--Demo's What it Claims is World's First Common Interface Plus App
Bristol, UK-based digital TV software provider, Ocean Blue, has
released what it describes as "early details" about a new design tool it is
developing, which it claims will enable fast, visual development of
MHEG applications for broadcast to set-top boxes and integrated
digital television sets. Dubbed Triton, the new, Windows-based
software tool is scheduled to be released by the fall. According to the
company, once an application has been designed with the tool, its
visual components are translated into MHEG-5 application code, ready
for loading into a DSM-CC carousel and broadcast (note: among other
things, the MHEG-5 standard drives interactivity on the UK's
--NBC Universal in Deal to Use Company's OpenTV Participate Platform
--Brazilian Cable Operator Taps Company to Power HD PVR Service
--Company's EclipsePlus Campaign Management Solution Now Available
--STMicroelectronics Joins Company's Rapid Porting Program
Interactive TV software provider, OpenTV (note: voting control of the
company was acquired last year by content-protection specialist, the
Kudelski Group), has generated a fair amount of news over the past few
weeks:
Red Bee Media (note: the company was originally a BBC business unit,
called BBC Broadcast, that was sold off by the corporation) has formed
a new division, called On Demand, which it says will focus on
providing services related to metadata, media management, digital
publishing and emerging platforms, and has been designed to exploit
the "growing market for delivering content to new platforms." The new
division is headed up by Adam Poulter, Red Bee's executive
commercial director. Martin Harvey, who was previously head of sales,
marketing and international development for Red Bee's Metadata
division, has been promoted to managing director of metadata for the
new On Demand division. He will be tasked with managing Red Bee's
Satellite TV provider, DirecTV, recently offered an interactive TV
application to accompany its coverage of the French Open tennis
tournament. Dubbed French Open Interactive and available from May
25th through June 1st, the application was developed by DirecTV in
partnership with the Tennis Channel and ESPN2. It offered complete
coverage of play on five courts during the tournament's first six days,
and eight hours of coverage on Saturday, May 31st and Sunday, June
1st: according to DirecTV, the service offered a total of 350 hours of
tournament coverage. At the core of the service was a "mix" channel
that allowed viewers to watch up to six live matches simultaneously,
In a letter sent last Thursday to the DVB Project, Jean-Michel Bourdon,
president of Via Licensing, the company that administers the patent
pool for the international MHP interactive TV standard (note: it also
administers the patent pools for the OCAP/tru2way and TV-Anytime
standards), stated that the members of the MHP patent pool have
decided to remove the controversial requirement that free-to-air
broadcasters pay MHP license fees. Last year, when Via Licensing
unveiled the terms of the worldwide joint license agreement for patents
deemed essential to the DVB-MHP 1.0 standard, it stated that
free-to-air broadcasters generating no revenue from MHP-based
services could purchase a five-year license either for $3000 per year or
--Unveils Expanded Portfolio of Programming and Applications
--Says New Study Shows its Interactive Programming Engages Viewers
--Integrates Technologies with Camiant
ICTV, a Silicon Valley-based company that offers solutions for
bringing Web media to television, has renamed itself ActiveVideo
Networks, in order to reflect the branding of its flagship product,
ActiveVideo, which has been the company's primary focus over the
past two years. (Note: the company's ActiveVideo technology mixes
linear and on-demand programming with broadband content from the
Internet, and delivers it to the television set as personalized MPEG
--Secures New Deal to Develop Interactive TV Games for Turner
UK-based interactive TV company, Two Way TV (note: a controlling
equity stake in the company was acquired for £5.34 million last year by
Ingenious Media Active Capital; at the time, the latter promised to
build up Two Way TV's creative and production capabilities, in order
to develop "mass participation" interactive programming for
mainstream broadcast; shortly before announcing its acquisition by
Ingenious, Two Way TV sold off its Ark interactive TV technology
platform to Virgin Media--see [itvt] Issue 7.32 Part 3), has
rebranded as Two Way Media, in order, it says, to "reflect its status as a
Interactive TV and addressable advertising technology provider, Navic
Networks, says that its HyperCast Network, a backoffice solution for
delivering and managing interactive TV advertising content across
platforms and operators, is now compatible with the US cable
industry's ETV/EBIF standard (which is designed to enable interactive
TV applications--primarily bound apps--run on low-resource legacy
set-top boxes, and thereby to have a national footprint). According to
the company, in addition to now supporting EBIF user agents and
delivery systems, HyperCast is compatible with other backoffice
systems, using SCTE-130 standard interfaces. "HyperCast was
Korean MHP/tru2way specialist, Alticast, says that its AltiCaptor
tru2way middleware platform has been selected by Ambit
Microsystems for its digital cable set-top boxes, targeted at the North
American market (note: Alticast claims that AltiCaptor has been
deployed in over 5 million digital cable, satellite and terrestrial
receivers around the world). According to Alticast, it is working with
Ambit to bring two tru2way-enabled cable set-top boxes to market later
this year: one of the boxes will be a low-priced, single-tuner standard
definition device, and the other will be a high-performance, dual-tuner
HD DVR. "Ambit is pleased to work with Alticast to continue
delivering high-quality and competitive products to our valued cable
--Report Alleges Company's tru2way TV Sets Failed CableLabs Testing
--Claims Testing Brought to Light "Dozens and Dozens" of Bugs
Consumer electronics giant, Panasonic, made a strong show of support
for the US cable industry's tru2way standard at the NCTA Cable Show
in New Orleans last month. tru2way-based Panasonic products on
display at the show included:
--Sling Media to Offer Client for Apple's New iPhone 3G
At the NCTA Cable Show last month, EchoStar Technologies, a
subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation, announced that it is targeting the
cable industry with a CableLabs-certified DOCSIS 2.0 product dubbed
the SlingModem. EchoStar Corp. was spun off earlier this year from
satellite-TV company, DISH Network (formerly called EchoStar), and
retains the latter's hardware business and certain of its infrastructure
assets. The new modem was developed by TV "place-shifting"
company, Sling Media, which was acquired by EchoStar last fall. "The
introduction of the SlingModem demonstrates our operator-agnostic
philosophy, as well as our dedication to the cable industry," Sling
--Company Opens New Indian Office, Prevails in DISH Litigation
--Integrates Jungo Middleware with TI's Puma 5 Chipsets
News Corp.-owned conditional access and interactive TV technology
provider, NDS, has been tapped by the US's third-largest cable MSO,
Cox Communications, to design a new interactive user-interface for its
legacy and next-generation set-top boxes. According to NDS, the new
UI, which will replace the operator's existing Aptiv guide, is
compatible with "many of" Cox's existing set-tops, is designed to be
forward-compatible with tru2way-enabled boxes, and can also run on
other devices, such as PC's. It is billed as integrating Cox's various
--Also Launches Set-Top Box for tru2way Developers
--Names New GM of its Americas Cable Unit, Secures Hungarian HD DVR Deal
At the NCTA Cable Show in New Orleans last month, Geneva,
Switzerland-based set-top box manufacturer, Advanced Digital
Broadcast (note: the company, generally known by the acronym ADB,
is the corporate stablemate of Vidiom and Osmosys), unveiled a new
HD set-top for the US market, the ADB-4820C, which it is billing as
one of the first set-top boxes to receive full tru2way certification.
According to the company, the product has been specifically designed
for use with flat-panel television sets and thus features a compact
Triple-play provider, Tiscali UK, has signed a licensing deal with
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution that gives it the
rights to offer around 400 hours of premium on-demand content to
subscribers of its Tiscali TV service via a Warner Bros.-branded VOD
channel, Warner TV (note: Tiscali TV is the current manifestation of
the pioneering UK IPTV service, HomeChoice). Titles covered by the
new deal include "Nip/Tuck," "The OC" and "Smallville." The new
channel--which will be offered as part of Tiscali TV's Entertainment
Xtra Mix programming package--is the latest in a series of deals
Warner Bros. has signed to launch branded VOD channels around the
world: Warner TV VOD channels are also offered by ProSieben in
Belgian interactive TV technology provider, Zappware, contacted [itvt]
last month to let us know that it has developed a custom EPG for
Geneva-based cable operator Telegeneve's digital TV service, naxoo.
Zappware says it built the custom EPG using its proprietary iView
platform, which it bills as a platform-independent production
environment for the development and modification of ITV services.
According to the company, the goal of the naxoo was project was to
redesign the EPG by extending its features while maintaining its look-
and-feel. The EPG's new features include:
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[i]Database
 Our [itvt] free industry database called The [i]Database contains many listings of operators, broadcasters, software developers, design firms, manufacturers, Web sites, consultancies and many more organizations and people working in the interactive multiplatform TV industry. Upload your company or yourself!
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