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Finland is setting the standard for connected TV services

2012-04-26T13:01:35Z

Press release April 17, 2012
Members of the Finnish HDTV Forum are planning to adopt the standard for connected televisions defined by the TV-specifications body NorDig. The NorDig Unified Specification for Hybrid Services is based on HbbTV standard (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV). Members of the Finnish HDTV Forum see the HbbTV specification having a wide market acceptance supporting wide range of TV applications and new hybrid services.

Supporting HbbTV as part of the NorDig Unified specification is a natural selection for Finnish market to harmonize the receiver market in all TV networks – which are already following NorDig specifications. European TV markets including the Nordic region have been waiting for a standard for connected TV services and HbbTV specification is enjoying a strong position for example in Germany, France and Spain. Now also Finnish television industry see HbbTV as an interesting platform to offer new hybrid TV services.

Most of the 400.000 annually sold TV receivers in Finland are equipped with Internet connection and all the main broadcasters have their services available over the Internet. “We see that HbbTV will be a major standard and launching it together with other market players in Finland gives a great start for bringing various services based on HbbTV available to viewers” says Technology Manager Mr. Matti Lampinen from Sanoma Entertainment Finland Oy.

“Without a common standard we have found it difficult to develop our offering of Internet-based TV services on the TV screens”, says Mr. Risto Koivula the CTO of MTV MEDIA. Mr. Koivula continues: “Solutions based on the HbbTV specification will help us to reach the Finnish TV households in both broadcast and IP adding more value for the TV screen”.

All the biggest television manufacturers have confirmed their support for HbbTV and NorDig for Finland. First HbbTV compatible receivers are expected to be available for consumers before Summer 2012. The members of the Finnish HDTV Forum are hoping that HbbTV becomes a standard feature in all connected televisions in Finland the same way as the Teletext service has been since the early 1980’s.

Other Finnish HDTV Forum member organizations supporting HbbTV
Digita Oy, www.digita.fi
Finnish Federation for Communications and Teleinformatics, FiCom ry, www.ficom.fi
Icareus Ltd., www.icareus.com
LG Electronics Nordic AB, www.lge.com
Panasonic Nordic, www.panasonic.fi
Philips Oy, www.philips.fi
Samsung Electronics Nordic AB, www.samsung.fi
Satelliitti- ja antenniliitto SANT ry, www.sant.fi
Sofia Digital Ltd., www.sofiadigital.fi
Sony Europe Ltd., www.sony.fi

Additional information
Ms Jessica Glad
Management Assistant
Icareus Group
Email: Jessica.glad[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

More information about specifications
NorDig: www.nordig.org
HbbTV: www.hbbtv.org

HbbTV is a registered trademark, Copyright © 2012, IRT GmbH

4.4.2012: Advanced HbbTV Solutions for European Markets from Icareus

2012-04-04T08:11:06Z

Helsinki, April 4th, 2012 – Icareus, the leading TV Applications and Solutions vendor, continues to expand its strong HbbTV product portfolio with new vertical solutions for HbbTV. These solutions include HbbTV Starter Pack, Catch-up TV application, Enhanced EPG application as well as integrated social media applications for Facebook and Twitter.

The HbbTV Starter Pack is a complete and robust turn-key solution with HbbTV Applications, Management platform and a HbbTV streamer for broadcasters and operators who want to go into business with HbbTV.

Icareus Catch-up TV Application enables broadcasters to deploy a HbbTV user interface quicly and with minimal investment.

EPG is the gateway to TV programs and Icareus Enhanced EPG takes it to next level by offering e.g. integrated catch-up TV and social media experience. Icareus Facebook and Twitter applications offer an HbbTV user interface to these popular social media services with full fledged user experience.

“I am extremely enthusiastic to announce these new products as they show the capabilities of our long term product development. Our customers can now rely on Icareus to deliver full turn-key solutions with 24/7 support, if needed, without the need for extended integrations and large budgets”, says Mr Mikko Karppinen, Director of Icareus.

The new advanced solutions are built on top of Icareus’ existing HbbTV products, namely Icareus Playout CS100 Carousel for HbbTV and Icareus iTV Suite Manager, which is the OTT video and apps management platform of Icareus.

Icareus is commited to the HbbTV standards and will continue throughout 2012 and onwards to release new products including support for the upcoming HbbTV 1.5.

More information:

Ms Jessica Glad
Management Assistant
Email: jessica.glad@icareus.com

6.3.2012: NRK selects Icareus HbbTV Carousel server

2012-04-04T08:11:06Z

The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), the public broadcasting company and the largest media organisation in Norway, selected Icareus Playout CS100 Carousel for their HbbTV Trials that are carried out during 2012.

The trials will utilize Playout CS100 to deliver various HbbTV applications from Catch-up TV to informative services. The trial's purpose is to verify HbbTV as techical platform to deliver value added TV applications as well as gather end-user feedback.

Icareus Playout CS100 Carousel™ is the leading solution for TV operators and broadcaster for DVB interactive datacasting services. Icareus Playout 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/or IP-networks . All carousels are generated in real-time, and both the carousel content and AIT application signalling can be updated dynamically. Icareus Playout CS100 Carousel server supports HbbTV, MHP, OCAP (tru2way), ETV/EBIF, Ginga and MHEG-5 based applications.

NRK, The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (www.nrk.no), is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest media organisation in Norway. Every day allmost nine out of ten Norwegians use one or more of NRK's offerings, whether on TV, radio, internet or other plattforms. NRK is among the most successful broadcasters in Europe and has always managed to hold a leading position in technology and methods for providing the audience with the best content.

More information:

Ms Jessica Glad
Management Assistant
Icareus Group
Email: Jessica.glad[at]icareus.com

1.11.2011: Icareus’ Carousel Server to MediaCorp, Singapore

2012-03-17T08:47:11Z

Helsinki / Singapore, 1.11.2011: Icareus Technologies has delivered the Icareus Playout CS100 Carousel server to Mediacorp, the national broadcaster of Singapore.

Icareus Playout CS100 Carousel enables Mediacorp to enhance their services by distributing wide variety of interactive value added applications to their customers over national terrestrial network. The service portal includes applications like news, games, weather service, kids world, government app and cooking app.

The CS100 version for DVB-MHP delivered to MediaCorp is to upgrade their former obsolete solution. Icareus CS100 offers a future proof solution for Mediacorp by adding the support for HbbTV specification as an option.

Icareus Playout CS100 Carousel™ is the leading solution for TV operators and broadcaster for DVB interactive datacasting services. Icareus Playout 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/or IP-networks . All carousels are generated in real-time, and both the carousel content and AIT application signalling can be updated dynamically. Icareus Playout CS100 Carousel server supports MHP, OCAP (tru2way), ETV/EBIF, Ginga, MHEG-5, HbbTV based content.

MediaCorp (www.mediacorp.sg) is Singapore’s leading media company with the most complete range of platforms, spanning television, radio, newspapers, magazines, movies, digital and out-of-home media. It pioneered the development of Singapore’s broadcasting industry, with the broadcast of Radio in 1936 and Television in 1963. Today, MediaCorp has over 50 products and brands in four languages (English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil), reaching out to all adults in Singapore every week.

More information:

Ms Jessica Glad
Management Assistant
Icareus Group
Email: Jessica.glad[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

1.11.2011: Icareus launches iTV Games on Philips NetTV

2012-03-17T08:47:11Z

Helsinki, 1.11.2011, Icareus Studios will launch a Kids Game service on the Philips NetTV connected TV platform in Nordic countries.

The Kids Game service includes a variety of fun and entertaining casual games targeted especially for children. The service and the games are localized for all the target countries in the Nordic region. The service is offered through a micropayment based business model. The games service is based on CE-HTML technology.

Philips NetTV (http://www.nettv.philips.com/) is Philips’ connected TV environment. Net TV brings a wide range of online information and entertainment to TV through the manufacturer’s own service platform.

Icareus Studios, part of the Icareus Group, is a global Interactive TV specialist.
Icareus Studios develops Interactive TV services and applications including: games; social media applications like iTV Facebook and Twitter; Information services like Weather, SuperTeletext, News, EPGs and other entertainment & utility services like iTV Radio, Karaoke-On-Demand, T-Government and Senior-TV. Icareus Studios supports +20 different iTV application environments including but not limited to MHP, Try2way/OCAP, Ginga, MHEG, Microsoft Mediaroom, SoftAtHome, NetGem, ORCA, Irdeto, OpenTV, browser based environments (e.g. WebKit, Opera, Ant) and numerous other platforms.

For more Information:

Ms Jessia Glad
Management Assistant
Icareus Technologies Ltd
Email: jessica.glad[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

1.11.2011: Icareus’ OTT Platform to Fintoto’s TotoTV network

2012-03-17T08:47:11Z

Helsinki, 1.11.2011, Icareus Technologies has delivered its iTV Suite Manager for OTT to Fintoto, the national horse betting organization of Finland, for its TotoTV network.

Utilizing the platform Fintoto offers and manages an extensive online video experience to their customers including over 30000 VOD clips and up to 4 daily live broadcasts from horse tracks. The flexibility of iTV Suite enabled the integration to Fintoto’s information databases to create on up-to date and versatile trotting experience.

Icareus iTV Suite Manager™ for OTT is an versatile and expandable OTT platform targeted for service providers such as content owners, operators and broadcasters to manage their multi-screen video and apps distribution. The wide variety of supported end-user devices offers a continuous TV experience for the consumers enabling service providers at the same time to reach their customers throughout their daily life.
Icareus iTV Suite Manager supports currently the following distribution platforms: PC/Web, variety of IPTV/OTT middleware and STBs, Connected TV’s (Samsung, LG, and Philips), DVB networks, iPhone, Android phones as well as social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook.

Icareus iTV Suite Manager integrates with 3rd party systems like VOD servers, monitoring systems, OSS/BSS, streaming servers, contend delivery networks (CDN), CRM systems, billing solutions and 3rd party content management systems.

Icareus iTV Suite Manager can run on a Cloud based environment or on customer’s own servers.

Fintoto (www.fintoto.fi) Fintoto markets and organises horse race betting in an efficient manner in order to ensure the viability of the equine industry throughout Finland. Harness racing is Finland’s second-most popular sport in terms of spectator numbers. Annually, some 800,000 spectators attend race meetings at tracks, while the money spent on Tote betting last year amounted to €203,4 million.

More information:

Ms Jessica Glad
Management Assistant
Icareus Group
Email: Jessica.glad[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

25.10.2011: Alticast and Icareus broaden co-operation

2012-03-17T08:47:11Z

Helsinki/Seoul, 25.10.2011, Interactive TV software and solutions specialist Alticast and interactive content creation and broadcast playout solutions provider Icareus are further expanding their collaboration after the successful delivery of a variety of DVB-GEM (MHP) applications to the Taiwanese operator KBRO, one of Taiwan’s leading MSOs in 2010.

Alticast and Icareus are partnering to fully integrate Alticast’s interactive middleware solutions with Icareus’s iTV Applications, Application Management and Digital Head-End solutions into the interactive broadcast and operator markets worldwide. This deeper collaboration sees Alticast benefiting from Icareus’s iTV Games and Applications, iTV Suite Apps Management Platform as well as the Icareus Playout Head-End products and EPG Server.

The pair suggest that Icareus’s solutions blend nicely into and complement Alticast’s current product portfolio, thus enabling a more comprehensive offering to both new and existing clients.

“The Alticast Icareus relationship will provide a seamless content eco-system based not only on DVB-GEM but also HbbTV, other middleware, and UI/UX solutions from the Alticast product line-up. It will enable Alticast to provide an improved fully interactive environment and experience to our customers and allow them the opportunity to increase and create new revenue streams,” said Anthony Smith-Chaigneau, Managing Director of Alticast EMEA.

Toni Leiponen, Managing Director of Icareus Group, anticipated working more closely with Alticast to expand its footprint to additional markets.

More information:

Ms Jessica Glad
Management Assistant
Icareus Group
Email: Jessica.glad[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

4.8.2011: Icareus iTV Playout Lab System to Irdeto

2012-03-17T08:47:12Z

Helsinki/Beijing 4.8.2011: Icareus has delivered Digital Interactive TV laboratory solutions to Irdeto (http://www.irdeto.com/). The Digital iTV Lab solutions delivered to Irdeto Asia Pacific include three Icareus Playout PC100 Compact products. After the delivery, Irdeto can simulate real digital head-end environments flexibly and cost effectively and offer high quality demonstrations for its clients.

Irdeto is a company developing end-to-end software security, content management and customer care and billing solutions for the delivery, protection and monetization of digital content in digital TV, IPTV and mobile environments.

Icareus Playout PC100 Compact™ is the perfect solution for broadcasters, system integrators, academic institutions and practically anybody who needs a complete broadcasting solution for DVB iTV dataservice testing, development and demoing. Icareus Playout PC100 Compact provides all the basic functionality needed for managing and broadcasting MHP / OCAP (tru2way) / Ginga / MHEG-5 / HbbTV based content. It consists of an object carousel generator, a PSI/SI generator, a scheduler and a transport stream multiplexer. The version delivered to Irdeto is for DVB-MHP/Java environments.

Contacts and more information:

Ms Jessica Glad, Assistant
Icareus Technologies Ltd
Email: Jessica.glad[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

4.8.2011: Icareus’ multinetwork EPG solution for Cedetel

2012-03-17T08:47:12Z

Helsinki/Madrid, 4.8.2011, Icareus Technologies has delivered multinetwork EPG playout solution upgrade for Spanish network operator Cedetel. The solution delivery consists of Icareus Playout EP110 EPG Server.

After the delivery, Cedetel is able to provide the EPG data to services in their public DVB networks. The EP110 system is used to broadcast the TV program information and to generate the necessary service information. It generates all the SI data necessary for generating complete DVB services.

Cedetel (www.cedetel.es), The Centre for Development of Telecommunications in Castile and Leon, is responsible of running e.g. DVB-T networks in the area of Castile and Leon, in Spain.

Icareus Playout EP110™ EPG Server is the perfect program data solution for operators and broadcasters who needs a robust, versatile and economical complete program data solution for multiple digital TV networks. EPG Server is used to broadcast the TV program information and to generate the necessary service information. It generates all the SI data necessary for generating complete DVB services. Sister product Icareus Playout EP100 ™ EPG Server is targeted for single network use. For more information visit: www.icareus.com/web/guest/epg-server

More information:

Ms Jessica Glad
Management Assistant
Icareus Group
Email: Jessica.glad[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

4.8.2011: Icareus’ iTV Suite and Apps to Mediacorp

2012-03-17T08:47:11Z

Helsinki/Singapore, 4.8.2011: Icareus has delivered a set of its off-the-shelf HD applications with customized user interface and its leading content authoring tool Icareus iTV Suite Author for Mediacorp’s trial.

The delivered applications include:
• Games: Sudoku and Darts in 1080i HD resolution
• Advertising Application for a known brand
• EyeCode micro payment solution to enable billing for the games
• EPG application
• Mobile Portal that enables viewers to preview mobile content

Icareus iTV Suite Author is an intuitive and versatile visual content development tool for iTV applications. It allows to localize Apps without any technical skills, decreases the development time and removes the need for software development as it offers WYSIWYG user interface. For more information visit here

MediaCorp (www.mediacorp.sg) is Singapore’s leading media company with the most complete range of platforms, spanning television, radio, newspapers, magazines, movies, digital and out-of-home media. It pioneered the development of Singapore’s broadcasting industry, with the broadcast of Radio in 1936 and Television in 1963. Today, MediaCorp has over 50 products and brands in four languages (English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil), reaching out to all adults in Singapore every week.

22.6.2011: Icareus brings Interactive Radio to Videocon D2H platform

2011-06-22T10:59:20Z

Helsinki / Delhi, 22.6.2011, Icareus Studios has delivered an Interactive Radio application to Videocon’s D2H platform.

The developed Interactive Radio applications offers a custom built interface for end-users to browse, select and listen to radio channels broadcasted over a DVB-S2 network. In addition to normal listening features the application includes e.g. visual description of each channel, information of current and following songs etc.

The Interactive Radio application is developed on Irdeto’s (http://www.irdeto.com) Java based middleware environment.

Videocon D2H (http://www.videocond2h.com) is one of the newest DTH service providers in the Indian market. Despite of its relatively short history, it has grown aggressively and reached 3 million subscribers by April 2011, just one and a half years after the service launch.

Icareus Studios, part of the Icareus Group, is a global Interactive TV specialist.
Icareus Studios develops Interactive TV services and applications including: games; social media applications like iTV Facebook and Twitter; Information services like Weather, SuperTeletext, News, EPGs and other entertainment and utility services like iTV Radio, Karaoke-On-Demand, T-Government and Senior-TV. Icareus Studios supports +20 different iTV application environments including Microsoft Mediaroom, MHP, Tru2way/OCAP, OpenTV, numerous browsers with JavaScript/HTML, Flash, etc.

More Information:

Ms Jessica Glad
Management Assistant
Icareus Group
Email: jessica.glad[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.

More information: www.icareus.com or follow Icareus on Twitter: twitter.com/Icareus

22.6.2011: Icareus Interactive Digital TV Lab to SENA Medellín

2011-06-22T10:51:42Z

Helsinki / Medellin, 22.6.2011: Following a delivery to SENA (http://www.sena.edu.co) in Bogotá in 2010, Icareus has delivered another Interactive Digital TV Laboratory to SENA in Colombia. This time the Lab solution was installed to SENA in Medellín.

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 digital TV devices and training. After the delivery, SENA Medellin is able to develop, test and pilot Interactive TV services in a laboratory environment and thereby provide professional digital-TV education services both to public and private sector organizations 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 data service testing and development. Icareus Playout PC100 Compact provides all the basic functionality needed for managing and broadcasting MHP / OCAP (tru2way) / Ginga / HbbTV 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 Jessica Glad
Management Assistant
Icareus Technologies Ltd
Email: jessica.glad[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 (EPG, ESG, DVB-SSU, Data/Object Carousel, Lab Systems) 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.

Among Icareus clients are e.g. Telekom Austria, Videocon D2H, 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: www.icareus.com or follow Icareus on Twitter: twitter.com/Icareus

22.6.2011: Icareus’ HbbTV platform for Digita

2011-06-22T10:46:20Z

Helsinki, 22.6.2011, Icareus Technologies has delivered Interactive TV playout environment for HbbTV service testing and piloting for Finnish terrestrial network operator Digita. The solution delivery consists of Icareus Playout PC100 Compact™ and an undisclosed HbbTV application.

After the delivery, Digita is able to develop, test and broadcast Interactive HbbTV services in a laboratory or public network environments.

Digita (www.digita.fi) is Finnish network operator responsible of running e.g. DVB-T and DVB-H networks in Finland. Digita is a part of the French TDF Group. Digita is the first company piloting HbbTV in Finland.

Icareus Playout PC100 Compact™ is the perfect solution for broadcasters, operators, systems integrators, academic institutions and practically anybody who needs a complete solution for digital broadcast iTV dataservice testing and development. Icareus Playout PC100 Compact provides all the basic functionality needed for managing and broadcasting HbbTV / MHP / OCAP (tru2way) / ACAP / Ginga / MHEG-5 based content. It consists of an object carousel generator, a PSI/SI generator, a scheduler and a transport stream multiplexer. The version delivered to Digita supports HbbTV services.

More information:

Ms Jessica Glad
Management Assistant
Icareus Group
Email: Jessica.glad[at]icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801

Icareus Technologies Ltd

15.12.2010: Icareus delivers DVB-H Mobile TV solutions to Jamaica

2011-03-16T18:00:55Z

Helsinki, December 15th, 2010 – Icareus Technologies’ DVB-H Mobile TV Playout solutions are powering the recently launched LIME TV in Jamaica.

LIME Jamaica (part of Cable & Wireless Communications Plc.) is partnering with DC Digital to offer DVB-H mobile-TV services to LIME’s customers. In the beginning the service will consist of ten channels and it will be available for both pre-paid and post paid customers in the Greater Kingston area and ST. Catharine.

The Mobile-TV delivery made to LIME and DC Digital consisted of Icareus Playout ES100 ESG Server™ and Icareus Playout IE100 IPEncapsulator™ solutions. In addition, Icareus integrated the Playout solutions with a 3rd party conditional access system.

Icareus Playout ES100 ESG Server™ provides Electronic Service Guide (ESG) information about the services available in an IP Datacast environment. Through the information in the ESG, a user can select the services and items of interest. The ESG also provides information that enables the terminal to connect to the related IP stream in the transport stream. In addition, Icareus ES100 utilizes the Interctive Objects of Oma-Bcast standard giving an opportunity to provide value added Interactive services over Mobile TV service. Icareus Playout ES100 ESG Server supports open Mobile TV standard like Oma-Bcast, IPDC as well as DVB-H, ATSC M/H and ISDB-Tb/1seg environments. The version delivered to LIME and DC Digital supports Oma-Bcast and DVB-H standards.

Icareus IE100 IPEncapsulator™ is a DVB-H compliant IP datacast solution using MPE (Multiprotocol Encapsulation) of IP data into MPEG-2 Transport Stream. The Encapsulator can be used both in centralized network configurations where IP Encapsulation is performed at the head-end, and in distributed network configurations where IP Encapsulation is performed at the broadcast cell. When configured for head-end usage, the Encapsulator can be deployed in an effective N+1 redundancy configuration, where each Encapsulator provides the MPE feed for a regional or an SFN network. When used at the broadcast cell, the Encapsulator can multiplex and re-time-slice national MPE feeds with local MPE feeds. The IP Encapsulator provided to LIME and DC Digital supported also statistical multiplexing so that valuable bandwidth could be saved.

Icareus Technologies is a part of the Icareus Group, a global digital and Interactive TV technology specialist company. Icareus Technologies provides interactive content creation and broadcast playout solutions for cable, satellite, terrestrial and mobile TV networks.

Contacts and more information:

Ms. Jessica Glad
PR & Marketing
Email: jessica.glad@icareus.com
Telephone: +358 (0)9 2289 0801
Icareus Group

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 (EPG, ESG, DVB-SSU, Data/Object Carousel, Lab Systems) 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 or follow Icareus on Twitter: twitter.com/Icareus .

1.9.2010: Icareus delivers Interactive OTT SeniorTV™ Service Platform

2010-09-28T05:06:08Z

Helsinki, September 1st, 2010 – Icareus has developed a new kind of Interactive OTT TV service targeted to Senior citizens in Finland. The first customer of the OTT platform and SeniorTV™ service is a Finnish company called EcoTec that launches it under its own brand SmartCare TV™ (SCTV).

The SeniorTV™ enables Ecotec to offer end users a service that helps senior citizens to have more independence and live longer at home, thereby improving their quality of life. Communication is an important part of life and SeniorTV™ solution provides a familiar and easy-to-use user interface for one-to-one video calling and other videoconference functionalities that help the senior citizens to be in contact with friends and family. Furthermore, the video communication feature can be utilized for personalised direct communication with doctors and/or nurses to get help in medical problems thus reducing the need for on-site doctor visits. In addition to communication, SeniorTV™ platform provides entertainment features including VOD service, RSS News feeds and simple games suitable for the elderly (memory game, Sudoku, etc.). Additional help for daily living is provided through a remotely managed calendar feature with reminders for taking the medicines and prescheduled activities among others.

EcoTec is a Finnish service company that will manage the OTT platform and SmartCare TV™ service and distribute the services to Finnish senior citizen’s market. SeniorTV™ service platform is developed by Icareus Studios, part of Icareus Group, an interactive TV content production company.

“In Western countries, the so-called baby boom generation is getting old quickly. Unfortunately in today’s hectic world many senior citizens are also lonely. To keep in shape mentally and physically, visual communication with other people is extremely important. SeniorTV is a product for this particular target group and provides a new way to increase our operator partners’ ARPU”, says Mr Mikko Karppinen, Director of Icareus Studios.

“TV is a media that provides a robust platform, economical solution, big screen and easy to use controls, that everyone knows how to use. With our SCTV service platform, we can improve senior citizens’ life quality”, says Mr Jouni Mäkipää, CEO of EcoTec Oy. www.smartcare.fi

In addition to the current SCTV case in Finland, Icareus is looking for OTT, IPTV and Cable operator partners from the global markets.

More information and meeting bookings for IBC2010:

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

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.

Among Icareus clients are e.g. Telekom Austria, Videocon D2H, Telenet, Siemens AG, Tandberg, 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: www.icareus.com or follow Icareus on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Icareus

1.9.2010, Sales Bulletin: Icareus iTV Playout Lab System to BPPT, Indonesia

2010-09-28T05:05:27Z

Icareus has delivered an Interactive TV laboratory environment to BPPT (http://www.bppt.go.id/) in Indonesia. The Lab solution includes Icareus Playout PC100 Compact™, Icareus iTV Suite Author™ content authoring tool and Icareus iTV Suite Component Pack™. The widely deployed and integrated solution enables BPPT to research, develop and pilot Interactive TV services in both laboratory and small local networks and thereby provide professional digital TV research services to public and private organizations in Indonesia. This work is critical in the assessment of new technologies and future deployment of interactive TV in Indonesia. Icareus is extremely proud to be part of this cutting-edge work.

BPPT (Badan Pengkajian dan Penerapan Teknologi) is a non-departmental government agency under the coordination of the Ministry of Research and Technology of Indonesia, which has the tasks of carrying out government duties in the field of assessment and application of technology.

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 / MHEG-5 / HbbTV based content. It consists of an object carousel generator, a PSI/SI generator, a scheduler and a transport stream multiplexer. The version delivered to BPPT is for DVB-MHP environment.

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

Icareus iTV Suite Component Pack™ is an extension to Icareus Authoring tools. The component Pack consists of various components that help in speeding up the development process of iTV applications. The version delivered to BPPT includes MHP application components.

More information and meeting bookings for IBC2010:

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 (EPG, ESG, DVB-SSU, Data/Object Carousel, Lab Systems) 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.

Among Icareus clients are e.g. Telekom Austria, Videocon D2H, Telenet, Siemens AG, Tandberg, 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: www.icareus.com or follow Icareus on Twitter: twitter.com/icareus

31.8.2010, Press Release: Alticast launches Icareus’ iTV Games in Taiwan

2010-09-28T05:04:46Z

Helsinki/Taipei, August 31st, 2010 – Alticast Taiwan has launched Icareus’ Interactive TV games in Taiwanese operator KBro’s cable network.

The games are developed by Icareus Studios, part of Icareus Group, an interactive TV content production company. KBro is Taiwan’s largest MSO with 12 cable systems and 1.1 million subscribers from which 120,000 currently have Interactive devices. KBro is controlled by Carlyle Group, a private-equity fund based in Washington. Alticast Taiwan is part of Alticast group, a global Interactive TV company specialized in open standard digital television.

The games launched are different type of casual games, which are easy to learn and play, but still provide entertaining and challenging moments for different age groups.

“Casual games are the most popular form of gaming nowadays, with more than 60 % of all game plays”, says Mr Toni Leiponen, Managing Director of Icareus Studios, and continues, “TV is used by all age-groups, and casual games are also played by the majority.”

The first launch of the games includes eight Interactive TV games, but new games are provided in order to keep the service fresh and interesting for end-users, who can buy different kinds of gaming and subscription packages.

“In Alticast we want to create mutually lucrative co-operation and maximize the ARPU for our ITV operator partners through open standard technologies and Interactive services”, says Mr. Brandon Wu, AVP of Alticast Taiwan and continues, “We look forward to working in co-operation with Icareus Studios regarding the gaming and other Interactive services in KBro and hopefully some other operator cases.”

More Information Icareus:

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

More Information Alticast:

Mr. Brandon Wu
Marketing
Email: bwu@alticast.com
Telephone: +886 2 27041175

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.

Among Icareus’ clients are e.g. Telekom Austria, Videocon D2H, 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: www.icareus.com or follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/icareus

Alticast
Alticast is the most deployed MHP solutions provider in the digital interactive TV service industry. It is the first and only company to provide a complete end-to-end service solution for the DVB-MHP, OCAP/tru2way platform, IPTV and Mobile TV industries for interactive broadcasting services.

Founded in 1999, Alticast continues to expand its solution portfolio with leading technologies to meet new requirements in emerging markets. With over 350 employees and 15 million STBs/BD Players deployed, and its dedication to open standards technologies for digital broadcasting, Alticast enables its customers to quickly and efficiently deploy value-added interactive services without being locked in to proprietary systems.

Among Alticast’s clients are e.g. SkyLife, Mediaset, Unitymedia, CJ Hellovision, Time Warner Cable Inc. and Cablevision Systems Corp.

More information: www.alticast.com

26.8.2010, Product Release Bulletin: Icareus launches an object carousel and end-to-end lab solution for HbbTV

2010-09-28T05:03:53Z

Icareus Technologies, part of Icareus Group, an interactive TV solution company located in Helsinki, Finland, has released two new HbbTV compliant products.

Icareus Playout CS100 for HbbTV is a professional DSM-CC object carousel for managing and delivering interactive applications in commercial broadcast networks.

Icareus Playout PC100 for HbbTV is a complete end-to-end laboratory solution for piloting HbbTV services in non-commercial networks. PC100 has an HbbTV object carousel, PSI/SI generator, scheduler and multiplexer packaged in one compact server.

Both new Icareus’ HbbTV products build on the basis of the widely deployed and recognized Icareus Playout product family. Icareus Playout products are currently used in about 30 countries around the world.

Icareus Playout CS100 Carousel Server™ allows the building and supervision of high value-added television services by multiplexing in real time various data coming from multiple sources: DVB-ASI feeds and IP-networks. All carousel generations are done in real time and both the carousel content as well as AIT application signaling can be updated dynamically. Icareus CS100 Carousel Server conforms to HbbTV, MHP, OCAP (tru2way), Ginga and MHEG-5.

Icareus Playout PC100 Compact™ is the perfect solution for broadcasters, operators, systems integrators, academic institutions and practically anybody who need a complete solution for digital broadcast iTV dataservice testing and development. Icareus Playout PC100 Compact provides all the basic functionality needed for broadcasting HbbTV / MHP / OCAP (tru2way) / ACAP / Ginga / MHEG-5 based content. It consists of an object carousel generator, a PSI/SI generator, a scheduler and a transport stream multiplexer.

More information and meeting bookings for IBC2010:

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

Icareus Technologies Ltd

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

2010-09-28T05:03:17Z

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

2010-09-28T05:02:17Z

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.