26 September 2007
Cerify Developer Community Award for Cologne based Solutions for Media
At IBC 2007 German systems and consulting company S4M Solutions for Media has received the Cerify Developer Community Award. With it Tektronix appreciates S4Ms successful integration of its VPMS software into the Tektronix Cerify System providing technical quality control for digital video.
VPMS stands for Video Production Management System. It supports the management of digital video assets and is, amongst others, deployed by Tagesschau, the most popular and longest running news program in German TV.
For the new playout center of the European TV network SBS (Scandinavian Broadcasting System) in London, S4M integrated Tektronix quality control system Cerify by means of a webservice interface. VPMS automatically activates quality control by Cerify for every video within the system. The test result is shown via VPMS. In addition, VPMS offers a link to the detailed error report: Thus, users get exact information via their webbrowser as to the errors detected by Tektronix Cerify.
The award ceremony at IBC 2007 was at the same time the official kickoff for
the Cerify Developer Community a group of companies that are working together to provide file-based quality control for content stored on servers.
26 September 2007
Germany’s public broadcasters won a case in constitutional court Tuesday against the 16 state governments, which had attempted to limit the radio and TV corporations’ taxation powers.
The ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio corporations are mainly funded from a tax on television sets and personal computers.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the states had no power to overrule a 2005 hike in the tax. Known as the broadcasting licence fee, it is modelled on a similar tax imposed in Britain by the British Broadcasting Corporation and is collected by a Cologne agency, with investigators checking homes for evaders.
The unpopular tax has been attacked as unfair by commercial broadcasters, who fund their operations from advertising income. Everyone owning a set or a computer with an internet connection must pay the tax, even if they never watch public channels. The court based the ruling on the constitutional right of the media to resist government interference.
26 September 2007
The Azerbaijani National TV and Radio Council approved a radio licence to be used jointly by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA) on Friday. The one-year licence for FM broadcast will be subject to annual renewal.
Broadcasting from Baku, the station carries 67 hours of Radio Liberty Azerbaijani programming per week (which consists of 40 hours of original programming and 27 hours of repeated programming) and about eight hours per week of programming from VOA’s Azerbaijani service (which consists of about four and a half hours of original programming and three and a half hours of repeated programming). The remaining hours feature VOA’s Music Mix program.
Broadcasting Board of Governors Chairman James Glassman said of the licence approval, “We are glad to have a home for VOA and RFE/RL on the airwaves in Baku. We look forward to continuing this fruitful partnership.”
RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service also broadcasts via satellite and AM signals. Azerbaijani Service programming is available via the Internet, at the service’s website www.azadliq.org and at www.rferl.org; English-language news about events in Azerbaijan can be found on the RFE/RL website, at www.rferl.org/featuresarchive/country/azerbaijan.html.
VOA also broadcasts via shortwave and television. VOA’s Azerbaijani Service maintains two separate websites; www.VOANews.com/azerbaijani in Latin script and www.VOANews.com/azeri in Persian-Arabic script. All VOA Azerbaijani radio and television programs are streamed for on-demand listening and viewing
26 September 2007
GlobeCast and satellite operator Arabsat announced at IBC 2007 that they have agreed to extend their cooperation on the worldwide distribution of the Arabsat/ASBU digital bouquet of Arabic-language channels for five additional years, from 2009 to 2014.
Since the launch of the partnership in 2004, GlobeCast, Arabsat and ASBU have expanded the bouquets potential viewership and footprint, offering maximum global coverage by attracting new broadcasters and offering new services. Channels worldwide are now able to join the bouquet and viewers on five continents are free to view its community channels, including: Abu Dhabi TV, Abu Dhabi Sports, Al-Iraqiya TV, Al Jazeera, Al Ordoniyah, Jamahirya Satellite Channel, Oman TV Satellite, Qatar TV, Saudi Arabian TV 1, Saudi Arabian TV 2, Sharjah TV, Sudan TV, Syrian Satellite Channel.
As of today, the available services cover the following regions: North America via WorldTV on Galaxy 25; South America via Hispasat 1C; Africa via NSS 7; Asia via AsiaSat 2.
GlobeCast also provides individual DTH channel distribution for selected ASBU member channels to:
Europe via Hot Bird and Astra 1E; Australia via Optus B3 and Intelsat 8.
The continued partnership between GlobeCast, Arabsat and ASBU proves our commitment to bringing international programming to viewers around the world, said GlobeCast president and CEO Christian Pinon, The renewal of our cooperation for the next five years will help to ensure the success of the bouquet.
Arabsat CEO Eng. Khalid A. Balkheyour ads, We are looking forward to continue our cooperation with GlobeCast which has set an important precedent in the industry and has proven the effectiveness of bundled programming and one-source global distribution.
ASBUs Director General, Salaheddine Maaoui emphasized on the role of the Union for providing comprehensive and consistent services, in partnership with Arabsat and GlobeCast, to its eminent members.
26 September 2007
A new 24-hour TV news channel based in Chennai, India has confirmed a deal to deploy ENPS as their newsroom computer system at IBC today (9 September).
This makes the broadcaster, Raj TV, the 7th TV station in India to choose the Associated Press award-winning software, following in the footsteps of the worlds biggest terrestrial broadcaster, Doordarshan. The station, which will broadcast exclusively in Tamil, plans to go live by the end of this year.
We evaluated all newsroom computer systems and decided upon ENPS, for its ease of use, seamless integration with other newsroom hardware and track record said Mr Ravindran, Director of Raj TV.
The deal was won by Shaf Broadcast, ENPS authorised distributor in India. Other components of the Raj TV newsroom will include Omnibus, Omneon, Orad and the Apple Final Cut Pro editing system. Regional roll-out is currently under discussion and is expected in the early 2008.
