting has seen and will see more dramatic success worldwide simply because it has features and benefits to suit all.

The HD Radio system operates on both AM-MW and FM VHF Band II either in a digital-only mode or in a “hybrid” digital plus analogue mode. The result is that AM stations have “FM quality” sound and FM stations can achieve “CD-like quality” audio and carry multiple audio programs streams (known also as multicasting).

iBiquity Digital Corporation is the developer of the HD Radio brand of IBOC (In-Band-On-Channel) technology. iBiquity was formed by the merger of USA Digital Radio and Lucent Digital Radio, with the goal of creating an IBOC digital radio system.

IBOC, as the name implies, allows a digital signal to be added to the existing analogue service within a radio station’s allocated AM and FM channel assignment. This simulcast mode is know as “hybrid” and applies to both AM and FM. The HD Radio hybrid mode places low-level digital carriers in the upper and lower sidebands of the analogue signal. The implementation on AM is similar in that the upper and lower sidebands contain low-level digital signals.

Since the analogue AM signal is amplitude modulated (as opposed to frequency modulated), the AM HD Radio hybrid signal can carry digital information in a quadrature phase component. Thus it can be placed directly beneath, or in quadrature to the analogue modulation.

“Radio industry executives are fond of pointing out how the medium has bounced back from past challenges. But fighting off television in the 1950s, 8-tracks in the ’70s and CD’s in the 90’s, fades in comparison to what radio faces today. At one time radio had the monopoly on “wireless.” It was the only
technology to reach people in cars, on the streets, even on the beach. Today, all media is becoming wireless and portable, The medium is also fighting a competitive battle on all fronts, losing ad market share to the internet, satellite radio and all sorts of other new media,” said Priestley.

Some sources forecast that internet advertising will overtake radio by 2009. The radio industry simply cannot continue to run its business the way it has in the past. Despite infectious optimism on the part of most radio operators worldwide that things are getting better, there is little solid evidence that any new marketing initiatives have the slightest potential to turn around the demand for analogue radio advertising and the radio industry‘s current financial status.

Radio in the FM and AM Bands is a very important medium in Asia, due to its common place at work, home and the automobile. The radio industry in Asia is growing fast because it can offer local content which provides a good platform for local brands to advertise their products in their specific locality. If operated efficiently and effectively radio, broadcasting can be a profitable business.

Asia, Priestley said, stands on the verge of a great opportunity and is able to economically take advantage of one of the latest digital radio systems, HD Radio technology (IBOC). As the name IBOC, In-Band-On-Channel, implies, the HD Radio system operates on the existing AM Medium Wave (MW) and FM-VHF Band II. This very fact has advantages to all involved: the station’s position on the dial does not change enforcing listener loyalty and for the broadcaster, there will be fewer infrastructure changes necessary and lower capital costs to implement than the other systems.

If transmission systems are of modern design HD Radio equipment can be simply, economically and quickly implemented. A very important issue to note is that if one station implements HD Radio technology, it does not automatically mean that all stations must do the same.

Radio stations can implement HD Radio technology when and how they want making this technology a much more democratic choice. When a station believes it is the right time, it can choose to move to digital.

From the listener’s point of view, the existing analogue radios will still work. The listener will only need to buy a new radio when they wish to.

From the transmitter and receiver manufacturers’ point of view, there is low risk and R&D investment. The equipment needed for HD radio implementation is simply an upgrade of existing know-how. Today there are numerous HD Radio receiver manufacturers in Asia including China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan. The HD Radio receiver system design modules are available to any licensed company making it very easy for any organization to use HD Radio technology to maximize their growth with little investment.

The huge quantity of transmission systems installed to date is driving down the price of all equipment involved. The more countries the technology travels to, the lower the cost to broadcast organizations. There are over 1200 such installation to date and another 5,000 planned in the USA and Brazil alone, indicating that HD Radio technology will remain the most cost effective technology available.

Features that are currently under development include surround sound (a premium sound experience in the car as well as at home); store-and-replay (allows the ability to rewind a song that was just played or record an entire program for listening at a more convenient time); on-demand capabilities (permitting instant access to news and information); and an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) so the listener can easily review future content.

In FM HD Radio technology, supplementary channels can be added for programs like weather, traffic, a different language or a radio reading service. Datacasting is also possible and Program Associated Data (PAD), which is metadata about the program and station, are included in the standard.

The hybrid mode has an advantage. A HD Radio receiver will first lock into an analogue signal, then get into FM stereo and transition smoothly to digital. If the digital signal is lost, it
will blend slowly back to analogue, the same way a car radio will blend from stereo to mono given a weak signal.

But the most likely beneficial characteristic of HD Radio technology for Asia is that it can be implemented at the pace determined by the market. And a radio station can choose the type of implementation method ideally suited to its own timeframe. This technology can be used to supplement the existing analogue radio, and can be employed in conjunction with other technologies such as DAB, DMB and DTV.

The portal is now available in Unicode. Earlier the content in the portal was available in true type fonts. Through Unicode font, all the portals of Webdunia are now more approachable for various search engines.

A press release informed that Webdunia‘s mailing solution ‘E-Patra‘ will now be known as ‘Webdunia Mail‘ and users will be able to create their e-mail IDs with the domain name ‘webdunia.com‘. Webdunia mail service facilitates users to send or receive the messages in their mother tongue.

Webdunia- Bahas‘, where the readers can post their opinion and views on burning has also added some more new features.

Commenting on the new avataar, Webdunia president and COO, Pankaj Jain said, “This is just the beginning, our commitment to users of net in Indian languages is much bigger. There is much more to come on both, content and the technical features front.”

Webdunia is available in Hindi (hindi.webdunia.com), Tamil (tamil.webdunia.com), Malayalam (Malayalam.webdunia.com) and Telugu (telugu.webdunia.com), Marathi (marathi.webdunia.com), Gujarati (gujarati.webdunia.com), Bengali (bengali.webdunia.com), Punjabi (Punjabi.webdunia.com) and Kannada (kannada.webdunia.com) languages.

MUMBAI: Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel and mobile media technology firm Affle have announced a partnership to make the revolutionary SMS 2.0 service available to all Airtel customers in Delhi and NCR.

According to an official release, the Affle powered SMS 2.0 application is the world‘s first major upgrade to commonly used SMS. In addition to text-messaging, SMS 2.0 will converge enhanced messaging – custom text colors, fun emoticons, and scheduled SMS, content and advertising. It integrates itself with the usual user interactions by residing as the default SMS application on the handset.

Bharti Airtel mobile services content and new product development head P.S. Parasuram said, “We selected SMS 2.0 as we feel it enriches our users‘ experience with SMSing, while at the same time creating a viable and extremely exciting revenue model.”

Affle south Asia ED Anuj Kumar said, “We are excited to partner with Airtel in India. SMS2.0 is a media, for which the leading content partners and advertisers, are already creating customized campaigns. This is because the users value our media, and find the content, promotions, and messaging features extremely engaging.”

The advertisements on SMS 2.0 have a set of “call-to-action” features such as call now, call-me-back, buy-now, launch video, answer-survey, view web page amongst others. Airtel users in Delhi and NCR region can download this application for free by sending “sms2” to 121.