As TVBEurope Editor, Fergal Ringrose, says: “We don’t have a prior agenda; we don’t just select advertisers; and our Best of IBC2010 Editors’ Awards are not pay-offs or favours.” Here, David Fox details the Awards for Transmission + Delivery.
Bluestreak – Mach Blue XT
The first integrated Flash and HTML5 application development platform. It has just gone into use in a US cable operator to deliver cable and TV services to iPad, mobiles and TV sets allowing viewers to start watching on one device and continue on another. Features include: interactive EPG usable between devices and integration with Facebook or social networks to discuss programmes with friends. “The user will want to have access to both Flash and HTML5, and this allows them to do so seamlessly,” said CEO Dominique Jodoin (pictured).
www.bluestreaktech.com
DVB – 3D TV standardisation
DVB has produced a standard for 3D transmission, for frame compatible TV, which should be ratified next month. “We need to translate the hype over 3D into real services, and before you can do that in a sensible way, you need to have technical standards to ensure that the services can be received on the devices of different manufacturers,” said Phil Laven, Chairman, DVB Project (pictured). DVB is agnostic about how the 3D is viewed (with polarised or shutter glasses), but it has to ensure that subtitles, for example, are placed in the right place in the 3D image.
www.dvb.org
Front Porch Digital – DIVApublish
It does deep analysis of archive content to generate searchable metadata (using speech recognition, face detection and scene classification) and then publish online. “It allows the content owner to decide what they put where, schedule it and it will be distributed to the web, YouTube, or any online audience, through any device,” explained Rino Petricola, international marketing director (pictured). It will transcode and format video for each destination, and when people access it, the application will analyse performance, usage and viewer behaviour. It is currently in Beta, and should be available at NAB.
www.fpdigital.com
JustAd.TV – IPTV advertising
At present, 75-86% of people who record TV skip the ads during playback. To counter this, JustAd.TV uses internet-style advertising that can play over pictures that are paused or fast-forwarded – so far they have measured a 15% gain in viewers who see a promo for a pay-TV movie and then watch it. Its first user is Fastweb, Italy, the world’s first IPTV provider (it has also signed up a cable company serving several European countries). “In Italy, we’re serving targeted, interactive advertising on TV, which no one else is doing,” said CEO Yariv Erel (pictured with Fastweb box).
www.justad.tv
Omnibus – iTX Enterprise Suite
Aims to double channel density for half the hardware cost. It builds on the abilities of the iTX playout engine, moving it back into the production process. “We’ve squeezed the cost efficiencies from transmission due to our server, but need to streamline the workflow, the media management, that goes on prior to transmission,” said CTO Ian Fletcher (pictured). It can handle TV, radio and internet delivery, automatically, “but it’s very user configurable.” It is based on XML and Microsoft’s Silverlight, offering lots of real time data on a web browser. It is being used by beta customers now, shipping early 2011.
PlayBox Technology – TrafficBox
Integrated traffic and playout system. “It is very cost effective, with high reliability and easy to use,” said sales director Don Ash (pictured). It allows users to create macro schedules many months in advance, or frame-accurate run lists with programme scheduling, traffic and rights management, planning, as-run logging, ad sales, statistics, billing and pre-billing. It integrates into the PlayBox workflow with AirBox and TitleBox, and was developed with external software specialist, Step2E.
