MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS: The world’s largest underserved markets for mobile communications are in developing nations and regions. Asia, Africa, Latin America all have vast potential, but formidable barriers stand in the way. Among the most immediate: the low disposable income of most of the population. Low cost and ultra-low cost (ULCH) handsets are seen as part of the solution to that problem, and according to a new study from ABI Research the two categories together will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24 percent over the next five years. Other inducements fostering uptake of mobile services in emerging markets include value-added data services using locally relevant content. Also helping: more enlightened attitudes among government regulators towards reducing taxes and tariffs on handsets and services. ABI Research’s study ”Entry Level Devices” discusses current and future market opportunities for entry-level handsets. In addition to market information, this report highlights critical considerations for handset vendors to navigate when designing and marketing entry level devices. It includes forecasts for the 2008 to 2014 period.
MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS: Dopplr, the online service for smart travel, has announced the launch of Dopplr — The Social Atlas, a free iPhone application available worldwide in the iPhone App Store. This mobile location-based application puts the combined wisdom of the world’s smart travellers in your pocket. Wherever you are in the world, you can use it to find nearby recommended places to eat, stay and explore. If you make new discoveries of your own, you can add them to the Social Atlas with a few taps of your finger. And every new addition helps to expand the Social Atlas, which is starting small but growing rapidly with the input from Dopplr travellers using their mobile devices. You don’t even need an account at Dopplr.com to use the app. The built-in directory of city tips and advice works for everyone. But if you do have a Dopplr account, the application offers a rich social location-based experience. You can keep in touch with your fellow travellers, find out what city and timezone they are in, and what future trips they have planned. You can view your own planned trips, and find co-incidences when fellow travellers will be nearby. You can even contact them directly from inside the app.
IPTV: Espial® Group Inc. now has a reseller agreement with Power & Tel. As part of the agreement, Power & Tel will resell the Espial MediaBase Video-On-Demand platform to service providers in the United States. Power & Tel is an independent distributor of material for the telecommunications and cable TV industries worldwide. Espial MediaBase is included in their end-to-end IPTV solution to US customers. Espial MediaBase is deployed with leading North American IPTV operators and is a turn-key VOD solution with easy-to-use management tools, automated content workflow, and pre-integration with a wide range of DTBs, DRM, and middleware.
BROADCASTING: Miranda Technologies will be highlighting multiple new 3Gbps/HD/SD products at BIRTV (Hall 8A11), including the award-winning Kaleido-X16 multi-viewer, the NVISION Enterprise Class routers, and the NV5100MC master control switcher. The LGK-3901 modular channel branding processor, iControl PM multi-channel playout monitoring, and XVP-3901 up, down and cross converter with advanced audio processing will also be shown. The ultra-quiet Kaleido-X16 multi-viewer is ideal for use within control rooms and mobile applications. Designed for 3Gbps/3D and HD/SD/Analog video, it delivers the highest level of image quality, extreme layout flexibility, and tight router integration. All this comes from a compact 1RU chassis, with 16 inputs, two multi-viewer outputs, and a 16 x 2 router. The NVISION Enterprise Class 3Gbps/HD/SD routers feature exceptional resilience, scalability and integration. They are designed for absolute dependability, with full power supply, controller and crosspoint redundancy. Available in sizes up to 1152 x 1152 video inputs, they provide unmatched signal path integrity for improved return loss and cable length performance. The NV5100MC is a fully featured 3Gbps/HD/SD master control switcher, which is ideal for national and regional broadcasters. It offers a wide choice of control panels, tight router integration, and versatile multi-channel audio control with Dolby E decoding. For advanced branding graphics and workflows, the switcher can be paired with the Intuition XG graphics co-processor. The Densité LGK-3901 is the first modular 3Gbps/HD/SD branding processor, and is capable of inserting up to five independent layers of graphics. It also offers automated character generation, clock insertion, and eight channel audio clip/voice-over playout. iControl PM is a highly adapted, playout monitoring package for multi-channel broadcasters and specialty channel providers. Multiple new technologies can be incorporated, including macro-block detection, lip sync error, and content mismatch.
ACCELERATION: Wyse Technology will launch a new software product, Wyse Virtual Desktop Accelerator (VDA). Wyse VDA addresses limitations of existing data centers, which are currently constrained by proximity. Today, an application or service, hosted and delivered from data centers, is typically within 100-300 miles of the end-user recipient. Without this proximity, the user experience suffers from network latency, packet loss, and other inefficiencies found in longer networks. Due to these issues, businesses are forced to maintain multiple data centers to handle all geographies. Wyse VDA virtually eliminates these geographic constraints by accelerating network protocols up to three times in order to greatly enhance remote end-user productivity and experience in virtualized settings. Wyse Virtual Desktop Accelerator will accelerate popular virtualization architectures such as Citrix® XenApp™, Citrix® XenDesktop™, VMware View and Microsoft Terminal Services. Wyse VDA can also help enterprises with business continuity and in disaster recovery scenarios. In standard operation scenarios, end users are located close to the data center. With Wyse VDA, if those data centers are in a disaster situation, the enterprise can easily connect the effected end users into alternate data centers without compromising their experience. Wyse VDA does not interfere with the security and encryption of the underlying remote display protocols. Wyse VDA works standalone or as a compliment to existing hardware WAN accelerator solutions adding value to customer deployments by providing acceleration specific to remote desktop protocols.
