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MUMBAI: The conclusion of ITU‘s Regional Radiocommunication Conference (RRC-06) in Geneva saw the signing of a treaty agreement that is a major step in implementing World Summit on the Information Society objectives. The digitalization of broadcasting in Europe, Africa, Middle East and the Islamic Republic of Iran by 2015 represents a major landmark towards establishing a more equitable, just and people-centred Information Society.

The agreement will herald the development of ‘all-digital‘ terrestrial broadcast services for sound and television. The digital switchover will leapfrog existing technologies to connect the unconnected in underserved and remote communities and close the digital divide.

“The most important achievement of the Conference,” remarked ITU Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi, “is that the new digital Plan provides not only new possibilities for structured development of digital terrestrial broadcasting but also sufficient flexibilities for adaptation to the changing telecommunication environment.”

The Regional Radiocommunication Conference was chaired and brought to a conclusion by Kavouss Arasteh of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The agreement reached at RRC-06 paves the way for utilizing the full potential of information and communication technologies to achieve the internationally recognized development goals. The date of transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting in the year 2015 is intended to coincide with the targets set by the Millennium Development Goals.

The regional agreement for digital services has been reached in the frequency bands 174 – 230 MHz and 470 – 862 MHz. It marks the beginning of the end of analogue broadcasting.

The Conference agreed that the transition period from analogue to digital broadcasting, which begins at 0001 UTC 17 June 2006, should end on 17 June 2015, but some countries preferred an additional five-year extension for the VHF band (174-230 MHz).

The digital dividend
The switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting will create new distribution networks and expand the potential for wireless innovation and services. The digital dividend accruing from efficiencies in spectrum usage will allow more channels to be carried across fewer airwaves and lead to greater convergence of services.

The inherent flexibility offered by digital terrestrial broadcasting will support mobile reception of video, internet and multimedia data, making applications, services and information accessible and usable anywhere and at any time. It opens the door to new innovations such as Handheld TV Broadcast (DVB-H) along with High-Definition Television (HDTV) while providing greater bandwidth to existing mobile, fixed and radionavigation services. Services ancillary to broadcasting (wireless microphones, talk back links) are also planned on a national basis and need to be extended.

The World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07), which will meet in the autumn of 2007, will deal with the regulatory aspects of the usage of the spectrum for these services.

Terrestrial digital broadcasting carries many advantages over the analogue system:

Expanded services

Higher quality video and audio

Greater variety and faster rates of data transmission

Consistency of data flows over long distances

More spectrum efficiency means more channels

This agreement, which paves the way for a new paradigm of wireless digital communication technologies, is expected to be extrapolated by other regions and countries and influence a global shift away from the analogue system that has been in place for the past 45 years.

During the five weeks of deliberations which began on 15 May, RRC-06 took decisions to allow iteration of the complex software tools used by the ITU secretariat as a basis to generate the draft plan that will facilitate the coordinated and timely introduction of digital broadcasting. The Plan assures that an outstanding 70‘500 digital broadcasting requirements, including stations, will become a reality within the planned area. It succeeded in creating a level playing field as a new basis for competition.

The first session of this Conference (RRC-04) took place in May 2004 and established a solid, comprehensive and technical basis for the agreement, including the framework for the intersessional studies. It has already resulted in the accelerated introduction of digital terrestrial broadcasting in many countries. “Digital technologies are now transmitting high-resolution images of the Soccer World Cup from Germany to fans around the world who are watching the matches with excitement,” said Utsumi. “Digital terrestrial broadcasting is now a reality with a bright future.”

A complex process
Conference chairman Arasteh said that RRC-06 was a technically complex process comprising voluminous computational calculations and data processing tasks, electronic document handling and the use of five working languages. He added that ITU, although facing these challenges for the first time, could provide the Conference with adequate technical and regulatory expertise and support for the full satisfaction of the participating delegations.

More than 1000 delegates representing 104 countries met in Geneva to adopt the treaty agreement that will replace the analogue broadcasting plans existing since 1961 for Europe and since 1989 for Africa. The new digital Plan, based on broadcasting standards known as T-DAB (for sound) and DVB-T (for TV), covers a wide area of the world including Europe, countries of the CIS, Africa, Middle East and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

A major challenge faced by the conference was to find ways for digital and analogue broadcasting to co-exist on the radio-frequency spectrum during the transition period without causing interference.

Cooperation with EBU and CERN
A key ingredient for the success of the Conference was the unprecedented level of cooperation between ITU, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

The complex planning activities conducted at this conference and during the intersessional period were based on the software developed by EBU, which includes hundreds of thousands of programme lines. In preparing the Plan for digital terrestrial broadcasting, ITU experts performed meticulous calculations within a limited timeframe using two independent infrastructures: the ITU distributed system with 100 PCs and the CERN Grid infrastructure that is based on a few hundred dedicated CPUs from several European institutions.

MUMBAI: US internet service provider AOL and Fusion Entertainment have announced a joint venture Lat34.com. This is an interactive network dedicated to action sports, including skate, BMX, FMX, surfing, snowboarding etc.

The two parties state that this surging category already claims upwards of 100 million US fans. The new network will emphasise both programmed and user-generated content, including action sports video on-demand, event coverage, action sports athletes up close and in-depth coverage of all aspects of the action sports culture.

Lat34.com – named for the company‘s location in Los Angeles which is considered to be the unofficial home of action sports in the US– is dedicated to bringing action sports information to the Web. Capitalising on AOL‘s position in online video, Lat34.com promises timely video coverage of action sports wherever they occur. In addition, Lat34.com will offer fans the chance to contribute by uploading their video, photos, blogs and more.

Key features of Lat34.com will include:

— Action sports event coverage and calendar, up-to-the-minute action sports news, action sports video on-demand, athlete profiles, action sports movie previews, gear information and connecting fans of specific sports together via AIM social network platform, blogs, meet-up groups and provide tools for uploading video and photos.
— Video and photo highlights of action sports culture, including fashion, music, movies, local events and links to some of these popular sites.
— An in-depth action sports database with vertical search capability to access athletes‘ past stats and current records, events, gear, tricks, movies, sites, etc. built by users.
— Original programming such as athlete Blogs and profiles, photo galleries and video programming.
— On-demand footage of various action sports events around the country.
— ‘Trick of the Day‘: Here users can upload their own video of action stunts and features and enter to win a weekly prize.

The Jeep brand has signed on as the charter advertiser and is currently running teaser ads for the all-new 2007 Jeep Compass which will be in dealerships later this summer. Jeep Compass is a compact Jeep 4X4 that delivers fun, freedom, utility and capability and more – all at a great value – making it an ideal advertiser for the action sports enthusiast.

Jeep will also be showcasing video ads on the site to highlight new models shortly. Lat34.com will allow advertisers to tap into the strength of the surging action sports category and action sports fans, in turn, will benefit from targeted and relevant ads that address their needs and interests. The network will offer instream advertising opportunities, including pre-roll, ad curtains and banners.

MUMBAI: Mipcom 2006 has announced the winners of the Mobile TV Screening & Awards 2006. The international trophies were awarded yesterday evening at the 22 edition of Mipcom, Cannes.

The winning titles were chosen by an international grand jury from a total of 23 nominated projects.

MUMBAI: ETV, a global Internet distribution network offering sports and entertainment content over the Internet, has commenced a pilot test of its IPTV service in Thailand

Through its partnership with Media Partners International, ETV will be deploying the ETV On Demand test system to an initial test market of 1000, growing to 10,000 test users throughout Thailand. The test period will last for up to 90 days, and will aggregate both technical information and customer feedback on the delivery system, the content and ease of use of the system.

It is expected that the ETV On Demand full service launch will begin by the end of the third quarter in Bangkok. At this point, MPI will market the system throughout Thailand, a country with a growing population of more than 65 million. MPI has projected users to grow by 50,000-100,000 monthly once it rolls out the ETV On Demand system.

The full ETV On Demand system launch is expected to take place later this year, and through early 2007. Potential viewership in these markets approximates 600 million.

ETV‘s proven broadband delivery technology affords consumers their choice of entertainment and sports programming 24 hours a day over the Internet, with full-screen broadcast resolution on a guaranteed bandwidth backbone. The company‘s complete end-to-end solution encompasses the latest Internet television technology, exclusive sports and entertainment content and worldwide broadband distribution.

MPI is a vertically integrated media company operating in the filmed and recorded entertainment and sports events production, licensing, and distribution industries. MPI‘s chairman Sitichai Nuanmanee said, “The Pilot Test with ETV positions our two companies to dominate the broadband viewership market throughout Southeast Asia and India.”