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1.9.2010: Icareus delivers Interactive OTT SeniorTV™ Service Platform

2010-09-01T21:34:03Z

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

2010-09-01T09:47:21Z

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

2010-08-31T14:21:19Z

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

2010-08-26T13:53:08Z

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

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

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

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 DVB-H are registered trademarks of the DVB Project.

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

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.

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.