Interactive TV News Round-Up (IV): Sunrise, Entone, euronews, Roku, Google TV, Mirror Image

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been working on The TV of Tomorrow Show 2012, we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format.

•  Hybrid-TV/connected-home specialist, Entone, said Tuesday that Swiss telco, Sunrise Communications, has selected it as its "set-top box partner for the deployment of advanced IPTV services. Founded in 1997, Sunrise has long been an innovative provider of premium residential and business services that include fiber-based broadband Internet, mobile solutions, advanced IP services and wireline telephony," Entone's press materials continue. "Sunrise is now the largest private telecommunications provider in Switzerland, with almost 3 million subscribers, and growing...Entone connected-home products have powered the deployment of IPTV and hybrid-TV services to hundreds of global operators. The company has seen strong growth in Europe where the adoption of hybrid TV is catalyzing much of the industry's innovations. With its FusionTV infrastructure-as-a-service offering, Entone has started to support similar hybrid-TV services in the US where operators are starting to bundle TV services with consumers' broadband TV subscriptions...Advanced logistic services are being provided by Entone's local partner Adrenio, to further help Sunrise accelerate their deployment of IPTV services."
• International news channel, euronews, has launched on the Roku platform in the US, the UK and Ireland: The channel, whose app is now available in the Roku Channel Store, offers programming in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. "We are delighted to offer our programs to Roku's customers and increase again our reach in the US, where we observe a strong interest for euronews' perspective on world events," euronews marketing manager, Walid Chamak, said in a prepared statement. "euronews is reinforcing its non-linear distribution globally, transforming itself into a news hub accessible from anywhere and on any device. Roku's decision to enter the European market is definitely very good news for the consumer but also for the industry and we are happy to support this move."

• Google has applied for a patent for a remote control that would bring a cloud-based "Siri-like" user interface to Google TV, according to Patently Apple. "The new remote will use voice controls associated with Google's own cloud services," the publication reports. "The user will be able to use their Android Phone as the remote to make inquiries about TV shows and the TV will list what's available."
• Mirror Image Internet has unveiled a solution that it says combines streaming and edge-computing capabilities in order to dynamically create and stream highly targeted content and playlists, and enforce custom rules-based policy for live and on-demand video. "The Targeting and Authorization Suite for Live and On-Demand Video is the industry's only solution that can stream live and on-demand video to any device, including laptops, desktops, mobile phones, tablets, game consoles and set-top boxes via any protocol including: RTSP, RTMP, RTP/UDP, Apple HLS, IIS Smooth Streaming and Adobe HS," the company states in its press materials. According to the company: A) the solution's streaming features include: 1) Multi-protocol support. 2) Adaptive bit rate support. 3) Live and on-demand video. 4) Streaming to desktop, laptop, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android, BlackBerry and IPTV set-top boxes, and to game consoles including Wii and PlayStation3. B) The solution's targeting features include: 1) Targeting based on cookie values, geo-location, language, referrer headers and more. 2) The ability to create dynamic playlists and pre-roll and post-roll advertising. 3) Built-in device detection for thousands of mobile devices. C) The solution's security features include: 1) The ability to prevent URL hijacking via referrer domain verification. 2) The ability to enforce time-limited access via time-sensitive URL's. 3) Suitability for assets with licensing restrictions. 4) The ability to enforce licensing restrictions via geography-based blocking and authorization. Said Mirror Image Internet's VP of sales and marketing, James G. Hart: "Video advertisers, news media, sports media, mobile solutions providers, and others can now deliver their videos, advertisements or live events and set permissions as to who, when and where they can be viewed. Mirror Image is the only vendor that can deliver live and on-demand video to any screen and combine it with a targeting and authorization service."