--Ocean Blue Develops Hot-Plug USB Extension for Inexpensive PVR
The Scaent Group, a company best known for its energy-related
business, has acquired a 10% stake in Bristol, UK-based digital TV
software provider, Ocean Blue. "The Scaent Group can provide access
to capital and extensive resource to help build the business, and provide
access to additional markets, especially the FSU, Baltic and
Scandinavian region," Scaent Group EVP, Derek McLennan, said in a
prepared statement. "I'm confident, that our partnership will result in
Ocean Blue's products securing an even more significant market share
in this booming sector. "Added Scaent Group EVP, Jonas
Garbaravicius: "The Scaent Group's strategy during the last two years
has been a steady diversification beyond the core energy-related
business. The Group is now in the process of building a powerful
technology portfolio which will become another major business sector
within its diversified holdings. Over the last eight months we have
secured a strategic partnership with SKM Market Predictor, the leading
provider of online real-time analysis in the energy market, Screen
Technology Group PLC, a producer of attractive solutions for the mid
and large sized digital advertising and signage market, and Ocean Blue
Software. These exciting businesses are supplemented further by our
growing IT related businesses in Lithuania." Ocean Blue says it plans
to use the funding it has gained through the new deal to open a sales
and software development office in Hong Kong, as well as a software
support center to assist its expansion into Russia and Asia.
In other Ocean Blue news:
- The company says that it has developed a hot-plug USB extension to
its core software that will allow consumers with low-cost set-top boxes
and integrated digital television sets to add basic PVR capabilities
(note: Ocean Blue describes those capabilities as "limited record and
pause-and-rewind") to those devices by plugging in a USB hard drive
or memory stick. Ocean Blue points out that a $15 4GB memory stick,
for example, could enable up to four hours of video-recording capacity
and a 30-minute rewind capability, while a $60 250GB USB2.0 drive
could add 250 hours of recording capacity. "The plummeting price of
USB memory sticks and hard drives means digital video storage costs
next to nothing," Ocean Blue founder and CEO, Ken Helps, said in a
prepared statement. "This development will allow consumers to plug
off-the-shelf USB storage into their set-top boxes to enable PVR
functions." Ocean Blue says it has recently begun trials of its new PVR
solution, using USB memory stick devices. It says that while a
"software prototype has already been developed that allows basic
recording and playback to a memory stick"..."work is continuing that
will enable hot plug situations where the resident software loads and
makes available the content of the USB device to the user." The
company has previously developed a PVR solution called
Surfsoft-PVR, which is Freeview+-compliant and which is based on the
Surfsoft DVB software core. The company says that much of its
portfolio is now capable of USB support.
- The company has announced full support for the Digital Television
Group's (DTG) PVR software standard for digital terrestrial
environments, Freeview+. The standard was developed by a DTG
standards group of which Ocean Blue is an active member. The
company says that it will shortly be releasing updated versions of its
Sunrise DVB-T, Voyager MHEG-5 and Freeview+ software on ST
Microelectronics and NXP chipsets, with full support for HD
broadcasts. According to figures provided by the DTG, DVR's are
experiencing strong sales in the UK: for the year ended April, 2008,
volume sales grew to 473,000 units and value sales grew to £50.5
million, representing year-over-year increases of 90.7% and 44.2%
respectively.
