IPTV – when will it all come together?

Exhibitions feature it; magazines write about it; whole conferences are dedicated to it. But not a lot of people are doing it. Indeed, we cannot even agree on what it is. Yann Courqueux of Grass Valley looks at IPTV

Digital Media Publishing Launches Mobile TV News Analyst 

February, 2007 - Digital Media Publishing, the company that brought you industry-leading publications such as New Video Technology and IPTV News Analyst, along with accredited news-sites such as www.mobiletv-news.com and www.iptv-news.com, has announced that it will be launching Mobile TV News Analyst at this year’s 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, February 12-15.

Entertainment on the Home PC

The home networking and digital home products industries are between early successes and future growth opportunities. With more than 25 million U.S. households with broadband connections, more than 40 million subscribing to digital cable or directbroadcast satellite (DBS) television services, and 14 million households with data networking solutions, the number of companies with a stake in home networking’s future has grown exponentially.

Promoted on air and available via the Sky Active menu, the Sky News Chat application requires the Sky STB to dial up and connect to the chat server. The call is charged at 5p per minute. All messages sent are moderated and the chat session is hosted to encourage participation.

The application allows the viewer to chat using their remote (entering text as with a mobile phone) or using the Sky infra-red keyboard. The application also has an in built library of phrases to make typing easier.

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This application launches automatically when the viewer switches the the Mad TV music video channel- the 'OK' call-to-action appears on the screen letting the viewer know they can interact. By pressing the 'OK' button a banner appears on the screen giving the viewer 3 options:

Ringtones: A list of top 10 ringtones appears (code - title - artist). The viewer can order their favourite ringtone via a premium rate phone line with the order being confirmed via an SMS to the subscribers' mobile phone.

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It would be wrong to say this service is a copy of Sky News Active as the BBC have been providing a text based interactive news service on digital TV for a number of years now. However the addition of multiple video streams accessible throughout the day makes good use of the BBC's extensive resources. This application features a loop of News Headlines, Sports News, Weather and more in depth coverage of a live or breaking news story.

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EMC's interactive news service on channel 601 provides news, weather and lottery information and leverages the resources of the popular 24hr cable news channel that forms part of their group. Once again the service has been created in OpenTV SDK by EMC's engineers and is designed to be updated every hour.

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TV3, Catalonia’s Television – Formula 1

This application is launched with the Formula 1 World Championship, for which Television de Catalonia has the broadcasting rights. The launch of this application takes place on the Friday afternoon prior to the first F1 World Championship race. The application has two phases.

Espial’s Evo IPTV Service Platform Added to Auroras Entertainment’s IPTV Service Suite

November 6, 2006 - Espial IPTV , provider of IPTV middleware and applications, have announced that IPTV service provider Auroras Entertainment has added Espial's Evo® IPTV Service Platform as supported middleware for its IPTV service.

This year sees the first truly interactive Olympics with viewers able to access and have the choice between a number of simultaneous video feeds coming out of Greek Olympic sites.

This promo encourages viewers to press the red button, or explore the BBC's online services.

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BroadbandBananas Recruitment

BroadbandBananas works with leading industry recruitment agencies to ensure your resume reaches the right people. If you are an agency and would like to feature your  openings on these pages, please contact us.
mike@digitalmediapublishing.co.uk

If you are working in the iTV, Mobile TV, IPTV, Digital Broadcast & associated indsutries and looking for new opportunities, please send your details including a resume in Word or Adobe Acrobat format to: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

We will then forward your resume to our recruitment partners. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence. If you are an employer looking for quality, skilled people with experience in the Broadband or Interactive Television sector, please drop us a line and we can help match your requirements with the right agencies.

Don't forget, BroadbandBananas events are also attended by a wide cross-section of leading industry people, so make sure you register using the "Join Us" form to get a "heads up" on future networking events.

Here are some of our latest openings...

IPTV: The last mile, fiber or copper?

By Daniel Marcus, Product Marketing Manger, Broadband UTStarcom, Inc.

The race to build the telecommunications network infrastructure capable of delivering triple- and quadruple-play services is on. The major players in the U.S. have come to market with trial and commercial offerings for IPTV. These offerings are being developed across a range of different access infrastructure models. The question is: which of these models represents the best choice given cost-constraints and a highly competitive, evolving market for bandwidth-hungry applications?

DVB-H – Mobile TV

This white paper provides an overview of the DVB-H mobile TV modulation standard, and presents a demodulation solution using the UCC Mobile (Universal Communications Co-Processor) platform, available for licensing from Ensigma, a division of Imagination Technologies. This is a unique baseband solution enabling multi-standard demodulation via a programmable software radio platform. This platform enables a single device to efficiently support DVB-H as well as a number of other Mobile TV standards.

A simple and easy to use interface makes this application a pleasure to use.

Accessible from the interactive portal, the on-screen "mobile phone style" interface is clear and inviting. The user first enters the message using the number keys on their remote, then they enter the telephone number. The STB then sends the info across via its modem, the call costing Euro cents 27.

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This voting application follows the same template structure as the applications used for MTV Hits, the Mobo awards voting and pretty much all the enhancements on MTV's channels in the UK. Obviously it is relatively easy for MTV to re-skin their core application - although as can be seen from the 4th still below, and from our video, they do seem to be having problems with text extending beyond its boundary.

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The Discovery Channel's revival of this classic British quiz show has been enhanced by the development of a full synchronised interactive quiz which the viewer can play along with. Timing in this application is critical and the opportunity to answer is taken away immediately once the contestant gives his own answer in the video.

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Sky New Zealand's 'Weather Channel', was developed using 'GadgetMill', an XML based application creation environment created by local OpenTV developer Oktobor.

The service, created in partnership with local data provider MetService is one of the most comprehensive weather applications I have seen and allows Sky New Zealand's digital viewers to access up to the minute weather information including national and regional forecasts, radar and satellite maps, moon movements, tides and other marine information.

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TV3, Catalonia's Television – European Football

This application can be seen when the football games are being broadcasted by Televisió de Catalunya, every Saturday during the football season (September – June).

Swisscom Launches TV Over Broadband 

November 1, 2006 - Swisscom today announced the launch of it’s first IPTV offering in Switzerland, Bluewin TV.

One of a series of humorous promos that are currently running on Sky to promote the Sky Plus PVR.

Sky are keen to grow their base of Sky Plus subscribers and these campaigns clearly demonstrate the benefit of the new box in recording one channel whist watching another or recording your favourite shows whilst you are away from home.

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IPTV World Forum Asia

5-7 December, 2007

Suntec, Singapore

 

http://www.iptv-asia.net

IP Datacasting – Bringing TV to the Mobile Phone  - WHITEPAPER

Bringing TV to Mobile Phones In the near future morning commuters will be able to pass the time on the train by selecting the market news channel on their Mobile phone TV and watching the latest news in real time before reaching the office. In the extra minutes before arriving at the station and walking to the office, consumers can switch over to the music channel and enjoy their favorite tunes and videos.

TV1's new nightly reality TV series Hells Kitchen has just completed its two week run.

Produced by the team behind 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!', the show followed 10 celebrities working as chefs in a new , exclusive London restaurant run by Gordon Ramsay.

The entertainment factors in the show include the triple Michelin-starred chef's liberal use of four-letter words as cameras are trained on the novice cooks.

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Sister internet company M-Web is also part of the MIH group and the service provider for the Multichoice TV Email service in South Africa.

The email application on channel 73 allows users to receive and send email and manage their own address book.

By contrast to the email services provided by Sky in the UK, this service only goes online to receive or send outgoing mail.

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The banner to launch this voting application appears shortly after selecting the MTV Spain channel on the CSD Spain platform. Pressing the "SERV" interactive button takes you to a branded pop-up interface featuring the 2002 EMA design and the logos of the event sponsors (D&G, Vodaphone, Amex and Foot Locker). By entering the vote, viewers have the chance to win an invite to the EMA's taking place in Barcelona on 14th November.

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MTV's European Music Awards in recent years have put the focus on local artists - . For the category "Best French Act" MTV have employed an interactive voting application created using NPTV's Bando tool.

Calls are charged at FF 2.22 per call. Approx 40 cents (US$).

The application is noteworthy for its clear and simple design and because of the element of synchronisation involved in the service.

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Stream's first interactive channel completely dedicated to strictly real time financial information (Borsa ITV) has been running since '99.

It is a very complete source of information that satisfies both the first time investor as much as the most expert with a constantly up-to-date, reliable, complete and detailed set of data concerning stock market, funds, futures, share indexes, historical graphs and more.

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Alcatel and Samsung Partner to Develop Mobile TV Handsets in the S-Band

October 30, 2006 – Alcatel and Samsung Electronics have announced that they have signed an agreement to develop mobile handsets compatible with the DVB-H standard in the S-Band. This is part of Alcatel's Unlimited Mobile TV solution.

The current Big Brother series has been a catalyst for a great deal of application development on Channel 4 & E4.

With a variety of iTV games across digital satellite, digital cable and now also on Freeview through the Free2Play portal, Channel 4 are starting to use promos to drive viewers to their iTV games by pressing their RED BUTTON.

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