Mobile Marketing Magazine

Siano Goes Big in Brazil

Mobile TV chip maker Siano Mobile Silicon has revealed that three Brazilian mobile operators - Vivo, Claro and TIM Brazil - are promoting products using its MDTV (Mobile Digital TV) receivers. Siano is powering mobile phones and 3G modem cards equipped with digital TV for mobile subscribers in Brazil, in partnership with Chinese firm ZTE. The Siano-powered terminals enable viewing of dozens of channels comprised of sports, news and entertainment, culminating with the FIFA World Cup in 2010, beginning in June.
"We want Brazilians to fully experience the World Cup and be able to watch the games anywhere and anytime," Hugo Janeba, Executive VP of Marketing and Innovation in Vivo, the largest mobile operator in Brazil, said publically last week. “And when soccer fans have their own pocket TV, the experience certainly becomes much more complete.”
The new data terminals were designed by ZTE and are based on Siano’s multi-standard receiver chip, which supports the Brazilian ISDB-T DTV format. The 3G data-cards are compatible with all standard notebooks, netbooks, and desktop PCs.
Brazil is leading the roll-out of mobile digital TV services in South America, with MDTV services having recently debuted also in Argentina and Chile. Other countries likely to join include Uruguay, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia and Paraguay – who are expected to launch ISDB-T services within the next fifteen months. If they do, this will generate one of the largest unified Mobile DTV markets worldwide, totalling more than 300 million potential viewers.
“Sports broadcasting and the evolution of Mobile TV go hand-in-hand,” says Dr. Windsor Holden, Principal Analyst at Juniper Research. “Given the football-mad Brazilians and the World Cup in 2010, and with Brazil also hosting the 2016 Olympic Games, there’s fertile ground for Mobile TV to really take-off.  With the help of major sporting events in the coming years, Brazil could prove the first market in S. America to make mobile TV a success.”

Rubberduck Moves Towards HTML TV Streaming

Rubberduck Media Lab, which provides streaming Mobile TV services, has completed the first phase of an ongoing program to provide a new streaming infrastructure built around HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) streaming, which it says will enable a more robust and flexible live TV and video-on-demand service.
HTTP is now being widely adopted for video delivery to mobile devices. Apple uses it for the iPhone and iPad OS. With this move, Rubberduck says it is ensuring that its customers can continue to deliver high quality web video to a new generation of mobile devices. In addition, new features such as ‘Step Back in time’, allowing users to rewind while watching videos, are now possible using HTTP.
“As a leading international Mobile TV provider, Rubberduck looks to the future and positions itself to work with the best in breed technologies as these are adopted in the market,” says Rubberduck CEO, Erling Paulsen. “We have been leading this mobile space with RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol), and now we are able to extend our award-winning capabilities to HTTP-based services.”

Solaris Expands Hybrid Mobile/Satellite Network

Solaris Mobile is expanding its Paris-based network to cover Rennes and Nancy (France) and the surrounding areas. The company says its network, launched in November 2009 to demonstrate the broadcast of TV and radio services to mobile phones, other handheld devices and cars within Paris has been very successful to date.
Solaris Mobile and its partners in the collaboration, Alcatel-Lucent and towerCast, have built a hybrid network based on satellite and terrestrial mobile technology. Based on its success within France, Solaris Mobile says it is looking towards a pan-European roll out programme in the near future.
The collaboration sees Solaris Mobile providing satellite capacity and spectrum rights, while Alcatel-Lucent manages the system integration and is providing transmission equipment, and towerCast is providing its antenna sites, in and around, Paris.
The resulting ‘hybrid network’, under the overall management of Solaris Mobile, combines the instant coverage of satellite with the deep network capabilities of cellular mobile systems, making it the first such network to be deployed within Europe.
Such networks, operating across the whole of the EU, in frequency bands adjacent to the existing 3G mobile bands around 2GHz, will open up new opportunities to deliver next generation broadband and broadcast services to people on the move. Video, data downloads and ubiquitous voice services delivered to people’s phones, or cars, will soon match the range currently available only with fixed-line services in their offices or homes, the company says.
The hybrid network was enabled after the European Commission and the 27 EC member States authorised Solaris Mobile to operate services in 2 x 15 MHz blocks of S-Band spectrum across Europe in May 2009.

T-Mobile Launches Movie Service for HTC Desire Users

T-Mobile is launching a video-on-demand (VOD) service for owners of the HTC Desire Android handset. The service will be powered by Saffron Digital, and will offer a selection of Warner Bros. Movies that users can watch, pause and resume playback between their PC and mobile phone. Saffron Digital already powers a video-on-demand service for T-Mobile called VOD+ which launched last year.
T-Mobile customers who buy the HTC Desire in the first month of its availability will get two free Warner Bros. movies from a list of eight titles, including ‘Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince’ and ‘The Hangover’. These will be available on a 48-hour rental basis, playable on the HTC Desire or on a PC. More Warner Bros. films will be added to the  service over the next few months, and will cost £3.49 for new releases and £2.49 for back-catalogue titles.
Working in partnership with both HTC and T-Mobile, Saffron Digital has created and will host a mobile Internet destination which T-Mobile customers who have bought the HTC Desire will be directed to, via an SMS mechanic and in-store posters. A follow-up email will also be sent to users who have activated their handset, but not used the promotion. The site will be linked to T-Mobile’s VOD+ site, also created and powered by Saffron, where a wide catalogue of films from Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. are available for purchase.
“We anticipate the Desire being one of our most popular handsets of 2010, and the VOD+ service makes it even greater value for our customers – giving them even more functionality on top of an already impressive features list,” says Nicola Shenton, Head of Handset and Device Marketing at T-Mobile. “As the service is unique to T-Mobile, it will also be a key differentiator for us as we compete with other networks.”

FLO TV Goes Social

Qualcomm subsidiary FLO TV says it is working to enhance its Mobile TV service with new applications that integrate video with web-based content and social media tools. The company says the expanded capabilities are being developed in response to the ways in which consumers are simultaneously viewing and interacting with content.
“With consumers’ mobile entertainment habits evolving rapidly, FLO TV will be integrating its current live linear video with relevant, on-demand content and interactive features that complement the programming viewers are watching in real-time,” says FLO TV President, Bill Stone. “Our innovative, nationwide multicast network is at the heart of this solution and will allow us to distribute live mobile TV and rich mobile media services to a range of new devices – from Smartbooks to e-readers and tablets.”
In addition to integrated experiences, FLO TV has also announced an expanded suite of Mobile TV services, including interactive capabilities, pay-per-day and event passes, and time-shifted viewing options. The new features will be available on the FLO TV service across a range of mobile devices in the second half of 2010.  New service applications will include interactive features that will enable users to interact with programming and advertising, allowing consumers to click for more information about a show or click to buy an advertised product. 
Pay-per-day passes will offer pay-as-you-go flexibility, providing consumers the ability to watch the FLO TV service without committing to a recurring monthly subscription. Event passes will provide an way for existing FLO TV subscribers to add premium content, such as special events, to their programming lineup. 
Time-shifted viewing, or ‘catch-up TV,’ will allow popular shows to be stored on FLO-enabled mobile devices, enabling viewers to watch their favourite shows on-demand, even outside of a coverage area. 
FLO TV offers full–length simulcast and time–shifted programming in the US, with content from entertainment brands including ABC Mobile, CBS, Disney Channel, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile, and MTV. The FLO TV service is currently available on multiple platforms, including mobile handsets and the recently launched FLO TV Personal Television, the first-ever portable digital television with a dedicated network. In collaboration with Audiovox, FLO TV also offers FLO TV Auto Entertainment, an in-vehicle Mobile TV system.

blinkx and Mobica in Mobile Video Tie-up

Video search engine blinkx has announced a strategic partnership with Mobica, which provides mobile solutions and services for handset vendors, platform providers and mobile carriers.
Under the terms of the agreement, blinkx and Mobica will collaborate to build a platform-independent service that delivers professionally-produced news and entertainment highlights to mobile devices, so consumers can enjoy a variety of themed channels, featuring relevant and up-to-date video clips in a ‘snack-size’format. The companies say the joint offering will deliver unique benefits to operators, enabling them to act as mobile broadcasters  and thereby gain advertising revenue, as well as increasing  user satisfaction and retention.  
Leveraging blinkx’s AdHoc platform, the first contextual advertising platform for online video, the offering also offers advertisers the opportunity to combine professionally-produced video content with contextually targeted advertising. 
“Consumer demand for mobile video continues to grow exponentially, and blinkx can deliver top quality content in an ideal format – a playlist of relevant, snackable content,” says blinkx CEO, Suranga Chandratillake. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Mobica, one of the most dynamic companies in the mobile development space, to deliver this unique video solution to wireless operators.”
As part of its web-based offering, blinkx has formed more than 650 partnerships and indexed over 35 million hours of video and audio content to date.

SPB Unveils SPB TV for iPhone

SPB Software has released released SPB TV for iPhone, a freeware mobile IPTV viewer with TV-like usability, created for tuning in to publicly-available digital TV channels from all over the world, via the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. SPB TV for iPhone is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices with firmware version 3.0 and above.
SPB TV for iPhone presents exclusive and patent-pending usability innovations and gives the mobile subscribers easy access to over 120 TV channels in more than 20 languages. It includes a TV browser with quick channel previews, an instantly-accessible TV guide for all offered channels, and quick channel switching.
With the arrival of SPB TV for iPhone, SPB Software has expanded the list of supported platforms - which already includes Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian - while at the same time launching a new line of TV 2.0 apps, which are free-of-charge, no-subscription programmes, supported by advertising revenues. The company says that ads in SPB TV 2.0 are unobtrusive, lasting only the amount of time necessary to buffer the stream when starting a channel.

ESPN Secures Mobile Rights to UK Premier League Highlights

Broadcaster ESPN has been awarded the exclusive mobile highlight rights to all 380 Barclays Premier League matches per season over the next three seasons. The rights will allow ESPN, also a Barclays Premier League TV partner, to deliver in-match, post-match and customized highlights, including goals, to football fans in the UK.
ESPN says it will announce specific plans and products that utilize these rights and connect fans to the Barclays Premier League in the weeks ahead. The new products and services will join ESPN’s growing mobile platform that includes mobile web sites for ESPN.co.uk, ESPNSoccernet, ESPNCricinfo, ESPNScrum and ESPNF1, as well as mobile applications.
“Mobile devices are an indispensible lifeline for football fans, who expect easy, quick access to the latest goals and action wherever they are,” says ESPN Senior Vice President, Lynne Frank. “Adding these rights will allow us to advance our commitment to delivering great sport across the many screens UK fans use each day. Since we launched ESPN in the UK less than 250 days ago, we have been dedicated to building the foundation of a long-term relationship with UK sports fans. This is another big step in that process.”
Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore says that ESPN’s purchase of Barclays Premier League mobile clip rights demonstrates the company’s commitment to the competition and the fans. “Mobile is an increasingly important technology as hand-held devices become ever more sophisticated, therefore a good offering with a strong partner is important to us both in terms of accessibility and complementing live coverage,” says Sucadmore.

ROK Launches iPlayer with MTNL in India

ROK Entertainment Group has announced the launch of its iPlayer mobile video service with Indian mobile network, MTNL.
Priced at 30 Rupees (approximately £0.45) per month, subscribers are able to receive, streamed or for download, up to 90 video clips per month, including live breaking news, daily astrology predictions, Bollywood news, Bollywood music, sports news, comics and comedy clips on their mobile at  http://mtnl.rokd.tv
MTNL has begun promoting the ROK iPlayer service to its 2 million-strong customer base in Mumbai via a daily SMS promotion.
“This MTNL-version of ROK’s iPlayer is a new mobile entertainment service which we have developed specifically for India,” say ROK Chairman and CEO, Jonathan Kendrick. “We are very excited to be launching the service with MTNL and because iPlayer offers such excellent value for money with regards to mobile entertainment, we look forward to significant subscription uptake.”
ROK, best known for its Mobile TV service which is streamed over mass-market 2.5G GPRS as well as 3G and wi-fi, has amassed a portfolio of revenue-generating mobile applications which it licenses to mobile operators around the world.

Collision Course

SatStream, Groovy Gecko and Yospace have teamed up to provide live streaming of the latest Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment, run by CERN, to mobiles and PCs.
The LHC, which is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles, is scheduled to collide its proton beams for the first time at the record energy of 7 TeV on 30 March. Its four major experiments, ATLAS, CMS, Alice and LHCb, aim to provide answers to unresolved mysteries of physics such as dark matter, antimatter and the existence of the Higgs Boson, the so-called ‘God Particle’.
The satellite downlink will be handled from SatStream’s broadcast-standards facility in London, where the footage will be transcoded, ready for live streaming over the web by Groovy Gecko. Yospace will handle the live streaming to mobile.
“Our work with the LHC is vital for physicists to gain (a) better understanding of the world in which we live,” says CERN’s Thomas Baron. “We feel that it also has wide public appeal and interest and therefore we wanted to make the experiment fully accessible. The combination of SatStream, Groovy Gecko, and Yospace has enabled us to do just that.”
The live stream will be available tomorrow at http://webcast.cern.ch/lhcfirstphysics beginning at 8:30am Central European Summer Time. The main webcast will include live footage from the control rooms for the LHC accelerator and all four LHC experiments, plus coverage of the press conference after the first collisions are announced. Webcasts will also be available from the control rooms of the four LHC experiments: ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb.
To fill the gaps between the various experiments, there are a couple of round table discussions you may want to tune into. ‘Dark Matter, Supersymmetry, Black Holes and Antimatter’ starts at 12.30pm, while ‘Societal Benefits of Particle Physics’ kicks off at 2.30pm. Each lasts 10 minutes.

Cellcom Israel Selects Mobixell Video Solution

Cellcom Israel, the largest Israeli mobile operator, has deployed Mobixell Networks’ Videon mobile video optimisation, adaptation and delivery platform, to further improve mobile video quality on the widest selection of mobile devices. Mobixell says the solution will also allows the operator to enable multiple video services and  optimize video traffic in order to reduce costs.
Cellcom Israel is consolidating its video services from a variety of separate systems onto the Videon platform to enable it to increase the variety of video formats and number of supported devices using a single, centralised adaptation and delivery platform, which optimizes and adapts both live and streamed video content from various sources in real time.
The Videon solution enables operators to maximise the opportunities for generating additional mobile video content offerings from a variety of sources, including the web (web-cams and broadcast content available only on the web such as 24/7 reality shows); live TV; and VOD (video on demand) libraries. The video quality is optimised to the changing network conditions to maintain a connection.
Mobixell says that Cellcom Israel will benefit from video traffic optimization and management, and real time transcoding support for many different handsets, delivering the optimum video quality for each handset or mobile device. Another key advantage of using Mobixell’s Dynamic Bit Rate Adaptation technology, embedded in the Videon solution, will be to allow different types of video content to be optimised on-the-fly for each mobile user, based on available bandwidth, network and device type.
The deployment - completed in February 2010 - was initiated by the desire to find a more efficient way to automate and streamline the delivery of enhanced video services, including both live channels and on-demand content. These included broadcasting a variety of live webcam feeds, located in public places such as clubs and bars, holy places and traffic hot spots, as well as user-generated content) and a VOD catalogue. The Videon solution offered support for all these different video formats on a single platform and enabled broadcast content, to be sent to mobile users using the same feed as the Internet portal. Videon is tightly integrated into Cellcom Israel’s network elements and billing system to perform user Authorization, Authentication and Accounting (AAA); handling this integration in one centralized system for multiple services and different devices enables cost savings.
“We are focused on delivering the optimal variety and quality of video for our mobile users, whilst reducing expense,” says Cellcom Israel Engineering VP, Isaiah Rosenberg. “Mobixell’s Videon scores in all these areas, allow us to capitalise on the growing demand for mobile video services, whilst keeping costs under control.” 

NSN Unveils TV-anywhere Solution

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has launched a software platform that enables mobile operators to provide live, recorded or video-on-demand TV to mobile phone, Internet-connected PC, or satellite or digital terrestrial TV screens. The solution also offers an open platform for creating new applications, and provides remote personal video recording, catch-up TV, operator-to-subscriber messaging, and enhanced IPTV picture stability.
“This new software platform lets subscribers enjoy video content and manage it in a consistent way, whether inside or outside the home,” says NSN’s Head of Media and Entertainment Solutions, Brook Longdon. “By offering quality video on a range of different devices, across different networks, and by providing an open environment for app development, we free operators to partner with developers, without being bound to any one vendor's roadmaps.”
NSN notes that supporting a consistent user experience across a range of devices and networks, while compelling for the consumer, can be complex and costly for the operator. It says its new platform resolves this by supporting different environments from a single, cost-efficient control point based on the DVB-IPTV and Open IPTV Forum's Baseline Managed Profile specifications.
The platform supports several types of network-based personal video recording, including user-controlled and operator-controlled recording functionality, to allow flexibility in business models and in navigating content rights issues. This allows people to watch one channel while recording another for later viewing.
The platform also sees the introduction of network-based catch-up TV, whereby previously shown content is automatically made available for later viewing. It also offers operator-to-subscriber messaging, enabling operators to send relevant operational and marketing messages to all or a subset of their subscriber base. It is a component of an end-to-end solution that enables operators to introduce advanced TV services rapidly. NSN points out that it has extensive experience as an end-to-end IPTV system integrator and middleware provider, and delivers a wide range of related professional services, including business and technical consulting, systems integration, and installation.

3 UK Launches Disney on Demand

3 UK subscribers will be able to access entire episodes of hit television shows on demand, with the launch of the network's first ever Mobile TV subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service. The launch is the result of a deal between 3UK, On Demand Group and The Walt Disney Company UK. Under the terms of the deal, Disney will offer hundreds of episodes to subscribers on the 3 network in the UK, including ABC Studios’ award winning live action series ‘Lost’, ‘Desperate Housewives’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and more.
The SVOD service, called ‘TV on Demand’ is fully managed and powered by On Demand Group, the three-screen enabler for premier content and operations brands. Leveraging On Demand Group’s technology and numerous partner studios and programmer relationships, TV on Demand offers a variety of top-rated television shows, enabling subscribers to extend their enjoyment of complete programs while they’re on the go. 3 subscribers on any 3 handset make or model can immediately enjoy the new personalised functionality, including playback, pause and resume of all programs at anytime.
On Demand Group develops and manages the on-demand businesses of a growing number of service providers, including Virgin Media in the UK, OTE in Greece and TTNET in Turkey. 

ROK Powers Russian Mobile TV Launch

ROK Entertainment Group, the UK-based mobile technologies, applications and services company, and KOX TV, the Russian-based Mobile TV service company, have announced the launch of a carrier-agnostic streamed Mobile TV service in Russia, branded KOX TV.
The service is aimed at those customers of Russian operators Beeline, Megafone, MTS and Tele2 who have a data package included in their mobile tariff. KOX TV comprises 12 looped and on-demand TV channels and is priced at 247 Rubles (£5.42) per month, with the first two weeks viewing free.
There are 6 Russian-language TV channels in the KOX TV line-up, including Auto +, Antimult TV, Comedy TV, Russian Night, Ocean TV, and Music Box Russia, as well as six English-language TV channels, including Future Shorts, X-Fighters, Bollywood News, Eye Music Network and ROK Tube.
“We are delighted to be launching the first ever carrier-agnostic streamed Mobile TV service in Russia, which we have done in response to our expectation of significant demand for live and on-demand mass-market Mobile TV in that country, from the ever-growing number of people with compatible handsets and a data package included in their mobile tariff,” says ROK Chairman, Jonathan Kendrick.

WarnerTV Launches on 3 UK

Following the launch of the first mobile TV Subscription Video-on-demand (SVOD) service in the UK by mobile operator 3 in November 2009, 3 UK and On Demand Group have announced the debut of Warner Bros. International Branded Services’ WarnerTV branded service, which gives subscribers on-demand access to entire episodes of hit television shows from Warner Bros. Entertainment.
The content deal with Mobix Interactive, now part of On Demand Group, marks Warner Bros. International Branded Services’ first launch of the WarnerTV branded service on an SVOD mobile platform in the UK. The service, called ‘TV on Demand’, is fully managed and powered by On Demand Group.
Programming available on WarnerTV includes hit comedies ‘Two and a Half Men’ ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Friends’ as well as one-hour series ‘The Mentalist’, ‘The Closer’, ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Supernatural’. Under the terms of the deal, WarnerTV will offer hundreds of television series episodes each year to subscribers to 3 UK.
3 says that TV on Demand fulfills the industry’s anytime, anywhere personal TV vision to provide the most desired programs to any handset with complete on-demand control. Leveraging On Demand Group’s Mobix Adrenalin technology and numerous partner studios and programmer relationships, it presents a mobile viewing experience that, according to 3, correlates to television and broadband PC viewing.
It also offers a variety of top-rated television shows, enabling subscribers to extend their enjoyment of complete programmes while they’re on the go, away from their TV and broadband connections. Users can play, pause and resume all programmes at any time.
“This platform gives us the ability to offer true on-demand TV, bringing one of the most popular types of Internet service to our mobile customers,” says 3 UK’s Head of Media Sales & Content Services, Neil Andrews. “The TV On Demand service will allow our customers to watch their favourite programmes when and where they want to.”

Alloy Chip Leverages Mobile TV for Location and Synchronization

Rosum Corporation has announced the launch of Alloy, a location and synchronization solution for indoor and urban environments. The Alloy chip, which was developed in partnership with Mobile TV chip-maker Siano, uses broadcast TV signals to provide precise frequency, timing and location information.
Rosum says the chip opens up a multitude of new commercial opportunities by enabling femtocell synchronization and location, tracking of people and assets, and localized advertising over Mobile TV devices in deep indoor locations such as shopping malls, hotels, campuses and factories, using broadcast TV signals for seamless delivery.
Prior to the launch of Alloy, says Rosum, there was no single location solution that worked across all environments, noting that traditional positioning systems are satellite-based, designed for outdoor applications and have limitations both indoors and in urban environments.
The Alloy client combines the Alloy chip with a high-sensitivity A-GPS chip in a hybrid TV-GPS solution which works across all types of environments, including rural, suburban, urban, and indoor. Broadcast TV signals enjoy a 100,000x power margin advantage over GPS, says Rosum, and this extends location and synchronization capabilities deep into buildings and urban environments.
According to Dominique Bonte, Practice Director, Telematics and Navigation, for ABI Research, the market for wireless location-based applications is expected to reach $14.5 billion in 2014. He says: “The success of these applications will depend on the pervasive availability of the location technologies that enable them.  Alternative positioning technologies such as Alloy are critical (in addressing the limitations of GPS).”
Applications of Alloy include femtocell synchronization and location, indoor and urban tracking of people and assets, and location-based services and advertising for Mobile TV devices. Rosum cites a number of use-case examples. For example, it says, Femtocells require accurate timing, frequency and location for quick start-up, interference management, and E911 (emergency services) location. It notes that competing solutions can require 60-90 minutes or more to start-up and require placement by the window. Alloy reduces this time dramatically (typically to around three minutes) and extends coverage deep indoors, where femtocells are most valuable.
Additionally, says Rosum, tracking service providers require continuous tracking across all environments – outdoor, indoor, and urban.  High-value assets and people tend to be indoors or in urban areas where GPS signals are often unavailable, but TV signals are abundant, enabling Alloy to continue to monitor assets and people in areas where GPS-based solutions fail.
Finally, says Rosum, Alloy can be used to deliver location-enabled TV services and generate new and expanded revenue streams for broadcasters and operators.
“Rosum’s technology opens a new era in location-based applications and services,” says Siano CEO, Alon Ironi. “Our cooperation with Rosum will enable every user of a handheld device to not only watch TV everywhere, but also benefit from an abundance of location-based services everywhere, even where the line-of-sight to the global positioning satellites is blocked.”

Brightcove Unveils Flash-based Smartphone Video Platform

Online video platform provider Brightcove has unveiled the Brightcove Mobile Experience for Adobe Flash Player 10.1, enabling organizations to easily deliver an optimized video viewing experience across Smartphone platforms running Flash Player 10.1 when it is available, including Google Android, Symbian S60, Palm webOS, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry. Brightcove says the solution makes it possible to deploy video that adapts on demand to the playback environment to deliver a superior experience across desktops and mobile devices
Customers already taking advantage of the Brightcove Mobile Experience for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 include AOL, Atlantic Records, National Geographic, The New York Times and Sun Media.
“Flash Player 10.1 introduces a powerful suite of capabilities that improve the quality and consistency of video on mobile devices,” says Jeff Whatcott, Brightcove’s Senior Vice President of Marketing. “We are excited to extend our online video platform with the Brightcove Mobile Experience, which makes it easy for our customers to publish high quality video across leading Smartphones.”
The Brightcove Mobile Experience for Flash Player 10.1 includes new Brightcove player templates that offer user interface controls that are specifically designed for video viewing on compact screens found on leading Smartphone platforms. The solution also includes device detection code and best practices for dynamically switching between desktop-optimized and mobile-optimized player templates.
Using hardware-based H.264 video decoding and CPU optimization, Flash Player 10.1 improves mobile video playback performance while reducing system resource utilization and preserving battery life, says Brightcove. 
The Brightcove Mobile Experience solution leverages Brightcove’s cloud transcoding capabilities to deliver mobile-ready H.264 encoded video from any standard format source file.
The Brightcove Mobile Experience for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 solution is a seamless extension to the Brightcove online video platform and is available today in an invitation-only beta release. The solution will be generally available later this year and provided free of charge to Brightcove’s global customer base of more than 1,000 media publishers and marketers.
“The rise of mobile video has introduced even more ways for music fans to interact with their favorite artists,” says Eric Snowden, Senior Director of Product Development at Atlantic Records. “The new capabilities in the Brightcove platform enable us to easily roll out and monetize high quality, interactive mobile video for all of our web properties.”
There’s more information about the Brightcove Mobile Experience solution for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 here. And more about the Adobe Flash Platform here.

Dilithium Unveils Galaxy Video Suite

Dilithium, which provides mobile video infrastructure solutions, has unveiled Galaxy, an integrated mobile video suite. Dilithium says that Galaxy enables service and content providers to deploy an interoperable solution for mobile video applications, adaptation and optimization, while providing faster time-to-market, lower total cost of ownership, and reduced investment costs.
“Mobile video has the potential to serve as a core revenue source for service and content providers, but as mobile video demand increases, so do the difficulties associated with deploying it,” says Michelle Abraham, Principal Analyst at In-Stat. “Galaxy provides the video-enabling environment needed to build out any mobile video infrastructure in one integrated and interoperable solution so that providers can deploy mobile video services in a timely and cost effective manner."
Galaxy supports mobile packet-switched and circuit-switched applications, whether Edge, 3G, LTE/ 4G, wireless, and whether interactive or one-way delivery. Galaxy incorporates Dilithium's patented technologies, including on-the-fly low latency transcoding, transrating, ultra-fast session setup time, mobile video error recovery, smart caching, stream sharing and adaptive streaming, into one solution for mobile video.
"Our goal in creating Galaxy is to make it easy and cost effective for service providers and content owners to take advantage of the revenue-generating opportunities of mobile video," says Dilithium CTO, Marwan Jabri. "Galaxy allows service providers and content owners to pick-and-choose the solutions that best fit their network infrastructure and add as they grow, providing a fast return on investment while serving greater numbers of customers and reducing network build-out costs."

WeFi Strikes Mobile Video Deal with Qik

Community-based, global wi-fi network WeFi has entered into an agreement with Qik, the live mobile video streaming platform, under which the two companies will enable high-speed Internet access for Qik users on WeFi’s network of over 50 million wi-fi access points worldwide. In turn, WeFi will be able to expand its network to more hotspot locations, as Qik users are streaming live mobile video from over 160 countries and will discover and connect to wi-fi in new locations.  
WeFi provides users with easy, automated and free access to millions of wi-fi hotspots from their mobile devices, offering Qik users higher bandwidth, which WeFi notes is especially important for activities such as streaming high quality video live, and particularly at crowded locations such as tradeshows, sporting events or central transport stations. The Qik streaming experience is enhanced by WeFi’s technology, providing for a smooth, fast, and seamless broadcast. 
WeFi automatically connects the mobile user to the best wi-fi connection available, and seeks to connect users to wi-fi access points where Internet access has already been verified by other WeFi-enabled devices - dubbed ‘community-verified spots’ - in a growing network of over 50 million recorded access points. In addition, WeFi recently released its first generation of carrier-grade solutions for offloading mobile Internet traffic from congested 2G, 3G and in the future 4G networks onto wi-fi access points. 
WeFi’s network is currently accessible on phones using Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian operating systems.
"A majority of Qik users today use devices with wi-fi support,” says Qik CEO, Vijay Tella. “This integration with WeFi will enable Qik users to more easily locate and connect to hotspots around the world making their mobile video sharing experience even more compelling.”

ROK Launches Free Mobile TV for UK Viewers

ROK Entertainment Group has announced the launch of ROK TV UK as a free download to UK viewers.
ROK TV streams TV channels in high quality over 2.5G and 3G networks, and via wi-fi. The service currently offers four channels: BBC One, BBC Two, E4 and ROK Tube. ROK says that more free-to-air channels will be added shortly.
So long as the viewer has a GPRS data package in their mobile tariff, or watches ROK TV over wi-fi, the service is free to watch.ROK TV will be launching in the US with US channels in the next few weeks.
You can register your phone and get a WAP Push link for ROK TV here.

HDMI Chip Enables Mobile-to-TV Streaming

ST-Ericsson has unveiled a family of single-chip 1080p high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) transmitters to enable streaming of high-definition multimedia content from mobile devices to TVs. The transmitters will enable consumers to connect their mobile devices to their TV to playback HD videos, photos, movies and games.
“Today, mobile computing is rapidly moving into the high definition world, enabling superb 3D, HD, video and imaging on your mobile device,” says Patrick Duréault, Head of the Analog and Mixed Signal unit at ST-Ericsson. “We are driving innovation in high definition mobility by integrating key entertainment technologies to create a more enjoyable experience for consumers. Our latest family of transmitters will further enhance the role of mobile devices as entertainment hubs.”
ST-Ericsson notes that the broadcast and content industries are rapidly shifting focus to offer high-definition programming, while consumers are demanding consistent viewing experiences - anytime, anywhere and on any device. The company says the  HDMI transmitter family is the result of its close collaboration with customers to understand such market evolutions and offer market-ready technologies for application in wireless devices.
ST-Ericsson is launching two single-chip HDMI transmitters, the AV7100 and the AV8100. Equipped with one of the transmitters, mobile devices with 3G, 4G and wi-fi connectivity will be able to stream HD channels, such as YouTube HD, live from the Internet to their TV.

FRANCE 24 Launches with DoCoMo in Japan

French news channel FRANCE 24 has launched its English programmes live and on-demand to the 55 million subscribers of Japanese mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo. The move is part of France 24’s strategy of focusing on the mobile Internet and targeting leading operators,
The service offers free, unlimited access to all DoCoMo 3G subscribers, and is available via a QR Code that redirects to a URL providing access to FRANCE 24 live streaming, as well as a range of high quality video programmes on demand. The technical solution has been provided by French company Atomiz.
“The launch of FRANCE 24 on DOCOMO’s 3G package confirms the channel’s success in the mobile services market, which is growing strongly worldwide and especially in Asia,” says FRANCE 24 Vice-President Worldwide Distribution, Philippe Rouxel. “FRANCE 24 is a pioneer in mobile applications, particularly for the iPhone and all other Smartphones, and is firmly positioning itself as the only international news channel available free of charge, live and on catch-up to everyone, everywhere, on every screen.”

Siano Secures $23.5m

Siano Mobile Silicon, which supplies Mobile TV receiver chips, has completed a $23.5 million (£14.6 million) fourth round of funding. The round consists exclusively of all of Siano’s existing investors: JVP, DFJ-Tamir-Fishman, Star Ventures, Walden Israel, and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Founded in late 2004, Siano develops and markets semiconductor chips for reception of digital TV on mobile, portable and hand-held devices. Siano’s chips enable high-performance, fast time-to-market Mobile TV in emerging markets such as China, Brazil and Europe.
“Coming out of the global financial crisis around mid 2009, it was clear that the mobile DTV market has shifted gear,” says Erel Margalit, Chairman of Siano and Managing Partner of JVP. “From China and Brazil to Russia and Korea, the demand for Siano’s products has risen at a phenomenal rate, and the investors are happy to provide the company with the proper financial instruments to maximize its growth. Given its proven technology leadership and management skills, we view Siano as a company well capable of becoming a leading semiconductor supplier in the global wireless and media markets.”

Ad-funded Fun

David Murphy catches up with Warwick Hill, CEO of ad-funded video provider 3rd Space

DM: So what’s the big idea Warwick?

WH: We provide free mobile video services to mobile subscribers. The clips are sponsored, which means the operator can offer them for free, and there are no integration or deployment costs to the operator. The 3rd Space platform automatically tailors video delivery for all types of mobile phones, and drives revenue for mobile operators, brand advertisers and content owners, on the basis of cost per mobile view.

DM: How long has the service been running?

WH: Our first deployment, with Reliance in India, launched on 15 October. In the first month, we sent out 1.1 million texts to drive people to the portal. That generated 285,000 unique visitors, and they averaged seven page views per visit, which equated to 1.8 million page impressions and 2.5 video views per visit. There were 465,000 downloads in that first month and 654 different handsets used the platform.

DM: So how many videos are there to look at?

WH: We launched with 90, and we are in the process of adding another 250, mainly Bollywood content. We have taken existing content and clipped it down for mobile. So we have fashion catwalks, Bollywood songs from shows and cartoons, and we will soon be launching mobisodes of the Indian version of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ presented by Shahrukh Khan, who is a huge Bollywood star. 

DM: And how is the inventory sold to advertisers?

WH: It’s sold on a cost per mobile view basis. The revenue goes to the operator and we take a share of it.

DM: So if the advertiser is paying per download, can they put a limit on the number of downloads to cap their spending?

WH: Yes. It can be done campaign by campaign. You upload a video and put the data and download parameters in the system, and it will predict when the budget will run out and send the advertiser an alert to warn them that the budget is almost used up, and ask them if they want to allocate more funds to it if the campaign is going well.
Then the system takes the video, renders it around 30 different ways to cover off different formats and extensions, GSM or CDMA, different operating systems and quality parameters, so that whatever handset it is viewed on, the video is rendered to the highest value it can take.

DM: And what about targeting?

WH: Yes, we can target by content genre, time of day, day of week, there are lots of different parameters we can use.
 
DM: So what form do the ads take? Are we talking pre-roll videos?

WH: Yes, pre-roll advertising of 15-20 seconds duration, with a post-roll call to action to encourgae the user to interact with the advert and enter into the promotions.
 
DM: And what sort of advertisers are you talking to?

WH: There’s a variety, including a drinks brand, fast food chain, and financial services companies. 

DM: So you’re up and running with Reliance in India. Are there any more deployments in the offing?

WH: Yes, we will soon be launching with Warid and WorldCall in Pakistan. That’s a large cable TV company with its own mobile operator.

DM: Anything in the UK?

WH: We will also be launching mobile video services with a new UK Hutchison 3 MVNO client in January 2010 called Simfinity with their ‘Live Life in 3G’ launch campaign.

DM: Why is there not more of this type of activity in the UK, do you think?

WH: It’s very hard work trying to deal with the UK operators. Their typical attitude is, ‘We’ll do it when we are ready and give the subscribers what they want when we want to give it’. There has to be a culture change and until that happens, we are happy working with operators in emerging markets, where there is much less resistance to rationalise costs and share technology assets. 
If you take an operator like Warid, they are a smaller operator with around 14 million subscribers, so to compete with bigger operators like Reliance with 95 million subscribers, they need to be more dynamic and fleet of foot to roll out services that the bigger guys would take longer to deploy. So for them, someone like us who sits in the middle and operates an outsourced, cloud-based portal providing entertainment services, delivering millions of assets in a cost effective manner with 100% up-time is very appealing.

DM: So how big an integration task is it at the network end?

WH: The integration with the operator’s network is minimal, about 30 minutes work. They have to configure the WAP gateways to pass the MSISDN (the mobile number) through to us to track and profile what the user does on the portal then provide us the WAP gateway IPs and we then block anyone who’s not from within that IP address range so only our client’s customers can access it, and that’s just about it.

Siano Celebrates PND Deployments

Mobile TV chip maker Siano Mobile Silicon has revelaed that a number of Personal Navigation Device (PND) makers, including Garmin, Mio and Navigon and others, have integrated its MDTV (Mobile Digital TV) receiver chips into their latest consumer GPS products. Siano says the design wins represent a major penetration of the consumer GPS market, further enhancing its position as a one-stop shop for MDTV chip solutions in emerging mobile TV markets. The navigation plus TV devices with Siano inside are available in Korea, Europe, China, and Brazil, supporting the different mobile TV technologies of these regions.
According to Siano, the PND devices will offer a superior MDTV viewing experience, enabling reception in the most extreme conditions to meet the high demands of PND users, such as crystal clear reception in tough urban areas, and when travelling at high speeds. Siano enables all vendors with ‘free-to-the-user’ Mobile TV viewing, transmitting television programmes from major terrestrial television channels.
Michelle Abraham, Principal Analyst covering Mobile TV at research firm In-Stat, believes that Mobile TV opens up audiences and markets for PND vendors. 
“Given consumers’ desire to access multimedia content on the go, combining GPS with additional entertainment services such as Mobile TV is a must have criterion for PND players to maintain their competitive edge in the market,” she says.

ROK Powers Mobile TV Service in Uruguay

ROK Entertainment Group and Claro, Uruguay, the America Movil-owned mobile network operator in Uruguay, have announced the launch of a streamed Mobile TV subscription service, PPV TV.
Powered by ROK’s award-winning over-the-air video-streaming technologies, PPV will offer an initial package of eight international channels, including ESPN, Disney Channel, ESPN-X, MTV, A&E, Discovery Movil, National Geographic, The History Channel, and Wappo TV (from Warner Music Group).
The deployment of PPV TV in Uruguay follows the successful launch of ROK-powered Ideas TV with fellow America Movil operators, Claro in Dominican Republic in October 2009, and Telcel, in Mexico, in September 2008.

3 Launches TV on Demand with Mobix

Mobile operator 3 has launched the first Mobile TV subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service, giving subscribers on-demand access to entire episodes of hit TV shows. The service, called ‘TV on Demand’, is fully managed and powered by Mobix Interactive, now part of On Demand Group.
Leveraging Mobix’s Adrenalin technology and numerous partner studios and programmer relationships, TV on Demand presents a mobile viewing experience that, says Mobix, correlates to television and broadband PC viewing.  It offers a variety of top-rated television shows, and Adrenalin technology means that users can play, pause and resume all programs at any time.
Subscribers will pay either £5 per month or £1.49 per day for unlimited access to all shows in the service. Full content details of the service will be launched shortly.
“This platform gives us the ability to offer true on-demand TV, bringing one of the most popular types of Internet service to our mobile customers,” says Charlotte Blanchard, Director of Products and Services at 3 UK. “The TV on Demand service will allow our customers to watch their favourite programmes when and where they want to.”
Mobix Interactive is now located in On Demand Group’s recently launched London headquarters that provides 3 UK and other customers with access to an integrated suite of services and technologies, including the Adrenalin video delivery platform and the VZ content management platform, to develop and manage on-demand services to any consumer platform. The organization today supplies fixed-line, cable and mobile operators with movies, programmes and promotions in English, German, Greek, Turkish and Arabic.

Media Phone Plus Selects Dilithium

Dilithium, which provides mobile video infrastructure solutions, has revealed that the Kuwait operator, Media Phone Plus, has selected the company to expand its 3G mobile Value Added Service (VAS) offering, with the launch of a suite of multimedia services, providing fast, mobile access to rich video content such as Jukebox, Live TV and Video on Demand. The Dilithium solution combines DTG Multimedia Gateways with the ViVAS service creation and delivery platform.
“Dilithium's technology leadership and industry expertise have enabled us to provide new,  revenue-generating video services over our 3G network, and to tap new markets,” said Jamil Iqbal Khokhar, Regional Operations Manager for Media Phone Plus. “Dilithium was the leading choice for us given its comprehensive solutions, scalability, high quality, and proven track record in enabling the rapid rollout of new services to market.”

Envivio in French Mobile TV Deployment

Envivio has revealed that its 4Caster C4 video encoder is being used by French mobile operator Bouygues Telecom to encode video for its ‘TV 3G+’ mobile video service. The Bouygues Telecom video headend is hosted by Cognacq-Jay Image, the content management and delivery subsidiary of TDF. TV 3G+ provides subscribers with access to more than 60 channels in a variety of standard and premium packages.
When launching the new service in November 2008, Bouygues Telecom and Cognacq-Jay Image elected to replace their legacy software encoders with the 4Caster C4 hardware encoder configured for Mobile TV. The multi-profile 4Caster C4 enables the TV 3G+ service to be optimized for the 176 different handsets currently in use by Bouygues Telecom subscribers. This includes a QVGA resolution, 3.5G HSDPA profile to deliver premium video quality for subscribers with high end devices.
“4Caster C4 from Envivio has helped us by delivering the reliability and performance needed to provide a good quality of experience for the end user, as well as (the) flexibility that is enabling our company to follow the fast-moving mobile market,” says Thibaut Keraval, who heads up Mobile Services Solutions for Bouygues Telecom.
The Envivio 4Caster C4 simultaneously delivers four channels of video, with up to 32 different Mobile TV profiles per system, providing an advanced compression platform for operators launching new services or upgrading early generation services based on software encoding platforms.

Indian Deployment for Dilithium

Dilithium, which provides mobile video infrastructure solutions enabling multimedia services from any network to any device, has revealed that BSNL South Zone, part of  India's largest telecommunications company, BSNL, has selected its solutions for the deployment of new mobile video and streaming services including 3G Live TV & other video services, over 2G and 3G networks.
Dilithium has partnered with Huawei to provide end-to-end delivery solutions for BSNL's live mobile video services. The solution includes the Dilithium DTG 3021multimedia gateway and the DCA content adaptation and video streaming solution, enabling 2-way video calling and other advanced video services.

ROK Scores with Goal.com Deal

ROK Entertainment Group has struck a deal with football content website Goal.com to deliver Goal.com’s most popular online services to mobile phones in selected territories worldwide.
ROK will deliver Goal.com’s content, including news feeds, goal alerts and football commentary, to mobile phone operators around the world, both as pay-as-you-go and subscription services, through a variety of formats to include SMS, USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Services Data), mobile Internet and MMS.
“The evolution of our hugely popular content from online only to delivery on mobile phones as revenue-generating services has been a major strategic push for Goal.com, and, through working with ROK, we have been able to achieve our multi-purpose service deployment quickly and efficiently,” says Goal.com CEO, Gianluigi Longinotti-Buitoni.
Pending the deployment of Goal.com’s mobile services to selected operators, the companies have already launched a variety of Goal.com services for mobile phones in 12 countries worldwide. The services are available via you mobile browser at: http://vas.goal.com and include football-related text alerts, downloads, fan chat, a daily soccer quiz, a mobile magazine and mobile email, priced at €3 per month in Europe for all services.

miniV Selects weComm for Chinese TV task

miniV.tv, China’s first commercially available interactive mobile video service, has selected weComm as its technology partner to provide the applications software platform that will power a broad range of services, including live TV, lottery betting and video streams of news, sports, finance, and entertainment content.
The service, which is built on weComm’s wave On-Demand Mobile Application Platform, is due to launch this month. 
“We have ambitious plans to create the first and leading interactive Mobile TV service in China,” says miniV.tv CEO, Eila Chin. “Those plans required the selection of a proven technology partner that could provide a flexible platform for a whole range of services, from special produced content for mobile audio visual broadcasting, lottery, to shopping and interactive user generated content. The ability to keep the services refreshed via rapidly deployed spotlight services across the broadest range of handsets was a crucial factor in our selection process.”
weComm’s wave platform uses a client-server infrastructure to deliver interactive mobile data services, optimized for all major mobile operating systems. The technology delivers content and applications to handsets on demand.
“miniV.tv’s goals map directly to the mass device support and feature benefits of using weComm’s platform for mobile application delivery and makes full use of wave’s robust and scalable application platform,” says weComm VP, Business Solutions, Steven Tan.

RealNetworks Upgrades Helix Platform

RealNetworks has released a new version of its Helix Media Delivery Platform, including tools to rapidly build and deploy Mobile TV services to subscribers.
A number of partners, including Sky and SFR, have run extensive trials of the Helix Platform. RealNetworks says its beta customers have successfully streamed video - including live sports events, news and user-generated content - to tens of thousands of concurrent subscribers using 3GPP-compliant devices, such as the iPhone. Further, system integrators such as Atos, Nokia Siemens Networks, F-Secure (formerly Steek) and Thomson have selected the Helix Platform as the foundation of their mobile video offerings to operators. 
“Quality and reliability are among the top concerns when delivering our content to mobile network operators,” says Ben Nielsen, Product Manager, Mobile TV at Sky.  “Because the Helix Media Delivery Platform is deployed both at the MNO and here at Sky, we can use Helix splitting technology to ensure our content looks great, conserves bandwidth and provides the best end user experience.”
The Helix Platform’s new features include ehanced monitoring and control for both live and on-demand video in the new Helix Session Manager, enabling operators to better understand and manage the ways their network is being used for on- and off-deck video.
Live rate adaptation ensures subscribers have the same consistent video quality with live events that they have for on-demand content in fluctuating networks, while play-list creation functionality provides operators with ad-insertion capabilities and thus the opportunity to experiment with business models for mobile video. This also allows both end users and operators to create custom video channels that imitate linear programming
Finally, multi-format live and on-demand support enables delivery of video to any 3G/4G-enabled device.
RealNetworks develops software for encoding, delivery, management and playback of digital audio and video over mobile and broadband networks. The company notes that Helix is the choice of more than 100 mobile operators and many Global 1000 enterprises There’s more information about the Helix platform here.

ROK Launches Dominican TV Service

ROK Entertainment Group and Claro, Dominican Republic, the Dominican Republic’s largest mobile operator, have announced the launch of Ideas TV, a streamed, live and pre-recorded Mobile TV subscription service.
Powered by ROK’s over-the-air video-streaming technologies, Ideas TV will offer an initial package of 11 local and international channels, including Cadena de Noticias, ESPN, ESPN X, TV Azteca, Discovery Movil, MTV, Disney Channel, History Channel and National Geographic, Nickelodeon, Discover Kids and Playboy Lifestyle.
Initially, the service will be available on the Blackberry Bold, Nokia N95, Nokia E71 and the Nokia 6120.
The deployment of Ideas TV in Dominican Republic follows the successful launch of ROK-powered Ideas TV with Claro’s parent group Operator, Telcel, in Mexico in September 2008.

Telstra Deploys Media Excel TV Solution

Media Excel, which provides transcoding technologies for the Mobile TV, IPTV and digital media industries, has been selected by Telstra of Australia to provide the network operator with a platform for high-quality mobile video distribution. Media Excel’s award-winning HERA 4000 video encoding and transcoding product will be deployed by Telstra to offer customers a superior TV experience on mobile devices. 
Telstra has offered Mobile TV services since September 2005, and is now upgrading its service delivery platform to allow for higher-quality video streams to subscriber handsets. Media Excel enables more efficient methods of scaling mobile video streams. By integrating the video segmenting feature within the appliance, the cost of a dedicated segmenting server is eliminated. There is also no need for a redundant segmenting server for network overload scenarios. The HERA 4000 also offers encryption, playlist automation and multi-rate support for select mobile services.
Media Excel describes the HERA 4000 as a single-rack unit solution with a web based configuration and high availability fail-over management system that is ideal for broadcasters and cable operators, web video aggregators, content delivery networks, and media content production firms, as well as telecom operators.
 “We have developed an evolutionary platform for mobile video that is built with telco-grade features, and can efficiently provide value for operators, says Media Excel CEO, Thanasis Iatrou. Telstra’s reputation for innovation is well-known, and they have architected a solution that leverages all of the capabilities of the HERA 4000.”

GSMA Endorses 3GPP Standard

The GSM Association (GSMA), which represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, has endorsed a new 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) standard called Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB), that will allow its members to accelerate the adoption of mobile data and broadcast services worldwide.
IMB is a technology that enables spectrally-efficient delivery of broadcast services, based on techniques that are greatly aligned with existing FDD (Frequency Division Duplexing) WCDMA, but also allowing deployment in TDD (Time Division Duplexing) spectrum. This allows for the smooth handover between IMB delivery and existing deployed technology.
Operators can use IMB within segments of spectrum already allocated with many 3G licenses, but which have remained unused due to a lack of appropriate technology. Since IMB meets the necessary regulatory and spectral requirements to be deployed in this spectrum, operators can now use this previously untapped asset. IMB also reuses many aspects of existing, deployed technologies such as UMTS and Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), meaning a short development cycle for inclusion on products, resulting in a faster time to market for mobile broadcast services such as Mobile TV. 
“IMB has been created through collaborative mobile industry effort and offers mobile operators an opportunity to launch new services to their customers,” says Alex Sinclair, CTO at the GSMA. “The GSMA is delighted to be endorsing this technology and we look forward to seeing the advanced services the mobile operator community will deploy using this flexible new mobile broadcast standard.”
The GSMA has also collaborated with leading operators such as Orange, SingTel, Softbank, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone to create a Whitepaper on this new standard. The GSMA IMB Service Scenarios and System Requirements Whitepaper covers the technology in greater detail, including spectral requirements for deployment of the service, capabilities that are required to be supported in the operator’s network and upon devices, and a range of examples of services that could be implemented using IMB as the underlying delivery technology. In combination with 3GPP specifications, the GSMA says the Whitepaper will allow infrastructure and handset manufacturers to develop common implementations of IMB, which in turn will promote mass adoption through the generation of economies of scale and an IMB ecosystem.
You can download the Whitepaper here.

Rubberduck Powers O2 Ireland TV Service

Rubberduck Media Lab, which provides Mobile TV and video services for network operators and broadcasters worldwide, has launched a Mobile TV and video service for Telefónica O2 Ireland.
Under the terms of the agreement, Rubberduck Media Lab is providing a completely outsourced Mobile TV service to Telefónica O2 Ireland, including content acquisition and provision, as well as technical support and management.
The service, called ‘O2 TV’ is available now for all O2 customers in Ireland, using a video-enabled handset such as most Sony Ericson, Samsung and Nokia mobile phones. O2 TV is available across the EDGE, 3G and HSDPA networks. Users can subscribe to two packages, one with Sky channels (including Sky Sports and Sky News) and an O2 Lifestyle pack of well-known channels such as RTE, BBC, CNN, Cartoon Network and Travel Channel.
The packages are available to both postpay and prepay customers. A 30-day pass for the Sky Sports and News pack costs €6 (£5.30), while the same pass for the O2 Lifestyle pack costs €5. There’s also a €1, 24-hour pass for either package.

Streamezzo and Telemak in Mobile TV Partnership

Streamezzo and Telemak have announced a partnership agreement to deliver Rich Mobile TV Applications that are fully compatible with all major mobile operating systems.
The companies’ Mobile TV solution will be developed and operated by Telemak, using Streamezzo’s framework. Streamezzo says its technology means that developers don’t have to support long and constraining porting effort. In addition to being compatible with all the major mobile operating systems, the solution is also interoperable with a wide variety of mobile networking standards and protocols, including GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, CDMA, EVDO, and wi-fi.
Under the terms of the agreement, Telemak will deliver a turnkey hosted solution, including everything from application development to network deployment, systems integration, operation and technical support.
 “This is a major achievement in Telemak’s Mobile offer,” says Telemak Founder & CEO, Christophe Lenaerts. “Streamezzo proposes the only development framework enabled to overcome the hurdle of fragmentation and fully compliant with all the major operating systems of the market. Their technology will benefit our customers by extending the number of subscribers, and accelerate their return on investment.”

Envivio Selected for Finnish Mobile TV Task

Envivio, which provides IP video convergence encoding solutions from mobile to HD, today announced that its Mobile Series video encoding platform has been installed by Digita Oy. Digita Oy, which is owned by France’s TDF, distributes radio and television services in Finland. The Envivio platform is being put to immediate use to deliver 10 channels of high quality, DVB-H encoded, free-to-air and paid-for Mobile TV to be offered by mobile operators in Finland’s top markets. Plans are in place to expand the platform with additional channels.
The Digita MobileTV service currently provides two TV channels and three visual radio channels. Negotiations are underway to get more content to the DVB-H network. Currently, indoor network coverage reaches 40% of the Finnish population. All broadcast channels are encoded in real-time using the Envivio 4Caster M2-based encoding platform, protected by a 4Manager N+M automated redundancy system. 
“Encoding may be just one of several components required to deliver a mobile television service, but, it plays a critically important role in ensuring that the service delivers the superior quality of experience that will attract and retain subscribers,” says Marianne Hynninen, Vice President, Mobile TV with Digita Oy. “The timetable for building our headend and launching the service was very short - less than 60 days. Having access to Envivio’s professional services team with its broad Mobile TV experience, as well as Envivio’s proven success at integrating with the network components we have in place,  enabled us to complete the deployment on schedule. It turns out that our trust was well placed.”
The Envivio 4Caster M2 Mobile TV encoder delivers high quality encoded video with up to eight output profiles per channel. Like all Envivio 4Caster encoders, M2 combines a high availability hardware platform with an embedded software encoding core, providing levels of service flexibility and performance upgradeability not found in traditional video compression platforms. As with all Mobile Series products from Envivio, M2 interoperates with all the major streaming servers, software players and mobile devices commonly used for Mobile TV streaming. M2 can be combined with the Envivio 4Manager headend management system in an N+M automatic redundancy configuration to deliver the carrier grade service availability now being demanded by Mobile TV operators.

, www.mobiilitv.fi

 

Subs Outperform Individual Video Downloads, says Versaly

Mobile media and entertainment company Versaly Entertainment has released comparative results of its sales of video downloads for the first half of 2009 in the US. Versaly’s video-on-demand clips are distributed through its Vmbc.tv mobile video syndication network. Versaly says the results clearly show subscription downloads outperforming pay-as-you-go downloads.
Of all the mobile video storefronts in the Vmbc.tv syndication network, those offering unlimited downloads for a fixed monthly subscription fee are downloading about 25 times more video clips, compared to those offering individual pay-per-download models. In addition, overall revenue from unlimited video download subscriptions are outperforming individually purchased downloads by a factor of almost 20. The price of a monthly subscription is somewhere between 3 - 5 times that of a single download. The results, Versaly says, clearly demonstrate that subscription plans add tremendous value to next-generation mobile video consumption and are strong growth drivers.
It appears that many mobile video consumers who sign up for fixed monthly fee subscriptions did not download 3 - 5 videos in a month and would have paid less for their monthly consumption if they had simply purchased their video on an a-la-carte basis. This may be a single monthly anomaly, but Versaly says that another explanation is the financial security factor – with the consumer not thinking about the cost of each video view and knowing that their wireless bill will be the same every month, regardless of their consumption. Vmbc.tv has seen overall viewership increase and the company believes that as the market matures, consumers will continue to increase their video consumption and the cost-effectiveness of the subscription model will be realized.
Overall, the Vmbc.tv mobile video syndication network, including video downloads and streaming video-on-demand programming, has seen an increase of about 60% in views in Q2 ‘09 over Q1 ‘09. The data was aggregated from Vmbc.tv’s 20+ video distribution partners.
“I am pleased at Vmbc.tv’s growth over the past two years, and continue to be optimistic in the growth of both streaming video and downloadable video products for the US market,” says Versaly President and CEO, Matthew Feldman. “They both have a long-term place in the market.”

ROK TV Comes to the Blackberry

ROK Entertainment Group, the mobile technologies, applications and services company, has announced that its streamed Mobile TV service, ROK TV, is now compatible with BlackBerry devices.
ROK TV one of a suite of revenue-generating mobile services produced by ROK. It enables the stream of live and on-demand video to mobile phones over mass-market 2.5G and 3G networks. The subscription-based service has been successfully deployed with several mobile network operators worldwide.
“This is great news for ROK and represents huge potential for the continued deployment of ROK TV, as BlackBerry users tend to be tech-savvy and hungry for information and entertainment on their mobiles,” says ROK Chairman and CEO, Jonathan Kendrick.

Dilithium Announces iPhone Support

Dilithium has announced the availability of live video and Video on Demand (VoD) streaming support for the iPhone OS 3.0 using the Dilithium Content Adapter (DCA).
The DCA iPhone solution is an infrastructure offering that can be deployed by operators and service providers to enable their customers to access live or on-demand video content through the standard iPhone Safari browser. Dilithium says the DCA iPhone solution is unique in its ability to deliver live and on-demand video to all iPhones (OS 2 and OS 3), using the built-in Safari browser or an installed application.
The DCA solution supports live and pre-recorded clips in a wide range of video formats. DCA performs on-the-fly and on-demand media format and codec adaptation. iPhone users do not need to install a special application, and may be on wi-fi, WiMax, 3G, or 3.5G (HSDPA) networks.
DCA patented and patent-pending technologies and architecture allow smart transcoding, transrating and transsizing on the fly. The solution supports the widest range of phones and devices through RTSP and HTTP (including progressive download) and has a PHP-based high level API that offers easy integration in operator and service provider frameworks and workflows. A built-in caching feature allows for a significant reduction in unnecessary adaptation, while providing support for ad-insertion.

3rd Space Delivers Ad-funded Video for Reliance

Indian telco Reliance Communications has announced a partnership with UK mobile marketing firm, 3rd Space Services, to launch ad-funded videos on its Reliance Mobile platform. Under the tersm of the agreement, 3rd Space will supply mobile video content to Reliance Communications. It will also offer premium content such as ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’, Bollywood songs and films, and sports content. The service will be available on every data-enabled handset within the Reliance network. Customers will have access to the content in exchange for watching an ad embedded within the video.
“Our tie-up with 3rd Space will be mutually beneficial,” says Krishna Durbha, Head of Value Added Services at Reliance Communications. “It will not only increase the viewership, but also the revenue for both companies. Besides, the application offers outstanding video quality hitherto not experienced by mobile users, and will be accessible on every handset in our ecosystem. Our initiative will act as a launch pad for ad-funded videos in India, with more exciting things to follow.”

Saffron Handed PlayNow Clips Task

Sony Ericsson has chosen Saffron Digital to provide the technology behind its new venture, PlayNow Clips.
PlayNow Clips is a short-form mobile video service, which brings together videos for music, film and TV into a single mobile site, which users can access easily from their Sony Ericsson W995 mobile phone. Content is coordinated from sister companies Sony Pictures and Sony Music to include premium made-for-mobile minisodes and content, as well as film previews, new releases, music videos and TV clips.
Saffron Digital is responsible for creating the site, video encoding and delivery, as well as the management of back office procedures. Saffron’s proprietary download platform provides optimised video to ensure a fast, high-quality service on the handset.
“Saffron Digital’s advanced technology is ideally suited for processing a wide variety of multimedia assets – as the site demands,”
Saffron Digital delivers mobile services to consumers on behalf of a wide range of clients, including 20th Century Fox, Disney, IPC Media, Motorola, O2, Orange, The Sun and Vodafone.

Envivio Unveils iPhone TV Solution

Envivio has taken the wrapsoff iLiveTV, which it describes as “the complete mobile video encoding and distribution solution for evaluating, developing and deploying live and on demand TV video services for the iPhone”. Taking advantage of the new iPhone OS 3.0 mobile video format announced by Apple at its Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday, iLiveTV delivers everything mobile operators and content owners need to deliver TV to iPhone users. The solution includes the Envivio 4Caster C4 video encoding platform, content delivery server software, and a web-based ‘Cover Flow’ iPhone navigation portal, as well as integration and support from a team of Mobile TV deployment experts.
iLiveTV enables operators to offer iPhone users multiple channels of live broadcast TV over 3G and Wi-Fi networks with home theater quality and premium features such as Catch-up TV, Video on Demand and a client channel guide. iLiveTV supports all of the advanced capabilities of the new mobile video format in Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 to dynamically adapt to available bandwidth, optimize full screen video playback and increase battery life.
iLiveTV is optimized for the native iPhone 3.0 video player and requires no additional software be installed on the end user’s iPhone. A rich, customizable web interface featuring Cover Flow navigation offers users a smooth channel zapping experience.
Video encoding is powered by the Envivio 4Caster C4 used around the world to provide service to millions of IPTV, Internet TV and Mobile TV subscribers. The 4Caster C4 is a fully upgradeable system that, says Envivio, can support almost any network and any client device.
The system ingests analogue or digital sources and simultaneously encodes and protects the content for delivery at multiple bitrates, using Envivio H.264 Extreme Compression mobile video codec. This multi-profile encoding ensures consistent, automatic and seamless delivery of the best picture quality by adapting automatically to fluctuations in network bandwidth. iLiveTV also includes all the necessary software components to deliver protected video from a standard web server.
“iLiveTV is the complete solution for mobile operators and content owners ready to take advantage of the opportunity created by Apple’s new game-changing video format for the iPhone,” says Envivio CEO, Julien Signès. “The iPhone is redefining mobile entertainment. Combining the new iPhone OS 3.0 with Envivio leading technology and products provides the end user with an unmatched online mobile video service experience.”
iLiveTV is available immediately. You can sign up for a demonstration of the solution here.  

ROK Launches 2.5G Streaming TV Service in India

ROK Entertainment Group, the mobile technologies, applications and services company, has announced the launch of TINY TV across India, in conjunction with Indian mobile operator, BSNL. TINY TV is the first nationwide, subscription-based, mobile TV service in India to be streamed over mass-market 2.5G GPRS. BSNL has a customer base of more than 90 million people across its mobile, fixed-line and Internet service companies, including 54.2 million GSM, and 4.6 million CDMA subscribers.
Offering a range of live and on-demand Mobile TV channels, including local and international news, sports, music and movie channels, TINY TV is priced at Rs 150.00 (approximately £1.70) per month, payable via reverse-bill SMS.
Specifically, TINY TV channels include  News 24 (Hindi news), E-24 (Bollywood entertainment), ROK Bollywood (celebrity news), Geet (Hindi songs), Green (evergreen Bollywood music), Red (Bollywood music), Gyan (devotional), regional channels of Gujarati - Marathi for West India, Bengali for the East Zone, Tiny Sports TV, Tiny Comedy, Mobifun and a Movie Channel, offering a regularly-updated list of full length movies that users can pause, fast forward and rewind.

Spb Launches Sub-free Symbian TV Solution

Spb Software has announced the release of Spb TV for Symbian S60 phones. Spb TV is a subscription-free mobile IPTV viewer, designed for tuning in to publicly-available digital TV channels from all over the world. Spb TV features exclusive and patent-pending usability innovations, and gives the mobile subscribers easy access to over 100 international TV channels, directly from their phones. The company says that Spb TV gives viewers an unprecedented degree of control over the entire live Mobile TV experience, with onscreen controls for volume and brightness, a TV guide, picture-in-picture previews for all offered channels, quick channels switching, and more.
Spb TV is optimized for fast, new-generation mobile networks and requires 3G, WiMax, or a wi-fi data connection. The majority of TV channels offered were suggested by users of Spb TV for Windows phones. You can propose new channels to be added to the Spb TV catalogue here.
Spb TV 1.0 is available for Smartphones running S60 3d edition FP1 (Symbian 9.1) or higher, as well as Windows phones running Windows Mobile 5 and later Professional and Standard editions.  qVGA, VGA, Square QVGA, and WVGA screen resolutions are supported. The solution comes in full and freeware versions, with the freeware version limited in features and the number of channels available. The full version costs $14.95 and can be downloaded here.

Broadcast Body Urges Action on Mobile Content

The Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) is urging broadcasters to abandon a “wait and see” approach to delivering content on mobile, and instead, to act now.
The AIB’s latest market intelligence briefing draws parallels with the situation faced in the late 1990s, when media companies had to decide whether to move on to the web, unsure of what that meant for them either in terms of investment, or whether the public would use the Internet in large numbers. The AIB says it sees similar hesitation and resistance within some media companies towards mobile today, despite the fact that there are now probably double the number of mobile phones in use than there are PCs.
The AIB is working on a number of projects to make sure its broadcaster members can harness the power of the mobile in an innovative way. In 2008, AIB linked up with Nokia to get AIB-member content onto its Internet Radio and Video Center platforms. The AIB is also working with a Mobile TV start-up to enable AIB members to place their news, current affairs, science, technology and lifestyle programming onto mobile handsets in Pakistan, India, Hong Kong, South Korea and other countries.
The AIB says its work in mobile will continue to expand throughout 2009, but adds that traditional delivery methods remain relevant for broadcasters choosing the most effective platforms to reach audiences in specific markets.  For example, the latest AIB market intelligence briefing also includes an update on pay-TV developments in the South African market.

Media Excel Announces iPhone Support

Media Excel, which provides transcoding solutions for Mobile TV, Web TV & IPTV, has announced iPhone live streaming support for its award-winning HERA 4000 encoder/transcoder product line. The announcement follows a round of successful trials with select mobile operators around the world and, the company says, enables seamless, high quality live video delivery to the iPhone via a streaming server (RTSP) or through a web server (HTTP).
HERA 4000 uses Media Excel’s hardware transcoding solution,n running on digital media processors based on DaVinci technology from Texas Instruments, to deliver high quality transcoding services to consumer devices. HERA 4000 appliances are field-upgradeable, and the new feature is available as a free upgrade to existing Hera 4000 customers. 
“iPhone enables an exciting set of features for live video delivery, and HERA 4000 allows operators and content aggregators alike to take full advantage of those immediately”, says Media Excel Product Manager, Nikos Kyriopoulos. “HERA 4000 is the first solution to intrinsically support iPhone’s streaming protocol, including segmentation, encryption and network rate adaptation."

WIT Unveils Live TV App for the iPhone

WIT Software has unveiled its ‘Live TV’ application for the iPhone, enabling Vodafone Portugal iPhone 3G users to watch live TV. According to WIT, this is one of the first live TV applications for the iPhone to be launched commercially in a mobile operator. It was developed by WIT, in close cooperation with Vodafone Portugal.
What makes the application unique, according to WIT Software CEO Luis Silva is: “The use of mobile standards, commonly used by mobile operators, and the ability to use 3G. With this application, mobile operators do not have to change anything on their network and subscribers can use the service anywhere in the country, as long as they have 3G coverage”.
The application is available for free on the Portuguese AppStore as “Vodafone Mobile TV’ and can be used by any Vodafone Portugal customer. The application is also  available for licensing for other mobile operators willing to extend its Mobile TV offering to iPhone 3G subscribers. Among other features, it supports fast channel switching, enabling the user to ‘zap’ TV channels as they do at home..
WIT has developed a competence centre for iPhone Application Development. Live TV is its third application certified by Apple recently. The iPhone MMS Client and ‘Mobile ATM’ application are also available on the AppStore, also for Vodafone Portugal iPhone 3G customers.