The conclusion of a five-year contract between Eutelsat Communications [Euronext Paris:ETL] and Entertainment Highway Ltd. (EHL) has resulted in one high-power Ku-band transponder connected to a high-power spotbeam that Eutelsat has focused over Nigeria via their W4 satellite. Called HiTV, the new platform is comprised of 15 digital channels. They include three sports channels that show Barclay’s Premiere League football from the United Kingdom as well as matches from Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A. Other international channels include offerings such as BBC World, E! Entertainment, God TV, MTV Base, Sky News, Eurosport News Nickelodeon and new channels produced in Nigeria that are dedicated to local and foreign movies, music, children’s programming and general entertainment. Eutelsat uses their teleport facilities in Rambouillet, near Paris, where they encrypt and multiplex the platform. The content is uplinked to the W4 satellite by Overon, which is the broadcasting sub of Abertis Telecom, from the Abertis teleport in Arganda, located near Madrid. Reception in Nigeria is via a 60cm dish, a set-top decoder and smartcard. The service is encrypted using Conax encryption—Paris, France
Exploring the services and products delivering video content to TVs using non-traditional methods is the subject of a new study by IMS Research entitled “Hybrid Set-top Box Developments and the Impact of Other Hybrid Equipment.” According to the company’s research director and study author, Anna Hunt, ““Integration of digital receiver technology into DVD and blue-laser products and into TV sets, as well as IP-enabling of many CE devices such as game consoles, is becoming much more popular. This trend illustrates that in the future, many CE devices, beyond the STB, will deliver digital video content to the TV set.” IMS Research forecasts that in 2012, over 200 million devices such as these will ship worldwide. Hunt adds, “With services such as Joost and Xbox LIVE Marketplace, as well as content providers’ initiatives to deliver content directly to consumers, traditional cable and satellite TV operators will continue to face challenges relating to the integration of new concepts and technologies into their service and content strategies in order to remain competitive.” Many established companies, such as Google, Amazon, and NBC, as well as newer entrants such as Joost and BIBC, are aggressively pursuing opportunities in delivering content to consumers via the Internet to the PC or via IP to the TV set. IMS Research estimates that in 2007, about 30.7 million IP-enabled consoles will ship worldwide as well as over 6 million devices such as digital media adapters, SlingCatcher, Apple TV, and Media Center PCs. More information regarding this study is available at www.imsresearch.com—Austin, Texas
International Datacasting Corporation [TSX:IDC] is pleased to announce the company has received federal funding from the National Research Council Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP). Subject to the terms of the agreement, International Datacasting Corporation will receive approximately $460,000 in non-repayable research funding over the life of the specified project. Working directly with IDC, NRC-IRAP will provide a range of technical and business oriented advisory services, along with financial support, to help the enterprise grow. NRC-IRAP support will be focused on IDC’s advanced Research and Development (R&D) project for a next-generation Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) product line. IDC provides a variety of solutions for the distribution of broadband content via satellite—Ottawa, Ontario
Available now from NewTek, Inc. is SpeedEDIT version 1.5. This is the latest upgrade to the company’s award-winning resolution independent video editor that’s designed to allow video producers unrivaled editing creativity and speed for all projects, including DV, HDV or uncompressed video. This version builds upon the industry’s fastest workflow and provides new tools, improved file format support, increase in workflow speed as well as improving integration with other video applications. Such is accomplished by allowing SpeedEDIT projects to be imported directly into almost any other application without time consuming rendering. SpeedEDIT version 1.5 is currently available for $495 USD, and is being offered as a free update to current SpeedEDIT owners—San Antonio, Texas
On2 Technologies [AMEX:ONT] has informed all a new version of the company’s TrueMotion VP7 video compression is used in Skype 3.6 for Windows to help deliver High Quality Video calling to Skype users. The beta version of Skype 3.6 for Windows can be downloaded from skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/beta. The VP7 update helps Skype users experience sharper and smoother video calls in a bigger call window. The updated video technology needs significantly lower bandwidth and processing power than is normally required for comparable video quality. Skype, an eBay [NASDAQ: EBAY] company, has 246 million users—about 25 percent of all Skype-to-Skype calls involve at least one video participant—Tarrytown, New York
Public Access Community Television, known as PACT, located in Austin, Texas, has now installed a UTAH-400 routing switcher and a UTAH-300 routing switcher as well as an SC-4 control system and all associated control panels for automated playback of three channels on two cable systems. All of these products are from Utah Scientific and they were selected due to ease of setup and interoperability with legacy systems. Plus, the UTAH-400 handles the various signal formats in groups of eight, rather than the more common larger blocks—Salt Lake City, Utah
Here comes the latest from Pinnacle Systems, Inc. (the company is the consumer division of Avid Technology [NASDAQ:AVID], just in case you didn’t know…). This is their Pinnacle ShowCenter 250HD plug-and-play digital media adapter. Users will be able to link up with any home entertainment center with all of their networked computers and network-attached storage (NAS) devices. For those with large digital media collections, this is an awesome method to enjoy the content on home entertainment systems, especially HDTV. The unit is fully compatible with Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) AV media server apps and can be used with Mac OS, Windows Vista or Windows XP systems. Built-in wireless (802.11b/g) and Ethernet, this new offering comes with a remote control, detachable antenna, 100-230V power cable connector, an Infrared receiver and a USB 2.0 connector on the front panel—Tewksbury, Massachusets (www.pinnaclesys.com)
Foot stomping action in Konami’s Nintendo Wii title Dance Dance Revolution made the title a hit through the use of the console’s remote unit… and with the latest iteration, aptly titled Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party (with, or without, Dance Pad), Konami has incorporated hand hacking as well as foot fumbling… when a diamond-shaped marker appears on the screen in either of the left or right columns, use the remote or nunchaku a radical wrist flick with the same sort of motion as a applying a drum beat…
A new streaming video website from Starz Media which should be of interest to Manga fans. A variety of video is at www.Manga.com from such titles as Blood: The Last Vampire, Dead Leaves, Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll and others….
The entire world CAN’T be entirely iPod-centric… at least, that’s the way Microsoft thinks as they have released three new Zune portable media players… there’s an 80 gigger and ultra-lites in the 8 and 4 gig range… the new Zune software is available, wow, at no charge, at www.zune.net… you can even obtain laser engaved designs created by 18 artists who are alleged to be “internationally recognized”… Microsoft, don’t give up your software division yet…
There’s a customized TV guide channel (E-GuideTV) that’s free of cost to the hospitality industry from North American Cable Equipment (NACE) through their 6,000 satTV dealers and installers…
