Four Companies Team on Inventory Management Demo at CableLabs Summer Conference

OpenTV, This Technology, Sigma Systems and Arris announced Monday that they are jointly demonstrating an integrated advertising inventory management solution for the first time at the CableLabs Summer Conference this week. According to the companies, the solution provides a comprehensive view and unprecedented management and control of advanced advertising inventory. This, they say, will allow operators to make much smarter decisions and gain a competitive advantage by having enhanced visibility into and detail about the advanced advertising inventory they have to sell, regardless of region and platform and regardless of whether units are interactive or timeshifted. "The management of advertising inventory is a vital component to an operator's advanced advertising infrastructure," Paul Woidke, OpenTV's SVP and general manager of advanced advertising, said in a prepared statement. "By jointly demonstrating our campaign management technologies with Sigma Systems, This Technology and Arris, we're showing operators how they can aggregate information and ensure the correct message will be delivered to the right audience, a crucial component to the success of an advertising campaign."

According to the companies, the Summer Conference demo shows OpenTV's campaign management solution collecting detailed audience information from Sigma Systems' Subscriber Information Service (SIS) for audience qualification as part of the sales process. Sigma's SIS, the companies say, allows service providers to aggregate disparate sources of customer information--such as location, subscriber demographics, services and usage trends--into a single view for audience qualification; and This Technology's MetaMore and SpotBuilder Content Information Service (CIS) and Placement Opportunity Information Service (POIS) add contextual information, such as time, region or content, in order to create an accurate view of inventory available for sale. Finally, Arris's Ad Decision Manager (ADM) conducts the physical ad placement requests for the delivery, management and reporting of the relevant advertising assets and the programming materials to the subscriber household. The result, the companies claim, is a better understanding of the potential number of advanced advertising spots that can be viewed, enabling operators to more accurately and effectively price and sell available inventory. "Advanced advertising is all about targeting individual viewers with the right ads at the right times," Rick Mallon, Sigma Systems' VP of product management, said in a prepared statement. "Just as important is knowing what ad inventory is available and being able to manage that inventory to ensure that the most relevant content is delivered no matter where the viewer is or what platform their service uses."

In addition to delivering a "solid view" of available inventory, the companies claim, the integration of their respective technologies can be leveraged by content providers and operators to author policies about the types of advertising space they want to make available. Inventory can also be created automatically based on implemented policies, the companies say, reducing the need to manage provisions manually and ultimately resulting in significant time savings. "This demonstration displays how innovative market leaders can come together to leverage the broad capabilities of SCTE-130 to deliver a truly unique and much needed advanced advertising solution that will take industry efforts to the next level," This Technology founder, Jeffrey Sherwin, said in a prepared statement. "As a result, operators nationwide will realize significantly enhanced revenue opportunities on the heels of better and smarter control of their advanced advertising inventory."

In other CableLabs Summer Conference news: A 3D sensing system that uses an infrared camera to let viewers interact with their TV--for example by typing on a virtual keyboard in mid-air--was voted "best new product idea" at the conference's Innovation Showcase. According to a report by Multichannel News's Todd Spangler, the system, which was developed by Tel Aviv-based semiconductor company, Prime Sense, projects infrared light into a room, and then detects distortions in the field, thus enabling gestural controls. "We project a touch-screen out in space in front of the TV 10 feet, so you can use simple hand gestures to perform common actions," Suneil Mishra, Prime Sense's VP of sales and marketing for North America, explained. According to Spangler, the system, which is connected to the set-top box or digital television through a USB cable, can detect if a viewer is in front of the TV and could potentially use facial recognition technology to distinguish between individual users. Mishra said that Prime Sense has customers lined up and expects to ship its platform in volume in the fourth quarter; he also said that it has provided consumer electronics manufacturers with 1,000 SDK's for the system, and that the system uses off-the-shelf components, allowing it to be manufactured for around $20 per unit.