News Round-Up

The [itvt] editorial team is currently traveling in the UK, and, because of time restraints, we are covering a number of this issue's news stories in round-up/summary form. We anticipate some additional interruption of our regular news publishing schedule in the coming days, so we apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers. Here is the round-up:

• Netgear has announced an over-the-top set-top box, called the Digital Entertainer Live EVA 2000. Priced at $149.99, the box features a built-in Internet video search engine that Netgear says allows keyword searches of over 100,000 Web sites; and it comes with a free trial of Verismo's VuNow OTT programming service, as well as a free trial of MediaMall Technologies' PlayOn software.
• Around a year after launching a version of the BBC iPlayer for the PlayStation 3, the BBC has launched a new PS3 iPlayer which it says features improved video quality and an enhanced user interface. A blog post from Anthony Rose, controller of Online Media Group and Vision for BBC Future Media & Technology, provides more detail.
• Fashion retailer, New Look, is planning to launch a weekly interactive TV show that will be distributed on a branded YouTube channel. The show will invite viewers to vote on its content and upload their own video. Created by digital agency, Zone, the show is slated to premiere on September 18th. More information is available here.
• Broadcom has announced that its BCM7405 set-top box system-on-a-chip solution has completed Microsoft Mediaroom client integration; according to the company, in addition to supporting such existing Mediaroom features as instant channel change, HD VOD, "DVR Anywhere" and multi-view, the BCM7405 supports interactive TV applications based on the new Mediaroom Presentation Framework, including apps that use content and services from the Internet. Broadcom has also announced new SoC solutions for satellite and cable set-top boxes.
• Entone has announced the integration of its IP video gateways and media hubs with Agama's IPTV monitoring solution. According to the company, the integrated Entone-Agama solution "enables service operators to extend their Agama real-time, 24/7 analysis and monitoring into the subscriber's connected Entone devices within the home, to ensure service quality throughout the entire video delivery chain, from the headend to the set-top box."
• Interactivation, the recently re-named company (formerly known as Mag Rack) that operates the Mag Rack free-VOD niche-magazine service, has announced a deal with Meredith Corporation, a media company that targets a female demographic. The deal will see Interactivation carrying new programming from Meredith and the companies sharing advertising and sponsorship revenues the programming generates. It will also see Meredith selling advertising and sponsorships for current Mag Rack programming.
• TV and video search specialist, TV Genius, has announced a partnership with broadcast technology company, Mirifice, which it says will enable the companies to offer a remote record solution that will allow users to program their set-top boxes from any location via the Web or their mobile phone. TV Genius says that remote record is now included within its EPG and online search platform.
• IPTV set-top box company, Pirelli Broadband Solutions, and WebTView, a company that specializes in Internet video search and classification, have announced the integration of their technologies. "WebTView's software platform specializes in automatic scanning of the Internet to build a normalized and unified Internet video catalog," the companies explain. "This video catalog is verified on an ongoing basis and is presented by Pirelli set-top boxes' uniquely designed user interface. The platform's mapping and transcoding capabilities enable Pirelli STB's to play any video format regardless of its original format."
• Daniel Wagner, a researcher at Austria's Graz University of Technology, has unveiled two new "zooming interfaces" for augmented reality applications on smartphones. "Augmented Reality is constrained to the camera's fixed field of view and restricted to first-person views," Wagner writes on his Web site. "This can limit the amount of overview that users can gain. Typical solutions in AR browsers are overlays (e.g., radars) that are not always sufficiently informative, in particular on small screens. We present two zooming interfaces that compensate for these constraints by enabling users to smoothly zoom between the Augmented Reality view and 1) an egocentric panoramic view at 360 degrees, and 2) an exocentric top-down view."
• EchoStar Europe has announced that it has integrated Slingbox TV place-shifting technology from its corporate stablemate Sling Media, and that it will, for the first time, showcase its SlingLoaded DVR platform for European digital TV operators at the IBC show in Amsterdam later this week.
• The Open IPTV Forum (OIPF) has announced the publication of the Architecture Specification for IPTV infrastructure elements and services to be included in Release 2 of the OIPF Specifications. The Architecture Specification can be downloaded from the publications section of the OIPF's Web site (http://www.oipf.tv).