japan

Rovi (formerly Macrovision--for more on the company's name change and the repositioning it heralds, see the interview with Rovi chief evangelist, Richard Bullwinkle, that was published on itvt.com, July 16th), said Monday that SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (operates the SKY PerfecTV! satellite service) has become the first Japanese pay-TV operator to join its patent license program.

The [itvt] editorial team will be on the road this week and next, so we will be covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

Earlier this month (see the article published on itvt.com, January 12th), broadband video platform provider, Ooyala, announced that it had entered into a partnership with NTT Smartconnect--a subsidiary of Asia's largest telco, NTT Holdings--to sell a localized, co-branded version of its flagship Backlot video platform in Japan. On Wednesday, the company launched the new Japanese version of the platform, together with a Japanese Web site.

Broadband video platform provider, Ooyala, will today announce that it has entered into a partnership with NTT Smartconnect--a subsidiary of Asia's largest telco, NTT Holdings--to sell a localized, co-branded version of its flagship Backlot video platform in Japan.

A number of items of augmented reality news have come across [itvt]'s desk over the past few days. Here is a brief round-up:

In what may be one of the most unusual examples of convergence to date, two researchers from Japan's Keio University have developed a microwave oven that plays YouTube videos while the user waits for their food to cook. Dubbed the Castoven, the device incorporates a 10.4-inch LCD screen into its door and also integrates a speaker.

Designed to be connected to a home computer, and powered by an Adobe AIR app that accesses videos through YouTube's API, the Castoven--which is not yet available for sale--selects the videos it displays based on length: thus, if the user is warming up their Hungry-Man TV dinner for six minutes, the device will automatically play a six minute-long video.

Broadband video publishing solutions provider, Brightcove, announced Tuesday the general availability of what it bills as the first fully localized white-label online video platform for the Japanese market. It says that the new platform extends its existing localized player architecture to incorporate a full suite of backend online video platform services, including content management, player design and publishing, delivery, product documentation and customer support. "Japan is one of the most exciting and fast-growing markets in the world for online video and continues to be an important investment priority in Brightcove's global expansion strategy," Brightcove chairman and CEO, Jeremy Allaire, said in a prepared statement.

In a posting on its corporate blog, Wednesday, broadband video publishing solutions provider, Brightcove, announced that Japanese utility company, Tokyo Gas, has chosen the Brightcove platform to power its broadband video initiatives. Tokyo Gas--which has five business divisions and 60 subsidiaries in such areas as natural gas, electricity, gas appliances and real estate--will use the platform for a range of applications, including marketing and corporate communications.

Japanese incumbent telco, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), announced Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Silicon Valley-based Ooyala, to launch a "joint exploration of the business potential and technologies related to interactive video advertising." Ooyala, which was founded in 2007 by former Google employees, Bismark Lepe, Belsasar Lepe and Sean Knapp and which last year announced that it had raised $8.5 million in a funding round led by Sierra Ventures, offers an interactive video platform which it claims, among other things, automates video object recognition and tracking, and allows the creation of clickable objects within a video, enabling viewers, for example, to access more information on products featured in a commercial or show.

In a posting on its corporate blog last week, broadband video publishing solutions provider, Brightcove--which claims to power broadband video for over 30 major newspaper publishers across North America, Europe and Asia (note: its US customers include Cox Newspapers, Freedom Communications, Hearst Communications, Media News Group, the New York Times Company and New York Times Regional Newspapers, Tribune Total Media and the Washington Post)--provided some figures on how its newspaper customers are deploying broadband video services and how customers are responding to those services.

Macrovision, the company that earlier this year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, has secured a slew of licensing agreements for its EPG technology over the past few weeks:

--Partners with tvCompass on EPG for Wireless Devices
--Signs Japan Distribution Deal with HitachiSoft