ITV

Tag: MPEG-4

  • Prasar Bharati sells four MPEG-4 slots for Rs 66 lakh

    Prasar Bharati sells four MPEG-4 slots for Rs 66 lakh

    MUMBAI: Prasar Bharati has sold four DD Free Dish MPEG 4 slots on pro-rata basis for the period from 1 February 2020 to 14 March 2020 to four channels for Rs 66 lakh. The channels are Samay (Hindi News), 9X Jalwa (Hindi Music), Sangeet Bangla (Bangla Music) and JK 24×7 News (Hindi News). 

    Bidding in the e-auction of MPEG-4 slots was open to all genres (language) channels at a reserve price of Rs 16,50,000. 

    On 10 January, Prasar Bharati had invited application from the channels licensed by the ministry of information and broadcasting. International public broadcasters licensed/registered by the Ministry of I&B were also allowed to participate in the e-auction.

    The public broadcaster has instructed that the allotted channels to pay the amount in two installments along with the carriage fee and applicable GST. The channel will have to pay the first installment in advance by 30 January 2020 i.e before placement of channel on DD Free Dish DTH Platform and second installment to be payable by 27 February 2020 after adjusting the participation fee amount.  

    In November 2019, it had sold MPEG-2 slots of DD Free Dish on pro-rata basis for the period from 1 December 2019 to 29 February 2020 to eight channels for approx Rs 18.9 crore. The channels were ABZY Cool in Movies genre (Hindi) under bucket A; Showbox in Music genre (Hindi) under bucket B; Ganga Biskope in Movies genre (Bhojpuri) under bucket B; WOW in Music genre (Hindi) under bucket B; TV9 Bharatvarsh News genre (Hindi) under C; ABP Ganga in genre (Hindi) under bucket C; Zee Punjabi in others (PUnjabi) under bucket D and MR TV in others (Marathi) under Bucket D. For MPEG 2 slot the pubcaster had reserved the starting price of bucket A for Rs 3.11 crore; bucket B for Rs 2.73 crore; bucket C for Rs 2.23 crore and bucket D for Rs 1.55 crore.

  • Synamedia appoints former Envivio CEO, Julien Signes, to lead Video Processing business

    Synamedia appoints former Envivio CEO, Julien Signes, to lead Video Processing business

    LONDON – 9thJanuary 2018 – Synamedia, the largest independent video software and solutions company, has appointed video software compression pioneer and Envivio founder and CEO, Julien Signes, as Senior Vice President and General Manager of its Video Processing business unit.

    Julien will lead Synamedia’s video processing business as the industry transitions to software-based encoding for broadcast, as well as for OTT, using either on-premise or cloud-based solutions running on commodity hardware.

    Synamedia’s products are designed to reduce the cost and complexity of video services while extracting value from investments in existing headends, video data centers and content delivery networks. Offerings include patented low-latency ABR and Smart Rate Control that optimize IP video processing to match traditional broadcast quality, reliability and cost.

    Julien is one of the industry’s foremost experts on video processing. In 2000, he founded video compression specialist, Envivio. As CEO he led the company through private equity financing and a NASDAQ IPO to create the global leader in software-based video encoding. Ericsson acquired the business in 2015. Since 2017, Julien has been advising emerging video technology businesses on strategy, investment, and helping them scale to global markets. He has also provided advice to Atlantic Bridge, a global venture capital firm and one of the early shareholders in Envivio.

    Prior to Envivio, Julien worked at France Telecom (now Orange) leading a team that worked on the development of MPEG-4, resulting in seven key patents for virtual reality and 3D graphics support required for MPEG-4. He also led the development of the first end-to-end software MPEG-4 implementation.

    “As video consumes an increasing volume of the global IP traffic, successfully monetizing the opportunities around 4K and 8K requires a flexible video processing infrastructure that can scale cost effectively. Synamedia meets this demand thanks to its impressive portfolio of video processing solutions with market-leading encoding and transcoding technologies including those originally developed at Cisco, Scientific Atlanta and NDS as well as the cloud expertise developed at Cisco,” said Julien Signes, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Synamedia’s Video Processing Business Unit.

    Yves Padrines, CEO of Synamedia, said, “Julien is one of only a handful of people to combine technical prowess in video processing with acute business acumen. At Envivio, Julien spearheaded the evolution of video processing from a hardware focus to the software and cloud-based video businesses emerging today. His deep understanding of cloud architectures for video processing will ensure Synamedia customers have access to the most advanced techniques for fast, efficient delivery of both OTT and live TV to their subscribers.”

  • 33pc of SES channels are HD, 60pc MPEG-4, growing in Asia

    33pc of SES channels are HD, 60pc MPEG-4, growing in Asia

    MUMBAI: SES S.A. continues to lead High Definition TV (HDTV) development representing the largest HD and Ultra HD (UHD) platform.

    SES is a leading satellite operator and the first to deliver a differentiated and scalable GEO-MEO offering worldwide, with more than 50 satellites in geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and 12 in medium earth orbit (MEO). SES focuses on value-added, end-to-end solutions in four key market verticals (video, enterprise, mobility and government).

    In 2016, the number of HD channels on the SES fleet grew by 7 per cent to 2,495 channels. Today, 33 per cent of all the 7,538 channels on the SES fleet are in HD, with SES carrying 27 per cent of all HD channels globally. In addition, over 60 per cent of all channels on SES’s fleet are now broadcast in the MPEG-4 compression standard.

    The on-going trend of the increasing HDTV penetration in Europe was the key driver of SES’s overall HDTV development, where the number of HDTV channels grew by 14 per cent to more than 750 channels. This performance was complemented by the growth in HDTV across the Americas.

    SES is also continuing to maintain its strong momentum in the introduction of commercial agreements now secured for 21 UHD channels, compared with eight channels a year ago. Today, SES is broadcasting nearly 50 per cent of all the UHD channels carried over satellite globally.

    In 2016, the acquisition of RR Media and the subsequent creation of MX1 through a merger with SES Platform Services supported SES’s unrivalled market traction on new HDTV and UHD channels across Europe and North America, as well as the further expansion of SES’s Video business across fast-growing emerging markets.

    The launch of SES-9 and the continued development of SES’s HD and Ultra HD business were also significant factors supporting growth in Asian markets, where the company is applying its differentiated strategy. The launch of SES-10 and SES-15 later this year will deliver further growth potential for the Americas.

    “With more TV channels than ever before, this confirms SES’s leading role as a TV broadcasting infrastructure and driver of global digitisation” said SES chief commercial officer Ferdinand Kayser. “Through the growth of its channels portfolio and through major acquisitions in 2016, SES is exceptionally well placed to leverage major growth opportunities, especially in new and emerging markets. Our current launch programme is a dynamic engine for this future growth. With more and more channels being broadcast in HD and Ultra HD, 2017 and beyond will see continued growth and accelerated development for SES’s video segment.”

  • 33pc of SES channels are HD, 60pc MPEG-4, growing in Asia

    33pc of SES channels are HD, 60pc MPEG-4, growing in Asia

    MUMBAI: SES S.A. continues to lead High Definition TV (HDTV) development representing the largest HD and Ultra HD (UHD) platform.

    SES is a leading satellite operator and the first to deliver a differentiated and scalable GEO-MEO offering worldwide, with more than 50 satellites in geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and 12 in medium earth orbit (MEO). SES focuses on value-added, end-to-end solutions in four key market verticals (video, enterprise, mobility and government).

    In 2016, the number of HD channels on the SES fleet grew by 7 per cent to 2,495 channels. Today, 33 per cent of all the 7,538 channels on the SES fleet are in HD, with SES carrying 27 per cent of all HD channels globally. In addition, over 60 per cent of all channels on SES’s fleet are now broadcast in the MPEG-4 compression standard.

    The on-going trend of the increasing HDTV penetration in Europe was the key driver of SES’s overall HDTV development, where the number of HDTV channels grew by 14 per cent to more than 750 channels. This performance was complemented by the growth in HDTV across the Americas.

    SES is also continuing to maintain its strong momentum in the introduction of commercial agreements now secured for 21 UHD channels, compared with eight channels a year ago. Today, SES is broadcasting nearly 50 per cent of all the UHD channels carried over satellite globally.

    In 2016, the acquisition of RR Media and the subsequent creation of MX1 through a merger with SES Platform Services supported SES’s unrivalled market traction on new HDTV and UHD channels across Europe and North America, as well as the further expansion of SES’s Video business across fast-growing emerging markets.

    The launch of SES-9 and the continued development of SES’s HD and Ultra HD business were also significant factors supporting growth in Asian markets, where the company is applying its differentiated strategy. The launch of SES-10 and SES-15 later this year will deliver further growth potential for the Americas.

    “With more TV channels than ever before, this confirms SES’s leading role as a TV broadcasting infrastructure and driver of global digitisation” said SES chief commercial officer Ferdinand Kayser. “Through the growth of its channels portfolio and through major acquisitions in 2016, SES is exceptionally well placed to leverage major growth opportunities, especially in new and emerging markets. Our current launch programme is a dynamic engine for this future growth. With more and more channels being broadcast in HD and Ultra HD, 2017 and beyond will see continued growth and accelerated development for SES’s video segment.”

  • FTA DD Freedish to soon encrypt with MPEG-4

    FTA DD Freedish to soon encrypt with MPEG-4

    MUMBAI: Since inception, DD Freedish has been the only DTH service that hosts free to air (FTA) channels. Boasting 18 million subscribers on the platform, it soon plans to encrypt signals for its future channels.

     

    With nearly 60 channels in its roster, Freedish plans to encrypt future channels with MPEG-4 compression technology to take it up to 110. Speaking exclusively to indiantelevision.com, Doordarshan deputy director general CK Jain said that the auction for the encrypted channels will happen in November with the commercial roll out of set top boxes (STBs) soon after. “48 channels will be on MPEG-4 and 64 on MPEG-2. Viewers who opt for MPEG-4 STBs will be able to view a total of 112 channels, including the FTA ones,” he said.

     

    The extended version of Freedish will have two streams of MPEG-4 and four of MPEG-2 so that the existing subscribers can continue watching the FTA channels. Currently the DTH service has five transponders on Insat 4B and will be soon getting an additional one, taking its tally to six. “The two encrypted streams will allow us to know definite subscriber numbers,” he adds.

     

    Jain is confident that digitisation drive in phase III and phase IV markets will see households pick Freedish. He is also sure that the plus point would be in the new TV households. The MPEG-4 STBs will be sold at a price higher than the current Rs 1200 for MPEG-2. But Jain says that given an option to watch more channels, he expects people to pick MPEG-4 boxes.

     

    Both the boxes will be available for sale through its distributors. November will see the auction for the 48 encrypted slots. Broadcasters who wish to be on the MPEG-4 bands, will have to undergo the auction, including ones who are also available on FTA.

  • Videocon d2h adds Jai Hind on its platform

    Videocon d2h adds Jai Hind on its platform

    MUMBAI: Videocon d2h has added another Malayalam channel Jai Hind on its platform. Jai Hind is a Malayalam language News channel, and is available in the basic pack South Silver pack onwards. With this addition the DTH platform now offers 25 Malayalam channels and services.  

    The newly added channel is available on the d2h platform on Channel Number:  859. Videocon d2h offers 500 channels and services, 27 Asli “HD” channels and host of regional channels.

     

    The platform now has 132 South channels and services on its platform. Videocon d2h offers 1000 GB High Definition Digital Video Recorder and claims to be the first DTH service provider to have Radio Frequency Remote for DTH service, which is available with High Definition Digital Set Top Box with unlimited recording.  Powered by the MPEG-4 and DVB-S2 technology, Videocon d2h offers services like 12 PIP Mosaic, d2h Cinema, weather updates and multiple tickers to transform your TV into a hub of entertainment and knowledge. It offers High Definition channels in 1080p, HDD sound and 16: 9 aspect ratio. “Apart from these, the platform has Active Music which includes 41 Audio / Video active music channels, 24 hours a day,” says a statement from the DTH player.

     

    Videocon d2h has a customer support system which offers services in eight languages from the customer care team present in six locations.

  • NDTV India Migrates to MPEG-4 Uplink Chain

    NDTV India Migrates to MPEG-4 Uplink Chain

    MUMBAI: New Delhi Television (NDTV), one of India’s most-watched TV news networks, has migrated its satellite uplink infrastructure from MPEG-2 to a complete MPEG-4 multiple-channel-per-carrier (MCPC) chain based on Thomson Video Networks’ advanced encoding, MPEG processing, and transport stream (TS) monitoring equipment. Driven by the award-winning ViBE™ EM4000 premium HD/SD encoder, NetProcessor 9030 MPEG processor, XMS network management system, and Granite Sentinel DTV monitor, the new MCPC chain replaces aging SD MPEG-2 equipment and provides an HD-ready platform to support NDTV’s future technology requirements.

     

    “When we evaluated technology partners for our MPEG-4 migration, Thomson Video Networks was the obvious choice,” said Dinesh Singh, chief technology officer, NDTV Ltd. “As a high-density encoder, the ViBE EM4000 offers eight SD/HD channels in a single rack unit to save space in our existing infrastructure. With our new, state-of-the-art uplink chain, both our customers and operators have seen marked improvement in both performance and picture quality, and we really appreciate Thomson Video Networks’ technology and service support.”

     

    “As one of India’s leading news broadcasters, NDTV is making a big technology leap forward with its MPEG-4 migration,” said Eric Louvet, vice president worldwide sales, Thomson Video Networks. “With our latest-generation, EM4000 octo-channel platform, MPEG-4 encoding will enable NDTV to save significant satellite bandwidth that can be used later for HD programming. Since the EM4000 is HD-ready, migration to HD services is smooth and easy within the existing uplink chain.”

     

    Further information about the ViBE EM4000 and other Thomson Video Networks products is available at www.thomson-networks.com.

  • Why Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal is pained about the MPEG-4 STB rollout

    Why Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal is pained about the MPEG-4 STB rollout

    MUMBAI: A press release hit indiantelevision.com yesterday disclosing how US chip company Broadcom had got a massive order to supply standard definition MPEG-4 set top boxes (STBs) to Tata Sky. A simple release right. But it surely got the goose of Tata Sky managing director Harit Nagpal.

    Tata Sky MD Harit Nagpal is still awaiting a response from ISRO officials
    “This entire exercise is costing Tata Sky about Rs 1000 crore,” was Nagpal’s admission, when indiantelevision.com called him up. “We are replacing close to 5-6 million MPEG-2 SD STBs at no cost to consumers over the next year. All of this is coming in from internal accruals.” Nagpal says the DTH operator normally supplies about three million STBs a year for new acquisitions and churn. “This year we will be doing about 9-10 million STBs,” says he.

     

    The volumes have forced him to bring in emergency teams to make sure they install 500,000 STBs a month (made by Huawei and Humax apart from other international STB makers). This is apart from the regular service teams, which handle regular installation and problems.

    “For us even at Tata Sky it is a massive exercise and we have been working on it for the past three months and have just started the rollout,” he reveals.

    But isn’t that good? “Upgrading the boxes will give me more capacity for 12-14 channels,” he admits. “But I am being forced to do this because Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) has yet to give me my transponders. I could have put this money elsewhere on expanding my digitisation plans.”

    Tata Sky’s signals are being beamed off Insat 4A; but it had signed a contract to lease 12 transponders on ISRO’s GSAT-10 satellite around five years ago which have not been delivered to Tata Sky yet, even after the satellite launched in to space in September 2012.

    “It is sad that after national publications and a medium such as yours have carried my complaint against ISRO, I have not got a single revert from it about our transponders. We intend to take legal action since all our attempts to reach ISRO have failed. The courts are on vacation now, when they open again, we will move them,” added Nagpal.

    The transponders would have allowed Tata Sky to increase its channel offerings to consumers. However, now the new STBs will allow Tata Sky to add more channels to its bouquet. “We have been adding channels in a phased manner; the process will now be accelerated with the MPEG-4 STB. By June-July next year we should be able to revise our channel offerings to consumers,” said Nagpal.

  • Optibase brings turnkey IPTV solutions to Broadcast Asia 2006

    Optibase brings turnkey IPTV solutions to Broadcast Asia 2006

    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.