ANT brings ‘TV everywhere’ experience to your home

Today we’re really excited to announce the launch of our new companion device functionality, ANT Galio Move. ANT Galio Move allows consumers to take their TV experience beyond the living room, by streaming live and recorded content directly from the STB or TV via Wi-Fi to a companion device anywhere in the home. Users can also manage recordings, view the EPG and search for additional programme information, all without interrupting the main TV experience.

Industry analysts recently stated that 70 per cent of device owners use them whilst watching TV; we’ve developed ANT Galio Move in response to this growing demand for a ‘TV everywhere’ experience.

ANT Galio Move supports the development of new business opportunities for STB and TV vendors by introducing application sales and advertising revenues. For broadcasters and operators it enables the delivery of additional valuable content direct to the companion device, signalled from a live broadcast stream.

We will be demonstrating ANT Galio Move for the first time at this year’s IBC show in Amsterdam, 9 -13 September 2011. So come along and visit us in Hall 4, Stand Number 4.C98.

3D TV proves that content is still king

Although I’m not a tennis fan, I did spend some time following the Wimbledon Championships this year – mostly to see how well the live 3D broadcasts worked. The conclusion seems to be that it was not as successful as it could have been. Technically the BBC did a great job of broadcasting 3D at Wimbledon but as is often the case, the issue is not the technology so much as the content.

Content is still king, and 3D doesn’t change that. 3D hasn’t been successful in the past because it was often used as a gimmick rather than as a tool to drive compelling stories, and there is still a risk that this will continue to be the case. While we can now convert movies filmed in 2D to provide a 3D experience, that doesn’t mean the results (or the movies) are any good. John Cassy, channel director for Sky 3D pointed this out at the recent Intellect Consumer Electronics 2011 event:

"It's very easy to make bad 3D … At Sky we only make native 3D programmes, and our first stage of production is always to forget about the 3D altogether. Because first and foremost, it's a TV programme - and if the story isn't right or it doesn't make any sense or it's not compelling, it's not good enough and we won't buy it."

Andrew Denham from Panasonic agrees: "Hollywood damaged 3D by rushing so many badly converted films out in the Avatar's wake."

It’s easy to get caught up in the technology and forget what the end user wants. 3D is still “appointment viewing” for most people – you’ll watch a special event in 3D, but not your regular evening’s TV. A glut of poor (or poorly-converted) content, coupled with the continuing expense and inconvenience of 3D glasses, could stop this being special enough for people to justify it. It still remains to be seen if the industry has learned the lessons of previous 3D fads.

TV gets connected

As I mentioned at the beginning of the week, connected TV and 3D TV have been heavily featured at CES this year. Today I spent some time looking into the various connected TV’s on show. What’s immediately apparent is that there is a great deal of similarity between many of the devices. This raises an obvious question which relates back to one of the main reasons that TV manufactures added connectivity in the first place – differentiation. If they all feature the same content they’re back to square one.

There are some good examples of VoD services such as Netflix and LOVEFiLM, where the revenue stream is clear. However, it’s harder to see how Sudoku style games will excite the consumer and generate revenue for an app developer or device manufacturer. Yahoo was demonstrating perhaps the most complete solution, confirming that its business model will rely on ad funding, although this was the one area that was not demonstrated.

There is certainly widespread acceptance of connected TV from device manufacturers, which is good news for the consumer. It will be interesting to see which of the device manufacturers will publically disclose its sustainable business model first.

CES goes 3D...

Day 2 of CES has proved to be as hectic as the first. In between various press and analyst briefings I managed to fight my way through the crowds to see both Sony and Samsung’s latest 3D TV developments. Sony had invited ESPN to talk about its experiences one year on from the launch of ESPN 3D. In an impressive presentation, ESPN showed some stunning 3D content, not least the extreme sports. They also took the opportunity to announce that from 14th February 2011 they will be showing 3D TV content 24/7.

The majority of demos on both the Samsung and Sony booths required either passive or active glasses. However, I was interested to see the glasses-free (autostereoscopic) implementation that Sony had on show. While it was delivered in carefully a controlled environment – dark room, small viewing area etc it was far better than previous attempts I’ve seen in the past. Toshiba has a product in the field in Japan, however Samsung believes that this technology is still at least five years away from being ready for mainstream deployment and Sony did not disclose release plans.

3D TV remains a hot topic for the industry, along with connected TV. However when I’m asked by friends whether it’s time to invest in a new 3D TV set my advice remains the same – wait just a little bit longer.

Greetings from Vegas

Happy New Year and Greetings from Las Vegas, we’re at CES and those who have attended in the past will know just how big the event is and the broad range of technologies on show. First impressions are that it’s bigger than ever, I’ve yet to see official attendance numbers but it certainly feels busy – the three hour taxi queue at McCarren Airport was a giveaway. This, I hope, represents optimism for the market. It’s a big event for the TV industry with 3D TV and Connected TV sure to be heavily featured. I’m looking forward to seeing the latest developments from across the market over the next few days.

I was disappointed not to get the opportunity to see many Google TV implementations up close, after it asked TV makers not to show Google TV demos. But, I was able to see what Intel had to offer. My initial reaction was why had it included the on-screen cursor, URL and search dialog? The presentation stressed that the aim is not to bring the PC to the TV. However, it seemed to be doing exactly that. Do consumers really want to navigate their TV content with a cursor and keyboard? It seems to me that Intel and Google are missing the point here, the TV is not another device to surf the Web on – we already have laptops, phones and iPads that do this perfectly well from the comfort of the living room sofa.

Sky kick start new era with 3D TV

Sky today announced the launch of its 3D channel, marking a turning point in the TV viewing experience as 3D is well on the way to becoming a TV staple.

This shows that 3DTV is not just a flash in the pan and it’s now a force to be reckoned with. It has made the leap from the Big Screen into our living rooms transforming TV viewing for the future. However, whilst the 3D TV experience is impressive, it’s still a fairly expensive technology and viewers might need some convincing before they’re prepared to invest.

Recent research from Deloitte shows that only two per cent of British consumers plan to buy a 3D TV in the near future. And many viewers will have recently bought a new TV surrounding the HD TV hype.

In order to convert the mass market, content is key. And with promises to broadcast 14 hours a day in 3D, Sky are clearly in a strong position to kick start this new TV era. With TV fast gaining pace with the technologies of the Big Screen, the way is paved for an all encompassing viewing experience.