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MUMBAI: Optibase Ltd., a provider of advanced digital video solutions, has announced that it will demonstrate its IPTV and digital video solutions at Broadcast Asia 2006, which will be held in Singapore from 20 – 23 June.

The company will showcase Optibase‘s flexible model design providing customers with future-proof video solutions to meet the evolving requirements of Telcos and service providers.

Visitors to the Optibase booth will see the following demonstrations:

• A turnkey solution for IPTV with Optibase MGW-1100 integrated carrier grade TV streaming platform, Orca Interactive‘s middleware service delivery platform and BitBand video servers streaming MPEG-2 video. Optibase can deliver turnkey all-in-one solutions, in addition to its encoders or transcoders, by providing systems integration and bringing together components from IPTV ecosystem partners.
  


• Live encoding of MPEG-4 AVC High Definition (HD) resolution technology, providing efficient HD bandwidth utilization without compromising video quality and allowing the use of existing MPEG-2 content which requires no additional decoding or processing equipment. MPEG-4 AVC HD is currently the only format that enables Telcos to provide high definition channels to DSL subscribers.
  


• MPEG-2 HD encoding and decoding through Optibase MovieMaker 200 HD, designed for professional quality ingest of HD for broadcasting, video on demand (VOD), ad insertion, program initiation and post-production studios, as well as for integrators working on high-resolution military simulation or surveillance projects.
  


• Also, on display at the Optibase booth, a professional digital video ingest system co-developed with Venaca Inc. leading provider of media asset management solutions. When part of a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, the integrated solution enables top quality video capture, Edit Decision List (EDL) creation, annotation archive retrieval, editing and asset management at the same time.
  


• “With MPEG-4, operators can reach more people with IPTV services, delivering additional streams to each home. Telcos want to deliver services like HDTV in order to stay competitive with satellite and cable, Optibase‘s MPEG-4 technology and our proven interoperability with leading STBS, will enable Telcos to deploy advanced HDTV that will help them generate revenue and sustain subscribers,” said Optibase vice president marketing Yossi Aloni.

Optibase will also discuss the recent announcement that it was selected by India‘s state-owned major telecom, MTNL, to provide encoding solutions for the first IPTV deployment to go live in India.

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: 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: 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.