Eutelsat goes out of its way too

IFA 2007 – BERLIN. Eutelsat has launched its consumer grade Internet access service TooWay at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. From the end of September the service will be available in Germany, from two launch customers the (satellite internet) service providers Internetagentur Schott and Teles. Other, selected European markets are to follow before the end of the year. Schott and Teles have not yet announced any pricing details.

The service will be provided via Ka-band capacity on Eutelsat’s Hotbird 6 satellite at 13 degrees East and will also be available via Ku-band capacity on the Eurobird 3 satellite. The Ka and Ku-band hubs with equipment supplied by ViaSat to manage Tooway are now fully commissioned and ready for service at Skylogic’s SkyPark teleport in Turin, Italy. From 2010 onwards the service should be available through a dedicated Ka-band spotbeam satellite at the 13 degrees East orbital slot.

TooWay competes with the SES ASTRA2Connect dial-up replacement service.

Further details at the Broadband TV News IBC microsite: Tooway prepares for debut.

Scramble to see Osmosys EGG

IBC 2007 (Stand IPTV Zone 233)

Middleware and interactive applications vendor Osmosys will use IBC to launch EGG its new Enhanced Graphics enGine that the company says will deliver a new visually inspiring look and feel that’s streets ahead of the graphical capability of today’s set-top boxes. It will open up exciting new opportunities for channel owners, programme makers, games developers and the advertising community.

Also on show is the Osmosys end-to-end Push VOD system. The vendor said this cost-effective solution offers service providers more value from their IPTV network, generates incremental revenue and efficiently delivers SD and HD content, as Push VOD offers a bandwidth independent means of distributing any form of digital content. In an IPTV environment, that is particularly useful for distributing HD content to subscribers.

Network operators or service providers can define custom catalogues to offer a plethora of content via different payment methods such as pay per view or subscription.

KabelBW wants to lure DTH viewers

German cable operator KabelBW, active in the state of Baden-Wuertenberg, has launched a new marketing campaign to lure viewers away from satellite. Perfectly timed at the launch of the controversial Entavio platform by SES-Astra, the operator offers new subscribers six months free subscription and a waiving of the one-time entry fee.

“For satellite viewers we want to offer access to an inexpensive broadband and telephony service,” said chairman Klaus Thiemann. The offer is good for people subscribing to a combined internet and telephony package or to an extended TV bouquet.

Hatching a plot

Osmosys, developer of MHP middleware, is looking to improve the performance of set-top graphics. Julian Clover reports

Last year at IBC I was suitably impressed by OpenTV’s demo of what an EPG might look like in a few years time. The image-led guide had more than a nod to the interface found on Apple’s iTunes that allows you to browse through your mp3s, as if they were album covers held in a Ronco record holder. In the case of OpenTV’s demo, you started off with a picture of your current selection, which was surrounded by other images of programmes you might like. The further out from the main image, then the less relevant the recommendation might be. Seachange and NDS also had new look EPGs to show, but the problem was that the set-top boxes needed to run these EPGs lack the processing power needed to do the job, and OpenTV was the first to admit it had produced the demo in Flash.

Osmosys, the company probably best known for its MHP engine, believes it might have the answer so at least the current generation of receivers might be able to step up a gear. “We’ve moved on into other applications, but they tend to be very TV centric, like video on demand or PVR,” said CTO Paul Bristow. “You can’t point to a box with our software, and say that’s an Osmosys box, because they look like anything.” The company remains separate from its parent ADB Group, which also includes the receiver manufacturer, and is quoted on the Swiss stock exchange.

Bristow is dismissive of the graphics capability of set-top boxes and the view that things will get better on their own within a few years. “You’ve got some limited 2D acceleration and some players are just starting to do their very first babysteps with 2D so you can start to draw things a little bit quicker.”

The demonstration of the Osmosys EGG (Enhanced Graphics enGine) began with a look at Apple TV, the Cupertino company’s entrance into the TV space, based around the iTunes product. “All of the HD set-top boxes that we know are HD video and SD graphics, this is SD video and HD graphics,” says Bristow. “The reason is to make the experience the same as that emotional grab that HD gives you.” He says that Apple and the PS3 both bring high definition to the user experience by adding a high end PC graphics card.

Such devices change the expectations of the consumer and led Osmosys in the direction of how it could be achieved in the set-top box. “We knew that real 3D graphics is still a few years away, but if these things are out there now, consumers won’t wait,” said Bristow. “We found a way to make it work for the application creator as if you had a 3D engine.” He says the system will work on the majority of HD boxes, and the more recent SD chipsets, although there is a limited amount of hardware support needed.

The graphics clearly have an added amount of depth to them, the sort you may find on a live sports event, and the sort of coloured gymnastics that no operator in their right mind would use as part of their look and feel. But the demo designed to show the capabilities worked and is one of those exhibits you will want to look at during IBC.

EGG is independent of the middlewares, MHP and OCAP, or tied to any particular system.

Uruguay to adopt DVB-T and DVB-H

The DVB Project today commended the decision of Uruguay to adopt the DVB-T and DVB-H standards for its fixed and mobile Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) broadcasting. The decision was announced on the August 27 in a Presidential Decree signed by President Tabaré Vázquez and the Minister of Industry, Jorge Lepra.

Undersecretary Martín Ponce de León stated that the adoption of the DVB standards will allow Uruguay to “actively participate in the process of technological development through investments and through development of software and content.”

The decision to adopt the standards was arrived at after a year long evaluation of DVB and the US and Japanese alternatives by The National Commission of Free-to-Air Digital Terrestrial Television (Comisión Nacional de Televisión Digital Terrestre Abierta).

The decision comes at a time when other Latin American countries are evaluating DTT systems and sets an example by opting for the world’s most successful family of open digital broadcasting standards.

Disc war for next-gen DVD continues

IFA 2007 – BERLIN. Who will be the winner in the disc war over the position of the next generation DVD? Blu-ray or HD-DVD? It could very well be that both will be loser. In Berlin, both parties have a strong presence, but Philips Consumer CEO Rudy Provoost set the tone earlier this week when he told a reporter from the International Herald Tribune that “I would say HD has developed somewhat slower than we had expected. There are highlights, such as last year’s World Cup or next year’s Beijing Olympics. But to give it the next big boost, the movie studios have to release more movies in Blu-ray or HD DVD formats.”

Well, you can blame the broadcasters for not transmitting enough HD programming, but this does not seem to deter consumers from buying HD Ready screens in ever increasing numbers. However, with the next-gen DVD we see a different picture: people are reluctant to buy a new player because they are unsure which format will win the battle.

At first sight, Blu-ray seems to have a winning hand. In Europe, Blu-ray sales outnumber HD-DVD three to one; in Germany the ratio is 2:1. According to GfK research figures 94% of all HD-players in Europe are Blu-ray capable.

But: the lead in Europe is mainly due to the popularity of the PlayStaion3, which plays Blu-ray discs and which is by far the cheapest option compared to regular Blu-ray and HD-DVD players. In the States, sales show similar figures, promoting Blockbuster to start stocking only Blu-ray in its shops. But remember, the first six months of the year only 1.5 million Blu-ray discs were sold and 700,000 of the competition. Not exactly earth shattering figures, yet.

Only last week, Paramount and Dreamwork studios the announced they would only issue new releases in HD-DVD rather than in both formats citing the higher costs of Blu-ray. As it turns out, Toshiba, one of the main backers of the HD-DVD, has shelled out 150 million dollars in subsidies to get the two Viacom-owned studios in their camp. This might be a political move to gain more favourable licensing conditions, but it sends a different signal to the general public: the war is far from over.

While the format war is going on, new technical developments are happening fast: HD-downloads are now a possibility and could soon become a major competitor to physical products such as discs. Why buy a disc if you can download to own the same product? We only have to look back at recent developments in the music industry to see what the effects can be. So in the disc war, there could very well be two losers.

Mediapro free to continue football coverage

A Spanish court has ruled that the production company Mediapro is free to enter the country’s football stadiums to produce its own coverage of the Spanish league until a final decision has been made on broadcasting rights.

Mediapro is currently embroiled in a dispute with the Sogecable unit Audiovisual Sports (AVS), which had asked the court to block Mediapro’s coverage, aired on the terrestrial channel La Sixta. The Catalan production company believes Sogecable’s contract with the Spanish league to be invalid, having signed direct agreements with the clubs.

In a prepared statement, Mediapro said the court had concluded that it would be permitted to enter the matches and continue their broadcast until the dispute was settled.

Prime movers

Chris Dziadul looks at a significant day for CEE

Two unrelated though highly significant developments will take place today (August 31) in Central and East Europe (CEE). In the Czech Republic, the transition to digital broadcasting will finally get under way when Domazlice near the German border becomes the first part of the country to switch off its analogue transmitters. Meanwhile in neighbouring Poland, TVN will become the first broadcaster – not just in the country, but the region as a whole – to begin transmitting in HD.
The European digital switchover target of 2012 increasingly appears to be more of a guideline than something set in stone. While The Netherlands and Luxembourg have already made the move and Finland and Sweden will soon follow, other countries (such as Romania, for instance) have barely taken the first steps. Poland, though by no means a laggard in other areas, has already put its own switch off date back to 2014.
For the Czech Republic, the introduction of digital terrestrial services has been something of a saga punctuated by an unwelcome and still unresolved dispute over the award of digital TV licences. However, unlike most other countries in the region, with perhaps the exception of Estonia and Lithuania, it has made real progress. Two DTT multiplexes are up and running, with viewers in Prague, Brno, Ostrava and of course Domazlice offered what will soon hopefully be a growing number of channels.
TV Nova, it has to be said, has played an important role in the first stages of the transition process despite its dispute with the regulators over digital licences. Besides financing an information campaign, it has contributed CZK1.5 million (€54,243) towards the cost of set-top boxes.
Poland, on the other hand, appears to have taken on the role of regional prime mover in the introduction of HD services. The DTH platform n was the first operation in CEE to offer programming in the format when it made its debut a year ago, and now its sister service, the national commercial broadcaster TVN, is itself starting HD transmissions. Polsat and TVP are soon likely to follow, and by this time next year we can confidently expect most of the country’s leading terrestrial stations, cable operators, DTH services and IPTV platforms to be offering at least some of their programming in HD.
Summer certainly seems to ending on a high note, at least in the Czech Republic and Poland.

New head for Agora

Marek Sowa has been confirmed as the new president of the Polish media group Agora. Most recently the VP of UPC Poland, he is expected to move the group, which is currently focused on publishing, more into the TV and Internet sectors and also expand its presence beyond Poland.

NBC and News Corp do the Hulu

The online video joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp to take on YouTube and the likes will be called “Hulu.com”, the companies announced. A nonsensical name, but, said CEO Jason Kilar, it is “short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we’re building.”

Hulu will offer streaming clips of popular and new shows from Fox and others including Bionic Woman, Family Guy, The Office and 24. The new site is now in beta and will officially launch in October. People can now register their email address for the upcoming private beta.

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