Latest developments in Television. This web-site aim is to pay tribite to those early pioneers of television. A new television revolution is underway as the world goes digital. This section will document some interesting developments happening today.
Italy leads pay-TV growth in 2006
FromBranislav Pekic in Rome
The Milan-based e-Media Institute has published its annual survey on the pay-TV market in Western Europe, which reveals that Italy was the top country in terms of growth in pay-TV subscriber numbers (+12.2 per cent) during 2006.
If pre-pay DTT packages are included, Italy extends its leadership over other European markets, as it’s the only country where this kind of subscription-free offer exists. Figures from the end of December 2006 show that there were 4.2 million pay-TV subscribers in Italy from Advanced- Television.com
Could IPTV generate significant revenue within 3 years?
An Accenture and Economist Intelligence Unit survey of nearly 350 executives from telecommunications, broadcasting and media companies across 46 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia has revealed industry-wide confidence in the longer-term outlook for IPTV, with 60 per cent believing that IPTV will generate significant revenues within three years.
However, confidence in the short-term outlook remains mixed, with 52 per cent of respondents saying they are not confident in the ability of IPTV to generate significant revenues within the next 12 months (added 10/02/07)
Nokia predicts mainstream mobile TV
Nokia president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo opened 3GSM in Barcelona with a prediction that four billion mobile phones would be sold in 2010, a billion more than current sales figures. He said mobile Internet access and entertainment was changing business models to the extent that it was almost a new industry.
Kallasvuo said this was the year mobile TV would reach the mainstream. He said DVB-H chips would fall to E7 making devices more affordable and more widespread - he predicted 20 million such devices in use by 2009 (added 12/02/07)
See www.advanced-television.com for this and other news stories
Spain's Soria to subsidise DTT
From David Del Valle in Madrid (Advanced TV briefing 26/01/07)
The Spanish province of Soria will subsidise the acquisition or adaptation of consumer equipment to receive DTT. Its an attempt to boost DTT and pave the way for the analogue switch-off scheduled for 2008 in first Spanish region slated to fully migrate to digital. E450 will be given for each residents' association to adapt the SMATV dishes to receive DTT
OLDER NEWS (OVER 2 MONTHS OLD)
BBC, Google deal
The BBC is in advanced negotiations with Google to make programming available via a branded channel on its video-sharing site, says the Guardian. It reports that the BBC are keen that the deal is expanded to include putting content on Google-owned YouTube. BBC Worldwide is understood to be looking at commercial options for the agreement, such as a share on contextual advertising that will run alongside BBC content
Powerline growth outpaces Cable and DSL
The number of US households subscribing to broadband over power line (BPL) services will increase from 400,000 in 2007 to 2.5 million by 2011, according to Parks Associates. Consumer and competitive demands will lead to a strong growth rate in residential subscribers for BPL, outpacing other access methods such as DSL and cable over the next five years.
China IPTV to exceed 23m subscribers by 2012
According to ABI Research; "The growth of IPTV will remain modest for now, and take off only after 2008. Adoption will be boosted by major events such as the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and then the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai."
At the same time, China’s flourishing broadband environment paves the way for IPTV to reach out to the potentially huge addressable market
The European Parliament has voted for new TV ad rules: MEPs have now voted to update European Union’s (EU) audiovisual rules, this is despite some concerns from members that it could lead to a marked increase in the number of advertisements. The European Parliament backed proposals to update the 1989 “Television without Frontiers Directive”, which was last updated in 1997. The new rules implemented by the ‘audiovisual media services directive’ will reflect the changes in the marketplace over the last decade. MEPs voted to distinguish between mainstream TV transmissions, or linear services, and on-demand, non-linear products such as web downloads. (Added 15/12/06)
Interim Research into Mobile TV and the hearing impaired using Virgin TV: In the early days of television, (the mechanical era), the screen size of the Baird televisor was not much larger than a mobile phone screen. Philo Farnsworth invented the electronic television and with the development of the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) the size of the screen increase first to 6 inches continues to grow to over 40 inches today. Mobile phone television is a new method in which to view television programmes. However as the screen size is very small, interactive features designed for a large widescreen receiver, are often ineffective. This paper is based on a small study of hearing impaired people using a Virgin Lobster 700 Mobile phone to view BBC One, ITV1, & E4 and if they found it accessible to hearing impaired users. It also studied the limited interactive features. The experiments took place during October 2006 soon after the service was launched. A paper on this research has been submitted for the European Interative Television Conference 2007 (EUROiTV). A pdf of the research report will be posted at www.tvresearch.org.uk over Christmas.
TV in the Netherlands has gone totally “digital”.
The Netherlands has now completed the switchover to digital television, six years ahead of the United Kingdom. The country has ended transmission of ‘free to air’ analogue television, becoming the first nation to switch completely to digital signals.
As most broadcasts are received via cable, few consumers noticed the switchover. There was however an estimated 74,000 households which relied primarily on terrestrial aerial reception, with another 200,000 or so who used it as a secondary occasional source (e.g. Cars, Portable devices and on holiday). Added 13/12/06
China Central Television launches its mobile TV
China Central Television (CCTV) have launched mobile TV services.
In conjunction with China’s mobile carriers, CCTV aim to present more than 400 featured programmes bundled in packages at various tariffs. It is hoped that contracted international and local TV stations will develop more content for the mobile users. (Added 13/12/06)
Sky and Google unveil broadband alliance
Sky and Google unveil broadband alliance BSkyB and Google are to work together in bringing web-based services to Sky’s community of broadband Internet customers. This should result in the technology and broadcasting/media giants join forces to create a customised experience for Sky Broadband customers (added 7/12/06)
BT has finally launched its IPTV service
BT Vision, the service’s unveiling event saw BT reveal the new set-top box, the V-box, manufactured by Philips which contains a personal video recorder (PVR) able to store up to 80 hours of content, pause or rewind live TV and record. The box is also HD ready. BT Vision also features a ‘Replay TV’ service, with the UK’s Channel 4 content available at launch
Prisa lobbies for Sogecable-Telefónica alliance
Spanish media group Prisa, a shareholder in pay-TV group Sogecable, has urged the Government to lift the existing legal restrictions, and pave the way for an alliance between Sogecable and the pay-TV market.
Ofcom 3G sell-off
Europe's largest ever sell-off of 3G spectrum will be proposed by UK comms regulator Ofcom this week, in a move that will prompt fierce lobbying of the telecoms regulator by the main mobile networks. Ofcom is expected to confirm its desire to auction off 190 MHz of the 2500-2690MHz band.
Ofcom “the Case for a broadband service obligation”
The UK’s media regulator Ofcom is considering a proposal that BT should make broadband available to every home in Britain. Ed Richards, Ofcom chief executive, predicted that as soon as 75 per cent of all UK homes had taken up broadband: "In such a world, a case for a broadband universal service obligation might be made," but he added that there were "questions about the level of obligation and, crucially, how it would be funded".BT plc operates under a universal service obligation, which means that it must provide a phone line to anybody who asks for it, even if providing the connection would be uneconomic. The obligation is estimated to cost the company between £57 million and £74 million a year.
Alcatel's demonstration of Europe's first broadcast of live TV channels on mobile handsets in S-band
Alcatel has announced the successful demonstration of Europe's first broadcast of live TV channels on mobile handsets in S-band. The demonstration took place in Alcatel's UK premises. It is using the new DVB-SH standard (Satellite services for Handhelds), which is currently being drafted by the DVB Project. To perform this demonstration, Alcatel was assisted by UK broadcasters Sky, ITV and BBC. It is understood that representatives from European mobile operators, TV broadcasters, industry analyst firms and regulatory bodies were able to see the content received on a SAGEM myMobileTV
Also: Portuguese commercial broadcaster TVI has teamed with mobile operator Vodafone Portugal to launch trial digital television broadcasts to mobile phones using DVB-H technology.
The project permits the reception of channels in DVB-H in the Greater Lisbon area and is supported by Portugal’s sole private television transmission network - Media Capital’s RETI
The BBC and Microsoft
The BBC and Microsoft have signed a "memorandum of understanding" for developing the next generation of the corporation's internet-based services.
The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, and the director of new media, Ashley Highfield, agreed the non-exclusive deal with Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates, in Seattle.
A BBC statement said: "The memorandum of understanding will define the framework within which the companies can explore opportunities for the delivery and consumption of BBC content and the evolution of next-generation broadcasting
UK digital TV tops 70%
The proportion of households in the UK which received digital television services on their primary TV set increased slightly during the three months to June 2006, to reach 70.2 per cent, according to data released by UK comms regulator Ofcom, which derived the figure using a new calculation methodology.
According to Ofcom, sales data can no longer be relied on to produce the most accurate estimates of new DTT-only homes. Now that DTT has become a mass-market product, Ofcom believes that the best way to gain a clear view on how take-up trends are changing is to use survey-based research. The research data used in the latest quarterly report was provided to Ofcom by research agency GfK, which surveys 18,000 homes per quarter in relation to take-up and usage of digital and multi-channel television.
The report indicates that there were over 1.2 million sales of digital terrestrial television (DTT) equipment and 100,000 net subscriber additions to digital pay television services during the quarter, illustrating that a growing number of households are converting secondary television sets. With a further 1.8 per cent of households subscribing to analogue cable services in Q2 2006, the total number of homes receiving some form of multi-channel television stood at 72.0 per cent.
Key developments in the second quarter of 2006 included: the number of households with digital TV equipment rising by over 168,000 to reach almost 17.7 million. Digital terrestrial television-only households grew from 6,387,000 to 6,402,000 over the quarter (using Ofcom’s new methodology), an increase of 15,000.
Hot Bird 8 satelitte goes Live
Eutelsat Communications’ Hot Bird 8 broadcast has entered commercial service at 13 degrees East. The craft is the largest and most powerful broadcast satellite serving Europe. The satellite has 64 Ku-band transponders which span the entire range of frequencies used at Eutelsat's Hot Bird neighbourhood for broadcasting more than 950 television channels and 550 radio stations to over 113 million homes. The size and configuration of Hot Bird 8 enables Eutelsat to increase in-orbit redundancy at its premium video neighbourhood and releases Hot Bird 3 for its new mission at 10 degrees East.
The Telenor's Research Prize 2006 has been awarded to Professor Petri Mähönen
The Telenor Research Prize is an annual award. The theme for the prize is selected by an international award committee. Telenor wishes to further emphasise the importance of research and innovation within Information and Communication Technology, with the award of this prize. The theme for the prize in 2006 has been "Innovative solutions for emergency communications" and the award committee decided to award the prize to Professor Petri Mähönen.
As grounds for the jury's decision the committee has noticed Dr. Mähönen's work on architectures for high capacity wireless systems and self organizing networks, which combined with ad hoc routing, provide capability to make easy and rapid deployments of radio systems into emergency areas. Equally important for this is his work on embedding intelligence in to the wireless systems to optimize the use of scarce resources. He has been one of the pioneers in developing this paradigm towards cognitive wireless networks
New Zealand News:
CoolTouch Monitors has appointed Cobalt Technologies as the exclusive dealer of their range of LCD video monitoring products in New Zealand.
"We are delighted to have an experienced New Zealand distributor like Cobalt Technologies to bring our professional LCD video monitors to the New Zealand market" said Cian de Buitléir, Vice President of CoolTouch.
"Cobalt is pleased to be associated with CoolTouch and to be able to introduce these very competitively priced, professional monitors to New Zealand. We are sure that with their combination of quality construction and performance they will quickly gain widespread acceptance in our price conscious market." said Geoff Durrant of Cobalt.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: new uses for mechanical television technology
Today, a mechanical system of a sort has seen moderate popularity. DLP (Digital Light Processing) projectors use an array of tiny (16 μm²) electrostatically-actuated mirrors selectively reflecting a light source to create an image. Many low-end DLP systems also use a colour wheel to provide a sequential color image, a common feature of many early color television systems before the shadow mask CRT provided a practical method for producing a simultaneous color image.
Another place where high-quality imagery is produced by opto-mechanics is the laser printer, where a small rotating mirror is used to deflect a modulated laser beam in one axis while the motion of the photoconductor provides the motion in the other axis. A modification of such a system using high power lasers is used in laser video projectors, with resolutions as high as 1024 lines and each line containing >1500 points. Such systems produce, arguably, the best quality video images. They are used, for instance, in planetariums.
Internet Protocol Television (Broadband TV) versus High Definition Television, I am writing an article on this interesting area in television development. it will be posted around Chrisitmas 2006.
| 
