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Tag: Adobe

  • Highly-beneficial interactions take place at Broadcast India ’16

    Highly-beneficial interactions take place at Broadcast India ’16

    MUMBAI: The 26th Broadcast India Show concluded over the weekend in Mumbai, and was easily the most exciting Broadcast India Show yet. With thousands of eager, high-quality trade visitors swarming the show floor, a sentiment signalling highly-beneficial exchanges and interactions echoed through the halls of the Bombay Exhibition Centre and was at the tip of our exhibitors’ tongues.

    As the number one professional trade show focused on the technology that powers India’s vast entertainment and infotainment industry, the Broadcast India Show delivered yet again on its promise of showcasing the latest in film, television, pro-audio, 3D, broadcasting, digital cinema, radio, mobile, IPTV, and also VR technology from across the world and within the subcontinent.

    The two-day Conference held on 20–22 October was well attended; with 26 speakers presenting papers on the state-of-the-art development in broadcast technology and related subjects. Leading manufacturers like Blackmagic Design, Panasonic, Sony, AVID, RED Digital, Canon, Datavideo, Ross Video, FOR-A, On Air Asia, Adobe, Grass Valley, AJA, PlayBox, IHSE, Primestream, Canare, Ikegami, Hitachi, Chyron Hego, Monarch, Boston, Netweb, Seagate, ARRI, Canara Lighting, GoPro, Atomos, Carl Zeiss, Cooke Optics, DJI, Vitec Group, Panther, Yamaha, Sennheiser, Digigram and Planetcast Media Services, to name a few, were present with their latest innovations at the show.

    “We saw more active engagement between visitors and exhibitors this year than we have seen in the past,” said Saicom Trade Fairs director Kavita Meer. “And since we collect feedback during show days, we came to realise that over a handful of years, our profile of visitors has changed from those who were content with just buying and selling to an audience that questions and challenges these advances in technology as well. That kind of back-and-forth is vital for the growth of the creative industry, not just in India but all over the world,” Meer said.

    Like always, a standard has been set for an arena that provides end-to-end technology solutions for serious visitors, buyers and decision-makers. The overwhelming response to the 2016 show only opens more doors for participation from the world’s most forward-thinking brands. And Broadcast India is committed to making sure this annual tech pilgrimage grows from strength-to-strength. Higher levels of participation from China and European countries as compared to previous years were seen. In total, 36 countries and over 590 companies participated in the show
    this year, with a visitor footfall of 20,143. Broadcast India Show 2017 will take place on 12-14 October 2017 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai.

  • Adobe to showcase innovations at IBC 2015

    Adobe to showcase innovations at IBC 2015

    MUMBAI: Adobe, the leader in video software, today announced its next wave of innovation coming soon to Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes groundbreaking support for UltraHD (UHD), brilliant color technology improvements, and new touch workflows. In addition, Adobe Primetime, one of eight solutions of Adobe Marketing Cloud, extends its delivery and monetization capabilities for HTML5 video and offers new tools for pay-TV providers that make TV Everywhere authentication easier and more streamlined. Adobe will showcase the deepening connections across its Creative Cloud and Marketing Cloud offerings at IBC 2015, Europe’s largest professional broadcast show, in Amsterdam, Sept. 11-15.

     

    At IBC, Adobe will also demonstrate growing industry momentum, as customers continue to make the switch to Creative Cloud and Premiere Pro CC workflows. These include the film Deadpool from 20th Century Fox, coming Feb. 12, 2016; Staten Island Summer from Paramount Pictures, edited by Adam Epstein; and award-winning motion picture color grading artist Dado Valentic. Additionally, recently launched services benefitting from Adobe Primetime HBO Now, Showtime, MLB, Sony Pictures Entertainment, RTL Group, Shomi, Voo and Starz (Parsifal).

     

    Revealing New Innovation Across Adobe Video Tools

     

    At IBC 2015, Adobe will preview new video technology coming soon to Creative Cloud that streamlines workflows for broadcasters and media companies. These include:

     

    ·         Comprehensive native format support for editing beautiful 4K-to-8k footage in Premiere Pro CC ushers in a new era of UltraHD. Continued color advancements with support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) workflows in Premiere Pro CC and improved color fidelity and color adjustments come to After Effects CC. Keep pace with rapidly developing color workflows through deeper support for ARRI RAW, Rec. 2020 and other Ultra HD and HDR formats.

     

    ·         Introduction of a touch environment with Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC and Character Animator optimized for Microsoft Surface Pro, Windows 8 tablets or Apple track pad devices.

     

    ·         Adjust the duration of a song to match video content with Remix, a new feature in Audition CC. More than a simple looping tool, Remix automatically rearranges music to any duration while maintaining musicality and structure, creating custom tracks to fit storytelling needs.

     

    ·         Updated support for Creative Cloud Libraries across CC desktop video tools, powered by Adobe CreativeSync. Now assets, including images from Adobe Stock, instantly appear in After Effects and Premiere Pro, to bring creative visions to life.

     

    ·         In Adobe Media Encoder, Destination Publishing, a single action solution for rendering and delivering content to popular social platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo and Creative Cloud, now includes support for Facebook to easily showcase and promote social media projects and campaigns.

     

    ·         Adobe Anywhere, a workflow platform for enterprise teams to collaborate, adds the ability to be deployed as either a multi-location streaming solution or a single-location collaboration-only version.

     

    “Adobe is redefining video and motion picture workflows to more easily provide fantastic image quality. Color is essential in cinematic storytelling and images with no color correction fall flat,” said Bill Roberts, senior director of professional video product management, Adobe. “And image quality is especially important in a world moving to UltraHD. With our continued Creative Cloud advancements, Adobe is helping production companies more easily create compelling UltraHD content for any screen.”

     

    “Color is now everyone’s responsibility in production. Feature updates in Adobe Premiere Pro CC, such as Lumetri Looks, enable filmmakers and editors to control the look of a project throughout the production process, from the initial script to the end, ultimately giving them more creative control. I look forward to what’s coming next in Creative Cloud,” said Dado Valentic, Founder and Chief Colorist at Mytherapy.

  • Snapdeal appoints Adobe’s Viraj Chatterjee as VP – engineering

    Snapdeal appoints Adobe’s Viraj Chatterjee as VP – engineering

    MUMBAI: Snapdeal has roped in Viraj Chatterjee as vice president, engineering. In his new role, Chatterjee will lead the technology development solutions to enrich the overall seller experience on the marketplace.

     

    Recently the company launched Snapdeal Plus and Capital Assist to further enhance the ability of small and medium businesses to sell on its platform. Chatterjee will play a pivotal role in strengthening the overall seller platform and introducing newer products backed by strong technology solutions.

      

    Prior to his appointment at Snapdeal, Chatterjee spent 16 years at Adobe Systems where he most recently served as director engineering leading the Acrobat and Flash Runtime line of products. His stint with the Adobe team was focussed on product management, engineering and building powerful products across Desktop and Mobile which included the Adobe Reader and Acrobat. 

     

    Snapdeal co-founder Rohit Bansal said, “Our vision is to build the most impactful digital commerce ecosystem in the country that creates life changing experiences for our buyers and sellers. With our entire ecosystem resting on technology, a robust infrastructure and team is critical to our success. Our goal is to create one million successful online entrepreneurs within the next three years and our seller interface will play a key role in enabling this. It is crucial to equip sellers with the necessary infrastructure and Viraj with his rich experience and deep understanding of consumer facing tech products will provide the right impetus to building the best products for our sellers. We are delighted to have Viraj on board and wish him a great journey ahead with the Snapdeal family.”

     

    Chatterjee added, “India’s growing internet economy presents immense opportunities for growth of small and medium businesses and I am particularly excited about the company’s vision of creating one million successful online entrepreneurs within the next three years. My main focus would be on strengthening the technology interface and building products that will enable our sellers to bring scale and efficiency in their business across the mobile and web platform.”

  • ZenithOptimedia’s Performics sets up Centre of Excellence for media technology in B’lore

    ZenithOptimedia’s Performics sets up Centre of Excellence for media technology in B’lore

    MUMBAI: ZenithOptimedia’s Performics has set up a full-fledged digital media technology Centre of Excellence, which is a first of its kind in India. 

     

    The centre will be based in Bangalore and will provide capabilities on real time segmentation and insights, services across marketing automation, attribution, data modelling, content and commerce. The centre will specifically cater to the Indian sub-continent.

     

    Performics India MD Tanmay Mohanty said, “This centre is set up to provide solutions for comprehensive and integrated marketing, that will enable marketers to measure, personalize, and optimize marketing campaigns and digital experiences across screens and platforms. As you would know, globally Publicis has partnered with Adobe for these ‘Always On Solutions’ that will power insights and data fuelled planning globally for Publicis. The preferred partnership between Performics India and Adobe is already gaining traction with customers such as Airtel and Tata AIG already migrating to Adobe Marketing Cloud. Many other organizations are showing similar interest.” 

     

    ZenithOptimedia group CEO Anupriya Acharya elaborated, “This is something that we have been working on for some time and in our assessment, the time is ripe to set up a centre like this. Online video is seeing explosive growth thanks to the explosion of mobile video consumption and the spread of internet-connected devices like desktop computers, tablets and television screens. All key social media platforms are developing their video products; and more online video is being sold by programmatic buying, providing advertisers with more control and better value. We find that currently a lot of clients, especially in the e-commerce and mobile segment have to work with media technology companies that are outside of India and have a hard time getting the time and attention they require. With this centre we want to be able to solve these problems like the understanding of these products and their potential. We have to help our clients make wise marketing decisions based on data and make the most of their marketing campaigns with the technology. Inside India we will be testing multiple technologies against client requirements. Both our teams and clients are excited about it.”

     

    Adobe South Asia director enterprise Kulmeet Bawa added, “Top brands around the world across industry verticals use Adobe Marketing Cloud to reach and engage customers, and our partnerships go a long way in making this possible. We congratulate ZenithOptimedia’s Performics on the establishment of their first centre of excellence for media technologies in India and are certain that customers in India will benefit immensely from this set up.”

  • Witness yet another technological revolution at the Broadcast India show 2014

    Witness yet another technological revolution at the Broadcast India show 2014

    MUMBAI: Saicom Trade Fairs & Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd. is pleased to announce that the Broadcast India Show 2014 will be held at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon (E) in Mumbai, India on 15-17 October, 2014.

     

    Along with the grand exhibition, Broadcast India Show 2014 will also be holding a Conference on 15-16 October, 2014 at the same venue.

     

    The Broadcast India Show 2014 will once again be the platform from which the latest broadcast and film, pro-audio, video and radio, 3D and digital cinema, IPTV and Mobile TV, in their most futuristic shapes and forms will be on display. Technological mammoths from all corners of the world will return to the exhibition floor to demonstrate and discuss their creations, share their widened perspectives, and light fires underneath the trends that will come to define the future of technology as we wait to see it.

     

    Some of the world’s leading manufacturers like Panasonic, Sony, Blackmagic Design, Imagine Communications, RED, Avid, Adobe, Canon, Grass Valley, ARRI, AJA, GoPro, Atomos, Datavideo, Boston, Wasp3D, Carl Zeiss, Shure, RCS, Harman and many more will be present at Broadcast India Show 2014.

     

    One of the main highlights of the show this year is the REDucation Theatre, back for its second year after a successful stint last year. This time around, RED Digital Cinema has partnered with The New York Film Academy to offer an on-going series of workshop exploring the RED DRAGON 6K.

     

    AJA Video Systems will showcase the groundbreaking CION camera. Panasonic will launch the much anticipated Varicam, the star of a wide range of products and innovations that will make Film and TV production significantly easier. 

     

    The other attractions are the Great Britain Pavilion and the Production Village. The line-up of international exhibitors will be showcasing the state-of-the-art equipment and the cutting edge technology.

     

    The show will be host to 35 participating countries and to over 550 companies, many of them exhibiting at the show for the very first time.

     

    This is your once-in-a-year chance to visit Broadcast India show, so don’t miss out.

  • Adobe and Publicis Groupe team up to deliver a global marketing platform

    Adobe and Publicis Groupe team up to deliver a global marketing platform

    MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe and Adobe have announced a strategic partnership to deliver the Publicis Groupe Always-On Platform, the first end-to-end marketing management platform from Publicis Groupe that automates and connects all components of a client’s marketing efforts.

     

    The platform will standardise on Adobe Marketing Cloud, and all agencies across Publicis Groupe will be able to create engaging content, access marketing intelligence, identify and build audience segments, deliver campaigns, and track and measure marketing performance through a unified technology and data structure.

     

    It will be anchored in VivaKi as an open framework so that every agency can deploy and brand it uniquely for use.  Agencies currently slated to access the system include BBH, DigitasLBi, Leo Burnett, MSLGROUP, Publicis Worldwide, Razorfish, Rosetta, Saatchi & Saatchi, Starcom MediaVest Group, VivaKi and ZenithOptimedia.

     

    The collaboration is expected to drive growth across the two companies, and accelerate Publicis Groupe’s goal to make combined digital and emerging market revenue 75 per cent of its multi-billion dollar business by 2018.

     

    “Adobe and Publicis Groupe are a powerful combination and we have been delivering marketing innovation together for more than two decades,” said Adobe president and CEO Shantanu Narayen. “The massive scale of agency services across the Publicis networks, coupled with Adobe’s unique leadership in digital marketing solutions, will enable Publicis clients to develop best-in-class digital marketing capabilities that drive growth.”

     

    “By embarking on this journey with Adobe, a powerhouse in creative and marketing solutions, Publicis Groupe will be the first agency holding company to offer clients an integrated set of digital marketing solutions across all key marketing and creative agencies” said Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Maurice Levy. “We are solving a core marketing dilemma for our Clients by enabling them to more personally interact with their customers and tell relevant, powerful stories at scale, while successfully navigating the complex digital landscape.”

     

    “We are essentially creating a new operating model stitching together multi-agency services, technologies and workflows to the benefit of our clients,” said VivaKi’s chief growth officer Stephan Beringer.  “By converging the forces of marketing technology, data, creativity and strategy, we eliminate silos, optimize delivery and maximize the investments made in ad budgets, talent and consumer engagement.”

     

     The platform is scheduled to provide Publicis Groupe agencies and their clients with four solutions to solve current marketing challenges:

     

    1.      Multi-touch Attribution. The Always-On platform will move the market beyond “last click” attribution by providing options for a multi-touch model that identifies and assigns true value to specific marketing components – online and off line – that help spur customer action. Publicis Groupe agencies will be able to enhance their attribution and planning solutions with Adobe’s Master Marketing Profile and Media Mix Modeling, as well as Adobe Analytics, to measure the most effective touch-points across channels and model investments.

     

    2.      Unparalleled Audience Understanding. Always-On encompasses a data management platform (DMP) which will produce a robust set of customer profiles, segmentations and vertical insights.  VivaKi will also develop a data co-op where clients, and ultimately publishers, can opt in and contribute data in exchange for even richer customer profiles, vertical insights and customer intelligence.  Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Media Optimizer will drive optimal targeting and cross-channel campaign performance.

     

    3.      Campaign/Marketing Automation.  As screens and devices proliferate, Always-On is expected to automate marketing effort across multiple channels. With the goal of integrating Adobe Campaign with analytics and segmentation tools, the platform will empower Publicis Groupe agencies to drive campaign efficiency and engagement across the full customer journey to reach audiences that matter at the highest moments of receptivity. The automated integration will allow all marketing functions to coordinate efforts by acting on the same data. This includes an agreement across the agencies for cross channel campaign management for search and social buy side optimization through Adobe Media Optimizer.

     

    4.      Content and Experience Management. The digital asset management capability within Adobe Experience Manager is expected to enable teams, wherever they sit inside the network, to easily and effectively create, manage, and control valuable digital assets. From the moment an asset is created to the point of delivery, the platform will enable workgroups to create and manage assets through the entire lifecycle of global branding and multichannel distribution with a single, easily accessible digital repository.

     

     Both Adobe and Publicis Groupe will invest in joint sales and marketing, including retaining a dedicated team of strategists and business development specialists to innovate and bring the platform to market.

  • Adobe wins Emmy Award for video recommendations system

    Adobe wins Emmy Award for video recommendations system

    NEW DELHI: Adobe announced the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will recognise the company with a 2013 technology and engineering Emmy award for the role of its technology in personalised recommendations for video discovery.

     

    Adobe is receiving the award for developing the first recommendations system, which outlined the fundamental concepts of personalising information for consumers as they search for and discover video content. The company will be honored during a ceremony at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

     

     “Today’s consumers count on and expect their interactions with brands to be extremely relevant and personal regardless of the channel or device,” said Adobe Marketing Cloud and Primetime engineering vice president Pritham Shetty. “This Emmy recognises the key role Adobe technology played in helping pave the way for recommendation systems, which enable the personalisation of video content across the Web and mobile devices.”

     

    John B Hey conceived and deployed the first content and video recommendation system, later acquired by Adobe, in the mid-to-late 1980s. That work is credited with outlining the fundamental concepts of “collaborative filtering”, a pioneering technique that analyzes data on user behaviour and stated preferences  in order to predict how a consumer will react to video content. Today, personalised recommendation systems for video are prevalent and drive tens of millions of streams each day.

     

    Adobe has been honoured twice before by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Adobe Pass was presented with an Emmy Engineering Plaque in 2012, in recognition of outstanding engineering achievements for emerging technologies. In 2006, Adobe Flash Video was recognized with a Technical and Engineering Emmy Award for Streaming Media Architecture & Components.

  • Adobe continues digital marketing spree with $600 million Neolane acquisition

    Adobe continues digital marketing spree with $600 million Neolane acquisition

    MUMBAI: Adobe extended a multi-year acquisition spree to build its digital marketing business today with the $600 million acquisition of Neolane , a French company that helps marketers manage their marketing across channels such as the Web, social networks, mobile, and point of sale.

    The cash purchase further builds up what Adobe calls the Marketing Cloud, a set of services that help marketers manage their online advertising. Adobe, still better known for its iconic design and content creation and editing software such as PhotoShop, has made a big push in recent years to marry those products with the fast-growing area of online marketing. It bought Omniture in 2009, Day Software in 2010, Demdex and Auditude in 2011, and Efficient Frontier last year. Neolane will become Adobe‘s sixth digital marketing business unit.

    The acquisition of the 12-year-old company essentially catapults Adobe from providing strictly digital marketing services to broader marketing, even offline channels such as direct mail and call centers, John Mellor, vice president of strategy and business development for Adobe‘s digital marketing business, said in an interview. For instance, a travel firm planning a summer getaway marketing campaign wants to start sending out direct mail in February, follow up by email and perhaps create a special website all as part of one campaign. “I don‘t want to walk into a CMO‘s office and just talk about digital marketing,” says Mellor. “They don‘t think of it that way. People want to coordinate all this stuff together.”

    Brad Rencher, Adobe‘s senior vice president and general manager of digital marketing, further explained in a blog post about the acquisition:

    This is a critical addition to our complete set of analytics, targeting, social, content management and media optimisation solutions. Neolane will integrate with our solutions to empower cross-channel and highly personalised campaign management across the web, email, social, mobile, point of sale, direct mail, call center and other emerging channels.

    The combination of Adobe and Neolane will give customers richer customer profiles, greater activation of social and mobile data, better definition of highly valuable customer segments, and more sophisticated automation and execution platforms. Many customers already rely on both Adobe and Neolane and will benefit from further integration between the Adobe Marketing Cloud and Neolane‘s cross-channel capabilities.

    The company‘s revenues rose 40 per cent last year, to $58 million. Adobe said it doesn‘t expect the addition to materially affect its revenue forecast this year.

  • Twitter ads now available to all US users

    Twitter ads now available to all US users

    MUMBAI: Twitter‘s senior director of product for revenue Kevin Weil announced the launch of its advertising options for all US users on Tuesday at TechCrunch‘s Disrupt in New York. The company had previously made advertising on the platform invite-only.

    The first announcement was made on April 2010 by social media giant stating it would show ads. Since then it has openly promoted tweets and accounts, which lets people pay to get their updates seen and their profiles followed. Additionally, it announced limited availability of a self-serve tool for buying ads in March 2012, and an ads application programming interface (API) for programmatic buying of huge campaigns in February recently.

    Last week, Twitter announced that its ads could be targeted based on keywords tweeted or within tweets engaged with by users, which lets Twitter move towards demand fulfillment like Google search ads.

    Most recently, Twitter opened its advertising API to third parties, letting larger advertisers to create more refined campaigns on the portal. The company launched that program with five partners – Adobe, Hootsuite, Salesforce, SHIFT and TBG Digital.

    “Over the past year we‘ve listened carefully to feedback from the thousands of businesses and individuals who‘ve had access to the self-serve tool, and made enhancements based on their suggestions, including more targeting and reporting in the UI,” the company wrote in a blog post. “It‘s because of this feedback that effective today, we‘re ending our invite-only period and opening signups for our self-serve ad platform to all users in the US.”

    According to eMarketer the company, which is expected to go public within the next year, is projected to earn $1 billion in ad revenues in 2014.

  • ‘Convert pirate users into paying consumers & gaming industry will be worth Rs 3 billion’ : Vishal Gondal – Indiagames founder

    ‘Convert pirate users into paying consumers & gaming industry will be worth Rs 3 billion’ : Vishal Gondal – Indiagames founder

     Gaming firm Indiagames is on the move. It recently came back into the online gaming space with its Games on Demand concept. UTV also took a majority stake in the company. Indiantelevision.com's Ashwin Pinto caught up with Indiagames founder Vishal Gondal to find out how the company has evolved and the plans ahead.

    Excerpts:

    How has your business model evolved over the years?
    We started off as an online games company. We did free flash games where money came from advertising. However, we found that it was not scalable and limited. So we took a call to move out of online gaming and into the services business.

    Then we saw the opportunities in mobile gaming and so we became a developer and then a publisher of mobile games. Last year we returned to online gaming with a new strategy games on demand. We have a subscription based gaming service. Users can play unlimited games for a flat fee.

    Right now we are at a time when gaming is starting to take off in India. How do you see the gaming space faring vis-a-vis traditional entertainment like TV, films?
    Globally gaming is bigger than film. In the US, it is bigger than Hollywood. The same thing will happen in India eventually. In every mature market where it has spread it has done that – like Korea, China. India has a lot of young people who do not watch 'Saas Bahu soaps.

    They are not as much into current television, which is dominated by the housewives. I am not saying that this segment is bad. However going forward more people will get into interactive entertainment. Gaming is part of this, along with activities like Second Life. More and more people will take to the virtual world.

    What would you say is the main challenge gaming faces
    in India?
    The problem in India is not that people don't game. The problem is that people buy pirated games. Nobody was paying for legal games. Indiagames is trying to build an eco system where price points are such that the consumer does not want to pirate anymore.

    If we are able to convert the pirate users into paying consumers, that alone will make the gaming industry worth Rs 3 billion.
    'We are about to launch a Godzilla game; we are about to release a cricket Twenty20 game'

    What kind of price points are you looking at?
    To give you an example; for the games on demand service we offer unlimited games for Rs 200. Today when you pay Rs 150 for cable TV, do you want to buy pirated tapes of TV content? Our logic is the same. When consumers can get all games for Rs 200 why would you buy pirated games for Rs 100?

    Who are your partners for games on demand?
    We have partnered with pretty much all the major gaming publishers in the world for content. So we have distribution deals with firms like Popcap, Atari, Activision, Codemaster Playfirst. We also have a tie up with MTNL, Sify, among other platforms. We also work with Qualcomm, Microsoft to make sure that our games are cutting edge.

    UTV recently bought a majority stake in Indiagames.
    What synergies do you see here?
    UTV is an integrated entertainment firm. If you see what Ronnie is doing, he is building a business that encompasses the entire gamut of entertainment from TV, to films, to online entertainment. So the UTV deal allows us to be a part of the bigger picture. Bindass is UTV's effort tap into the youth. The youth want gaming and so we will work with Bindass to see how we can integrate gaming with their offerings.

    UTV also has a stake in Ignition, which is a console game publisher. Between Ignition and us we have capabilities across all platforms. We will be looking at how we can exploit IP into the console space and vice versa. UTV will also create IP in the form of movies and TV shows. So we can adapt some of these into games, which we then market.

    Are we going to see more tie ups like this as traditional entertainment firms seek to broaden their horizons?
    The Indian film and media industry are getting more professional. They are also converging a lot. Previously, the film industry was a different silo, the broadcasting sector was a different silo the net industry was a different silo.

    However Fox buying MySpace triggered off a chain of events where media firms want to have their share of the pie in every segment to boost customer interaction. So if customers are increasing their time spent on the internet, mobile then for traditional media firms who are in TV or print it is a natural progression for them to look at exploiting the other screens too.

    You will see more corporate deals. Traditional media firms realise that it is difficult to build a new media business from scratch. It is better to buy such businesses from market leaders in their respective fields. Adobe and Cisco also have a stake in Indiagames.

    What targets have been set by Indiagames in terms of market share?
    It is too early to talk about revenue targets. On the market share front on the mobile side we enjoy upwards of 50-60 per cent share. On the online front we are the only firm to offer games on demand service. The other players are trying to sell MMOPGs which is a niche segment. It is early to say if there is competition online as the market is new.

    What have been some of your biggest properties so far
    and what have you learnt from their success?
    We have worked on properties like Bruce Lee, Jurassic Park, Rush Hour 3. In India, we also distribute content from the likes of Electronic Arts, Fifa, Batman, Transformers.

    It is important to work on the right kind of property. You cannot take any movie or any story or any character and convert it into a game. The brand has to lend itself to gaming. In the past games have come out of family drama. However cricket, action, sports games work better than love stories.

    Which are your five big markets globally and how many
    partners do you have?
    We have 150 partners globally, Our key markets are the US, Australia, Japan, Europe and India. We have offices in London, Los Angeles, Beijing, Mumbai. These are the core hubs where we do business from. We recently set up an office in Madrid, Spain to cover Southern Europe.
    What would you say is the main difference between
    developing games for the internet and for the mobile?
    The screen size is the first major difference. Attention spans differ. For the mobile you design a game for someone on the move. His time with a game is limited. He/she also has limited access to 10 different keys. Online people tend to spend more time on a game. The control is wider.
     
    When you work with a firm like NBC how much of a
    collaborative process is it?
    It is very collaborative. We have to work with the production team, share creative ideas with them. We have to get approval for game concepts. We work together to exploit the complete commercial value of the property.
     
    Could you shed light on the relationship between gaming and social networking?
    Gaming was the first social network. If you look at xBox Live you see gamers wanting to connect with other gamers. This is how social networking was born. After that social networking was adapted to other common interests. We have had social networking since the first multi player games came up.
     
    Where does Indiagames get creative ideas for new games from?
    We have a team that brainstorms on creative ideas. We have to see whether properties are relevant in different markets. You do not want to have a situation where a property is only well known in one market. So we have to do research to find out whether people in the US, Australia, Europe, India know about the property. If it is less or more in one country then what is the extent? Our business is about taking calculated bets.
     
    From a client viewpoint what does Indiagames bring to the table vis-a-vis the competition?
    People know that India is good for technical execution. India has been looked at as an outsourcing base. We have changed this perception. We were the first firm to start licensing games from India. Nobody in the world thought that Indian firms could go the publishing route. Our first success was Spiderman which we worked on with Marvel. We proved that we could not only produce quality stuff in India but that we could market the same globally.
     
    Going forward are you looking to sign long term deals with entertainment conglomerates like NBC Universal for games or will it still be on a project to project basis?
    It is better to work on a project to project basis as all projects that they do may not be relevant for us and vice versa. I don't know if this will change in the future but as of now we work on a case by case basis.
     
    What are the major projects Indiagames is now working on?
    We are about to launch a Godzilla game. We are about to release a cricket Twenty20 game.
     
    Do you think that game developers in India have an advantage in terms of being able to learn from the experience of mature markets like Korea?
    There is always an advantage in being able to learn from different markets. At the same time each market has its own nuances and challenges. It is important not to just blindly follow what a country like Korea is doing as there are cultural issues and local intelligence.

    Indian preferences for games tend to lean more towards the West than the East. Indians play games like Counter Strike, Fifa, need For Speed. China and Korea on the other hand have a lot of massive multiplayer online gaming.
    How important is organising on ground events for you?
    Very! We have been doing the Cybergame championships for sometime now. We are working with the CII and the government to see if T-Sports and gaming can be recognised professionally as a sport. It should be given equal status as any other sport. We have the Indian national champions who will be going to Seattle to compete in the Cybergame Championships. We also organised an India versus Pakistan event where Kapil Dev was the chief guest. They played various games like Counter Strike.
     
    Finally where do you see Indiagames five years from now?
    Right now we are leading in the mobile space. Five years from now I see Indiagames leading in all gaming spaces.