Amberfin + ATG Broadcast | Broadcom | Frank N. Magid Assocates | International Datacasting | Softel | Tieline + Australian Broadcasting Corp. | Vela Research — SatBroadcasting™

BCM55030 infopage

AmberFin and ATG Broadcast have announced an expansion of their U.K. channel partnership agreement to encompass the Middle East region. ATG Broadcast, which has been AmberFin’s channel partner in the U.K. since early 2011, is opening a new sales and support office, ATG Broadcast Middle East FZ-LLC in Dubai Media City, Dubai, UAE, enabling them to promote AmberFin in the UAE, Lebanon and Qatar. ATG Middle East will promote and support AmberFin’s iCR broadcast content ingest and file transcoding system including the recently introduced Unified Quality Control (UQC) module. UQC combines multiple tools for baseband checks during tape ingest, file-based post-ingest QC and overall operator-controlled QC including annotation and mark-up. AmberFin’s decision to strengthen its presence in the Middle East comes at a time when many regional broadcasters are investigating their quality control resources. ATG Broadcast’s Graham Day sees significant potential for establishing iCR in this market, especially with its recently introduced Unified Quality Control (UQC) capabilities. “AmberFin’s iCR solution is unique in the market, given its ability to create a high quality file-based HD/SD master, provide unique file conversion to multiple formats and implement appropriate levels of automated and manual quality control, all within a single unified software environment,” explained Day. “Now is the right time to promote this smart technology to Middle East broadcasters, plus we know the working relationship works well from our experiences in the U.K.”

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International Datacasting’s revenues grew by 1 percent over the first nine months of the fiscal year vs. the same period in FY2011. Strong growth over the period and expansion into emerging markets in continental Africa, driven by the success of our end-to-end digital broadcast initiative offset the one-time impact of the digital cinema rollout related to the FIFA 2010 World Cup in the previous year. “Our organic growth initiatives have been successful including recognizing revenue of over $7 million in the last twelve months from our work in Africa. Other initiatives are on the go with a heavy focus on the video space, video-on-demand, the over the top (OTT) video segment and in other global markets including ad insertion and targeted advertising,” stated Adam E. Adamou, Executive Chairman. “Everyone at IDC is working hard to launch these products over the next several quarters.” Frederick Godard, President and CEO, added, “We believe there is considerable pent-up demand for the expansion of services in IDC’s markets that is being frustrated by ongoing economic concerns and, as a result, very conservative business practices – including delays – among our customers. We have to be patient since the demand certainly appears to exist and the pressure to expand continues to build. Fortunately, IDC is well capitalized with a growing working capital base that is capable of weathering the present economic uncertainties until we can take advantage of these future growth possibilities.”

The entire financial report is available here.

An annual survey of American video viewing behavior reveals that while over half of online consumers watch television shows and movies online at least occasionally, there is still growth in their use of video on demand, digital video recorder and digital video discs. The more alternative platforms they use, the more it seems they tend to spend on traditional television subscription services. However, in a cost-conscious economy, consumers are more than ever looking for bargains. An optimistic report from Frank N Magid Associates suggests that satisfaction with HD is at an all-time high among customers of pay-television providers. The intention to purchase a new television is no apparently almost back to the level expressed before the recession. Four in ten people said they will shop for a new television set in the next year, with 28 percent looking for a new primary television. That will be good news for manufacturers and retailers in difficult economic conditions. Superior display, widescreen format and internet connectivity are the features in greatest demand. Over six in ten of those looking to buy a television said internet connectivity is an important factor in their decision to purchase. Less important, it seems, is 3D. The proportion of those planning to buy a 3D TV set has fallen over the last year from 67 percent to 49 percent. It is estimated that 3 percent of American households now own a 3D TV set. The survey is based on a nationally representative sample of over 1,500 online consumers aged over 12 years and was carried out in late October 2011.

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Softel’s widely deployed iTV playout platform, MediaSphere™, is now streaming applications to more than 50 million households every week. MediaSphere is a versatile iTV platform that helps developers, creative agencies, operators and programmers create, test and demonstrate interactive apps, then verify them in iTV infrastructures, as well as stream them to viewers’ premises. MediaSphere playout systems are deployed by many prestigious operators and programmers such as the BBC, Comcast Entertainment, ESPN, MTV, Shaw Cable, Showtime, Starz, Technicolor, Time Warner Cable, Turner Broadcasting and many more. MediaSphere lets developers create and validate their apps with a powerful headend simulation environment that drives real set-top boxes. MediaSphere also facilitates the demonstration of new applications and allows creative agencies to test their products in focus groups where participants can use real-life remote controllers. The product provides the tools for verifying that applications correctly interact with the various elements of the interactive infrastructure before deployment. When verification is complete, operators and programmers can use MediaSphere to deploy apps, streaming interactivity over multiple platforms and across a complete variety of middlewares, simplifying workflow and increasing viewers’ reach.

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Tieline has announced that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia’s largest National Broadcaster, has committed to rolling out Tieline’s Report-IT Enterprise solution throughout its entire global radio network. The Report-IT Enterprise application for iPhone will essentially place a secure, high quality portable IP audio codec and 20kHz quality recorder into the pocket of up to 500 ABC reporters, journalists and content contributors across Australia and overseas. “This global broadcast solution allows the ABC to install the Report-IT application on up to 500 iPhones and lets engineers remotely manage and program all connections for it’s journalists at the touch of a button,” said Tieline’s Charlie Gawley.  “A number of licenses have also been set aside for ad hoc contributors or guests, who can simply download the Report-IT Enterprise application onto their iPhone, log in with a secure user name and password and start broadcasting at the touch of a button.” The ABC has also purchased additional IP codecs in order to increase the capacity of the network to receive live Report-IT connections, or recorded files from Report-IT via FTP.

Report-IT infopage

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What is decoding and why is it necessary? What are the most common applications? What are the features and parameters to consider when decoding? What’s best — a board level or system level solution? What are the available inputs and outputs?