13 September 2005
Teletrax has been awarded a top industry prize for its unique ShowTracker television monitoring service at an awards ceremony during the annual International Broadcasting Convention (IBC). Teletrax, a subsidiary of Medialink Worldwide Incorporated, is the first and only global digital video monitoring and media asset management service.
A worldwide panel of 23 industry experts proclaimed Teletrax the winner of the ‘Best Content Protection Technology for Video Broadcast’ competition at Cable & Satellite International magazine’s ‘Product of the Year Awards 2005’. After reviewing a total of 173 entries, in 16 categories, the judges honored Teletrax’s long-form program tracking and monitoring service with the prestigious award in front of an invited audience at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam.
“Teletrax is already providing an important monitoring service for short-form content like news and promotions, but this solution for long-form programming gives content and rights owners much greater clarity about what is happening to their assets once they have been distributed.” said John Moulding, editor of Cable & Satellite International, during the awards presentation.
Moulding, who also assembles the judging panel for the awards, continued: “You don’t need much imagination to realize what a benefit Teletrax’s ShowTracker can be. I think the fact that the judges chose Teletrax ahead of more traditional Conditional Access content protection solutions is testimony to the degree to which the market needs a solution like this.”
The judging panel of industry analysts, consultants and senior engineering managers noted that Teletrax’s ShowTracker enables program distributors to accurately track the number of times a specific episode is broadcast within a contractual period. Producers can also determine if a program was aired in its entirety and track playdates versus schedules to determine pre-emptions. Barter playdates, in which programs are distributed with pre-sold commercials, can also be confirmed with advertisers. In addition, Teletrax tracks clients’ use of promotional material, assisting producers and distributors in computing return-on-investment and highlighting opportunities for increased promotional impact.
“We are extremely proud to have received this prized international recognition,” said Andy Nobbs, president of Teletrax. “This award further highlights our position as a class-leading television content protection and rights management service. With a growing list of content owners such as major movie studios, TV networks, syndicators, advertisers, and news organizations embracing the Teletrax service, we are further solidifying our position as the industry standard.”
Launched in 2002 as a service developed by a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG) and Medialink, with an underlying technology that is patent protected both by Philips and Digimarc Corp. (Nasdaq: DMRC), Teletrax’s technology embeds an imperceptible and indelible digital watermark into video whenever it is edited, transmitted, broadcast or duplicated.
13 September 2005
The Voice of America (VOA) has doubled its Amharic language broadcast and moved the time and frequencies for Afan Oromo and Tigrigna language broadcasts in response to audience requests. Beginning on 12 September, VOA’s Amharic language broadcast expanded to a full hour every day from 1800-1900 UTC (9:00-10:00 p.m. locally/2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT). The half-hour expansion will allow VOA to provide new programs, including a Saturday audience-request music show and other features designed especially for young listeners.
VOA also moved its half-hour weekday Afan Oromo and Tigrigna language broadcasts to new times starting today. Afan Oromo now begins at 1730 UTC (8:30 p.m. locally/1:30 p.m. EDT) and Tigrigna begins at 1900 UTC (10:00 p.m. locally/3:00 p.m. EDT). All three programs will move to common frequencies: 9875, 11905
and 13870 Khz.
VOA Director David Jackson said the changes will make it easier for audiences in the Horn of Africa to listen to VOA’s news, sports, features, and entertainment programming. “The time changes for Afan Oromo and Tigrigna and the expanded Amharic program reflect VOA’s commitment to Africa, and especially to the Horn of Africa,” said Jackson. “These changes mean that VOA’s languages to this important region will be broadcast in an uninterrupted, two-hour time block to accommodate our listeners who want to hear news and programs in more than one language.”
VOA’s Horn of Africa broadcast languages are believed to reach at least two-thirds of the total population of Ethiopia, and have a significant audience in Eritrea. VOA’s Horn of Africa website, which is particularly popular with the diaspora, is also being enhanced to allow greater access to daily broadcasts and an archive of past programs. Visitors can listen and download VOA programs at: www.VOANews.com/horn/index.cfm
13 September 2005
GlobeCast won a Product of the Year Award at the Cable & Satellite International awards at IBC in Amsterdam. The satellite service provider was handed the award for WING Content Exchange which was named Product of the Year in the category for Best Outside Broadcast Technology or Service GlobeCasts WING Content Exchange beat the BBC Outside Broadcasts Postcam and SISLinks uPod to win the award. GlobeCasts WING delivery system is an IP-based video exchange platform. It works in a very similar way to email and instant messaging, allowing a field journalist to send a video file simultaneously to many recipients over the internet, unlike most FTP-based Store & Forward solutions which are limited to point to point delivery. It can also be used to stream live footage and, because it runs through a main server (based in Paris), it is able to convert incoming signals on the fly to match each recipients requested format, whether that is a Word document or HD video file.
GlobeCast senior vice president marketing and product development David Justin said: It is a fantastic endorsement of WING to have won a Cable & Satellite Product of the Year award and only six months after launching the product. We are very grateful to the judges who have clearly seen the potential of this unique product.
E! Entertainment Television has partnered with GlobeCast to create a customized state of the industry Store & Broadcast channel delivery system designed to centralize and automate six E! International Network feeds across Europe and Asia Pacific. The partnership has allowed E! to tailor GlobeCast’s proprietary Store & Broadcast Content Management Delivery System by incorporating customer specifications necessary to complete an all new digital delivery solution for international channels. In order to meet E! Networks’ delivery specifications and to customize the GlobeCast Store & Broadcast system, E! engineered its own SCTE35 Decoder box. E! Networks’ Jeff Mayzurk, vice president of technology and David Gaudino, vice president of engineering collaborated to build their own proprietary hardware and software to allow the system to send cue triggers via the E! transport stream. By using GlobeCast Store & Broadcast, E! is able to deliver six distinct feeds in an extremely cost effective way. The E! International Network currently requires the ability to distribute six distinct program streams with separate language tracks and subtitling to multiple countries around the world. In the future, E! plans to add localized content to these feeds. E! now has the ability to manage these global transmissions digitally, without the cost of creating and
delivering six separate linear feeds.
GlobeCast will provide the technology and distribution in Europe, while E! will continue to manage and control its networks in real time from a remote location. The new system enables E! to respond to E! International Network’s need for new channels as quickly as it takes to
offer connectivity to new affiliates. GlobeCasts Store & Broadcast proprietary solution automates and significantly streamlines E! Networks international channel management
operations, by providing direct remote control of programming assets stored at GlobeCasts Paris hub. Store & Broadcast allows the channels to be customized and delivered separately
to six satellite bouquets across Europe and Asia (BSkyB, CanalSat, Foxtel Australia, Sky New Zealand, Sky Italia and Hot Bird for Pan-European distribution).
30 August 2005
The Association for International Broadcasting announced the winners of its inaugural international broadcasting awards at the AIB Regional Media Leaders Forum in London on 15 July.
The AIB invited entries in three categories: best radio news or current affairs programme for an international audience; best childrens or youth TV programme for an international audience; and most innovative use of technology for international broadcasting.
More than 60 entries from broadcasters and technology providers in every continent were submitted to the Awards judges who comprised the AIBs Executive Committee together with the Associations Chief Executive, Simon Spanswick. The shortlisted entries were:
Category 1 – radio BBC World Service: Crossing Continents/Assignment – North Caucasus; Radio Australia: Bhutan; Radio Netherlands: In Limbo: Gay Palestinians; Radio France Internationale: Prevention Against Aids in Rwanda; RTHK: Mixed Blessings
Category 2 – television AVRO: Lisa; CBC: nerve: How Bad Do You Want it; Miditech PVT Ltd: The Science of India; UNESCO: The New Beginning; UNICEF: Soul Buddiez
Category 3 – technology APTN: APTN Direct; Discovery Networks: Virtual History; EuroNews: Access to Euronews 7 languages via a custom built interactive application; Globecast: IP Delivery; Teletrax: NBC News Channel deployment of Teletrax for 2004 Olympics
The winners were:
Radio BBC News for Crossing Continents/Assignment
Television UNESCO for The New Beginning
Technology APTN for APTN Direct.
“We were delighted with the response to these inaugural AIB awards,” commented Anver Anderson, AIB Director of Business. “The judges faced an enormous task in evaluating the entries which were all of a tremendously high standard. The awards demonstrate the immense range of programmes broadcast by international television and radio broadcasters every day, and the technology that goes behind them.”
The 2006 AIB International Broadcasting Awards will be announced in December this year, with a closing date of May 2006.
29 August 2005
Intelsat, the Washington-based satellite company that was formed by the privatisation of the intergovernmental satellite organisation, has offered to buy US rival PanAmSat for $25 per share in cash to create the worlds biggest satellite operator. The deal values PanAmSat at around US$3.2bn. The deal could be closed within the next six to 12 months.
The deal, which is reported to have the backing of the boards of both companies, is being seen by analysts as the start of consolidation in the satellite industry. There is currently significant over-capacity in the global satellite industry.
Both Intelsat and PanAmSat are members of the AIB.
