Saturday, March 29, 2008

IPTV service from Reliance Communications

Reliance IPTV brings to you the best, most interactive and personalised TV viewing experience and focuses on providing high-quality video and enhancing your overall TV viewing experience.
It redefines TV viewing, creating immersive experiences for its customers at the click of a remote button.
User Interface -> Seamless and intuitive, supported by your language of choic

Remote Control ->Multi-functional, operates STB, TV and DVD/VCR.

Set-Top-Box->simple installation and self-provisioning of services

Reliance IPTV will offer the largest library of national, international and regional video content – movies, music, and more. No more bad prints or fear of using pirated movies. Choice of over hundreds of TV channels including High Definition (HD) channels and exclusive Reliance Channels.

It is now available in select areas of Mumbai,but is poised come in the major cities and towns.Watch out for the HD TV experience!

Background(Article from Business Line)

Digital television platforms gaining ground
March 25: Cable television might take a back seat with digital television platforms such as Direct-to-Home (DTH) and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) gaining ground. According to a study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), over 28 per cent of an estimated 10-crore cable-television households would migrate to platforms such as DTH and IPTV by 2010.
Players like Tata and Zee have already started testing the waters and many more corporate houses such as Reliance and Bharti are also set to launch their services in the domestic market.
Mr David Godfrey, Director (Operations), NDS, Asia Pacific, told Business Line there is massive growth happening in the DTH sector with the launch of new platforms offering attractive services to the television consumer. He said that mobile TV and IPTV are in their infancy and offer a different set of issues. “The Indian market has the right mechanics for multiple methods of delivery, including digital media such as broadband and mobile. However, the infrastructure is immature when compared to the coverage of DTH and cable in terms of sheer volume, plus the capacity required. This is particularly so with mobile TV where delivery, standardisation and enabling technologies are yet to be made available.”

Microsoft Mediaroom

Microsoft Mediaroom is the latest update of the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition platform software, intended for use in a set-top box to access on-demand as well as live television programming on an Microsoft IPTV network. It was announced on June 18, 2007 at the NXTcomm conference.[1] Microsoft Mediaroom has been adopted by AT&T (U.S.), BT (UK), SingTel (Singapore), T-Home (Germany) and Reliance (India)[2] as their IPTV delivery platform. The software is slated to be ported for the Xbox 360 platform soon
[edit] OverviewMicrosoft Mediaroom includes all the features of Microsoft TV IPTV Edition, including support for on-demand and live video, video recording and time shifting, and interactive program guide with integrated search and scheduled recording. It includes the ability to record two HD streams while watching two SD streams simultaneously. In addition, it adds several other features including media sharing and Multiview. Personal Media Sharing allows media content to be streamed from an Windows Media Connect enabled system to the Mediaroom set top box. Multiview is an implementation of picture-in-picture that allows multiple channels or multiple camera angles of the same program to be seen on the screen simultaneously. Microsoft aims to supplement Digital Terrestrial Television with this platform.[3] It also integrates with Xbox 360 console.
Microsoft Mediaroom also includes Microsoft Mediaroom Application Development toolkit which can be used to author applications that run on the Microsoft Mediaroom platform. The Mediaroom Personal Server can be used by developers to simulate the Mediroom environment for testing purposes.[4] It is currently available only to Mediaroom content-providers.
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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Tata acquires Jaguar, Land Rover

Tata Motors Wednesday entered into a definitive agreement with Ford Motor Company for the purchase of Jaguar Land Rover for around US $2.3 billion. This comprises brands, plants and Intellectual Property Rights. The transfer of ownership to Tata Motors is expected to close by the end of the next quarter. At closing, Ford will then contribute up to $600 million to the Jaguar Land Rover pension plans. . As part of the transaction, Ford will continue to supply Jaguar Land Rover for differing periods with powertrains, stampings and other vehicle components, in addition to a variety of technologies, such as environmental and platform technologies. Ford also has committed to provide engineering support, including research and development, plus information technology, accounting and other services. In addition, Ford Motor Credit Company will provide financing for Jaguar and Land Rover dealers and customers during a transitional period, which can vary by market, of up to 12 months. The parties believe these arrangements will support Jaguar Land Rover's current product plans, while providing Jaguar and Land Rover with the freedom to develop its own stand-alone capabilities in the future that will best serve its premium manufacturer requirements. Jaguar Land Rover’s employees, trades unions and the UK government have been kept informed of developments as the sale process progressed and have indicated their support for the agreement.

Is Tata slowly capturing the world?