Finnish Interactive TV Company, Icareus, Trumpets "Strong Sales" for 2009

Helsinki-based interactive TV company, Icareus, contacted [itvt] Tuesday with an update on its trading activities for 2009. In spite of the ongoing recession, the company claims to have ended the year with "positive feelings": "Despite the world economy being as cold as the winter in Finland, we at Icareus are quite satisfied with the year 2009--both our turnover and results improved and we have been able to build new promising customer relationships," Icareus managing director, Toni Leiponen, said in a statement emailed to [itvt]. "Furthermore, the new year looks better then ever before, so we are eagerly looking forward, into the future."

Icareus is comprised of two businesses: Icareus Technologies, which is billed as providing a turnkey product range for interactive content creation and broadcast playout for cable, satellite, digital terrestrial and mobile TV environments; and Icareus Studios which is billed as providing interactive and participation TV content and services for TV channels/networks and pay-TV operators. The company has subsidiaries in Shanghai and Atlanta, and also operates a sales office in Mexico City.

Icareus has provided a list of its customer wins for 2009. According to the company, its Icareus Technologies arm, among other things:

• Supplied Radio Television Brunei with its Playout CS100 Carousel Server, its Playout EP100 EPG Server, its Playout PC100 Compact lab solution, its iTV Suite Author content authoring tools, and its iTV Suite Integrator server solutions for automatic interactive TV application creation from XML data (note: for more on this deployment, see the article published on itvt.com, January 19th).
• Supplied Spain's Technological Institute of Optics, Color and Imaging (AIDO) with its Playout ES100 ESG Server. Icareus bills the Playout ES100 ESG Server as an aggregation server for collecting ESG metadata from external sources and feeding the output to an external IP encapsulator (i.e. the Icareus IE100 IP Encapsulator for DVB-H). According to the company, multiple ESG content providers are supported and each provider can manage its own metadata information (e.g. programming information and pay-TV pricing information). Delivery of the solution was overseen by Icareus's local partner, Xpertia Soluciones Integrales.
• Supplied an interactive TV lab solution to Columbia's Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA). The company says that the solution is comprised of its Playout PC100 Compact for MHP networks, its iTV Suite Author MHP content authoring tools, its iTV Suite Integrator for automatic creation of MHP-based ITV services from XML data, and its iTV Suite Component Pack of interactive TV devices and training. According to Icareus, the lab solution enables SENA to develop, test and pilot interactive TV services in a lab environment and "give professional education to public and private organizations in Columbia." Delivery of the solution was overseen by Icareus's local partner, Pieme.
• Supplied its EP100 EPG Server to Spain's Cedetel, which it says will use it "to provide SI/PSI generation and transmission service to the regional TV channel, TV Castilla y Leon."

Meanwhile, the company says that during 2009 its Icareus Studios arm, among other things:

• Supplied interactive TV games to India's D2H. According to the company, D2H's games service will initially feature eight games and a gaming portal, all in SD format. The games are based on Java technology running on Irdeto's IDway middleware.
• Supplied participation TV solutions to Jamaica's TV-J. According to the company, its technology powered "the record-breaking SMS interaction that supported TV-J’s programming in Jamaica during the 2009 Berlin World Championships in Athletics." It says its solution consisted of custom-made content built with its iTV Suite for Participation TV and its iTV Suite Manager.
• Published new IPTV applications and games on a range of platforms, including ANT Galio, Microsoft Mediaroom, SoftAtHome, Ericsson IPTV, and more.
• Supplied interactive TV Games to Radio Television Brunei. According to the company, RTB's games service will include 10 MHP-based interactive TV games and a games portal, all of which will be available in both SD and HD. RTB plans to launch the games under its own "Electric Game Portal" brand later this year.