29 August 2003
AIB Member Dalet Digital Media Systems has established itself as a pioneer in digital convergence. Dalet’s experience in developing broadcast and media management tools has helped transform many organizations from paper and tape environments dependent on proprietary solutions into modern, digital operations.
Dalet is now introducing its new media asset management platform – DaletPlus. Versatile and expansive, the underlying DaletPlus architecture supports a wide range of media management and production features and functionality. The breadth and depth of these features enable Dalet to provide a number of DaletPlus solutions that can be tailored to meet specific client demands in a wide variety of markets.
In addition Dalet will be hosting a special “New Technology Seminar”. The event will take place at 16:00 on 14 September at the Novotel Hotel. The subject will be Media Asset Management (MAM) – Measuring Quality and Success of Integrated Newsrooms. Well known industry consultant, Charles Bebert will be on hand to evaluate best practice.
28 August 2003
Co-founder of AIB member Omnibus and broadcast industry veteran, Glyn Powell-Evans today confirmed both his departure from the firm which he established as a global leader in automation, and his reputation as one of the industry’s serial entrepreneurs, when he unveiled plans to launch a new venture at IBC2003.
IdeasUnlimited.tv will specialise in transmission verification and monitoring of content. It targets an urgent need among broadcasters for automated remote TV and audio-signal monitoring and Powell-Evans is predicting a price-point of as little as 5 per channel per day when the firm rolls-out its new ContentProbe suite on its IBC debut (Hall 8, Stand 536).
Powell-Evans, whose career highlights include tenures as managing director of PAG, joint-owner of PictureBox Productions and co-founder of G2 Systems before he founded OmniBus in 1992, commented: “My passion is creating and building new ventures. While I look forward to a long prosperous relationship with OmniBus, as a significant customer, I’m delighted to focus on a major new opportunity.”
28 August 2003
The S4M system S4Commercials is now being used for airtime sales management at financial broadcaster Bloomberg TV (Germany) and Discovery Channel Germany.
German market leader RTL may use sumptuous custom-made software solutions, but Cologne-based S4M offers smaller-scale software specially developed for smaller companies.
S4Commercials covers all the existing administrative tasks at Bloomberg and Discovery, and is being used by more and more clients. It is successful because it complements large-scale systems such as S4AdSales.
S4Commercials is used not only by music channels VIVA and VIVA2, but also by computer channel Giga, the Berlin metropolis channel XXP and the regional channel tv-nrw. Visit S4M at the IBC 2003, September 12-16, Amsterdam, RAI, booth 1.121.
26 August 2003
News Corporation may sell its share of SkyPerfecTV, Japan’s sole satellite broadcaster. Shareholders including majors Sony, Fuji TV and Itochu, have been asked if they are interested in buying News Corps share of 8.1%. A sale would damage Murdochs attempt to be a player in one of the world’s biggest broadcasting markets.
News Corp has probably not given up on the important Japanese broadcasting market which has a value of Y2,000bn, but Japan’s 20 per cent cap on foreign investment in broadcasters is a deterrent. SkyPerfecTV has made losses for the past seven years.
And theres trouble brewing in India, where Stars news broadcasting unit is 74 per cent Indian-owned. But now the Indian government has ordered that a single dominant investor must hold at least 51 per cent of news broadcasting organisations.
The broadcaster has a month to comply with the changes, which emerged after a meeting chaired by prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Friday. The policy shift brings news broadcasting into line with foreign investment norms in print media.
24 August 2003
The AIB Global Media Business Conference opened in central London on 29th April with more than 150 people from Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East and Australasia taking part.
Following a keynote speech from Mark Byford, Director BBC World Service and Global News division, the discussion moved into the business of the first day.
The first topic Defining the audience is of vital concern to international broadcasters, who have difficulty in obtaining accurate research. Expert researchers, including Intermedia, showed how research can be done effectively in international audiences.
Moving on to Global branding in local markets, the question was can global brands work across international frontiers, or should there be local modifications? Speakers included John Begert, Vice President, Content, of Discovery Networks.
A discussion on Partnerships concluded the morning session.
The afternoon was given over to Technology, chaired by Wolfgang Klein of Dalet, with observations from Phil Laven, Director of the Technical Department of the EBU. Subjects covered were Managing Content, Platforms, and Production Systems. Speakers included Christophe Duplay, Vice President Services Development, SES Astra; Ted Taylor, Panasonic Broadcast; Reinhard Penzel, Sony BPE; Anne-Marie Swift, AP ENPS; and Ian Fletcher, Omnibus.
