--Releases New Versions of its VOD, EPG, PVR, and nPVR Platforms
At the IBC show in Amsterdam earlier this month, Belgian interactive TV technology provider, Zappware, unveiled a new interactive TV server platform. Dubbed the iView Interaction Manager, the new server is billed by the company as a modular and scalable platform that operators and/or broadcasters can deploy in order to manager subscriber/viewer profiles and measure subscriber/viewer activities. According to Zappware, it comes pre-equipped with a number of services, including:
- Profile management (enables management of subscriber and/or viewer profiles and provides permanent storage for all subscriber/viewer-related data).
- Logging (enables capture of all activities that subscribers and/or viewers perform either by operating the set-top box or by launching and navigating ITV services).
- Response management (enables capture of subscriber/viewer responses to services such as quizzes, polls or direct-marketing campaigns).
- Response aggregation (enables aggregation of subscriber/viewer responses to other digital platforms, such as SMS, IVR and the Internet).
According to Zappware, besides providing these services, iView Interaction Manager allows operators and broadcasters to easily customize them or create new ones. It claims that this can be effected "without any programming effort," so that new services can be brought to market rapidly. Zappware says that iView Interaction Manager has been operated in "pre-launch mode" for over a year on an ITV-enabled digital TV system used by around 500,000 subscribers. It consists of a server cluster system that the company claims can be scaled to accommodate any number of subscribers or viewers, and that includes such features as load-balancing, failover and built-in security. It is part of Zappware's flagship iView platform, which is comprised of iView Portal (a Web-based system for managing the content and deployment of interactive services), iView Producer (a visual authoring environment for adapting the look-and-feel of interactive services), and iView Playout Manager (a broadcaster playout automation system for managing the lifecycle of program-related interactive services). Zappware claims that the integration of iView Interaction Manager with iView Portal can provide operators and broadcasters with a Web-based access portal to visualize and analyze response and/or logging results.
In other Zappware news: The company also used the IBC show to release new versions of its VOD, EPG, PVR and network PVR platforms that feature a redesigned, video-centric graphical user interface and that are designed for deployment on HDTV platforms. According to the company, the new versions, which are in HD resolution, promote an intuitive user experience by adopting the same navigation pattern for all interactive services and by employing only the arrow keys and the "OK" button on the remote control. By consistently putting all interactive graphics in overlay on the video, the company says, the new versions allow video to continue to run in full-screen mode while the viewer navigates through a service, resulting in what it describes as a "more video-centric approach to interactive TV." The redesigned services are part of Zappware's iView for Operators platform and complement the latter's existing page-based design.
