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The last course in the 2011 Bridge Technologies Academy program is a Train the Trainers session, to be held at the company’s new central Oslo headquarters. Designed for business partners who want to develop an unrivalled understanding of digital media analytics and the Bridge Technologies monitoring system in enough depth to train others, the December course will also cover the new features of the Bridge Technologies software version 4.9 release. Hundreds of new features and capabilities have been introduced in v4.9, including support for the VB330 10GB high-density probe, provision for monitoring and analytics of OTT services, support for DVB-T2 MI, and much more. During the course, which takes place from December 13th to 14th, attendees will have access to a full headend system operating on live commercial channels and the full complement of Bridge Technologies products. Train the Trainer courses are led by Bridge Technologies Academy head Martin Crawley. For further information, contact him at [email protected].
Conmio, a provider of mobile services, and MTV MEDIA, owned by Bonnier, have announced that Conmio will bring MTV’s online TV service Katsomo to a new range of mobile devices. Katsomo allows Finnish viewers to access programs over the Internet, with selected programming also available internationally. Viewer demand for television programs via smart phones and tablet devices is growing rapidly, and the new mobile version of the Katsomo service addresses this trend. Conmio develops mobile services for publications and other content providers, and has implemented similar solutions for numerous media companies in Finland and internationally. Conmio’s major customers include The New York Times, NPR, Gannett and Bloomberg. The mobile version of Katsomo service will be launched first on the iPhone and iPad. The range of platforms will be extended later. The Katsomo mobile service has been implemented as an HTML5-based web application. The user interface and features of the service operate like a traditional application, but the service is fully browser-based. This frees users from having to install software or manage application updates. On the other hand, MTV can reach its viewers directly by providing the solution without having to rely on device-specific application stores and the limitations imposed by them. Katsomo service is available at m.katsomo.fi.
Digital Rapids announced that the StreamZ Live ABR adaptive streaming encoder has been honored with the 2011 Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award in the Over-the-Top (OTT) Video Solution category. The award was presented during the Streaming Media West conference and exhibition in Los Angeles. The Readers’ Choice Awards recognize the leading streaming and online video solutions, services, companies and innovations as judged by end users, rather than the magazine staff. The award is the sixth Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Award won by Digital Rapids in the past three years, and follows closely on the heels of the company being recognized as one of “the 100 companies that matter most in online video” in the inaugural Streaming Media 100 list. StreamZ Live ABR encodes and streams live HD and SD content with superior quality and performance for delivery through the latest generation of adaptive streaming technologies from Adobe, Apple and Microsoft. Adaptive bit rate streaming enables higher-quality viewing experiences with television-like continuity and reliability on the web, over-the-top (OTT) services and mobile devices. As content is delivered to each viewer, the chosen adaptive delivery technology automatically switches between multiple output streams based on the viewer’s current network and playback conditions, delivering the best possible quality at any given time even under dramatically changing conditions. Building on Digital Rapids’ long-standing simultaneous output abilities, StreamZ Live ABR can create all of the output streams required for adaptive bit rate delivery — including concurrent outputs for multiple target devices — in a single system. Multiple StreamZ Live ABR encoders can be combined with the scalable Digital Rapids Broadcast Manager software for enterprise-class management, automation, scheduling, multi-channel monitoring and failover.
As part of an expansion and upgrade plan SuperSport, the South African sports broadcaster has contracted EVS to provide XT3 production servers along with integrative content production and management solutions for its new-generation HD capable Outside Broadcast fleet. Part of the fleet will also be used as general production units for M-Net, a private subscription television service in Africa and SuperSport’s sister company. SuperSport is expanding its OB fleet to provide enhanced coverage of local sports and events in HD across the African continent. The new-generation OB fleet is composed of two rigid chassis trucks, OB1 and OB3, which have been designed for the difficult road conditions in Africa and can be joined together once on location to form a single OB unit. Each truck is equipped with 20 Sony HD camera systems and with an extended range of EVS products, including the new XT3 production server, the content production and management suite IPDirector, the portable storage solution XFly, the fill and key playout server GX, as well as the ENG gateway solution Xedio Dispatcher.
SES S.A.’s (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) HD offering HD+ has continued to grow successfully throughout the first two years of its market presence. The service currently reaches 1.9 million German TV households. These are the results of a market analysis conducted by the GfK Group in Germany. Of the 482,000 customers who started the one-year free trial period with HD+ between November 1, 2009, and October 31, 2010, 305,000 have decided to continue their use of the offering for an annual service fee of EUR 50. The conversion rate therefore stands at 63 percent. As of today, an additional 1.56 million households are currently using HD+ in the free trial period and will have the opportunity to extend their use of the service on a paying basis in the next twelve months. Based on the very positive development of HD+, SES expects to surpass the mark of one million paying customers by the end of next year. HD+ is a technical platform operated by SES for encrypted broadcasting and reception of commercial free TV programs in HD quality. Following a one year trial period free of charge, customers pay a fixed technical service fee of EUR 50 per year.
