Ensequence Launches iTV Manager

Portland, Oregon-based interactive TV authoring solutions provider, Ensequence, has launched a product called iTV Manager, which it bills as the industry's first "cradle-to-grave" lifecycle management system for creating and deploying large volumes of interactive TV experiences. The new ITV management system is being demo'd this week in Ensequence's booth (#3111) at the NCTA Cable Show in Washington, DC.

According to Ensequence, iTV Manager will support the creation and deployment of ITV applications across "the broadest distribution platform," including cable, satellite, and telco networks and all EBIF user agents. The company claims that the new system simplifies the process of implementing ITV experiences by enabling users to "efficiently embed" interactivity in a high volume of TV shows and advertisements. It says that the system provides a simple interface for template creation and re-versioning, testing, scheduling, playout, live application updating, and automated response management. "This enables users to leverage interactivity in a very dynamic way to drive programming ratings and advertising effectiveness across dozens of cable networks, hundreds of TV shows, and thousands of TV ads," Ensequence president and COO, Peter Low, said in a prepared statement. "iTV Manager takes a massively complicated process and makes it simple for anyone to create and deploy highly engaging interactive experiences, collect and analyze usage data to evaluate effectiveness, and easily repeat the process across any platform. Now programmers, distributors and advertisers can more easily maximize the business impact of their interactive experiences."

Ensequence claims that its experience in the ITV industry over the past decade, during which it has created and deployed hundreds of ITV applications, provides it with an intimate knowledge of what is needed to bring interactive experiences to market, and of the needs and interests of every stakeholder in the process (including advertisers, creative agencies, media agencies, programming networks and distributors). According to the company, iTV Manager uniquely addresses the requirements of the complex multi-enterprise workflow entailed by the process of creating and deploying ITV applications, and provides key stakeholders with "precise access"--via simple and easy-to-use tools--to the part of the process relevant to their expertise. This "cohesive workflow approach," the company claims, allows for the efficient creation of large volumes of high-quality ITV experiences.