What will change in our TV in 2012 (7/11) the development of VOD

So the connected TV has a long way to go, an area should capitalize on growth in sales of these intelligent TV: VOD.

When we talk about TV connected, also known as necessarily «delinearisation contents». A term for consumption now free media according to the desire of the spectator and no longer the source media. Basically, we consume what we want, whenever you want. This is a new way to access for both TV programs and films.

«This new way of browsing the content will be federating for the general public, says Frank Coppola, president of Hexaglobe, specializes in technology and digital media, in his report on the connected TV. On the one hand, the young audience to take back the "small screen" by his finding there way to see the media. The other, people who had never taken the step of consulting demand content will be put gently.»

connected TV

The development of TV catching up VOD

 Two services should be widely acclaimed on our new smart TV VOD and catch-up TV. All manufacturers offer indeed access to this type of offer on their online service portals. And although, for now, all TV stations offering free catching up programs are not yet present on TVs connected (they are more on the box triple play), it should not take too long. The connected TV is set to become an important distribution channel (in addition to tablets, internet, smartphones and box), on which they can not be too long absent.

VOD programs

The VOD is better than the Blu-ray

 About the VOD, she has displayed, in 2011, a 50% growth with sales of 230 million euros. This is more than the Blu-ray which is still struggling to attract a wide audience with sales reported only 210 million euros to publishers. The offer on VOD has also expanded considerably and now has about 20,000 programs.

And although she represents less than 20% of video market (which weighs 1.49 billion) still largely dominated by the DVD, VOD has visibly bright future. First, because with the TV connected, it found the scattering vector ideal. «For some people, watching a video on his computer is not" natural ", simply because they lack the necessary facilities like a large screen or sound quality,» says Frank Coppola. Second, because with the new media chronology, movies are available four months after their theatrical release, as for the DVD and Blu-ray. Third, because with the current quality of Internet connections, you can start playback without waiting for the download. And finally, because the quality tends to improve with, on some services, can rent HD movies (including the portal Sony).

The good formula of the VOD?

 Now remains to find the right formula to meet the needs of viewers. Would it not be wise to propose also the smart TV, in addition to buying, subscription options? That already offers Canalplay with Infinity to offer 9.99 euros / month (no commitment) and neufbox via the Freebox. Canalplay stating also that this offer will soon be available on the Bbox, PC / Mac and iPad.

And connected TVs fit in? For now, only the rental unit is proposed. «Once found the correct model, marketing activities and communication will take off and the rest will be even faster than the devices are already in homes, says Frank Coppola. There is nothing to buy, just a cable to connect.»

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IBM Buys HTML5 App Development Company WorkLight For $70M To Expand Mobile Enterprise Services

IBM just announced the purchase of WorkLight, an Israeli startup that provides a mobile app development and infrastructure software. IBM says the acquisition will help expand the enterprise mobile capabilities it offers to clients. Financial terms were not disclosed but we've heard that the acquisition price is around $70 million.WorkLight, which has raised $18 million in funding, allows organizations develop and deliver HTML5, hybrid and native applications with, and deliver these applications with mobile middleware, security features and integrated data management and analytics. Worklight dramatically reduces time to market, cost and complexity while enabling better customer and employee user experiences across more devices.]]>

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Ambarella Shows off iOne SoC Applications, Wireless Camera Development Kit

Last CES I dropped by Ambarella where they had just announced their iOne smart camera SoC. Ambarella is a big player in the camera and encoder ASIC business, and the importance of adding high-end ISP and video encoding as smartphone cameras become a very important topic. On one hand, we have smartphones increasingly becoming the camera of choice, and on the other, cameras becoming increasingly smartphone-like. As a refresher, the iOne consists of two Cortex A9s, an ARM 11 for camera management, and PowerVR SGX 540 graphics, alongside Full HD 1080i60 encode/decode. The promise last year was to combine Android or Linux alongside some of the traditional camera DSP for a big jump in quality.

This year Ambarella showed off a number of products including the iOne SoC, including the Sony Bloggie Live, which runs Android (although in a locked, under-the-hood fashion). The platform lends the device the ability to both encode 1080p video, and live stream to services like qik, or share from its own WiFi hotspot (and DLNA) to iOS and other mobile platforms. 

Also on display was a tablet by Panodic running Android 2.3.x and 4.0.1 being used as a set top box with HDMI out playing full BluRay disk 1080p H.264. The Panodic also includes a camera on the backside for stills and video.

Gallery: Ambarella iOne Devices and Wireless Sharing

WiFi sharing (getting an image out from the device on onto a smartphone or tablet for sharing) is also an increasingly relevant use case - something I routinely try to accomplish with an EyeFi card in conjunction with a portable hotspot. Ambarella will enable similar streaming and image download functionality in its A7L SoC with Qualcomm Atheros running SoftAP and newly announced Wireless Camera Development Kit. 

It's clear that the smartphone/tablet platform and P&S camera will eventually merge at some point, as the device you always have on you ends up being the smartphone. The stepping stones to getting there are inclusion of some of the traditional camera DSP inside SoCs with application processors suited to running beefier OSes like Android. 

Source: Ambarella

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We're Giving Away a Qualcomm MSM8660 Mobile Development Platform

Last month Brian put together a performance preview of Qualcomm's first dual-core SoC: the 1.5GHz MSM8660. The article was mostly focused on GPU performance as the new Adreno 220 is something we were very interested in. The first MSM8660 based smartphones will ship this year, but we benchmarked the SoC using Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon Mobile Development Platform (MDP).

Starting today, the MSM8660 MDP will be available for purchase by any developer through BSQUARE for $1350. Qualcomm's MDP is a nice way of getting a head start on developing for the next-generation of Android handsets based on Snapdragon SoCs.

What if you're an Android developer on a budget? Qualcomm was nice enough to provide us with a MSM8660 MDP to give away to one lucky reader. Read on for details on how to enter the contest.

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