Red Bee has won a contract from Orange to create the on-screen identity for the operator’s new digital TV service, writes Farah Jifri. As part of the deal, Red Bee has created 44 separate idents that will be used to navigate the Orange TV service launching later on this year.
“We asked Red Bee to pull together an on-screen identity kit for us that represented the orange brand on TV. This is a new thing for us as it’s in the home,” Orange director of digital TV at Orange, Tim Pearson said.
“We’re extending the end-user entertainment experience. As all the technologies are starting to converge, this really allows us to offer a full portfolio of services to our customers.”
The idents will be used to navigate the Orange digital offering, taking the place of an EPG.
“There’s no scrolling through pages of electronic programme guide; we have three characters – the roadie, the TV lover and the clapper man – to drive the interface,” Pearson added.
The characters each symbolise a different part of the Orange service (music, TV programmes and films) with different choices appearing on screen every time on of the characters claps their clapper board or presses a button on their remote control. The idents are also customisable so they can be used for competitions or to highlight special events.
According to Pearson, the identity created by Red Bee is very much designed for the home environment. Each ident sequence features an elliptical orange stage against a black background, mirroring the orange brand and the navigation button on the remote control.
Red Bee is also providing media management and content re-purposing using a custom built workflow – based on its Digital Hive platform – as part of the deal. As Orange signs content deals, tapes delivered to Red Bee Media will be digitised and transcoded. Red Bee will also add editorial metadata designed especially for video on demand. Disaster recovery and back up is also being provided.
