25 June 2008
International news channel Russia Today has won Gold at the Promax/BDA World Awards. The channel came top in the promotional items category, beating competition from MediaCorp TV and National Geographic who took silver and bronze respectively.
“The golden award at the most high-profile professional contest in design is a huge achievement for us. We try to focus on promoting our channel, so we are quite happy with the acknowledgment of our effort. The award proves the channel is evolving in the right way,” said Margarita Simonyan, Russia Todays editor-in-chief.
17 June 2008
STMicroelectronics, the market leader in technologies for digital satellite radio, has recently signed an agreement with WorldSpace Satellite Radio, one of the world leaders in satellite-based digital radio services, to develop, manufacture and distribute chips for European Satellite Digital Radio (ESDR) receivers planned for a WorldSpace pan-European and Middle East service offering, starting with Italy in 2009.
The agreement between WorldSpace and ST is expected to lead to the first fully integrated device for channel decoding in ESDR receivers. Based on an open ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) standard, the ESDR technology enables WorldSpace to employ a hybrid satellite-terrestrial network, where its satellites deliver broad geographical coverage at low cost, while terrestrial transmitters improve reception quality in urban and suburban areas.
WorldSpace Satellite Radios service offering will include 40-50 channels of commercial-free music, news, sports, talk and other personalized programming such as traffic, navigation and music downloads directly from the satellite, to each of its markets in Europe. The Company intends to launch its European service, beginning with Italy, in 2009, followed shortly thereafter by other major European and Middle East countries including Germany, Switzerland, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Designed using state-of-the-art CMOS technology, the new ST channel decoder device delivers high system integration and low current consumption. The chip is being tailored to ensure optimal reception in harsh conditions and to make maximum use of the available frequency spectrum.
In addition to the channel decoder, ST will provide three additional chips for WorldSpace digital radio receivers: a super-heterodyne RF tuner, a device for non-volatile secure data storage and the automotive version of STs Nomadik application processor. This
automotive grade chipset will handle the complete RF and base-band tasks, meeting
the car industrys stringent requirements for integration into OEM systems as well as after-market radio receivers.
These first ESDR satellite radio receivers will be available through retail stores and other aftermarket venues in the first half of 2009, followed shortly by OEM versions. Fiat Group Automobiles was the first to sign a distribution agreement with WorldSpace for both aftermarket and OEM receivers for certain of its Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia models starting next year.
WorldSpace and STMicroelectronics have a long-standing relationship and we are very pleased to continue that relationship through this agreement, said Noah A. Samara, chairman and chief executive officer, WorldSpace Satellite Radio. This agreement is another milestone on the path to providing a truly unique satellite radio experience throughout Europe, beginning with Italy. STMicroelectronics brings a long history of excellence in satellite radio endeavors to the table and their experience with the automotive qualification process and chip production should help propel our success in Europe, the Middle East and potentially other markets when we are ready to roll out.
We are pleased to play a key role in the introduction of Worldspaces digital satellite radio service to European consumers, said Domenico Rossi, Vice President of STs Automotive Product Group. This important agreement marks twelve years for ST at the forefront of digital radio technology. We were the first to fit a complete digital satellite decoding circuit onto a single chip and have developed considerable expertise in mastering the entire radio receiver system from the RF to the baseband signal processing. Our contribution to Worldspaces efforts in Europe draws on the success of satellite digital radio in the U.S., where the majority of receivers is powered by ST chips.
In 2007, STMicroelectronics maintained their position as number one supplier of Infotainment silicon with just over 11% market share worldwide, said Richard Robinson at iSuppli, a market research firm. The Company supplies a wide range of automotive-grade silicon solutions and is the dominant provider of Audio Amplifier and Satellite radio solutions with 56% market share for audio amplifiers, and 76% market share for Satellite radio.
Data suggests the European market for satellite radio is similar to that of the U.S. market where today, there are approximately 18 million subscribers nationwide. European countries targeted by WorldSpace (Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, UK, France, Turkey and Poland) represent a combined population of approximately 420 million people and 180 million automobiles.
17 June 2008
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, was in London on 16 June to unveil a memorial to fallen journalists and newsgatherers.
In an event co-hosted by the BBC and the International News Safety Institute
attended by members of some of the families who have lost relatives engaged in
newsgathering around the world, the Secretary-General acknowledged the work of
journalists covering the world’s news stories, paying tribute to their bravery
which he said enabled millions of people to learn the truth.
Rodney Pinder, Director of INSI, said "These men and women are the unsung
heroes of democracy, for without a free press there can be no freedom."
The
memorial is on the roof of Egton House, immediately alongside the BBC’s
Broadcasting House – currently being redeveloped to create a new home for all
BBC journalism including its international TV and radio services – and is a
glass sculpture designed by Spanish visual arts sculptor Jaume Plensa. The
sculpture bears the words of a poem written by British poet and war
correspondent James Fenton.
The light sculpture will send a beam of light up to 900 metres into the sky
above London every evening at 2200 local time.
Watch the BBC News report
here.
17 June 2008
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, expressed today concern about recent cases of intimidation and harassment of non-governmental journalists in Uzbekistan.
Independent journalist Solidzon Abdurakhmonov was recently detained on drug charges, and reporters working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) were accused of carrying out anti-state activities in an hour-long programme broadcast repeatedly since 9 June by Uzbek state television.
“These assaults on free reporting are especially regrettable as Uzbek authorities told me during my visit last week that they were ready to start the much-needed reforms of the media governance in the country,” Haraszti said.
The Uzbek authorities had invited Haraszti from 9 to 12 June for the first time. During the visit, Haraszti addressed a seminar on media issues organized by the Uzbek government. He also met officials and talked with journalists from state-owned and non-governmental media.
“In Tashkent last week, I welcomed the release of human rights defender and independent journalist Mutabar Tajibayeva from prison and called for more releases. I also raised the lack of accreditation for BBC, RFL/RL and Deutsche Welle,” Haraszti said.
“The immediate freeing of all imprisoned for expressing critical views and the return of foreign media outlets to Uzbekistan would be important first steps toward compliance with OSCE commitments, as well as a signal of stability.”
In addition, Haraszti asked his counterparts in meetings to liberalize media regulations and to allow for pluralism and political debate in the press. He also called for privatization in the print media, the creation of a public-service broadcaster, easy registration and licensing of media outlets, and decriminalization of libel.
13 June 2008
Al Jazeera English has won the award for Best 24 Hour News Programme at the prestigious 48th Monte Carlo Television Festival.
Al Jazeera English beat impressive entries from BBC News, Sky News, Lisboa TV and the Phoenix Satellite Television Company to take home the award. Among the specific reports highlighted at the Festival were Nour Odeh’s groundbreaking reports from Gaza, where she brought the suffering of the Gazan people to life when she was caught in the middle of a violent street battle between Hamas and Fatah. While shooting live in Gaza, Nour and her producer Ashraf Al-Amritti lost contact with the newsroom in Doha and were forced to rely on their mobile phone to continue reporting events as they occurred. Once the live video feed returned, Nour’s cameraman, Iyad Al-Dahdouh, filmed the continued fighting while coming under RPG and small arms fire. Following the broadcast of the fighting on Al Jazeera, both sides in the Gaza battles agreed to a ceasefire.
In addition to Best 24 Hour News Programme, AJE received nominations in every news category at the awards show, including Best TV Item for James Bays’ Taliban Embedded, which was awarded a second place prize, and Best News Documentary for Tony Birtley’s Inside Myanmar The Crackdown. Commenting on the nominations, AJE’s Managing Director Tony Burman said, “I am very excited that the AJE Newshour has been recognised as the best 24 hour news programme in the world. For me, the award demonstrates the commitment of AJE’s staff to giving a voice to the voiceless, of telling vital stories that are not on the agenda of the western news networks. Whether risking their lives to cover the bloodshed in Gaza, to travel with a Taliban cell in Afghanistan or to tell the world the real story from inside Myanmar, where we are the only international broadcaster with a permanent presence, AJE employees are telling the untold story and are putting real people back at the centre of the news agenda. I am extremely proud that the world is paying attention to the hard work and dedication of the AJE staff, and each and every one of them should be congratulated for this recognition.”
12 June 2008
Pharos is establishing a sales and support operation in Singapore. The new facility will initially be situated at the New Tech Park in Lorong Chuan and will be managed by Patrick Keys. Along with co-founders Roger Heath and Spencer Rodd, Patrick was one of the original members of the Pharos team. Patrick initially worked as part of the Pharos Playtime automation software development team and is a veteran of many international Pharos projects including CNN Headline News in Atlanta and Network 7 in Australia. He also established the international support operation at Pharos’ Reading UK headquarters and has developed customer training programmes for Pharos installations including Technicolor, Viasat and Globecast. Patrick will be working to build a local Pharos sales, engineering and support team in Singapore.
“Singapore is home to some of the region’s most successful international broadcasters and playout service-providers” comments Russell Grute, Director of Marketing at Pharos. “To succeed and grow in South East Asia, many broadcasters and service providers need to work more efficiently. They face unique content management and distribution challenges to localise and promote content for their viewers across a complex region. Singapore’s supportive business environment together with its highly advanced communications infrastructure make it an ideal location for Pharos to help new customers in the region. Our new Singapore operation will provide project engineering and technical support for Pharos systems, as well as direct ongoing support to customers in the region.”
Pharos delivers better workflow management to broadcasters and service-providers in television, radio, IPTV and telecommunications. For 10 years Pharos has continually developed the unique Mediator, Playtime and Pilot desktop broadcast management solutions. Pharos workflow offers greater efficiency for library management, ingest, quality control, storage management, archival, transcoding, post-production and playout. Pharos solutions offer a next-generation platform to better manage multiformat content and enable rapid expansion in playout, presentation and publishing. Pharos software architecture, integration and support services enable disparate broadcast and IT processes to be unified across the enterprise.
