digiANALYSIS, BIZ + BITZ
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NAB Show NABs the Headliners—When the National Association of Broadcasters gathers at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 14-17, there will be no shortage of talent. This show has been a part of the landscape for 80 years and evolves as much as the changing industry. Just a glimpse of what’s on the venue—Monday, April 14th—a 3D Primer from the producer of BUGS 3D; Academy Award-winning visual effects veteran Eric Brevig reviews Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D: Case Study; and, U2 3D: Case Study by the concert movies’ filmmakers. Tuesday, April 15th—Jumper:Case Study with filmmaker Doug Liman and his team discuss their creation of a sci-fi world-cinematography, visual effects and production design; Pushing Daisies: Case Study with director and executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld; Character Animation: CG Technologies Meet Classic Techniques, presented in association with the Visual Effects Society; and, Red Camera: Case Study by filmmakers who examine digital capture with a new camera. Wednesday, April 16th—Mobilizing Entertainment includes wireless executives their issues and challenges in providing elements for the smallest screen; Turner Sports/NASCAR.com: Case Study a review of TrackPass, a new, real-time, interactive racing platform; and, Crackle: Case Study examines the workings of an online network of broadband filmmakers. The NAB saw more than 111,000 attendees at last year’s show, who represented 163 countries, and some 1,600 exhibitors—Las Vegas, Nevada
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Moving On Up… At OpenTV…OpenTV Corp. and its Board of Directors has appointed Ben Bennett as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Bennett assumes this role after having served as Acting Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer since August 29, 2007. Bennett has been with OpenTV since March 2000.Previously, Mr. Bennett served as Managing Director for OpenTV’s European Operations, overseeing operations and relationships with European network operators, broadcasters, and set-top box and conditional access manufacturers. He has also served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of OpenTV’s Worldwide Professional Services, Consulting and Support group, managing the company’s product deployment and integration teams in the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific—San Francisco, California
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Expo Set For Rome—From March 27th through March 29th, 2008 the new, futuristic Rome Fair welcomes the 14th Edition of Sat Expo Europe, the International Exhibition about Space and Advanced Telecommunications. Rome is the center of a space district that groups together Italian and European industries, as well as an important location for TV and cinema production. Due to the geography, economy and culture, Rome is considered a bridge on the Mediterranean sea—one reason why Rome selected as the site of this exhibition. The show’s themes include Exploration of Space, Observation of the Earth and Advanced Telecommunications, Broadcasting and HD Digital TV and E-Health. To learn more, select this link.
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The Game Console Price War Restarts —Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console price cuts in Europe have now placed additional pressure on the Sony Playstation 3 console. According to industry analysts Strategy Analytics, Microsoft has confirmed that the recommended prices of each of its Xbox 360 console models will be reduced on Thursday this week. The entry level model, the Arcade, is now the cheapest of the current generation of consoles from Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo. The most expensive, the Elite, is now £40 less expensive than Sony‘s Playstation 3. “Sony will be nervous that the PS3’s recent sales surge may fizzle out, now that the premium Xbox 360 undercuts the PS3 by £40, and the cheapest Xbox model is almost half the price of a PS3,” says David Mercer, Principal Analyst with Strategy Analytics. “Sony will be scrutinizing the daily sales reports, but will probably try to hold out until later in the year before making its next price move.” Strategy Analytics also notes that Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, which includes Xbox activities, has moved into profit in the last few months. “Microsoft must continue to drive cost out of console manufacturing in order to sustain these improvements in financial performance,” notes Mercer—London, United Kingdom
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Symon Says, I’ll Take Dacon, Please—Symon, a global provider of digital signage solutions announced the acquisition of UK based Dacon plc, a value added distributor of telecommunications solutions specializing in contact center products. The purchase of Dacon is a strategic move for Symon who will benefit from Dacon’s reseller relationships, reputation, and presence in the United Kingdom. The new combined organization totals more than 2,650 installations and will be located in Hertfordshire, UK—the new name is Symon Dacon Ltd— Hemel Hempstead, UK
digiCONTENT, CREATION + DELIVERY
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New Quad STB For Australian Viewers—OpenTV Corp. has launched the AUSTAR PVR, called MyStar. (AUSTAR is a subscription TV provider in both regional and rural Australia, offering primarily digital satellite services.) This is a quad tuner set-top box (STB) featuring two satellite tuners and two terrestrial tuners and provides a first-of-its kind integrated PVR service for AUSTAR subscribers. For the first time, AUSTAR viewers will be able to seamlessly use PVR functionality across local digital terrestrial and satellite subscription TV services on a single box. This seamless viewer experience is made possible by OpenTV’s Core2 and PVR2 technologies, which provide the interfaces needed to link the satellite and terrestrial signals. The quad tuner functionality provided through MyStar functionality remains the same for both satellite and terrestrial services. Viewers are able to surf between satellite and terrestrial signals as if coming from the same network. A full range of PVR functionality includes live pause, instant rewind, one touch record, and dual record. Illustrated below is OpenTV’s network package architecture—San Francisco, California
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Revision3 Brings Feminine Slant To IPTV—Revision3 has debuted popSiren, the first variety show of its kind that offers a feminine perspective on interests ranging from cool Internet tricks and Do It Yourself (DIY) projects to science experiments and in-depth interviews. Each week, co-hosts Sarah Lane, Jessica Corbin, Dr. Kiki Sanford, Neha Tiwari and Heather Frank will serve up a pop culture smorgasbord of features that appeal to today’s astute and inspired Internet-savvy audience. Each Thursday, popSiren will cover a wide spectrum of topics including life hacks (tricks to make tasks in everyday life easier), technology, science, DIY projects, products and pop culture. The show’s intelligent and informed hosts will also take the show out of the studio with field pieces and interviews. The debut episode of popSiren will be available at www.revision3.com March 10th at 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Subsequent episodes will become available every Thursday at 4 p.m. Eastern Time starting March 13.
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DIY With Feminity—Viaccess, a France Telecom subsidiary, has signed an agreement to acquire a 100-percent stake in Orca Interactive Ltd, an Israeli company listed on AIM London Stock Exchange. The price is an estimated $21.4M/US. Naturally, the completion of the transaction is subject to conditions precedents and notably to the approval of the transaction by the extraordinary general meeting of Orca Intercative. Orca Interactive is a provider of IPTV middleware and applications for broadband network operators and service providers and supports folk who deliver broadcast TV, video on demand (VOD), personal video recording (PVR), home media and other compelling interactive services. Viaccess develops within the field of content protection, with conditional access and DRM solutions delivered in more than 30 countries. In particular in IPTV protection, Viaccess currently has more than 1.2 million active subscribers—Paris, France
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STB Compliment From Verimatrix—Verimatrix has debuted their ViewRight PC Player 2.0. This is a nexgen IP client app that incorporates advanced Digital Video Recorder (DVR) functionality and mirrors the best time shifting features on TVs. Consumers may now perform popular trick play functions on live premium IP broadcast streams and record as many as four simultaneous programs. The Verimatrix ViewRight PC Player turns any broadband-connected PC into a fully functional, interactive IP client that complements the use of set-top boxes (STBs) in today’s networked household. ViewRight PC Player can display Standard Definition and High Definition MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 content, which is protected by Verimatrix VCAS security and can be paused, rewound and recorded through an intuitive user interface. Recorded streams retain the full VCAS encryption, ensuring they remain protected and subject to operator playback entitlement. ViewRight PC Player also integrates the unique Verimatrix VideoMark user-specific watermarking technology, a patent-pending forensic watermarking that extends the realm of anti-piracy measures by enabling the tracing of unauthorized copies of content back to the time and place they were created. The system has been audited by the independent third-party Telcordia labs that found zero security exposures across the entire end-to-end implementation—San Diego, California
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DIY With Feminity—Viaccess, a France Telecom subsidiary, has signed an agreement to acquire a 100-percent stake in Orca Interactive Ltd, an Israeli company listed on AIM London Stock Exchange. The price is an estimated $21.4M/US. Naturally, the completion of the transaction is subject to conditions precedents and notably to the approval of the transaction by the extraordinary general meeting of Orca Intercative. Orca Interactive is a provider of IPTV middleware and applications for broadband network operators and service providers and supports folk who deliver broadcast TV, video on demand (VOD), personal video recording (PVR), home media and other compelling interactive services. Viaccess develops within the field of content protection, with conditional access and DRM solutions delivered in more than 30 countries. In particular in IPTV protection, Viaccess currently has more than 1.2 million active subscribers—Paris, France
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