--Also Unveils New Product to Make VOD Bandwidth Usage More Efficient
Network video processing specialist, RGB Networks, has teamed with interactive TV company, ICTV, on a targeted advertising solution that they claim allows cable TV viewers to move seamlessly from linear channels to Web-based programming and targeted interactive advertising. In a demo at the Cable-Tec Expo last month, the companies showed RGB's Broadcast Network Processor overlaying graphic elements and embedding triggers in linear broadcast programs and commercials: the graphics served as a call to action, enabling viewers to navigate directly to what the companies describe as a "personalized experience," consisting of Web-based video and auditable, dynamic ads. The "personalized experience" was based on ICTV's ActiveVideo technology, a network-based platform that enables Web media to be distributed through television. The technology is touted by ICTV as using standards-based distribution technologies to allow network operators, programmers and advertisers to extend Web workflows to the TV screen and "provide a limitless array of personalized content that is enhanced with Web-driven interaction."
According to the companies, programmers will be able to use their joint solution to insert graphic elements into linear channels, that prompt viewers to switch directly to an ActiveVideo-based channel or advertising showcase, without returning to the channel guide or the VOD interface. The companies say that viewers of ActiveVideo channels can use their regular remote controls to navigate through current and archived video, access news and information, and interact with targeted, auditable advertising--all of which content is composited and delivered in real time to their TV as a single program stream. "In an increasingly competitive video environment, television remains the medium that attracts and holds the focus of the greatest percentage of the viewing audience," Mark Jeffery, ICTV's senior director of product marketing, said in a prepared statement. "By combining the capabilities of ActiveVideo with RGB's graphic overlay technology, we can offer a solution that keeps viewers at the television by enabling them to immediately engage with interactive programming and higher-value ads and ad showcases that are targeted, auditable, interactive and actionable." Added Ramin Farassat, RGB's VP of marketing: "Advertising is a lucrative business for cable operators, but to stave off competition, defeat ad-skipping digital video recorders and generate new revenues they must look to new forms of targeted, personalized ads. The 'telescopic ads' we are demonstrating with ICTV show cable operators how they can deliver the next generation of ads that are inherently interactive and which can deliver significantly more engaging and relevant information to viewers."
In other RGB news: the company has unveiled a product called (simply) the Dynamic Bandwidth Manger (DBM), which it claims allows operators to deliver up to 50% more VOD programming, using the same amount of bandwidth. In typical VOD deployments, cable operators deliver 10 standard-definition programs per 6MHz 256-QAM channel, with each program allocated a fixed amount of bandwidth. According to RGB, the new DBM leverages the company's transrating capability, in order to continually adjust the bitrates of the individual programs, thus enabling 15 or more standard-definition programs to be carried in the same amount of bandwidth. The DBM can also be used to reduce the bandwidth requirements of HD VOD programming, and achieves its bandwidth efficiency while maintaining optimum picture quality, RGB says. "RGB's Video Intelligence Architecture--the heart of our new Dynamic Bandwidth Manager and other RGB products--was developed specifically to enable the wide-scale delivery of advanced, on-demand applications by cable operators," RGB's Farassat said in a prepared statement. "The advanced architecture of the DBM offers an operationally simple solution for VOD bandwidth optimization, which allows operators to deliver substantially more VOD content without requiring additional bandwidth. The bandwidth saved by the DBM can be used for new services such as HD VOD or to deliver more of the operator's current services. In addition to its operational advantages, the DBM's real-time processing and low latency preserve subscribers' VOD experience."
RGB--which says that several major North American cable operators will begin trials of the DBM this quarter--claims that it is "exceptionally" easy to deploy, as it transrates VOD programs in real time, thus eliminating the need for complicated pre-processing of those programs and any complex integration with VOD servers. According to the company, operators can simply "plug" the DBM into existing VOD deployments, as it is compatible with all the major components of a VOD system, including servers, resource managers and QAM modulators. The product can also encrypt each VOD program as it is transrated, RGB says, making it easier for operators to continually add new programming to their VOD line-ups (versus solutions that require extensive pre-processing of content). RGB also says that DBM's real-time processing can be used in switched digital video architectures, unlike pre-processing and non-real-time solutions which cannot work with live broadcast programs. In addition, the company claims that the DBM offers extremely low latency, ensuring that viewers will experience no "noticeable" differences when using their VOD service's trickplay features.
Originally Published: July 13, 2007 in [itvt] Issue 7.36 Part 2
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