9 October 2006
RFE/RL Acting President Jeffrey Trimble released the following statement in reaction to the death of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow October 7, 2006.
“I and my colleagues at RFE/RL are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Anna Politkovskaya. I also express our deepest sympathies to her family, who have lost her loving care and spirit.
” We condemn the persons who are responsible for this violent and senseless act against a journalist who worked in the best interests of the people of the Russian Federation. We call upon the Russian authorities to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation of this crime, and to do more to ensure the safety of independent journalists in their country.
“Anna was a frequent contributor to RFE/RL’s Russian-language programs; in fact, her final interview was with RFE/RL, and took place just two days before her murder. She was an honest and talented journalist, fearless and committed to uncovering the truth of a story.
“Her resoluteness earned her more than one death threat. But throughout, she retained her sense of humanity. Speaking before an audience at RFE/RL in Washington, DC, a few years ago, she said she felt a responsibility not only as a journalist, but as a citizen of Russia to help ‘those who could not speak for themselves.’
“The loss of Anna Politkovskaya is a tragedy for the people of Russia; a blow to free spech, and a setback for the cause of open and honest journalism.
“We will miss her.”
4 October 2006
The AIB is pleased to announce that the presentation of its 2006 International Broadcasting Awards will take place in London on Wednesday 22 November.
We’ll be publishing full details in the next couple of days; in the meantime if you’re interested in attending this important and prestigious event, let us know.
E-mail us to register your interest now.
The AIB is making available very limited sponsorship opportunities at this major event. Download the sponsorship brochure
here and then call us to discuss how you can become involved in this important, exciting and memorable evening.
3 October 2006
Teletrax, the global broadcast intelligence company, today announced that it has signed a contract with the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, where professional motor racing teams representing 23 nations compete on a level playing field. A subsidiary of Medialink Worldwide Incorporated (Nasdaq: MDLK), Teletrax offers the first and only digital video monitoring and content tracking service that provides vital television intelligence on a global scale to video providers such as entertainment studios, news organizations, TV syndicators, and the advertising industry. Teletrax is a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG) and Medialink.
Commencing with the first race of the second season, A1GP will use the Teletrax suite of broadcast intelligence services to detect and report on global broadcasts of its motorsports events. The new initiative will allow A1GP to precisely and rapidly understand usage preferences of its video assets.
Teletrax will provide A1GP with evidence of its live coverage and highlights packages broadcast around the world. With the intelligence gathered, A1GP will be able to tailor its offering, improve allocation of its resources and provide precise details of airing coverage to its sponsors.
A1GP is not just another motorsport, it reaches over three quarters of the worlds population and provides a completely new and exciting opportunity for national and international brands to promote themselves on a global platform, said Richard Dorfman, Broadcast Director at A1GP. Teletraxs broadcast verification services are critical for us to better understand our world and local reach, and provide a unique service to our sponsors about the global impact and performance of their brand.
We are delighted that A1GP has chosen Teletrax to provide vital television intelligence on the broadcasts of its live sports events, said Andy Nobbs, President of Teletrax. This contract is a significant win for Teletrax, marking our entrance into the sports marketing arena, and demonstrates the urgent need for sport executives to know the true value of their content.
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), Teletraxs technology embeds an imperceptible and indelible digital watermark into video whenever it is edited, transmitted, broadcast or duplicated.
A global network of decoders, or detectors, then captures all occurrences of the embedded video being transmitted via satellite, cable or terrestrially and generates tracking reports for the content owners. Reports of individual broadcast airings are delivered online in near real-time to each clients custom-designed portal or in data file transfers. Each clients broadcast activity is updated dynamically, 24 hours a day, enabling clients to respond immediately to reported results such as changes in end-user preferences or detections of unauthorized use.
Teletrax provides vital broadcast television intelligence to video content providers such as entertainment companies, news organizations, TV syndicators, and the advertising industry. The company currently maintains a proprietary network of detectors that monitor the television broadcasts of 1,300 channels from more than 50 nations, including the top 150 markets in the United States, representing more than 90% of all U.S. television households. Its international network comprises 12 monitoring stations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, South and Central America.
Entertainment, news and media organizations both within and outside of the United States that have also contracted to use Teletrax for the tracking of news video, advertising or promotional content include ABC Television Network, BBC, Buena Vista Television, NBC News Channel, Fox Broadcasting, United Nations, The NBC Agency, NBC Universal Domestic Television, Reuters Television, Tribune Entertainment, Advanced Results Marketing, Direct Impact Group, ITN Networks, Mercury Media, Euro RSCG 4D DRTV, Media Review International, and Medialink. A number of other companies are also in active trials with the Teletrax service.
3 October 2006
The Voice of America (VOA) will debut two 30-minute television news programs to Afghanistan beginning Sept. 30. The Saturday-through-Thursday newscasts, which will air in the Dari and Pashto languages in a one-hour block titled TV Ashna (Friend), will offer a new source of regional and world news to Afghanistan’s emergent television market.
TV Ashna will also feature interviews with Afghan and American policy makers and political, economic and security analysts on issues of importance to the people of Afghanistan. The hour-long block will be divided into two different news programs for Afghanistan’s two national languages.
“VOA has proven to be extremely popular on the radio in Afghanistan,” said VOA Director David S. Jackson. “These new shows will now allow us to offer television viewers the same kind of objective and comprehensive news and information that they have come to expect from the Voice of America.”
VOA’s Shaista Mangal will host the Pashto program and Lina Rozbih will host the Dari program from Washington, D.C., with reports from Afghanistan and other cities around the world.
Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) will initially air the new program at 4:00 p.m. local time in Afghanistan.
VOA’s Radio Ashna programming currently reaches millions of people daily with a 12-hour program in Dari and Pashto via FM, AM and shortwave radio.
3 October 2006
Wohler Technologies, Inc. today announced an addition to its Sales Support and Engineering Team by bringing on board John Sheridan as Senior Applications Engineer. Sheridan joins Wohler, the world leader in rack video and audio monitoring, from ClearCom.
“It is a fantastic opportunity to join Wohler Technologies at this exciting time in the companys development. Wohler continues to provide the latest technology and de-facto standard for critical path monitoring for broadcast applications. Their emphasis on product development and customer focus is refreshing and galvanic. I am excited to be part of the Wohler family.
Carl J. Dempsey, Wohlers President and CEO stated that: Johns appointment demonstrates our continued commitment to delivering the highest quality service and support for our worldwide customer base. Stories of Johns customercentric work ethic are legendary in our industry. One of my favorites is that even though Johns previous employer had a 24/7 customer service center a lot of customers preferred to place Johns cell phone information on the back of their racks. Customers are our top priority at Wohler and John fits in perfectly with our new customer support and application engineering initiatives.
John was previously Customer Service Manager and Applications Engineer for ClearCom Intercoms extensive line of audio communications equipment. Prior to this he had worked for ten years as television production audio mixer specializing in live remote broadcasts.
3 October 2006
RadioScape, a world leader in digital multimedia head-end and receiver technology, has upgraded the Arqiva DAB multiplex that handles BT Movios wholesale Mobile TV service, which was launched on 1 October 2006. The upgrade is to the latest version of RadioScapes DAB Professional Broadcast System Version 5.1 and enables multiplexes to handle Mobile TV broadcasting. The upgrade is part of an agreement that will enable Arqiva to begin upgrading its inventory of 47 DAB digital radio multiplexes in the UK, which forms the worlds largest DAB installation and is used to provide virtually all of the UKs commercial DAB broadcasts.
John Hall, RadioScapes CEO, said, Our leadership in end-to-end DAB technology gives us a huge advantage in developing Mobile TV solutions which are based on DAB. Our Mobile TV platform uses DAB spectrum that is already available in many countries so that working, reliable Mobile TV can be deployed now. This is why it is the solution of choice not only here in the UK but also in China where RadioScape is the leading provider of Mobile TV systems that now cover all the major conurbations. The proof of working Mobile TV in real world settings has resulted in RadioScape being invited to take part in trials around the world. It is a major success story for the company that is driving its growth as a leading player in the Mobile TV market.
Paul Eaton, Head of Radio at Arqiva, has worked closely with RadioScape to finalise this strategically important contract. He added, The move into Mobile TV is strategically important for Arqiva and for those using our infrastructure, such as BT Movio’s DAB-IP Mobile TV service. We have worked with RadioScape for some time now to develop this upgrade and its ability to deliver advanced data capabilities and Mobile TV.
Mobile TV trials
RadioScape provided the Mobile TV broadcast system technology for the following trials:-
The BT Movio trial in the UK in 2005
The recent joint trial by RTÉ, BT Ireland and RadioScape in Dublin
The Centre of Excellence for Digital Broadcasting (CoEfDB) trial in the Netherlands
The DMB/DAB-IP Mobile TV trial in the UK that was announced on the 5th of June 2006
Trials in China that resulted in commercial broadcasts covering all the major conurbations such as Beijing.
