28 February 2011
Thirteen broadcasters from around the world have indicated interest joining Eurovision TV Lab, including Japan’s NHK, Korea’s KBS, Germany’s ZDF and Britain’s BBC. The project is part of the Eurovision TV Lab Week in September.
The Eurovision TV Lab is a showcase for new innovative programme formats created by public broadcaster NPO/Nederland 3 where it has already been run successfully twice. The EBU supports the new initiative to extend the project to the rest of the world.
Roek Lips, NPOs channel manager and creator of the TV Lab in the Netherlands, says, This first-of-its-kind project will link younger audiences to new public service television formats. He adds, Broadcasters have opened themselves up to innovation and that is a brave thing to do.
Public broadcasters joining the Eurovision TV Lab will contribute at least one pilot programme to a pool, as part of the Eurovision TV Lab Week for one week in September. Whether current events, drama, music or chat, all these shows will be broadcast on TV for the very first time to see whether the new programmes are a hit or not. Each broadcaster will use the same technology to involve the viewers. Social media tools and applications will measure how the pilots work with the audience.
28 February 2011
RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd., a leading provider of comprehensive content management and global distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries, announced today that it is providing uplink, playout and connectivity services for fashiontv H3, the 3D programming on the Fashion TV Paris High Definition channel.
Beginning February 18, 2011, for the duration of one week, fashiontv H3D began daily 3D broadcasts between 2pm and 11pm (local Paris, New York and Hong Kong time) in 10 minute programs, in order to collect feedback from viewers and operators. As a result of the positive feedback, FTV has doubled the shows broadcast as part of the FTV HD programming played out and distributed by RRsat on its DTH platforms on the Intelsat-805 satellite over North, Central and South America, on the EUROBIRD-9A satellite to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and on the Asiasat-5 satellite to Asia and Australia.
Michel Adam, President and CEO of Fashion TV said, “FTV is among the pioneers in delivering high quality 3D programming over DTH networks. Based on the feedback we are receiving from our viewers we expect to launch fashiontv H3D, a 24-hour 3D channel over DTH, during the summer of 2011 to a myriad of satellite, cable, IP and mobile platforms all over the world. Fashion never looked better and we appreciate RRsats ability to get us launched with quality programming, meeting a very tight schedule.
We are proud to be responsible for the technological side of launching fashiontv H3D on RRsats Intelsat-805, EUROBIRD-9A and Asiasat-5 DTH platforms, commented Ziv Mor, CTO and VP Business Development of RRsat. Following RRsats delivery over terrestrial fiber of a live 3D interactive event between Tel Aviv and London together with BT, and our subsequent real-time delivery by satellite of 3D sports events over Europe, this effort is another testament to our ability to play out and deliver 3D content in multiple languages, over multiple satellites integrated within an HD platform. We look forward to broadcasting our first 24 hour 3D channel in 2011.
28 February 2011
The Iranian Cyber Army has taken credit for a cyber attack on the Voice of America, according to reports by Iranian state media outlets Press TV and Fars News Service. VOA suffered a web Domain Name System (DNS) attack, while VOAs Persian News Network (PNN) and RFE Radio Farda programs have faced increased satellite signal interference, and RFE faced a denial of service attack on its telephone systems in an effort to keep Iranians from contacting Radio Farda.
As popular protests unfold across the Middle East and audiences for U.S. international broadcasting surge, efforts to interfere with the networks have increased. Our broadcasters are at the forefront of reporting the most tumultuous events we have seen unfold since 1989, said Walter Isaacson, chair of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) which oversees all U.S. international broadcasting including the Alhurra TV, VOA and RFE. It is a testament to their vital role that they are subject to the work of hackers and signal interference.
On Monday, February 21, an unknown party hacked the Voice of Americas primary domain name (VOANews.com), and other related domains, redirecting visitors to a website claiming to be run by a group called the Iranian Cyber Army. Yesterday, Irans Press TV reported a statement by Ali Saeedi Shahroodi, an official with Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claiming, The hacking of a VOA homepage by the Iranian Cyber Army
shows the power and capability of the Corps (IRGC) in the cyber arena. Irans semi-official Fars News Agency also credited the Iranian Cyber Army, in a February 22 report, explaining that the attack was in response to VOAs reporting on events in Iran.
The attack did not affect internal systems or servers, nor was any data lost or compromised. The BBG is working with appropriate authorities to investigate further. There’s a saying that a hit dog hollers – that can be applied to whoever tried to cut off access to VOA News by attacking the domain provider on Monday. The fact that the sites were redirected to the Iranian Cyber Army certainly raises an eyebrow or two, said Dana Perino, a member of the BBG. Technology is chipping away at the stranglehold on free and fair information inside Iran. VOA and RFE are strongly committed to providing the news at it happens in a variety of ways so that every Iranian that can get access to the free media can benefit from our journalists’ reporting.
Last week RFEs Radio Farda faced a variation of a denial of service attack on its phone lines with a flood of automated calls aiming to clog its answering machines. Calls played just over one minute of a looped recording of speeches and sermons in Persian before hanging up.
Since February 13, there has been intermittent but frequent interference of VOA PNN and Radio Farda satellite signals with programming in Persian for audiences in Iran.
As of the morning of February 21, there has been a continuous service interruption on one satellite channel carrying VOAs PNN. PNN is carried on three other satellite paths as well as online, including its popular TV satire, Parazit. Millions of the shows fans use proxy servers to access the program through social media sites like Facebook and YouTube. Similarly, Radio Farda’s website has seen an approximate 50 percent increase in web traffic over the past two weeks.
23 February 2011
The latest AIB industry briefing has been published. Delivered to the in-boxes of more than 25,000 media leaders globally, the regular industry briefings offer snapshots of developments across the world’s media industry.
23 February 2011
Poland’s TVN Agency is ready to provide services for the first anniversary of the crash of the presidential plane in Smolensk and the Beatification of Pope John Paul II on May 1st, 2011.
Services include: live stand-up positions and multi-format tape playout facilities in Smolensk and Vatican City; services in Poland include: live stand-up positions, studios in Warsaw and regional TVN offices, multi-format tape playout facilities, fully equipped SNG trucks and OB-vans and a wide range of ENG equipment for rent, multi-language speaking ENG crews for hire, production support, editing facilities.
Using the Warsaw Teleport with a connectivity to the global fibre network operated by Genesis Networks/ Global Crossing, TVN Agency is able to offer tailor-made solutions for all kinds of transmissions required.
TVN Agency is a supplier of news and archive video content using the resources of TVN Groups television channels. In the TVN library clients can search for archive footage related to the tragedy in Smolensk as well as to the beatification of Pope John Paul II. Live coverage of particular events will also be available upon request.
