7 July 2010
Sports broadcasters, leagues, and teams are looking to create dynamic, custom websites to satisfy the most ardent sports fans thirst for sports information. They want to create an online mecca where fans can get the latest news, statistics, highlights, events, and opinionseverything about their favorite sport. Until now, creating dynamic websites required the help of professional web designers.
Vizrt, a leading provider of content production tools for the digital media industry, has announced a new software package, Viz Sports Online, that incorporates all the creative tools and widgets necessary to get a sports website up and running right out of the box. The websites can be launched in a standalone environment or can be hosted by a service such as Amazon Web Services.
Viz Sports Online is a flexible, modular suite of user-friendly, preconfigured Vizrt tools, providing users with complete creative freedom over the look and feel of web page layouts, image versions and sizes, and overall site structure.
With Viz Sports Online, all video, graphics, text, images, maps, statistics and web publishing tools are available from within a single, user-friendly, drag and drop-based interface. Design-savvy templates let users produce dynamic, branded graphics, maps and web pages that they can fill on the fly with text, images, headers and titles. Viz Sports Online also offers a full video repository with video editing, video playlists, picture-in-picture, and video ad integration capabilities.
The software package also simplifies the process of delivering multimedia-rich content, with support for thousands of different handheld devices. Automatic multimedia conversion enables streaming of video in many native mobile formats, as well as special features and swipe-controlled image galleries that Apple iPhone, iPad and other advanced handheld devices use.
Since websites are interactive by nature, Viz Sports Online-created websites let the audience contribute with their own blogs, comments, and personalized user profile pages, as well as participate in discussion forums with thumbs up or down ratings.
Interactivity is further enhanced by real-time user activity updates; the integration of RSS and Twitter feeds; as well as sophisticated, real-time sports statistics provided by Stats.com. Users can create relationships between this real-time sports data and editorial content, such as pages devoted to teams, players, matches, games and special events, to keep viewers fully informed and engaged.
Custom skins give websites a consistent, branded feel. And an extensive widgets librarypacked with story pages, image galleries, a video player, animated carousels, menu overlays, tabbed navigation and statistical listingsmake it possible to manage content, web page layouts, and microsites without the need for a technical staff.
Vizrt CEO Martin Burkhalter says, Were very excited about the creative possibilities and endeavors this new technology enables. At Vizrt, weve been developing the tools and capabilities that are part of Sports Online for many years. As a company, we recognize that the Internet and mobile handheld devices are changing the media landscape, and Sports Online makes it fun, easy and rewarding for sports networks and organizations to create sophisticated websites that effectively communicate with online sports audiences.
Viz Sports Online can be configured with a variety of powerful, proven Vizrt products.
7 July 2010
FRANCE 24 has signed a new distribution agreement with Genesis Networks to expand the distribution of its French channel throughout Latin America using the Intelsat 9 satellite.
Since July 6th, thanks to this new satellite capacity which covers almost all of the cable market in Latin America, several thousands of cable network heads in the region have once again been able to capture FRANCE 24.
FRANCE 24, already available in North America on the Galaxy 23 satellite, several cable networks and ADSL, can now expand its audience to the whole American continent.
Mike Antonovich, President and CEO of Genesis Networks commented : We are delighted and very grateful that FRANCE 24, one of the world’s leading news networks, has chosen Genesis Networks to provide this integrated international fiber and satellite solution. I would once again like to thank FRANCE 24 for their confidence in the reliability and flexibility of Genesis Networks services.”
Featuring news and current events from a French perspective, the channel broadcasts in 3 languages (French, English and Arabic) and is owned by broadcasting group Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France (AEF).
7 July 2010
Voice of America’s Hausa Language Service is now offering its exciting multi-media lineup of news, interviews and feature programs to on-the-go mobile phone users, one of the fastest growing segments of digital communication.
To find VOA Hausa programs on your mobile device go to http://hausa.voa.mobi/.
VOA’s New Media Director Rebecca McMenamin says, “The explosion of mobile phone use around the world makes the technology a perfect match for the delivery of news and multi-media content, and VOA is working to bring all of its 44 languages onto the mobile platform.”
McMenamin says, “The Hausa Service mobile site will offer not only news, but also health information. We think this can be very useful to our audience.”
The Hausa language is spoken by about 60 million people, most of them in the West African nations of Nigeria, Ghana and Niger.
The VOA Hausa Language Service reaches an estimated weekly audience of about 21 million with its line-up of newscasts, discussion shows, diverse stringer reports, interviews, feature programs, and special reports covering a wide variety of issues.
To get VOA in English on your mobile device, type http://english.voa.mobi into the browser on your phone. For other available languages, navigate to http://voa.mobi and select from the list.
2 July 2010
Al Jazeera English is pleased to announce that it has received the Freesat Award for Best News Channel. Presented on 30 June at a gala ceremony in London, the Freesat Awards recognize the very best channels and services available on Freesat, a not-for-profit digital satellite television service in the United Kingdom owned by the BBC and ITV. Al Anstey, Director of Media Development for Al Jazeera Network accepted the award on behalf of Al Jazeera English.
This is the second year in a row that Al Jazeera English has been recognized with the award. This years nominees included BBC News Channel, BBC Radio 5, CNN International and Bloomberg. The panel of judges for the award was made up of senior representatives from the broadcasting industry.
It is an honour to receive this award for the second year in a row and to be recognised by our peers in the industry as a leading source of news and current affairs programming, said Salah Nagm, Director of News for Al Jazeera English. In our short time on air, AJE has worked hard to fill a void in international news by providing coverage of key regions of the world. We are pleased to be part of Freesats strong line-up of channels and their rapidly growing UK platform.
The judging panel commended Al Jazeera for the following reasons: Al Jazeera was the standout channel for the panel, telling stories no-one else does and helping viewers discover things about other countries that just arent reported elsewhere. We like its journalism and impartiality and the way it shows a completely different window on the world.
Since its launch in 2006, Al Jazeera English has been recognized for its distinguished reporting and programming including being awarded Best 24 Hour News Programme at the 48th and 50th Annual Monte-Carlo Television Festival. AJE has also received awards from RTS, Amnesty International and YouTube and has received nominations for international Emmy awards in both the News and Current Affairs categories and the Royal Television Society awards as the 2009 News Channel of the Year.
30 June 2010
Al Jazeera English, the award-winning 24-hour global news and current affairs channel, will begin broadcasting free to air on Freeview on 1st July, airing the channel to more than 80% of homes in the United Kingdom.
Al Jazeera will air live from 6 to 11pm local time every day on channel 89. The output will be live news and programmes from AJEs studios in London, Washington DC, and Doha.
AJEs current affairs programming includes Frost Over the World, a weekly interview show hosted by Sir David Frost; Witness, a programme that focuses on the human stories at the centre of international events; The Rageh Omaar Report which focuses on in-depth coverage of stories neglected by Western media; People and Power, an investigative programme which looks at the abuse of power across the world; and Listening Post, an interactive show which provides insight and discussion on the global news divide.
Al Jazeera English currently reaches more than 200 million homes worldwide. The addition of Freeview is a significant step forward for AJE.
Commenting on the launch, Wadah Khanfar, Director General of the Al Jazeera Network said: We are extremely pleased that Al Jazeera Englishs groundbreaking news and current affairs programming will be available to more than 80% of UK homes. Providing content to the widest possible audience, free of charge, is part of Al Jazeeras ongoing mandate and mission. With a large network of bureaus, and with unique access to under reported regions across the world, Al Jazeera English will bring a much needed international perspective to this important and diverse region.
Ilse Howling, Managing Director, Freeview commented: “The addition of Al Jazeera English brings a new global perspective to our existing news channel line up, bringing Freeview viewers even more subscription-free news content.”
Al Anstey, Director Media Development for the Al Jazeera Network added: The UK remains an extremely important market for Al Jazeera. Freeview provides us with the platform to show our award-winning news and programming across the country. We know there is an audience for Al Jazeera English in the United Kingdom and we look forward to expanding our service throughout the country.
Al Jazeera English is recognized for its distinguished reporting and programming. AJE has won the RTS (Royal Television Society) Young Reporter of the Year Award, and has received awards from the Monte-Carlo TV Festival, Amnesty International and YouTube. Additionally, AJE has received several nominations for international Emmy awards in both the News and Current Affairs categories and the Royal Television Society awards as the 2009 News Channel of the Year.
In addition to being available on Freeview channel 89, Al Jazeera English is available in the United Kingdom on Sky Guide channel 514 and Freesat channel 203.
29 June 2010
At the request of broadcasters, production houses and technology companies across the globe, AIB has agreed to extend the deadline for entries to this year’s AIBs.
The final date for entries to arrive at AIB headquarters in the UK is now Friday 16 July at 1600 GMT.
We already have a great crop of entries from broadcasters on every continent and are looking forward to seeing more come in over the coming few days.
For more information, see the AIBs microsite at www.theaibs.tv.
