Digital TV Europe July/August 2010
Technology > in focus
RGB acquires RipCode for three-screen delivery Graham:
Video technology provider RGB Networks has acquired mobile delivery specialist RipCode as part of its strategy to deliver ‘three-screen’ delivery platforms to operators. RGB will incorporate RipCode’s mobile IP video technology into its Video Multiprocessing Gateway transcoding platform to enable operators to deliver video to TVs, PCs and mobile devices from a single platform. RGB said that RipCode’s tech- nology for converting live and on- demand video content to formats required for the mobile environ- ment, complemented by RGB’s transcoding and ad insertion
capabilities for TV and PCs, would offer a completely new solution to operators. Jef Graham, chairman and CEO
of RGB, said that the company had invested heavily in its carrier- class video processing platform that currently delivers video to the TV and PC. “What we couldn’t do was the mobile component,” he said. “By acquiring RipCode we can do that.” Graham said it had made sense
to fill the gap by acquisition rather than by developing in- house expertise, which would have taken a year or so and con- siderable resources to accom- plish.
Canvas selects Marlin DRM
Project Canvas, the planned UK connected TV platform for Freeview, has set out a range of content protection options for the service. Content providers will be able
to make content available with no protection at all, or adopt transport encryption, file encryption, device authentica- tion or digital rights manage- ment. Conditional access upgrades will also be possible for those that require it. For premium content
providers, Canvas will support the Marlin DRM technology developed by Intertrust, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony. According to Canvas, “the selection of Marlin follows wide- spread industry engagement with content owners, content distributors, device manufactur- ers and internet service providers, from which it was con- cluded that a common DRM solution present on all devices at launch and widely supported by content providers would benefit
Visit us at
www.digitaltveurope.net 35
all industry participants.” It points out that Marlin is refer- enced in the initial release of standards body the Open IPTV Forum’s specifications, meaning that it has the potential to be widely adopted. Canvas said its aims were to
support key content delivery use cases including on-demand, download and live while minimis- ing costs. For these reasons it had decided to support a single DRM system at launch rather than to give content providers free choice or to allow device manufacturers to implement a DRM solution of their choosing. Project Canvas plans to make
further technical specifications available through the Digital Television Group on July 30 and August 19. Project Canvas chief technolo-
gy officer Anthony Rose, speak- ing at the Intel Shaping the Future of TV conference in London recently, confirmed that the service will launch sometime in the first half of next year.
RipCode gives RGB the mobile element.
Austin, Texas-based RipCode
was established in 2006 and has about 30 employees. The compa- ny supports both file-based and live transcoding and can support all adaptive bit-rate schemes. It also provides a mobile video opti- misation technology, which can throttle back the bit-rate of video over the mobile network as a whole when it is congested.
Ruwido updates tau
In Brief
Red Bee for HD Broadcast services provider Red Bee Media has been appointed by UK broadcaster Channel 4 to provide content management and delivery services for a new HD version of Film4, which has launched on the Virgin Media cable platform. UK commercial channel Five has also appointed Red Bee Media to handle play- out services for Five HD, the HD version of the channel launched yesterday on the BSkyB and Virgin Media platforms.
Digital TV Labs CI Plus test DVB conformance specialist Digital TV Labs has developed a range of bespoke conformance regimes for operators deploying CI Plus conditional access tech- nology, based on its Evora iSuite Operator test framework. By customising its base of existing DVB-C/T/S receiver test cases and test streams, and working in partnership with clients, Digital TV Labs says it can build a complete test regime specific to each operator’s particular needs with test coverage in less than a month.
Remote control vendor Ruwido has launched an updated model of its tau device. The remote control includes a
touch sensor that allows the user to navigate on-screen menus, change channel and adjust vol- ume by swiping a finger across the surface of the device. LED lights provide visual feedback to the user. The new model also fea- tures a USB connection that can be used to recharge the integrat- ed battery and enables future software and database upgrades to be downloaded to the device.
Rovi deal with Unitymedia Rovi has signed a multi-year agreement for interactive pro- gramme guide (IPG) patents with German cable operator Unitymedia. The agreement pro- vides Unitymedia with a licence to Rovi’s patents for its pay-TV services.
PubliTronic for Technicolor Media services provider Technicolor has chosen broad- cast equipment provider PubliTronic’s Nexus servers to deliver playout services for 10 of Dutch public broadcaster NPO’s 12 thematic channels.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44