ITV

Category: Software

  • Verizon, GN Netcom bring broadband headsets to US market













    MUMBAI: Verizon, which operates a wireless network and works in the area of delivering broadband services in the US and GN Netcom which deals with hands-free audio solutions have announced a licensing agreement.


    This will introduce a series of Verizon-branded headsets for use with broadband services and applications, including online gaming and IP telephony

     

    The headsets complement the retail sale of Verizon broadband products and services and leverage the capabilities of Verizon’s networks, including high-speed DSL and the company’s new, advanced fiber-optic network which delivers high-quality voice, data and video services at unprecedented speeds. GN Netcom will produce, ship and provide technical and customer support for the broadband headsets.

     

    Verizon VP brand management and media services Andrea Fant-Hobbs says, “We will enhance our customers’ broadband experiences by offering them innovative headsets that are hands-free, convenient and have superb sound quality.


    “The headsets are the perfect complement to our services, including online gaming, music, video and other entertainment services. Our relationship with GN Netcom directly supports our commitment to provide our customers richer, deeper, broader communications experiences.”


    GN Netcom US senior VP. GM David Wood said, “As the use of broadband applications continues to rise, so does the need for high-quality headsets. Together with Verizon, we are responding to this increased demand as more consumers realise the benefits of headsets, including increased freedom and functionality across broadband applications.”


    The licensing agreement provides Verizon and GN Netcom with a complementary distribution opportunity in the marketplace, while allowing GN Netcom the opportunity to further penetrate and expand into new headset segments such as telephone accessories, online gaming, VoIP and Web calling.

  • Rajshri Media to create humorous content for telecom networks













    MUMBAI: Rajshri Media has tied up with humorists, Shailesh Lodha and Navneet Hullad, for the creation and development of humour content for telecom networks.


    The company is in the process of producing exclusive audio and video content, specifically catering to the 100 million plus telecom user base in India, which it says is growing at a rapid pace and is increasingly demanding entertainment ‘on the go’.

     

    The mobile phone is fast emerging as the preferred device for entertainment, communication and information for this consumer base.


    Rajshri Media MD Rajjat A. Barjatya says, “Humour has always been a big attraction on the cinema and TV screens, in both films and TV shows. With mobile phones evolving into personal entertainment devices and with consumers increasingly consuming entertainment ‘on the move’, the age of ‘made for mobile’ content has arrived.


    “After having studied user habits and consumption patterns on this new medium, we have begun creating a large bouquet of original entertainment content customized for the ‘smallest screen’ in people’s lives. Both Shailesh Lodha and Navneet Hullad are hugely talented artists and we are delighted to be associated with them in our endeavor to brighten up the moods of millions of telecom/mobile consumers in India.”

     

    Rajshri Media has produced audio and video content with both the artists, which would be made available on wap and voice portals across all leading mobile networks. Short audio and video clips will be available for downloading and/or streaming as ring tones, ringback tones, video clips, audio clips and other innovative products.

  • ‘Lost’ interactive game gathering steam













    MUMBAI: In a bid to enhance the brand of the action adventure television show Lost US broadcaster ABC had launched an interactive web-based game Lost Experience in May in the US, UK and Australia.


    Currently in phase three of five of the interactive challenge, the meaning behind the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42, which play a significant role on the television series, will be revealed.

     

    So far, the Lost Experience has unveiled information regarding the Black Rock. The Lost Experience will continue to the premiere of the third season revealing secrets behind the mysterious Alvar Hanso and the Hanso Foundation.


    Those wishing to participate can do so by viewing a synopsis at blogs.abc.com/inside_the_experience/ which allows new participants the chance to enter into the Experience with ease.


    For the uninitiated, the Lost Experience follows a parallel storyline not featured in the television broadcast and is designed so that both fans of the series and those unfamiliar with the show can participate. The Experience provides insight to unlock some of the island‘s secrets for those savvy enough to collect the clues, make the connections and find the answers.


    Although the Lost Experience is internet-based, participants should not assume that clues and story content will be limited to the online world. Any and every platform has the potential to contain hidden secrets. Given the different broadcast windows around the world, this challenge is designed in a manner that is not dependent on information specific to either Season One or Season Two, allowing those who have not yet seen either season of Lost to participate.


    Indian fans might be interested to know that the second season will see new characters coming in. Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), joins the cast as a resident of the island whose story is one of the mysteries that will be explored as the season progresses. In addition, one will discover that there are more previously unknown survivors of the crash of the ill fated flight 815 who all crashed in the tail section of the plane – Ana Lucia playde by Michelle Rodriguez who starred in the films Girlfight, The Fast and the Furious — the mysterious woman Jack met at the Sydney airport bar, Rose‘s husband Bernard (Sam Anderson), Libby (Cynthia Watros)


    The most mysterious, and perhaps most important of all the new characters is Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), who begins the second season inside the hatch, explaining the importance of the button before taking off into the woods.

     

    The Lost Experience is a collaboration between the executive producers from Lost, ABC, Channel 4 in the UK and Channel 7 in Australia. Lost deals with the travails and experiences of a group of survivors from a plane crash.


    Talking about the online extension in the US, UK and Australia ABC senior VP marketing Mike Benson says, “The reward we‘ve always promised from the Lost Experience is information, which is currency to anyone who is a fan of the show or a participant in this game.


    “This additional form of storytelling allows us to engage current and new fans in a genuinely innovative way while delivering the same extraordinary content that ‘Lost‘ provides as a television series.”


    In India, the second season of Lost will air on Star Movies from 3 August at 9 pm.


    Also Read


    ABC to roll out ‘Lost Experience‘ game in UK, U.S. & Australia


    Second season of ‘Lost‘ kicks off on Star Movies next month

  • Broadband subscription in the US up 33 per cent: FCC













    MUMBAI: US media watchdog The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released new data on high-speed connections to the Internet in the US.

     

    High-speed Internet subscriptions soared 33 per cent last year to 50.2 million line. 42.9 million served primarily residential end users. Cable modem service represented 57.5 per cent of these lines while 40.5 per cent were asymmetric DSL (ADSL) connections, 0.3 per cent were symmetric DSL (SDSL) or traditional wireline connections, 0.5 per cent were fiber connections to the end user premises and 1.2 per cent used other types of technology including satellite, terrestrial fixed or mobile wireless (on a licensed or unlicensed basis), and electric power line.


    The increase in ADSL lines exceeded the increase in cable modem connections. ADSL increased by 3.2 million lines during the second half of 2005 compared to an increase of 1.6 million lines for cable modem service. For the full year, ADSL increased by 5.7 million lines compared to an increase of 4.2 million lines for cable modem service.

     

    DSL is typically less expensive than cable Internet service but offers slower download speeds.


    The US is ranked 12th in the world for broadband subscribers behind countries including Iceland, South Korea and Japan, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development‘s most recent rankings.

  • ABC, Tivo win interactive Emmys

    MUMBAI: Tivo, which creates television services for digital video recorders (DVRs) in the US and US broadcaster ABC’s online streaming video player have won interactive Emmies.


    They will take home trophies at the Creative Arts Awards on 19 August.


    TiVo won for achievement for enhanced or interactive programming – television. Tivo president and CEO Tom Rogers says, “Tivo is proud to receive an Emmy Award and recognition from the Academy and its peers for the innovative services that it provides in enhancing the viewing of television by bringing it to a whole new level.”


    Tivo CTO and co-founder Jim Barton says, “We are committed to transforming television viewing by being the leaders in translating the latest technological developments into an easy and simple viewer experience. From our TiVoCast service to TiVo KidZone our mission is to provide subscribers the best way to watch television.”


    ABC.com’s streaming video player won for achievement for enhanced or interactive programming: new delivery platforms. The Academy said, “Conventional wisdom dictated that it was not possible to provide high bit-rate streaming video, over the Internet, to large numbers of people simultaneously, while maintaining consistent quality and doing so in a cost-effective manner. ABC.com‘s full episode streaming player dispenses with those previously held beliefs as it leverages emerging technologies and digital platforms to enhance and extend the ABC television network‘s relationship with consumers.”


    This year‘s Interactive Television Emmy Awards recognise original interactive television programming content, applications and services that have been deployed in the United States between 1 June, 2005 and 31 May 2006 and that have demonstrated creative excellence. Other finalists in this category include AOL Music on Demand, CNN Enhanced and DirecTV Interactive Sports.


    Governor of the Television Academy‘s Interactive Media Peer Group Brian Seth Hurst says, “Tivo was the very first offering in the DVR space and it is great that they are still leading the way. The Tivo service is certainly impressive in both its offering and user experience and meets the standard of excellence. It‘s easy to see why the voters deemed it worthy of the Emmy.”

  • E! Entertainment TV debut popular shows on iTunes

    MUMBAI: E! Entertainment and Apple have announced that hit programs from E! Entertainment Television are now available for purchase and download on the iTunes Music Store.


    New weekly episodes of the second season of hit series The Girls Next Door, which debuts 30 July on E!, The Soup, E!‘s irreverent look at the week‘s biggest, best and most bizarre moments and events in the world of pop culture, the new season of Dr. 90210, as well as all new episodes of The Simple Life: ‘Til Death Do Us Part starring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie will be available the day after broadcast for customers to purchase and download for just $1.99 per episode.


    “This new partnership underscores our commitment to our E! Everywhere initiative, making E! content available to viewers on multiple platforms and on demand,” says president and CEO of E! Entertainment Ted Harbert. “We‘re delighted to pursue this new programming opportunity with iTunes, allowing us to further expand the E! brand and reach even more entertainment fans.”


    “We‘re thrilled to expand our growing video catalog with this original content from E! Entertainment Television,” says Apple‘s vice president of iTunes Eddy Cue. “With over 35 million videos sold, iTunes provides the best way for fans to discover, purchase and download video online.”


    Season two of The Girls Next Door debuts on E! on 30 July, taking viewers beyond the gates and behind closed doors to reveal the world of Hugh Hefner and his three girlfriends Holly, Bridget and Kendra. The premiere episode will also be available to purchase and download on iTunes on July 31. The Simple Life: Til Death Do Us Part follows the lives of Paris and Nicole as they undergo a crash course in marriage and motherhood, while Dr. 90210 takes viewers inside the offices and homes of high profile Beverly Hills plastic surgeons.


    Past season episodes of The Simple Life, The Girls Next Door and Dr. 90210 are also immediately available for purchase and download, states an official release.


    With Apple‘s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as integrated video and podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and groundbreaking personal use rights, the iTunes Music Store is the best way for Macand PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and videos online. The iTunes Music Store features a selection of over 9,000 music videos, Pixar and Disney short films, a variety of hit TV shows, and more than three million songs from the major music companies and over 1,000 independent labels, the release adds.

  • Mobile 365 powers SMS service for Skype

    MUMBAI: Mobile 365, mobile messaging and data services provider has announced that it will provide SMS services to Skype, allowing Skype users to send an SMS to a mobile phone from their PC‘s.


    This service allows Skype internet users to keep in touch via SMS to mobile subscribers anywhere in the world. The service features a straightforward pricing plan wherein users can pay using their existing Skype Credit. For example, a Skype user can now contact a friend who is offline, via a mobile message and arrange a Skype call, thus extending Skype‘s reach beyond the PC.


    When a Skype user sends a message, Skype distributes the message via Mobile 365‘s global inter-operator network to over 60 countries across the world. Mobile 365 accommodates high traffic volumes via its upgraded platform, which recently benefited from a $15 million investment, further enabling the network to reliably deliver messages into over 180 countries worldwide, informs an official release.


    “Skype chose to work with Mobile 365 not only because of its unrivalled global SMS reach, but also because of its ability to access difficult, but highly important markets such as China and India,” said Skype Paid Products director Michael Jackson. “As a global partner, Mobile 365 offers both service reliability and availability, using multiple routes to each destination, enabling us to deliver messages with speed, quality, and ultimately, cost effectively.”


    Skype is available to download at www.skype.com.


    Mobile 365 CEO Gino Picasso said, “Skype is leading the way in global communications and we are delighted to have been chosen as a strategic partner in their quest to revolutionise the way consumers utilize SMS. Skype needed a global partner that is able to provide connectivity into rapidly growing regions including China and India.”


    As Mobile 365 claims to be the only international aggregator with a local presence and premium connectivity into China and India (with over 500 million, and growing, mobile subscribers combined) therefore, it is well placed to help Skype deploy value-added services to its users, via premium SMS, thus opening new revenue streams in such lucrative emerging markets.


    Picasso added, “We expect to build upon our SMS delivery and expand our product offerings with Skype for the global marketplace.”

  • Warner makes classic TV shows available on iTunes

    MUMBAI: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and Apple have announced that classic hit programming from Warner Bros.’ television library is available for purchase and download on the iTunesMusic Store.


    It will include shows like Friends, Babylon and sketches from MADtv, as well as animated classics including The Jetsons and The Flintstones. iTunes offers over 150 TV shows for $1.99 per episode for viewing on a computer or iPod.


    Also available is the pilot episode of Aquaman–a contemporary reinterpretation of DC Comics’ Aquaman mythology from the writing/producing team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar Smallville.


    Warner Bros. Digital Distribution president Simon Kenny says, “Making our television content available to iTunes consumers is an important step in our digital distribution strategy. This deal fits perfectly with our philosophy of providing consumers with access to our world-class entertainment properties across the widest selection of platforms and devices available.”


    Apple iTunes VP Eddy Cue says, “We are thrilled to add hit programming from Warner Bros. as we continue to grow our video catalog with the best current and classic television programming. iTunes is the world’s most popular online video store with over 35 million videos sold.”


    With Apple’s ease of use, features such as integrated video and podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and groundbreaking personal use rights, the iTunes Music Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and videos online. The iTunes Music Store features a selection of over 9,000 music videos, Pixar and Disney short films, a variety of hit TV shows, and more than three million songs from the major music companies and over 1,000 independent labels.

  • Motorola to extend portfolio of ‘video anywhere’ solutions with acquisition

    MUMBAI: Motorola will acquire the American firm Broadbus Technologies. It provides technology solutions for Television On-Demand (TOD).


    Broadbus Technologies’ carrier-class technology solutions enable the distribution of on-demand content to consumers through multiple devices. The company’s innovative solid-state server architecture is based on the intelligent configuration and management of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). As a result, the platform can use less space and power than traditional hard-disk based technology, while providing performance, reliability and scalability improvements for video ingest, streaming, and storage.


    With the acquisition, Motorola will extend its video delivery platform with new content management and distribution capabilities that address growing market opportunities such as mobile video, video-on-demand (VOD), time-shifted TV, network-based digital video recording (nDVR), on-demand ad insertion (ODAI) and switched digital video (SDV).


    Motorola connected home solutions president Dan Moloney says, “Today, consumers expect to access video entertainment on the different devices they have, inside and outside of their home, in varying formats – and to have it available upon request. The addition of Broadbus Technologies will bring Motorola’s video delivery platform one step closer to enabling this vision of seamless mobility by providing us with field-proven content management and delivery solutions.


    “Service providers will be able to take advantage of a complete end-to-end seamless video experience enabled by Motorola technology to extend their customer relationships.”

  • Guba, MPAA to crack down on movie piracy

    MUMBAI: Online video entertainment website Guba is collaborating with the Motion Picture Association of America, (MPAA) to block illegal trading of movies and television programs on www.guba.com.


    Guba is the first video sharing community to partner with the MPAA in filtering copyrighted video.


    Guba is filtering movies and TV shows using a proprietary technology Johnny. Johnny analyses video in digitised form and generates a unique fingerprint for each video. Once Johnny has scanned a video, that video is blocked from illegal file trading or distribution on Guba’s site.


    Guba plans to make Johnny available to other video sharing services to help eliminate copyright infringement on the Web and on Usenet, an electronic bulletin board commonly
    used for illegal file sharing. Until the implementation of Johnny, copyrighted content on Usenet has been largely unfiltered.


    Guba CEO and founder Thomas McInerney says, “Johnny can identify a video, even if that video has been modified, cropped, reformatted, re-encoded or reposted. Guba allows users to upload and share their videos, while Johnny
    helps protect copyright holders from illegal posting and sharing. Johnny is an essential cog in making video sharing safe and easy.”


    The MPAA has been working with technology companies to provide a bridge in the digital transition. Guba and the MPAA have included thousands of movies and television programs from major studios in Johnny’s filters. Filtering efforts on MPAA titles have so far been successful and Guba is committed to
    continuing and improving on this initiative. In the last month, Guba has begun distribution of Warner Bros. and Sony film and television shows online.


    MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman says, “Providing consumers legitimate ways to get movie and television programming online is essential to our industry. Collaborating with Guba has given us an opportunity to test new technology that will help ensure consumers can freely share videos without being exposed to illegal programming, which could lead to copyright infringement. We hope that other such sites will employ similar technology which allows them to conduct legitimate online businesses while protecting the creations of thousands of people who work in the entertainment industry.”


    As a copyright-friendly service, Guba currently prevents users from uploading feature-length films, DRM-protected content, MP3 files, and software.