Category: Software

MUMBAI: Britain‘s media regulatory body Ofcom has published its Communications Market: Digital Progress Report for the first quarter of 2006 i.e. January-March.

The report shows that digital television was viewed by 72.5 per cent (18.2 million) UK television per households – up from 69.5 per cent at the end of last year.

The take-up of digital television is growing faster than expected. Ofcom’s last Digital Progress Report had forecast that an extra 1.7 million homes would take-up digital television this year. By the end of March almost 800,000 extra households had already done so.

The number of free-to-view digital households (Freeview plus free-to-view satellite) is estimated to have grown by 9.7 per cent from January to March to over 7.7 million.

Freeview has for the first time overtaken traditional analogue television on primary sets in the home. Almost 7.1 million households have Freeview on the primary television set compared to around 6.4 million who are yet to take-up digital television.

Freeview sales for January to March were up 40 per cent on the same period in 2005 at over 1.2 million, making this the third successive quarter in which sales have exceeded the 1 million mark. Estimates suggest that 38 per cent of Freeview sales are intended for secondary television sets in the home.

Ofcom notes that digital satellite is the UK’s most popular digital television platform viewed by 8.3 million, or 30 per cent of homes of which almost 7.7 million subscribe to BSkyB pay services and 645,000 receive free-to-view satellite services.

Just under one million BSkyB households view pay television on more than one television set through BSkyB’s Multiroom subscription service. The number of cable television households increased slightly over the quarter and is currently just over 3.3 million. Over 70,000 digital cable subscribers were added during the quarter, mainly as a result of analogue subscribers transferring to digital services.

MUMBAI: US internet service provider AOL and Warner have announced that ‘In2TV‘ which claims to be the largest offering of television series available online for free, has launched two new channels.

Gone But Not Forgotten TV showcases shows that have been cancelled. Get Real TV is a reality TV channel offering some of the most sought-after unscripted, relationship and court series in this arena. ‘In2TV‘ also adds twelve new series including many episodes that have never aired on television and more than a dozen new video features.

Gone But Not Forgotten TV has got in its line up recently aired series. These short-lived shows can be seen with never-before-seen episodes, clips, trivia and games. Wanda Sykes stars in Wanda at Large. This is a sitcom about an outspoken comedian-turned-news reporter that aired a couple of years ago.

Michael Richards, who starred in Seinfeld returned to television with The Michael Richards Show. He played a bumbling detective. The sitcom was Richards‘ debut project post Seinfeld and In2TV is premiering the never-broadcast original pilot episode.

Center of the Universe stars John Goodman as a father raising a family despite his extended brood‘s mettlesome antics. Jean Smart, Ed Asner, and Olympia Dukakis also star in this 2005 sitcom. One of the shows that Get Real TV will air is ElimiDate. This is a survival dating show. The Will is a cut-throat reality competition accentuating the love and greed in every family.

MUMBAI: LG Electronics India has commenced operations of its Greenfield facility for ODD products at Ranjangaon, Pune.

LG has begun manufacturing DVD Writers thus becoming the first company to manufacture the same in India. The DVD writer plant in Ranjangaon is the second largest DVD Writer plant in Asia. The facility presently has a capacity of producing 600,000 units of DVD players per month .

The facility will also have an additional product range to the existing line up. LG Electronics has already begun manufacturing of GSM mobile phones early last year making it the first mobile phone manufacturing company in India. The Pune plant in addition to its current manufacturing facility at Greater Noida will enable the company to expand its consumer reach.

The plant aims to reach up to 1500 manpower base and an investment of Rs. 300 crores till 2010 for ODD plant . With this unit LG India has become the export hub for LG DVD writers catering predominantly to the European markets. The company aims to touch an export turnover of USD 450 million by 2008.

The Ranjangaon plant already caters to manufacturing of refrigerators, colour television sets, microwave ovens and GSM handsets.

LG India MD KR Kim said, “It gives us great pleasure and encouragement to be the only company in India to have a first of its type ODD plant. The Greenfield facility manufactures premium end models of the product which are primarily for exports. The disk drives manufactured in Ranjangaon will cater mainly to the European markets.”

LG adds that the encouraging optimism that the Indian consumer durables market has to offer to LG has driven it to invest Rs. 9 billion for the manufacturing facilities at the Pune plant, out of which Rs 3 billion would be invested in DVD writers. The firm hopes that the move will give it an edge over other players in terms of production and subsequent market share.

MUMBAI: Club Internet and Microsoft Corp. have come together for an exclusive digital television service, which will be launched later this month. This new triple-play offering will be the first in France to be based on the Microsoft TV software platform.

Club Internet is a provider of internet services in France and will now lead the delivery of next-generation digital television services.

Part of the Deutsche Telekom Group, Club Internet, which created TV on the web in 2002, will be the first of the Group and among the first in the world to launch a triple-play offering that will be powered by the Microsoft TV Edition software platform and will revolutionise the way people watch TV.

Club Internet‘s triple-play service will provide a complete digital television service together with voice and data services that soon will be supported by a set-top box with integrated hard disk from Linksys. The offering is high-definition (HD)-ready and digital terrestrial television (DTT)-ready and will include a vast range of on-demand programming, broadcast channels and advanced digital video recording (DVR) functionality, enabling consumers to control when and how they watch live and recorded TV.

The Microsoft TV-based solution can be tailored to suit the viewers‘ preferences, turning television into a more personalised entertainment experience for each individual.

This new Internet Protocol television (IPTV) solution is designed to be intuitive and flexible, offering a simple and user-friendly interface.

Some of the other benefits of the service include:

Changing channels is instantaneous compared with one to two seconds for other digital TV and IPTV solutions.
The picture-in-picture feature enables viewers to follow two programs simultaneously.
The digital recorder will provide 50 hours of recording time and will be integrated into HD- and DTT-ready set-top boxes.
The TV and video-on-demand (VOD) content is wide-ranging and proprietary to Club Internet: 1,000 VOD and subscription VOD programs and 150 TV programs will be available for the back-to-school season.
In addition to these, Club Internet‘s triple-play offering uses a simple and intuitive guide for programming up to two weeks ahead, and the entire library of content can be searched by program or even actor name while viewers continue to watch a current program.

“We are delighted with our alliance with Microsoft TV. Equipped with 1,000 VOD and SVOD programs and 150 TV programs, Club Internet television service will provide the consumer with real added value thanks to its user-friendly interface. With this new generation of digital television, Club Internet is revolutionizing IPTV and inventing television on demand,” said Club Internet/T-Online France president Marie-Christine Levet.

“Working together, Microsoft and Club Internet are helping to create a revolution in TV entertainment for consumers across France. Club Internet can combine its experience in pioneering innovative Internet services with the power of next-generation IPTV technologies to deliver unique TV and communications services that are truly integrated,” said Microsoft TV general manager marketing Christine Heckart.

MUMBAI: US broadcaster CBS and Apple have announced that prime time programming from the network is now available on the iTunes Music Store at www.itunes.com.

This means that some shows from all the four major American networks – CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox are available at iTunes.

CBS shows that will be available for purchase and download include the reality show Survivor, the dramas Numb3rs, NCIS and the Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) franchise CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami CSI: NY.

iTunes now offers over 100 TV shows for $1.99 per episode for viewing on a computer or iPod, and claims to be the world‘s most popular online video store with over 30 million videos sold.

CBS Digital Media president Larry Kramer said, “We are bringing popular and acclaimed programmes from the most watched television network — including CSI and Survivor — to iTunes. iTunes has proven that people enjoy viewing shows on their computer or iPod, which provides an opportunity to reach new audiences with our hit shows and gives our existing viewers a chance to catch up on missed episodes.”

MUMBAI: Telecom service provider Reliance Communications in association with Orbit Communications Company (OCC) has launched RiTV, which is an interactive television, broadband and media solution.

OCC and Reliance Communications have introduced a “Go to Market Strategy” that offers a variety of interactive TV services. RiTV was demonstrated at the three-day ‘The Hotel Show‘ held at the World Trade Centre, Dubai.

The new multi media solution delivers on-demand entertainment, internet access and information services through an intuitive interface. It is said to be compatible with a variety of television screens including Plasma and LCD screens and through a remote and keyboard multiple service offerings can be accessed.

RiTV is believed to present opportunities to develop a new revenue stream for Hotels.

RiTV CEO Gurjeet Sandhu has been quoted in media reports as saying, “The cutting edge guest room media solution offers new incremental revenue streams for hoteliers. We look forward to tap the tremendous potential of RiTV to all existing hotels as well as thousands of hotels scheduled for construction in the Middle East.”

The latest Hotel Interactive system, is expected to enhance the customer value proposition for the hospitality industry in the Middle East. Through an interface with a hotel‘s Property Management System, it also has the ability to extract data relating to customer behaviour and preferences.

OCC business development manager Fadi Ghazzaoui added, “RiTV is a powerful interactive guest room solution offering high quality experience for guests. The system can be customised as per the need of hoteliers and has capabilities to be scaled up to meet the future needs of hotels and their guests. We will also offer integrated solutions encompassing a gamut of TV Channels, movies, Internet via Satellite and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solutions to the Hospitality market.”

MUMBAI: American internet service provider AOL has launched Active Security Monitor. This is a free downloadable program that continuously checks the status of key security programs – including anti-virus, firewall, spyware protection, wireless security and Windows/browser updates – on a user’s home computer.

Active Security Monitor assigns a Security Score to each PC on the user’s network and it offers specific recommendations based on the scan‘s results to improve user security.

AOL’s digital services division president John McKinley said, “The secret to security is information. Most people don’t have all of the core security protections they need and, worse, don’t realize how vulnerable they are. Not having updated virus, spyware, and firewall protection is like locking your front door, but leaving your windows and back door wide open.”

“Active Security Monitor takes an entirely new approach to computer security by regularly checking to ensure that all of the core protections are active and up to date, and it extends that critical information to home networked environments,” he added.

Active Security Monitor examines each computer on a user’s home network in eight areas: firewall, virus protection, spyware protection, Windows/browser updates, wireless security, P2P software and PC utilities. In each area, Active Security Monitor checks to see if that type of program exists, and if so, whether it is currently running and has been recently updated.

Key features of Active Security Monitor:

Simple, clear display of the current security status of each computer on a user’s home network.

Unified Security Score, a single score that offers a basic summary of each computer’s risk from viruses, identity theft and network intrusion.

Separate evaluations of each networked computer, so users can tell if security risks exist on any machine that could compromise the network.

Detection of system vulnerabilities and recommendations to help users download missing security patches and free or paid products to improve their PC‘s security.

Simulations that allow users to see how much their Security Score would improve by following the recommendations.

Always-on updates and alerts inform users of security status changes, for example, if an anti-virus programme’s definitions are not up to date.

MUMBAI: UK broadcasters BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five have joined forces to launch the UK‘s first high definition (HD) trial broadcasts to terrestrial aerials.

A specially selected 450-strong audience sample have collected their trial HD set top boxes (STBs) for the closed technical digital terrestrial television (DTT) technical trial, which is due to last six months.

HD, the parties state, is a step change in television technology, which provides far clearer and more detailed pictures than normal standard definition TV. Each picture contains up to five times as much digital information as an ordinary TV picture.

The trial will offer participating broadcasters and their technical partners valuable lessons about delivering HD broadcasts on a digital terrestrial network and also research how the audience enjoys this new format.

It will help to discover whether there could be HD broadcasts on Freeview in future. The trial is being conducted under an Ofcom licence, which strictly limits the number of receivers and forbids reception of the trial stream by general members of the public. Humax and Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB) have supplied the HD set top boxes for the trial.

The DTT HD trial consists of low power transmissions from Crystal Palace in London on frequencies that are not suitable for high power broadcasting.

National Grid Wireless (NGW) is transmitting the BBC‘s HD stream, which went on air last month, and Red Bee Media provides play-out services.

Arqiva is transmitting the multiplex shared by ITV, Channel 4 and Five, with Grass Valley, a business within Thomson, providing broadcast playout and video encoding equipment.

Siemens Business Services is providing technical support for the BBC‘s HD trial. The test broadcasts will use MPEG4 video coding, 8K carriers and 64QAM modulation at launch – different parameters may be tested during the trial period.

The BBC‘s trial DTT HD stream will offer identical programming to its HD trial broadcasts on satellite and cable over the trial period.

That includes the BBC‘s World Cup coverage, major Wimbledon matches and programming highlights such as Planet Earth and Bleak House.

ITV will offer its own World Cup coverage in HD, completing the full line-up of World Cup games, as well as drama such as Agatha Christie‘s Poirot specials Death on the Nile and Murder in Mesopotamia, documentaries such as Jean-Michel Cousteau‘s Ocean Adventures and classic films including All Quiet on the Western Front and The Big Sleep.

Channel 4‘s HD trial broadcasts will include hit US drama series Lost and Desperate Housewives, FilmFour films and other Channel 4 programming.

Five will be showing episodes of CSI in addition to commissioned programmes such as Tim Marlow at MOMA and movies like Cocktail.

Research company TNS Media is conducting the research. The audience panel was selected from online volunteers who registered on a website in April. All had existing HD Ready television sets and will be supplied with special DTT HD set top boxes.

MUMBAI: Just in time with the Fifa World Cup, Comcast, the country‘s leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services launches ESPN2 HD, the high-definition simulcast of ESPN2.

ESPN HD, ABC HD and ESPN2 HD will combine to present live coverage of all 64 matches of the 2006 Fifa World Cup in high definition from 9 June. In addition, the high- definition services will feature the 2006 World Cup studio programmes including the pre-match, halftime and post-match segments, states an official release.

“We‘re thrilled to expand our leading HDTV lineup with the addition of ESPN2 HD,” said Comcast executive VP content acquisitions Matt Bond. “Watching events like the World Cup and the NCAA College World Series in crystal-clear HD is the next best thing to being in the stadium for all of the action.”

“We look forward to ESPN2 HD joining ESPN HD on Comcast‘s lineup to enhance viewing for high-definition subscribers and sports fans across the country,” said Disney and ESPN Networks affiliate sales and marketing president Ben Pyne. “Comcast has a proven focus on high-definition television with its robust package of compelling high-definition content.”

Comcast now offers an average of 15-17 HD channels per market, including ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD, Discovery HD, TNT HD, HBO HD, Cinemax HD, Showtime HD, Starz HD, INHD, INHD2, regional sports networks and local affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, WB, UPN and PBS.