Category: Software

Under the agreement, Intelsat will provide domestic and international satellite capacity that allows Vista to deliver more occasional use satellite time for its clients, including Fortune 500 companies, broadcasters, cable programmers, educational institutions, government agencies and news organizations.

Vista satellite communications president and CEO Roy Liemer said, “We just completed our new state-of-the-art broadcasting facility in South Florida and needed to increase our transmission bandwidth in order to better serve our growing customer base. Intelsat’s flexible satellite and fiber network provides the global connectivity into key markets, cable and broadcasting neighborhoods that we need for our global expansion.

Intelsat‘s broadcast services VP Ron Rosenthal said, “Vista Satellite Communications is a premiere network service provider in this arena and we are pleased to be building this long-term relationship. Globalization of media is a major trend in the industry today, and Intelsat is ideally suited to serve customers with global distribution needs.”

Intelsat provides fixed satellite services (FSS) worldwide to each of the media, network services and government customer sectors, enabling people and businesses access to information and entertainment.

Registered users of the trial of the beta version get the full Windows XP interface, five gigabytes of storage and standard features like file back-up, virus and spam protection.

The free bundle of software tools includes the ‘Open Office‘ suite, Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, Acrobat 8 reader, iTunes and Winamp players, Yahoo Messenger, and for ‘Open‘ software lovers: the choice of a Mozilla Firefox browser and the Foxit Reader.

At the end of the free-to-use period in December 2007, Nivio will be offered on a monthly subscription of Rs 399 — with a 50 per cent discount.

Blogs and IT-oriented news websites have been dotted with references to Nivio and users‘ reaction has been positive.

The company is a recent spin-off from the Delhi -based SMX Corporation, which operates web hosting and allied services through sister concerns in Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The device connects to the television via USB and HDMI ports. This product will compete with Apple TV and TiVo which also offer similar facilities. According to Information Week, the module will cost $300.

Most of the content on Bravia HDTV initially will be non-HD, but some movie trailers and music videos will be in HD, reported TVpredictions.com.

When the device was announced at CES in January, Grouper Networks co-founder Josh Felser said, “Through the partnership with Sony, Grouper will edit and filter user-generated content posted at Grouper‘s website, choosing the ones the company thinks right for viewing on Bravia.”

The offering was launched by Microsoft GM application development and platform marketing Steve Guggenheimer at TechMela 2007, a technology event.

Song videos from Yash Raj‘s latest release Jhoom Barabar Jhoom will soon be available for downloads through this platform.

The facility is presently available only for consumers outside India. To promote the site, exclusive song video from YRF‘s forthcoming film Chak De India will be available on the site.

Guggenheimer said, “This marks a new era in Bollywood‘s use of technology to connect better with its audiences. We are very excited about this association, as it has not only given us an opportunity to work with one of India‘s most respected production houses, but also enabled us to improve the movie experience for a billion Indians.”

Yash Raj Films is also in the process of evaluating Microsoft Silverlight for its website www.yashrajfilms.com for providing media interactive features in the future.

Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform implementation of .NET for delivering the next generation of media experiences and Rich Interactive Applications (RIAs) for the web.

MUMBAI: News Corp is buying a stake in Australian web video firm Roo. Ruper Murdoch’s media conglomerate is initially taking a five per cent stake, which can go up to 10 per cent if certain predetermined revenue targets are achieved.

Roo currently manages online global video content distribution and content syndication across many of News Corp’s properties including The Times of London, and The Australian and has content syndication partnerships with FOX News Channel and Sky News.

“We are excited to be working with News Corporation to further harness the enormous opportunity of online video across its global network of prestigious media brands,” says Roo chairman and CEO Robert Petty.

The deal with News Corp comes less than a week after Roo, currently valued at $75 million, announced the acquisition of MyVideoDaily, a Web destination and software company.

The reported $1.35m acquisition provides Roo with a proven search engine marketing strategy that introduces new users to the company’s portals and desktop applications.

OpenTV‘s browser has been used by Matsushita and also JVC‘s digital TVs, and has been established as the de facto standard for MEI‘s Tnavi browser. TVPS, which has consolidated TV portals such as Tnavi, launched the acTVila portal in February as a common TV portal.

OpenTV Integrated Browser, designed for the Japanese interactive television market in conjunction with MEI, has now been enhanced to support this new and strategic industry portal. Because it meets the browser specifications set by Networked Digital Television, which is referenced by TVPS, OpenTV is able to give content providers a standard browser development platform that can be used to create and validate their own content.

OpenTV Integrated Browser validation platform is developed for Windows for accessibility and ease of use on the PC. This is provided free of charge by OpenTV on request and will be available on 21 June.

OpenTV Japan GM Arata Hirao says, “Successful commercial deployment of TVPS‘s acTVila portal is dependent on how its content can be viewed correctly across different sets of TVs.

“This new tool now allows content providers to do that validation using the familiar Windows XP system. OpenTV‘s Integrated Browser is already used as a standard browser in the majority of digital TV browsers in the market.

By extending its support to acTVila and by providing its validation platform, OpenTV has achieved a new level of leadership in digital TV portal market. We will continue to enhance our browser platform as digital TV moves forward.”

The acTVila portal is already available on brands of digital TVs such as MEI, Sony, Sharp, JVC, Eizo, and Funai, and it is expected that her home appliance manufacturers will release their own acTVila-compliant TVs in 2007 to 2008.

WBS CEO Pete D‘Acosta will remain as CEO of the new company, operating under the name of Marketron Broadcast Solutions.

Both WBS and Marketron offer broadcast management software solutions to the radio, television, and cable industries. Their products allow clients to automate workflow, optimize inventory and increase revenues. Combined,
their offerings include the industry‘s most advanced sales, traffic and billing systems, corporate reporting tools, internet-based hosted-server solutions, and the integrated electronic delivery of orders and invoices.

D‘Acosta says, “The Marketron brand has a solid forty year legacy of innovation and a major market presence that results in a perfect strategic fit with WBS. Blending these companies will allow us to provide better solutions designed to advance the broadcast industry and improve the station‘s position in the selling process.”

Marketron former CEO Mike Jackson says, “Marketron Broadcast Solutions will be an innovative powerhouse helping radio and television broadcasters of any size to excel in a swiftly changing media landscape. The
entire Marketron team is excited to join forces with Wicks. We expect clients of both companies to benefit from our combined technologies, services and depth of experience. I would also like to thank Internet Capital Group, whose continued support and guidance helped engender this merger.”

Orange‘s VOD services are available via set-top box, ADSL network and internet. Also available via set top box are ORANGE‘s SVOD Services, which launched last November with “24/24 Musique” and “24/24 Jeunesse” (music and animated series). From June, this service is being extended for subscribers to include drama series.

Granada International titles included in the first selection include Space 1999, The Persuaders, Brideshead Revisited, Agatha Christie‘s Poirot, Inspector Morse and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Also included in the deal is a package of films including The Last Seduction, To Die For, The African Queen and films directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Granada International MD Nadine Nohr said, “We are currently digitizing our catalogue, which contains many series which are well known throughout the world, at a rate of 450 hours per week. Working with VOD and SVOD suppliers is a further opportunity for us to maximize revenue from our extensive range of programming and offer a number of non-exclusive volume deals for many companies in the market that are keen to acquire content that will have a broad appeal to their new customers.”

The filing relates to Qualcomm‘s unauthorised use of six Nokia implementation patents in its MediaFlo and Brew businesses.

Qualcomm has in previous litigation sought injunctions against Nokia and therefore in this case Nokia is seeking both damages and injunctive relief.

Nokia CTO Tero Ojanpera says, “Nokia has a strong history of innovation in IP broadcast television and mobile download environments predating Qualcomm‘s activities. This is another example where Qualcomm has effectively copied Nokia‘s innovations.

“We believe that, for MediaFlo to evolve and for Brew to remain viable, Qualcomm needs access to these and many other patented Nokia inventions.”

Nokia states that its patents are at the core of MediaFlo and Brew technologies, for example in ensuring the broadcast quality of service within MediaFlo and in enabling the download of applications with Brew. Nokia has also recently declared another set of patents to the Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) as essential for the Flo air interface used in MediaFlo.

Over the past two years, Qualcomm has filed 11 lawsuits against Nokia, according to a Nokia spokeswoman.

The initial Qualcomm lawsuit filed in Texas deals with three patents related to the downloading of applications and other digital content over GPRS or EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) networks, two technologies for speeding the transmission of packet data in GSM networks.

Nokia contends that Qualcomm‘s patents are invalid and, in addition, has asked the Texas court to stop Qualcomm from using six Nokia implementation patents used in Qualcomm‘s MediaFlow and Brew technologies.

Media reports state that the Nokia move seems aimed at undermining operator support for two technologies designed to turn Qualcomm into a strong mobile content distributer. MediaFlo enables operators to pipe television programming to mobile handsets. Brew is a distribution platform for things like mobile video, games and music.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) is to get a director to handle the infrastructure and respond speedily to complaints and situations.

The creation of a post of this nature was approved by the Union Cabinet at its meeting here today.

The aim of the creation of this post is to ensure reactive and proactive services; security awareness programmes, and security audit of government organisations.

This will also enable creation of critical infrastructure for enforcing and enhancing cyber security measures.