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28.4.2010, Sales Bulletin: Icareus EPG Server to Dansk Bredbaand, Denmark

2010-04-28T12:23:59Z

Icareus has delivered EPG server to Dansk Bredbaand (www.dbnet.dk) in Denmark. Dansk Bredbaand will use Icareus Playout EP100 EPG Server for broadcasting and generating TV program and service information.

Dansk Bredbaand operates several cable networks in Denmark, and it is one of the leading providers of broadband solutions based on optic fiber technology in Denmark.

The EPG Server generates all the SI data necessary for generating complete DVB services. The server generates the requisite PSI/SI tables and sends them to an internal multiplexer and on to the selected output device. The EPG data is received to Icareus EPG server in Dansk Breedband installation from EPGsales.com service in XML format.

The Icareus Playout system consists of two modules: the server (Playout Server) and a client (Playout Management Console - PMC). PMC interacts with the Playout Server using a TCP/IP based network protocol. Any number of clients can connect to a Playout Server and a single PMC installation can be used for controlling multiple Playout Servers.

Icareus Playout EP100 EPG Server is one of the market leading EPG server products and it has gained position with economical price, robust technology and multiple input and output option making it easy to integrate with existing head-end platforms. Please check also: http://www.icareus.com/playout/epgserver

Contacts and more information:

Ms Jenni Kurvinen, Assistant
Icareus Technologies Ltd
Email: jenni.kurvinen[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Icareus Technologies Ltd
Icareus Technologies Ltd is one of the leading companies in the area of interactive, digital and mobile television technologies providing a turnkey product range for interactive content creation and broadcast playout solutions in cable, satellite, terrestrial and mobile TV networks. Icareus Technologies offers its products and services for broadcasters, cable-, satellite- and mobile operators, Universities, Research Institutes and TV service providers, having customers and partners in more than 40 countries around the world.

15.1.2010, Press Release: Icareus delivers Interactive TV Solutions to RTB, Brunei

2010-01-15T12:24:49Z

Helsinki, January 15^th, 2010 – Icareus, an interactive digital TV company, has delivered Interactive TV Solutions to Radio Television Brunei (RTB). The delivery includes the latest versions Icareus Playout CS100 Carousel Server™, Icareus Playout EP100 EPG Server™, Icareus Playout PC100 Compact™ for MHP, Icareus iTV Suite Author™ MHP content authoring tools and, Icareus iTV Suite Integrator™.

Radio Television Brunei (www.rtb.gov.bn) is the national broadcaster of Brunei and it broadcasts five digital TV of channels – RTB 1 and RTB 2 as simulcast, RTB 3 (HD), RTB 4 (International) and RTB5, and five Radio networks. With Icareus’ iTV products and solutions, RTB interactivates all their TV channels based on MHP standard environment.

“I am extremely glad that one of the forerunning TV broadcasters of Asia, Radio Television Brunei, has chosen Icareus as their Interactive TV partner”, says Mr Toni Leiponen, Managing Director of Icareus Group.

Icareus’ product range delivered to RTB includes:

Icareus Playout CS100 Carousel Server™ A professional DSM-CC Object Carousel server. Icareus Playout Carousel Server supports Normal Play Time (NPT) and playout of Stream Events. The server can also be integrated with third party automation systems for synchronisation with play lists and schedulers.

Icareus Playout EP100 EPG Server™ is a full scale PSI/SI generator server targeted for operators and broadcasters. It supports DVB-T, DVB-S and DVB-C including automatic generation of all main service information.

Icareus Playout PC100 Compact™ is the perfect solution for broadcasters, systems integrators, academic institutions and practically anybody who needs a complete broadcasting solution for DVB iTV dataservice testing and development. Icareus Playout PC100 Compact provides all the basic functionality needed for managing and broadcasting MHP / OCAP (tru2way)/Ginga based content. It consists of an object carousel generator, a PSI/SI generator, a scheduler, videoserver and a transport stream multiplexer.

Icareus iTV Suite Author™ iTV Suite Author is an intuitive and versatile visual content development tool which enables rapid development of digital TV content by anyone, eliminating the need to hire an expensive technical team.

Icareus iTV Suite Integrator™ enables content owners to integrate their XML content data sources with iTV application creation, allowing them to create and update the iTV applications automatically.

Among Icareus clients are e.g. Siemens AG, Tandberg, RiksTV AS, Samsung Electronics, NEC Europe, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, RAI Torino, Ericsson AB, Teleca Italia SpA, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, LG, Radio Television Brunei, Telecom Italia S.p.A, ORF Austria, Philips Electronics Nederland B.V., Multiplus Ltd, Irdeto, R Cable y Telecomunicaciones, THALES Broadcast & Multimedia and Reti Televisive Digital SpA.

More Information:

Ms Jenni Kurvinen

PR & Marketing

Email: jenni.kurvinen@icareus.com

Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Mr Mikko Karppinen

Business Director, Icareus Technologies

Email: mikko.karppinen@icareus.com

Telephone: +358 (0)41 501 5993

Icareus Technologies Ltd

Icareus Technologies Ltd is one of the leading companies in the area of interactive, digital and mobile television technologies providing a turnkey product range for interactive content creation and broadcast playout solutions in cable, satellite, terrestrial and mobile TV networks. Icareus Technologies offers its products and services for broadcasters, cable-, satellite- and mobile operators, Universities, Research Institutes and TV service providers, having customers and partners in more than 40 countries around the world.

More information: www.icareus.com .

DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) and MHP are registered trademarks of the DVB Project.

11.1.2010, Sales Bulletin: Icareus’ MHP Lab Solution to SENA, Colombia

2010-01-11T07:39:50Z

Icareus has delivered Interactive TV laboratory environment to SENA (http://www.sena.edu.co) in Colombia. The Lab solution includes Icareus Playout PC100 Compact™ for DVB-MHP networks, Icareus iTV Suite Author™ MHP content authoring tools, Icareus iTV Suite Integrator™ MHP for automatic iTV service creation from XML data, Icareus iTV Suite Component Pack™, Interactive TV devices and training. After the delivery, SENA is able to develop, test and pilot Interactive TV services in a laboratory environment and thereby provide professional digital-TV education services to public and private organisations in Colombia.

The Lab solution delivery was overseen by Icareus’ partner Pieme Ltda (Productos De Ingeniería Electromecánica), based in Bogotá, Colombia.

SENA (Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje) is a public institution in Colombia, which manages State’s responsibility to invest in social and technical development of Colombians offering and carrying out free professional training. SENA has 33 regional areas, 115 training centers and it has presence in all 1099 municipalities in Colombia.

Icareus Playout PC100 Compact™ is the perfect solution for broadcasters, systems integrators, academic institutions and practically anybody who needs a complete broadcasting solution for DVB iTV dataservice testing and development. Icareus Playout PC100 Compact provides all the basic functionality needed for managing and broadcasting MHP / OCAP (tru2way)/Ginga based content. It consists of an object carousel generator, a PSI/SI generator, a scheduler and a transport stream multiplexer.

Icareus iTV Suite Author™ is an intuitive and versatile visual content development tool which enables rapid development of digital TV content by anyone.

Icareus iTV Suite Integrator™ enables content owners to integrate their XML content data sources with iTV applications and to update the applications automatically.

More information:

Ms Jenni Kurvinen, Assistant
Icareus Technologies Ltd
Email: jenni.kurvinen[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Icareus Technologies Ltd
Icareus Technologies Ltd is one of the leading companies in the area of interactive, digital and mobile television technologies providing a turnkey product range for interactive content creation and broadcast playout solutions in cable, satellite, terrestrial and mobile TV networks. Icareus Technologies offers its products and services for broadcasters, cable-, satellite- and mobile operators, Universities, Research Institutes and TV service providers, having customers and partners in more than 40 countries around the world.

DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) and MHP are registered trademarks of the DVB Project.

11.1.2010, Sales Bulletin: Icareus’ DVB-H ESG Server to Aido, Spain

2010-01-11T07:34:52Z

Icareus has received an order regarding its product Icareus Playout ES100 ESG Server for DVB-H to Aido (http://www.aido.es), Spain.

Aido is the Technological Institute of Optics, Colour and Imaging (AIDO). It is a private non-profit company created in 1988 by the Valencian Parliament through the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Institute of Valencia (IMPIVA) with the aim of supplying technological solutions to companies through industrial optics.

Icareus Playout ES100 ESG Server acts as an aggregation server for collecting ESG metadata from external sources and feed the generated output to an external IP Encapsulator, e.g. Icareus’ IE100 IP Encapsulator for DVB-H. Multiple ESG content providers are supported and each provider can manage their own metadata information, e.g. TV program information and pay-tv pricing information.

The Icareus ES100 ESG Server supports both DVB-IPDC and OMA BCAST 1.0 Service Guides and also Oma Bcast Interactive objects.

The Icareus Playout system consists of two modules: the server (Playout Server) and a client (Playout Management Console - PMC). PMC interacts with the Playout Server using a TCP/IP based network protocol. Any number of clients can connect to a Playout Server and a single PMC installation can be used for controlling multiple Playout Servers.

The ESG Server delivery is done by Icareus’ partner Xpertia Soluciones Integrales, based in Madrid, Spain.

Xpertia is mainly focused in the Digital TV business, providing consultancy, training, and project management services. One of the main business lines for Xpertia is the design and integration of Digital TV laboratories.

More information:

Ms Jenni Kurvinen, Assistant
Icareus Technologies Ltd
Email: jenni.kurvinen[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Mr Daniel Roqués, Socio Director
Xpertia Soluciones Integrales S.A.
Email: droques[at]xpertiasi.com
Telephone: +34 914 855 361

11.1.2010, Sales Bulletin: Icareus’ EPG Server to Cedetel, Spain

2010-01-11T07:31:23Z

Icareus has delivered its product EP100 EPG Server to Cedetel (http://www.cedetel.es), Spain. Cedetel will use the Icareus EPG server in production use in order to provide SI/PSI generation and transmission service to the regional TV channel TV Castilla y Leon.

Icareus EP100 Playout EPG Server is used in broadcasting TV program information and generating necessary service information. The EPG Server generates all the SI data necessary for generating complete DVB services. The server generates the requisite PSI/SI tables and sends them to an internal multiplexer and on to the selected output device.

The Icareus Playout system consists of two modules: the server (Playout Server) and a client (Playout Management Console - PMC). PMC interacts with the Playout Server using a TCP/IP based network protocol. Any number of clients can connect to a Playout Server and a single PMC installation can be used for controlling multiple Playout Servers.

The EPG Server delivery is done by Icareus’ partner Xpertia Soluciones Integrales, based in Madrid, Spain.

Xpertia is mainly focused in the Digital TV business, providing consultancy, training, and project management services. One of the main business lines for Xpertia is the design and integration of Digital TV laboratories.

More information:

Ms Jenni Kurvinen, Assistant
Icareus Technologies Ltd
Email: jenni.kurvinen[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Mr Daniel Roqués, Socio Director
Xpertia Soluciones Integrales S.A.
Email: droques[at]xpertiasi.com
Telephone: +34 914 855 361

11.1.2010, Sales Bulletin: Icareus Studios’ iTV Games to D2H Videocon, India

2010-01-11T07:28:22Z

Icareus Studios has delivered Interactive TV Games service to D2H in India.

D2H is a satellite operator providing a DTH service in Indian market. D2H is a part of the Videocon group, which is an industrial conglomerate with interests all over the world and based in India. The group has 17 manufacturing sites in India and plants in China, Poland, Italy and Mexico and has an annual turnover of US$ 4.1 billion, making it one of the largest consumer electronic and home appliance companies in India.

The D2H’s game service will include 8 Interactive TV games at the first stage and gaming portal in SD (Standard Definition) format. The delivered games are based on Java technology running on Irdeto’s IDway middleware.

Icareus Interactive TV games are so-called casual games, which can be e.g. puzzle, word, simple action, arcade and other family-friendly, non-violent games. The game titles include e.g. JungleTrix, Crosswords, BlockSmasher, The Titan Expedition, Trivia, Memorize, Max The Hungry Monkey, Tennis, Sudoku, BlackJack, Solitaire, Darts, Caveman and Scratch Lottery.

Icareus’ casual game portal is targeted to both broadcasters and operators that want to offer casual games to be played alongside programming (scaled video can be included in the game) or while waiting for the favourite show to start and even generate revenues.

More information:

Ms Jenni Kurvinen, Assistant
Icareus Technologies Ltd
Email: jenni.kurvinen[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Icareus Studios Ltd
Icareus Studios Ltd provides multi-channel content and services for TV channels, cable, satellite, terrestrial, mobile and IPTV operators. With the highly-experienced sister company Icareus Technologies Ltd taking care of the technical implementation, Icareus Studios delivers turn-key content solutions with basically no start-up time which will enable you to increase your revenue right from the start! Icareus Studios content catalogue contains the best IPTV and iTV games and applications for digital television, Participation TV Formats, Full screen and low screen content and Cross-media content. Icareus Studios has customers and partners in more than 40 countries around the world.

11.1.2010, Sales Bulletin: Icareus Studios’ iTV Games to RTB, Brunei

2010-01-11T07:25:54Z

Icareus Studios has received an order regarding Interactive TV Games service delivery to Radio Television Brunei. The game service will include 10 Interactive TV games and gaming portal in both SD (Standard Definition) and Full HD (High Definition) versions.

Radio Television Brunei (www.rtb.gov.bn) is the national broadcaster of Brunei and it broadcasts four TV channels, RTB 1, RTB 2, RTB 3-HD and RTB-4-International, and five radio networks. With Icareus’ iTV technologies, RTB interactivates all their TV channels.

RTB will launch the iTV games under its own “Electric Game Portal” service brand in January 2010. The delivered games are based on MHP standard and technology.

Icareus Interactive TV games are so-called casual games, which can be e.g. puzzle, word, simple action, arcade and other family-friendly, non-violent games. The game titles include e.g. JungleTrix, Crosswords, BlockSmasher, The Titan Expedition, Trivia, Memorize, Max The Hungry Monkey, Tennis, Sudoku, BlackJack, Solitaire, Darts, Caveman and Scratch Lottery.

Icareus’ casual game portal is targeted to both broadcasters and operators that want to offer casual games to be played alongside programming (scaled video can be included in the game) or while waiting for the favourite show to start and even generate revenues.

More information:

Ms Jenni Kurvinen, Assistant
Icareus Technologies Ltd
Email: jenni.kurvinen[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Icareus Studios Ltd
Icareus Studios Ltd provides multi-channel content and services for TV channels, cable, satellite, terrestrial, mobile and IPTV operators. With the highly-experienced sister company Icareus Technologies Ltd taking care of the technical implementation, Icareus Studios delivers turn-key content solutions with basically no start-up time which will enable you to increase your revenue right from the start! Icareus Studios content catalogue contains the best IPTV and iTV games and applications for digital television, Participation TV Formats, Full screen and low screen content and Cross-media content. Icareus Studios has customers and partners in more than 40 countries around the world.

30.9.2009, Press Release: Icareus and Shanghai Telecom sign cooperation agreement

2009-09-30T08:15:01Z

Helsinki/Shanghai, 30 September, 2009 – Icareus, an interactive digital TV group, has signed a cooperation agreement together with Shanghai Telecom.

Shanghai Telecom is a subsidiary of China Telecom, the largest fixed network telecommunications operator and the second largest operator in China. Shanghai Telecom launched a commercial trial of IPTV already in 2005. Currently, Shanghai Telecom has more than 600 000 IPTV subscribers. The number of IPTV subscribers is expected to reach 1 million by the end of 2009. Shanghai Telecom is the leading IPTV operator in China.

According to the contract, signed in September, Icareus Studios Ltd will offer IPTV games to Shanghai Telecom to be offered to their IPTV customers. Shanghai Telecom’s IPTV subscribers will soon enjoy Icareus’ entertaining games on their home television.

“The cooperation strengthens our opportunities to serve our customers in China”, says Mr. Mikko Karppinen, Director of Icareus Technologies. Icareus has been working in China for the past year. In May, this year, Icareus acquired Innosonic Information Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. “The business transaction enabled Icareus to have stronger presence in China and this is now bearing fruit”, continues Mr. Karppinen.

”IPTV games are one of the most important application types for the Shanghai Telecom IPTV service. Cooperation with Icareus will help us provide good service to our subscribers”, said Mr. Zhu, Director of Shanghai Telecom’s IPTV Centre and continues, “New games from Icareus will continue to improve our subscribers’ user-experience.”

Icareus concentrates in two business areas in China:

IPTV applications and services
Interactive Mobile services

Icareus’ IPTV games and applications portfolio includes 20 titles and part of the development work has already been moved to China.

Among Icareus’ clients are, e.g., Siemens AG, Tandberg, RiksTV AS, Samsung Electronics, NEC Europe, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, RAI Torino, Ericsson AB, Teleca Italia SpA, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, LG, Radio Television Brunei, Telecom Italia S.p.A, ORF Austria, Philips Electronics Nederland B.V., Multiplus Ltd, Irdeto, R Cable y Telecomunicaciones, THALES Broadcast & Multimedia and Reti Televisive Digital SpA.

More Information:

Ms. Jenni Kurvinen
PR & Marketing
Email: jenni.kurvinen@icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Mr. Kevin J. Tang
Business Development Director, APAC
Email: kevin.j.tang@icareus.com
Telephone: +86 21 3250 4230

Icareus Group

Icareus Group is one of the leading companies in the area of interactive television. Icareus activates media companies to increase their revenues and customer satisfaction by creating TV- centric interactive services and technologies. Icareus offers its content and solutions for broadcasters, cable-, satellite- and mobile operators, TV and media production companies and service providers, having customers and partners in more than 30 countries around the world.

13.5.2009, Press Release: Interactive Media specialist Icareus has acquired Innosonic China

2009-05-15T07:44:01Z

Helsinki, May 13th, 2009 – Icareus, an interactive digital TV group, has acquired Innosonic Information Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of a Finnish mobile company Innosonic Ltd.

Innosonic Ltd is based in Jyväskylä, Finland, and is specialized in developing mobile content and distribution technologies. Innosonic China has its offices in Shanghai. Through the business transaction Icareus now owns Innosonic China including its products and rights.

“The acquisition strengthens our capabilities to serve our Chinese customers and tap to the opportunity in the mobile industry and IPTV, which both are growing rapidly in China”, analyzes Mr. Mikko Karppinen, Director of Icareus Technologies, and continues, “Jukebox platform gives us a robust mobile content delivery platform and I am really enthusiastic about the videoringtone technology, which provides us completely new business for operators and advertisers”.

Icareus has been working in China for the past two years and as the market is growing the need for stronger local presence was required. Icareus will concentrate in two business areas in China:

IPTV applications and services
Interactive Mobile services

Icareus’ current IPTV games and applications portfolio includes 20 titles and part of its development will be moved to China. The mobile technology has been created by Innosonic and Icareus will continue its development. Jukebox platform will be utilized to deliver the mobile video content to end-users.

“With the help of our new business entity in China and leading Icareus solutions, we will publish some new major business deals already during this summer”, promises Mr. Mikko Karppinen, Director of Icareus Technologies,

Among Icareus clients are e.g. Siemens AG, Tandberg, RiksTV AS, Samsung Electronics, NEC Europe, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, RAI Torino, Ericsson AB, Teleca Italia SpA, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, LG, Radio Television Brunei, Telecom Italia S.p.A, ORF Austria, Philips Electronics Nederland B.V., Multiplus Ltd, Irdeto, R Cable y Telecomunicaciones, THALES Broadcast & Multimedia and Reti Televisive Digital SpA.

More Information:

Ms Jenni Kurvinen
PR & Marketing
Email: jenni.kurvinen(at)icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Mr Kevin J. Tang
Business Development Director, APAC
Email: kevin.j.tang(at)icareus.com
Telephone: +86 21 61042220

Icareus Ltd is one of the leading companies in the area of interactive television. Icareus activates media companies to increase their revenues and customer satisfaction by creating TV centric interactive services and technologies. Icareus offers its content and solutions for broadcasters, cable-, satellite- and mobile operators, TV and media production companies and service providers, having customers and partners in more than 30 countries around the world.

18.3.2009, Press Release: New IPTV Games Portfolio to increase ARPU

2009-03-18T08:06:01Z

Helsinki, March 18th, 2009 – Icareus Studios, part of Icareus Group, an interactive TV content production company located in Helsinki, Finland, has released a new portfolio for IPTV operators.

Icareus Studios is one of the leading companies in the world providing Interactive TV Games. Icareus’ portfolio has included e.g. Participation TV games for SMS text message interaction and Java based Interactive TV games for DTT, Cable, Satellite and IPTV environments. However, the new, now released Game portfolio also includes games targeted for browser based IPTV environment used by operators all around the world. The new IPTV Game portfolio includes an assortment of casual IPTV games.

“Casual games is the most popular form of games nowadays, with more than 50% of all game plays”, says Mr Toni Leiponen, Managing Director of Icareus Studios, and continues: “TV is used in all age-groups, and the casual games are also played by everybody. In Icareus we want to provide entertaining Interactive content for all TV users.”

The new portfolio includes some of the old Icareus’ Java iTV game favourites ported to browser environment, and in addition some new casual games. All the games are single player games, but later this year Icareus will launch also e.g. multi-player games to browser environment.

“We want to create gaming partnerships with IPTV operators by providing different kind of Interactive games, with different kind of business models, which create mutually lucrative co-operation and maximize the ARPU for our IPTV operator partners.”, continues Mr Leiponen.

Among Icareus clients are e.g. Telekom Austria, Telenet, Siemens AG, Tandberg, RiksTV AS, Samsung Electronics, NEC Europe, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, RAI Torino, Ericsson AB, Teleca Italia SpA, ATV+, MTV Italy, MTV3, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, LG, Radio Television Brunei, Telecom Italia S.p.A, ORF Austria, Finnish Broadcasting Corporation, Philips Electronics Nederland B.V., Multiplus Ltd, Irdeto, R Cable y Telecomunicaciones, and Reti Televisive Digital SpA.

More Information:

Ms Jenni Kurvinen
PR & Marketing
Email: jenni.kurvinen(at)icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Mr Toni Leiponen
Managing Director, Icareus Studios
Email: toni.leiponen(at)icareus.com

Icareus Studios Ltd, part of Icareus Group

Icareus Studios Ltd provides multi-channel content and services for your TV channel, cable, satellite or IPTV network or even to your web portal. Icareus Studios’ content catalogue contains the best IPTV and iTV games and applications for digital television, Participation TV Formats, Game shows, Full screen and Low screen content and Cross-media content - let us show you how appealing and lucrative content we can offer!

Icareus Group is one of the leading companies in the area of interactive television. Icareus activates media companies to increase their revenues and customer satisfaction by creating TV centric interactive services and technologies. Icareus offers its content and solutions for broadcasters, cable-, satellite- and mobile operators, TV and media production companies and service providers, having customers and partners in more than 30 countries around the world.

23.2.2009, Press Release: SysMedia and Icareus form multi-level global stategic allicance

2009-02-25T06:27:13Z

Horley, UK, February 23rd, 2009 – SysMedia, leading specialist in subtitling solutions and content management and production systems for interactive TV and teletext, has formed a multi-level strategic alliance with Icareus, specialist in TV-centric interactive services and technologies.

Icareus, based in Helsinki, Finland, will become SysMedia’s technical partner in interactive digital TV and mobile TV. This involves the integration of SysMedia’s multi-platform Gold content production and management system with Icareus’s playout solutions across MHP, tru2way, DVB-H and MHEG-5 platforms.

Icareus will also operate as a reseller for SysMedia’s globally renowned WinCAPS subtitling products in Latin America and through its sales offices in Montevideo (Uruguay) and Mexico City.

Toni Leiponen, Managing Director, Icareus, says, “The key advantages of this strategic alliance are that SysMedia is an experienced and recognised player in the market and our products complement each other in a way that will enable us to bring added value to our customers. We can now offer more comprehensive solutions, more cost-effectively and with a quicker time-to-market.”

Andrew Lambourne, CEO, SysMedia, says, “For our customers, the benefits of this co-operation are clear: a closely integrated end-to-end solution for new digital text-based services and other interactive TV applications backed up by comprehensive market experience. With broadcasters across the world looking for competitive advantage, interactive TV is a proven way of achieving increased brand penetration and this alliance makes those opportunities truly accessible.”

About SysMedia:
SysMedia manufactures products for the broadcast television industry to produce and transmit value-add content such as subtitling and closed captioning, teletext, digital text services and interactive TV. With over 30 years of experience in this specialised sector, customers include BBC, BSkyB, Red Bee Media, Ascent Media, Technicolor, Teletext Ltd, ARD, RTÉ, TVNZ and over 100 others in more than 25 countries worldwide.

SysMedia is also a leading supplier of specialist teletext signal generators for consumer electronics manufacturers. Additional information can be found at www.sysmedia.com.

SysMedia contact:
Andrew Lambourne
Email: Andrew.lambourne@sysmedia.com
Tel: + 44 1293 814200

PR Contact:
Joss Armitage
Jump PR
Email: joss@jumppr
Tel: +44 (0)208 6788115
Mob: +44 (0)7979 908547

16.2.2009, Press Release: New product updates for Mobile TV

2009-02-20T12:59:15Z

Helsinki, February 16th, 2009 – Icareus, an interactive digital TV company located in Helsinki, Finland, has released new product updates for mobile TV.

Icareus Playout™ ES100 ESG Server and Icareus Playout™ PC200 Compact for DVB-H have seen several updates, including support for OMA-BCAST and interactivity.

Icareus iTV Suite 4 Mobile has been integrated with Icareus Playout products to offer full management of interactivity in mobile TV networks, both broadcast and unicast.

“As we see the mobile TV coming of age of a teenager the interactivity, standards and business models all become more mature. There are still occasional struggles and disbeliefs, but the general way ahead can be seen. The years in mobile TV business has tought us and we feel that telecom operators and broadcasters are ready for us.” Analyzes Mikko Karppinen, Director of Icareus Technologies, “Our products create completely new revenue sources and the knowledge how to drive consumer revenues from community and interactivity we have from other platforms can now be fully exploited in mobile TV”

Icareus Playout™, product range offers e.g. the following features:

ES100 ESG Server acts as an aggregation server for collecting ESG metadata from external sources and feed the generated output to an external IP encapsulator in IPDC, OMA-BCAST or OAI.

PC200 Compact provides free-to-air broadcast services over DVB-H Networks. It is the perfect solution for broadcasters, system integrators, academic institutions and practically anybody who needs a complete broadcasting solution for testing and development of Mobile TV services using DVB-H.

Icareus iTV Suite 4 Mobile has the following modules:

Author is a WYSIWYG authoring tool to create TV centric mobile Java applciations that utilize DVB-H or 3G networks, e.g. through JSR-272 API.

Player for participation TV is a video rendering engine to broadcast interactive TV channels and applications, such as visual radio, chats, games and jukeboxes

iTV Suite Manager is the back-end solution to manage the interactions in DVB-H, video and mobile (SMS/IVR). It offers a scheduler, ready to go applications and traffic monitoring.

The iTV Suite and Playout are tightly integrated, although offer Java and XML API’s for 3rd parties.

Among Icareus clients are e.g. Siemens AG, Tandberg, RiksTV AS, Samsung Electronics, NEC Europe, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, RAI Torino, Ericsson AB, Teleca Italia SpA, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, LG, Radio Television Brunei, Telecom Italia S.p.A, ORF Austria, Philips Electronics Nederland B.V., Multiplus Ltd, Irdeto, R Cable y Telecomunicaciones, THALES Broadcast & Multimedia and Reti Televisive Digital SpA.

More Information:

Ms Jenni Kurvinen
PR & Marketing
Email: jenni.kurvinen@icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Mr Mikko Karppinen
Business Director, Icareus Technologies
Email: mikko.karppinen@icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)41 501 5993

Icareus Ltd is one of the leading companies in the area of interactive television. Icareus activates media companies to increase their revenues and customer satisfaction by creating TV centric interactive services and technologies. Icareus offers its content and solutions for broadcasters, cable-, satellite- and mobile operators, TV and media production companies and service providers, having customers and partners in more than 25 countries around the world.

DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) and DVB-H are registered trademarks of the DVB Project.

3.9.2008, Press Release: Icareus has taken over Cardinal Information Systems

2008-09-26T09:11:04Z

Helsinki, September 3rd, 2008 – Icareus, an interactive digital TV company located in Helsinki, Finland, has taken over Cardinal Information Systems, also a Helsinki-based Mobile TV company. With the business acquisition all the Cardinal products and IPR’s move to Icareus. Included in the Cardinal’s product range is e.g. Cardinal Playout Compact for DVB-H including Flute, ESG servers and IP Encapsulator. Icareus continues the further development and commercial effort of all Cardinal Playout products.

“Cardinal has been one of the forerunners in digital TV and mobile TV markets and their products are widely recognized by the industry.” starts Icareus’ CEO Toni Leiponen, Managing Director of Icareus and continues: “I am very excited about the acquisition and the way it strengthens our product portfolio. With our strong experience from the interactive TV content production we offer an unchallenged combination of know-how for broadcasters and operators. We are now able to offer our customers a full playout solution for digital TV, both in terrestrial and mobile!“

Among Cardinal clients are e.g. Siemens AG, Tandberg, RiksTV AS, Samsung Electronics, NEC Europe, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, RAI Torino, Ericsson AB, Teleca Italia SpA, Broadcast Service Danmark A/S, LG, Radio Television Brunei, Telecom Italia S.p.A, ORF Austria, Philips Electronics Nederland B.V., Multiplus Ltd, IDway, R Cable y Telecomunicaciones, THALES Broadcast & Multimedia and Reti Televisive Digital SpA.

Cardinal Playout™, now called Icareus Playout™, product range consists of e.g. the following products:

 PC200 Compact provides free-to-air broadcast of IP Datacast services over DVB-H Networks. It is the perfect solution for broadcasters, system integrators, academic institutions and practically anybody who needs a complete broadcasting solution for testing and development of Mobile TV services using DVB-H.

 ES100 ESG Server acts as an aggregation server for collecting ESG metadata from external sources and feed the generated output to an external IP encapsulator e.g. Icareus IE-100 IP Encapsulator for DVB-H.

 IE100 IP encapsulator is an IP encapsulator for DVB-H networks. It provides MPE (Multi-Protocol Encapsulation) with time slicing and insertion of FEC information based on Reed-Solomon calculation. The encapsulator supports parallel time slicing by defining multiple independent MPE Channels. Time slicing is performed independently on each MPE Channel. This enhances performance e.g. by minimizing zapping times when changing between TV channels.

 CS300 Filecasting Server is a FLUTE carousel server with optimized carousel generation, FEC and post-repair functionality. CS300 Filecasting Server is used in Mobile TV broadcast systems for files based content (e.g. ring tones) that is to be broadcasted to a large number of subscribers; any file based data that a Mobile TV application (e.g. voting application, quiz show) may require and delivery of externally generated ESG data.

 Business Server is an extensive J2EE Application Suite that provides services and functionality required by Mobile TV Service Provisioning and Protection (SPP) services.

 PC100 Compact is the perfect solution for broadcasters, system integrators, academic institutions and practically anybody who needs a complete broadcasting solution for MHP/DVB dataservice testing and development. PC100 is a software solution using open standards and running on any standard PC.

 CS100 Carousel Server allows the building and supervision of high quality value-added television services by multiplexing data in real-time. The data can be received from multiple sources: DVB-ASI feeds and IP-networks.

 Targeted at DVB network operators, CS200 SSU Server (bootloading server) provides a central point for the broadcasting firmware upgrades to set-top boxes. The server provides all the means for signalling presence of firmware streams as well as multiplexing all the firmware streams together and performing necessary PID remapping.

Cardinal Studio will be replaced by existing Icareus iTV Suite™ Author content production tool.

Icareus has sold Cardinal DVB-H middleware products to Axel Technologies (www.axel.fi).

Icareus Technologies is a technology provider for operators and media companies. Icareus iTV Suite platform offers tools for interactive TV content production, mobile TV broadcasting and social networking. The platform is divided into following products with their own characteristics: Author, Viewer, Player, Integrator and Manager. Cardinal’s products will be integrated to Icareus iTV Suite Platform.

More Information:

Ms Jenni Kurvinen
Marketing & PR
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801
Email: jenni.kurvinen(a)icareus.com

Mr Mikko Karppinen
Business Director, Icareus Technologies
Telephone: +358 (0)41 501 5993
Email: mikko.karppinen(a)icareus.com

Icareus Ltd
Icareus Ltd is one of the leading companies in the area of interactive television. Icareus activates media companies to increase their revenues and customer satisfaction by creating TV centric interactive services and technologies. Icareus iTV Suite is leading content authoring product family in Europe supporting MHP, Tru2way and other Java environments as well as Participation TV interaction. Icareus offers its content and solutions for broadcasters, cable-, satellite- and mobile operators, TV and media production companies and service providers, having customers and partners in more than 25 countries around the world.

More information: www.icareus.com.

DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting), DVB-H and MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) are registered trademarks of the DVB Project.

1.4.2008: Business Television goes "interactive" in USA

2008-10-15T06:38:15Z

Washington, D.C., April 1st, 2008 – The time for INTERACTIVE or PARTICIPATION TELEVISION has arrived in America, via Finland. INTERNATIONAL INVESTOR, a weekly, business program produced out of Washington, D.C., announced that it will now become truly “interactive” with its audience, enabling viewers to respond to survey questions and comment on interviews instantaneously, through text messaging from their cell phones, and soon from their TV’s remote control device, perhaps the first U.S. television program to do so.

“The prospects for our television program to relate directly to our viewers is tremendous,” exclaims the program’s founder and producer, Robert Sherretta. “With this unique technology, for the first time, audience members will be able to respond directly to what they see on the television, and see their comments and votes recorded on the screen, almost instantaneously. This will enable us to not only explore what our viewers think, but assimilate their views and opinions and enable us to respond back to them, to cultivate our relationship with them,” said Mr. Sherretta.

INTERNATIONAL INVESTOR, a television program focusing on the world economies and financial markets, has teamed up with ICAREUS ENTERTAINMENT SOLUTIONS (IES) of Helsinki, which is providing the technology enabling the audience participation. With its “Turnkey” Interactive Television Technologies, this international company, with an impressive list of major European television channels as references, is a proven partner for many major broadcasters in Europe and Scandinavia.

We like to call it “PARTICIPATION TELEVISION”, reflects ICAREUS founder and CEO Toni Leiponen. “The Participation TV experience encourages viewers to respond, and dramatically turns television audiences into interactive communities. Inter-Active transactions make all the difference between a passive television viewer, and a highly motivated inter-active media user, far more responsive to both programming and advertising,” claims Mr. Leiponen.

“It is encouraging to see how many companies are interested in finding new business models and opportunities in interactive mobile TV” says Toni Leiponen, Managing Director of Icareus and continues: “I am convinced that this group of professional companies participating our Interactive Mobile TV –project will carry out remarkable results.”

But the most exciting prospects for this television program might be in identifying exactly who their viewers are, and the ability to contact them directly, reports Mr. Sherretta. “We already know from our very active website, and e-mails that we have a very powerful, well-to-do and international audience watching our weekly ½ hour report, but now we will be able to correspond with them, inviting them to participate in a wide variety of research and activities. This offers exciting prospects for us, and our advertisers,” offered Mr. Sherretta.

13.2.2008: Leading companies to experiment with interactive mobile TV

2008-09-26T09:12:37Z

Icareus together with several international stakeholders is working on an R&D project outlining the standard based mobile TV interactivity. Project’s goal is to find lucrative ways of doing business utilizing the three of the four forecasted business models of broadcast mobile TV: interactive TV, transactions and advertising business models. In addition, the project includes usability and user experience studies.

11.2.2008: Icareus reveals a Service Guide for DVB-H

2008-09-26T09:43:47Z

Icareus releases it’s new product Icareus ESG Generator for DVB-H based mobile broadcasting. The product is targeted to network operators and broadcasters interested in fast and easy DVB-H service deployment with a solid future roadmap.

5.2.2007, Press Release: IES delivers a Mobile Fantasy Betting game to FC Barcelona

2008-10-15T06:48:19Z

Helsinki, February 5th, 2007 – Under the INCCOM project, Icareus Entertainment Solutions Ltd has developed a Mobile Fantasy Betting Game for the world famous football club FC Barcelona. The new, entertaining game concept is targeted to football enthusiast, especially FC Barcelona fans, who want to add excitement to the football season.

The FC Barcelona Fantasy Betting Game is based on FC Barcelona's real world games. The purpose of the game is to collect points by guessing results and other issues related to FC Barcelona's matches. Before each game, players place their bets via mobile phone on the result of the game; on the player scoring the Barça's first goal; on players getting a yellow card during the game etc. The player who scores best after a single match, a game period or at the end of a season is announced the winner and rewarded with product prizes. To enhance the community effect, players can also build their own teams and challenge their friends or workmates to join it and compete against each other or against other teams.

Fantasy betting games can be played free of charge and, in contrast to traditional betting, players can't win money. However, it is possible to form lucrative business models and generate substantial revenues from players or sponsors. A fantasy betting game helps to increase the amount of regular visitors on a web or mobile site as well as enables collecting information about the registered players for marketing purposes, which in turn leads to the possibility of creating new business models. The exciting, entertaining and cutting edge service helps building a positive image and increases the commitment among sports fans.

The fantasy betting concept can be easily customized for any football or other sports team. IES fantasy betting games have been implemented to sports like Formula 1, DTM, WRC Rally, Olympic Games, Track and Field, Athletics, Ice Hockey and Football. IES has developed and provided different kinds of on-line sports fantasy betting games since 2002. IES Fantasy Betting games for Internet, Mobile and Interactive TV are delivered on turnkey basis including localization and customization.

Icareus Entertainment Solutions Ltd

Icareus Entertainment Solutions Ltd provides cross-media content and services for TV channels, cable-, satellite- and IPTV operators and web portals. IES catalogue includes games and other content for both Interactive TV and Participation TV, including the best MHP/OCAP/IPTV games for digital television, SMS/MMS/IVR games and chats and web-based fantasy betting games. With the highly-experienced sister company Icareus Ltd taking care of the technical implementation, IES delivers turn-key content solutions
with basically no start-up time or costs. Read more www.iesgames.com

More Information
Johanna Frösén
Marketing & PR
Tel: +358 (0)9 2289 0801
E-mail: johanna.frosen@icareus.com

5.12.2006, Press Release: New Mobile TV Services Offered at the Opening of Ideapark

2009-11-05T14:16:35Z

Helsinki, December 5th, 2006 – Icareus together with its partners piloted local mobile TV at the opening of the Ideapark shopping center in Lempäälä, Finland 29.11 – 1.12.2006. During the event, mobile TV and other mobile services were offered to the DVB-H receivers in the area. The purpose of the pilot was to develop, implement and test different kinds of services, including both entertainment and promotional services, targeted to the visitors of shopping centers.

All the services offered at Ideapark were available through OSSG™ (Operator Specific Service Guide). OSSG™ is an application that enables all TV and mobile services, regardless of the network used, to be offered seamlessly through one user interface. In the pilot the user interface was customised to match the look and feel of Ideapark.

The visitors in Ideapark were offered seven local mobile TV channels showing versatile, both informative and entertaining content linked to the event and the shopping center. The Live channel showed live footage from the opening party and other events of the weekend. Ideapark and Shopping channels offered information about the shopping center and its numerous stores. Each of the shops was also given the opportunity to have its own channel, e.g. Sonera Piste channel presented content offered by Sonera. Men, women and children were offered targeted channels showing content especially made to fit the needs and interests of each target group. Still, TV channels were only a part of all services offered. In addition, several other mobile services were available, including information about Ideapark, maps, coupons and games.

The pilot raised a lot of interest among visitors. According to the pilots, it seems that there is demand for this type of services, once the real DVB-H capable phones are available.

The Ideapark pilot was a part of the Icareus’ DVB-H Event 2006 project which includes testing mobile TV and filecasting platforms and relating service concepts in various kinds of public events. The first pilot was conducted at Ilosaarirock festival in July, the second at the EU conference i2010 held in September. The services at Ideapark were offered by Icareus together with Turku University, TeliaSonera Finland, Digita, Ideapark, ICT Turku, Tietokartano, BSMG, Forum Virium Helsinki and Axel technologies. The graphics were designed by Rami Tiihonen.

Icareus Ltd
Icareus Ltd is one of the leading companies in the area of interactive television, including digital television, mobile TV, and IPTV. Icareus offers its solutions for TV-channels, cable, satellite and mobile operators, TV and media production companies and service providers, having customers and partners in more than 20 countries around the world. Icareus’ services include digital TV solutions delivered on a turn-key-basis; Interactive Television content authoring product family iTV Suite, ParticipationTV solutions as well as Interactive MobileTV solutions. Icareus's sister company Icareus Entertainment Solutions Ltd (IES) provides Interactive TV and Participation TV content and services. With an extensive cooperation network with leading companies and institutions, Icareus thrives on pushing the boundaries of interactive television.

More Information:
Ms Johanna Frösén
Marketing & PR
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801
E-mail: johanna.frosen@icareus.com

www.icareus.com

29.9.2006: Interactive mobile TV piloted at i2010 Conference

2008-09-29T09:03:39Z

The second pilot of Icareus’ mobile TV project took place at the i2010 conference held in Espoo, Finland on 28th September. The purpose of the pilot was to develop, implement and test different kinds of services targeted to international conference guests. The piloted package contained services linked to both the conference and the Otaniemi area.

13.9.2006: Icareus at IBC2006

2009-11-05T14:10:40Z

Helsinki, 13 September, 2006 – Icareus participated in the IBC2006 exhibition held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands 8.-12.9.2006 together with its partner Axel Technologies. This year's IBC welcomed more people than ever before with the number of visitors reaching over 44,800.

At the show Icareus showcased its new, innovative interactive mobile TV platform especially targeted for events and exhibitions, which proved to be a real hit among visitors. The new platform enables any organization to locally offer and test mobile TV services, including videos and interactive content. The all-time favorite Icareus iTV Suite product family, including tools for development, commissioning, testing, integration and broadcasting of interactive TV services for MHP, OCAP and IPTV, also raised a lot of interest.

Icareus' sister company, Icareus Entertainment Solutions, was also present showing games and other content for both Interactive TV and Participation TV, which attracted many visitors.

Icareus stand personnel would like to thank all the visitors for coming and hope to see you all again next year!

For further information, please contact
Johanna Frösén
Marketing Assistant
Icareus Ltd.
tel:+358 (0)9 2289 0801
email: johanna.frosen@icareus.com
Internet: http://www.icareus.com
Extranet: http://extranet.icareus.com