CWG2010 up bringing New Digital TV Technologies - IPTV

CWG2010 is all set to bring country's biggest sports event on 3^rd October 2010. Well the CWG2010 has definitely done a lot of development for Delhi. Lots of new flyovers, bridges, Metro, parking, bus stands etc. have been developed. World's largest Bus Depot was launched a few days back. We all are watching these infrastructural developments in Delhi, but not only the infrastructure has improved but with CWG, television too is getting latest technologies.

DoorDarshan got HD, which means now the experience of watching the games will be double fun as you will be getting high definition digital quality videos. Another big thing that nation will be hearing about is the use of IPTV. Yes! the CWG village will be providing IPTV services to the players along with the luxury rooms. iControl IPTV which is providing IPTV services along with BSNL / MTNL in 22 cities of India is gonna make it possible. They recently updated on Facebook and Twitter about the news that they will be providing IPTV services for the CWG village. For those who are new to the word IPTV can read my earlier blogs on IPTV.

IPTV technology has lots of features making TV viewing experience lot better. iControl provides features like time shift (named CHILL & COOL). CHILL lets its viewers watch all the that was telecasted on TV up to last 7 days while COOL lets the viewers rewind-pause-play LIVE TV. This means players at their free time can watch all that they missed during their matches. It will be a real high tech facility that they will be getting. Though IPTV is already present in lots of European countries and others as well but, in India its still an emerging technology and hence its presence in games up brings the IPTV in digital technologies. Lets hope that after the games India will get a step ahead of DTH and will initiate to go for IPTV.

It's Reality Show Time

Reality show are back on television. Khatron Ke Khiladi x3 (KKKx3) has already started, Bigg boss 4 (BB4) is about to come and this time its gonna have a competition with Kaun Banega Crorepati 4 (KBC4) and Akshay (Akki) is all set to come with his cooking show (Master Chef India).

KKKx3 with Priyanka is rocking at present, though comparing her with Akki was the most expected thing before the show and people now are comparing two. Some say Akki was better so some have a totally different opinion. Natural phenomenon, different people have different taste but, yes TV world has another topic to talk about.

BB4 too has a different host this time and what a difference they are bringing for their show, Salman khan (Sallu) is the new host of BB4 . Yes Ander Maza toh bahar Mazzzedar. I am eagerly waiting for the BB4 and wanna know who will be the participants. Well on one side craze of watching Sallu is there then on other side I also wanna watch the classy kbc4, yes classy b'coz big B is back on KBC and when he is hosting the show the level gets ever higher. His way of greeting and asking questions is loved by all. I read somewhere that both BB4 and KBC4 will be telecasted at same time, sad news for those who are not having time shift TV. I am not gonna miss any of these coz of the IPTVtechnology.

Recent shows like India's Got talent (IGT) too are going well. In first season of IGT Prince dance group won and will be performing for the CWG2010 next month. Having such shows encourages the talents to grow and expand their wings. Well may be that's another reason why KBC is a hit always, coz it too reaches the common people and gives them an opportunity to fulfill their dreams by earning money with their brain/knowledge.

I don't know what is it that attracts me towards Bigg boss but, from season one I simply love this show. Its just like the strategy or virtual games which become an addiction in a gamer's life, once the show starts I try not to miss even the 12am live telecasts. So once the show will start my tweets on twitter (@bmeenu) and comments on FB will get a increase in stream/updates. For me the real reality show season is about to begin - Its Reality show time .

The Indian Idol OR The Indian idle ?

Indian Idol, the show where talent gets a chance to perform. But what after that? What do these talents do after showing their talent, after winning this show? The Indian Idol is such a popular singing show today, that even its 5th season is getting huge mass of audience and the votes (SMS). I don't know what is it that contestants like in this show. They participate, cry, fight, share their stories of struggle, they become best buddies and then they start the back biting. In fact its hard for me to understand that is this show about popularity? Singing? Or Drama?

I have been noticing one thing since the very first season of Indian idol that at this show Winners come & winner go, they first become the IDOL & then sit IDLE. Season one winner Abhijeet Sawant, released two of his albums – Aap Ka Abhijeet and Junoon. He also sang the Mohabbatein Lutaunga song and acted in the movie Lottery. Nowadays he is seen in reality shows dancing or hosting. Anyways Abhijeet is the only Indian Idol winner who achieved this much after winning the show.

The Season 2,3 & 4 winner Sandeep Acharya, Prashant Tamang, Sourabhee Debbarma are no where today. I haven't heard of them doing some singing. In fact the singers of Indian idol who lost are still seen somewhere. So what does this conclude? Does the show gives a winner who is not deserving?

Voting count of Indian Idol 3 Finale broke records, around 7 crore (70 million) votes were received and Prashant Tamang was the winner at that time. What did he get? An Album with Sony called Dhanyabad and after that? I never saw him on TV after his Album. Sourabhee created history by becoming the first girl to win the Indian Idol title. And that's the only achievement that she had, won the title & created the record. When it comes to singing these winners are hardly seen. After the end of show they are back to their struggle.

I have no knowledge about singing and that is why I can't say that these winners were not deserving. I can't even say that the judges are not choosing the right talent. But I would like to know what is it that brings these winners a lot of audience SMS and No work after winning. I say what I see and observe and my observation is written here. Anyways season 5's top five are chosen and one who will win will be getting a contract to work with YashRaj banners and that will be something good for the winner this time. So keep tracking the Indian Idol season 5 and check out if season 5 winner is the winner for real life or not.

If I were an Advertiser

I wrote a lot on advertisements, some where criticized, some were admired. I always feel like writing what I want in an advertisement. In other way how I would have created an advertisement if I were an advertiser.

There are few things that I personally like in advertisements & would definitely consider before creating an advertisement :

The concept,The Uniqueness and The Creativity & Innovation.

By Concept what I mean is that an advertiser should first be very clear with what he/she is gonna advertise for. The product's details, its key features, its effects/benefits and its strengths. Lets say like Vodafone (The Zoozoos) I know, I know I always talk about them, but can't help it they are actually the best and my favorite. The person behind Zoozoos knows what the product is "The Mobile communication Group", what is the key feature the product wants to flaunt in a particular Ad. What will be the use of that service i.e who will be benefited most should be targeted .

Uniqueness well what else do you want? Zoozoo has all the unique thing in it. Its look, its color, its shape, its language and its the real people in it, not the animated characters. Want to know some more unique things in advertisement world, Happy dent white's light concept (one where mode of light are the teeth), then Frooti's music through the slurps of it, going a bit back in time we loved 7 Up fido dido, Naukri.com's “Hari Sadu” , Favicol Ads. With uniqueness comes creativity, making something unique doesn't mean showing any thing which is different. Use your brain, your imagination and bring out the innovative creativity of yours.

Do We Really Need The 3D TV Now ?

Last 3D movie I saw was Avatar and it was truly a great experience. Watching 3D movie is a bit of struggle for me coz theres no 3D theater in my city and hence have to specially plan for visiting a 3D Theater in neighboring cities. But now 3D televisions are there in the market. I was amazed to hear about the Samsung 3D TV launch in India & was eager to know more about it.

All the craze & excitement died the moment I saw its price. The range starts from Rs 1.3 Lakhs, something that I can't even think about affording. The country like India where a car is worth Rs 1Lakh, selling TV of more than a Lakh is something I feel is not for comman man. And then seeing pros and cons on a TV report I finally concluded that its of no use for me.Leaving the cost, if you still want to buy it, the lack of 3D content in India also makes 3D TV a No.

I read somewhere that “Besides launching its 3D TV, Samsung announced its tie-up with production house DreamWorks Animation for providing 3D content. As part of the tie-up, the company said it will give away 3D version of 'Monsters vs Aliens', an animation movie released last year by Dreamworks, with every 3D television sold.” But I don't think that will be enough for a buyer. One or two 3D movie won't attract customers.

Watching your Non-3D content TV shows on the normal channels ( like Balika Vadhu on Colors) will still be same. You are not gonna see its 3D content, coz there is no 3D content available for all the channels, in fact only a few of Hollywood movies and cartoon movies are there whom you will be enjoying watching on your 3D TV. The channels are slowly moving towards HD contents and I guess providing 3D contents will take a long time.


Third point to note is the 3D glasses, that you will be requiring to wear in order to experience the 3D contents. The users find it odd, wearing their glasses all the time in order to watch their TV. When you purchase a 3DTV, you have to use the same manufacturers 3D glasses to see it. Samsung glasses will not work on Panasonic TVs, as of now it is a proprietary system. Fourth :3D technology works better in a darkened room anyway. So before placing your TV make sure you know that size can fit in the particular location and depending on how much sunlight you get in the room. Just set an environment for your 3DTV in order to enjoy its best.


Bringing 3D TV for now is not a good idea according to me, but once we are done with all these small issues, I am sure we are gonna be another step ahead in the high tech world.

Busy Bee Blogging

Blogging while Working is getting hectic, got so many things to do. And let me tell you that blogging is not just a piece of cake. It takes a lot of time and nowadays I am short of time. In fact I am even missing my IPL matches, though have a solution to that – iControl IPTV, but still blogs have no such solution. Writing need a lot of research & thinking and I guess now I will reduce the frequency of my posts coz I can't compromise with the quality.

Cartoons Aren't Only For Kids Anymore

While writing my previous post I realized that cartoons are no more teaching only kids. They also do have a deep lesson for us, the grown ups. Watching Ratatouille was an experience and learning the lessons from it was another. After realizing that the harsh words of critics are hard to write. And the critic praising a marvelous work, ignoring the other facts is so unacceptable. I now do understand the feelings of both the critic and the creator.
Do you think your kid watching Ratatouille will understand that part? No for him/her the movie is simply a fun movie, at most teaching them that anyone can cook. Kids after seeing the movie might experiment with cooking too. I used to do it, whichever movie I used to watch in my childhood, I use to enter into that character. I remember I saw the bugs life during my school days and all my friends were trying to be Flik (The Ant). We all learned that unity leads to success. I am glad that I am still learning from these cartoon movies.

Kung – Fu – Panda is the best example of a cartoon movie for everyone, its a movie teaching you a lot. Each character in the movie has one or the other management quality. No wonder why my brother had a office self management session. He bought the DVD of the movie for his kids at the time of the movie release and now watched it again to see the part he missed in the session. We were making fun of my brother, but when he narrated the same story with its motivational meanings, we were inspired. The diamond dreamer has explained each character of Kung-Fu-Panda in quite a similar way

Though the list of such masterpieces is long I would still mention few in short. UP asking you to go all out and chase your dreams, its never late. Cars says rushing for our success might tend to miss out on simple pleasures of the life. We should learn to take breaks once in a while and enjoy the simpler things. Finding Nemo simply asking you to explore yourself and let the world know your presence. Its never harmful to go around and learn, you will have few enemies but a lot more friends & well wishers.
Learning from animated movies is not only fun but is really an awesome way of teaching the adults. Organizing some motivational events and showing such movies or short movies really brings a boost for the employees. I personally admire those firms a lot who know how to keep their personnel keep going happily. The zest and the passion to work for the firm can be seen more in such environments where motivation is in the form fun activities like showing cartoon movies, playing strategic games etc.
So next time if your kids are watching cartoon movie better you accompany them and share the lessons learned.

Ratatouille : What Lesson Do We Learn

Watching the toons has always been pleasure. I was watching Ratatouille few days back and simply loved the movie. Must say the animation movies aren't just for kids. Ratatouille had a lot for the critics. My eagerness to know about what the critics felt for this movie brought some sweet & sour results. Though movie was fantastic but the controversial part was about Anton Ego – The critic in the movie.

Richard Corliss had a straight thing to say that "The subtle colors and textures of the food alone make Ratatouille a three-star Michelin evening."

In The New York Times, A.O. Scott views were :

A nearly flawless piece of popular art, as well as one of the most persuasive
portraits of an artist ever committed to film. It provides the kind of deep,
transporting pleasure, at once simple and sophisticated, that movies at their best have always promised.

Roger Ebert just stole my words, he says ;

"This is clearly one of the best of the year's films. Every time an animated film is
successful, you have to read all over again about how animation isn't "just for
children" but "for the whole family," and "even for adults going on their own." No
kidding!"

People ( The critics) admired the animation work, story, but when talking about the Ego's character, most of them disagree with him. Well according to me the movie had a nice script, nice use of words in the dialogues and simply superb quotes, especially of Anton Ego - The critic.

"In many ways the work of us as a critic is very easy. We risk very little. Yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in a grand scheme of things the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so

These last critic comments for the dish "Ratatouille" (cooked by Remy – The Rat) were spellbinding. Simply loved the critic at end. Yes! liked a character rarely liked by others.

Advertisement innovations for IPL – how good or bad they are

IPL... IPL... its everywhere these days. Loving the matches, maximum sixes, shots, the fully packed stadium, the noise of the crowd and the advertisements. As I wrote in my previous post, IPL every time brings something new in the advertisement world for example Vodafone Zoozoo. Even this time IPL brought some new Ads as well as new brands. Karbonn Mobile is one of the new brand seen during IPL season 3. Though the brand is exploring itself to the fullest in IPL but still the quality of advertisement lacks. I after seeing the Ad, got a weird impression. Can't see Karbonn mobiles even a bit close to Nokia, Samsung or sony ericsson . It just looked like another new mobile brand.

As I always believe advertisements have a great power, innovation & creativity. And have always loved watching them I would like to talk about the advertisements in this post. Talking about Mobile phone Ads, have you seen MicroMax's Ad starring Akshay, it attracts the viewers. Akki playing tennis with his mobile "Action sensors – The attractive feature". If you want to show mobile images only (like Karbonn) , then its better you go for static advertising of banners and posters, why TV? Didn't even liked The Axe effect Ad. It looks like they are just forcefully putting cricketers in the Ad, just to add the IPL flavor, the brands are just trying to fit things. I found it stupid seeing bunch of girls running after the player in the field coz of Axe. Idea Oongli cricket is still better, though my sister and mom discovered it now that its a contest going on where you have to guess the things that Abhishek asks during the IPL breaks. So according to me the advertisement should be understandable for the common people.

I saw Komolika (Uravashi dholakia) in Shahrukh khan's Nokia - Main Bhi Coach Ad, liked it. It had fun, comedy and a meaning, something that is catchy. In fact Nokia - Main bhi coach's another Ad of newspaper boy is also cool. Talking about sensible good Tatasky's collection of Cold war ads are also fun watching. Wife annoying the husband with the lift as she missed her serial because of her husband's cricket match, then another one of making noises of mixie and the toast one. All are similar in concept but still my favorite is the one showing lift. Good and proper use of the IPL. I even saw iControl IPTV's Ad starring Jassi (Mona Singh) using the cricket to highlight their Chill (time shift) feature.

At the end would like to express what I desire from the advertisements. No matter which season it is, the ads should be worth watching. A 30 sec Ad should take your attention completely. Picking a cricket season for ads doesn't mean just push the cricketers or cricket into it. Just relate the ad with your product and show it. Once people understand, they get attracted and your Ad spreads the magic. Whenever I talk about Ads I always admire vodafone zoozoos, they have no comparisons yet. Still waiting for something like them or better than them.

IPL Was a Different Experience This Time

Watching IPL on my TV is so much fun, all because of IPTV. I missed Mumbai Vs Delhi match on 17th and was really regretting it. All my friends were talking about Sachin's brilliant performance. But the regret was not much since my IPTV was there for making my regret vanish. In fact I had more fun watching the Mumbai Indians banging on & on. Loved the way Sanath Jayasuriya was caught, I even paused the moment just to see how high Yogesh Nagar jumped with his spinning body to catch. Just a brilliant catch by a brilliant fielder.

The experience of watching a cricket match on iControl IPTV was great, the best part was skipping of Ads. I watched the match without breaks. Hey! Don't feel jealous. At some point of times I was feeling like I am the third umpire, coz I was pausing, forwarding & rewinding the TV at my will. Must say iControl choose the right name. Dinesh karthik let it slip out of his hands but Match's every nick of time was totally under my control. When you watch a match like this (Mumbai Indian Vs Delhi Daredevils) you just wish to be a part of the Live audience. I felt like I am setting with the audience with my 5.1 channels audio.

There are lots of new players in IPL and while watching match we all wonder who this new player is? Here too, I simply paused the scoreboard and saw the players list with ease. Used this feature when missed the name of Yogesh Nagar (The new young player who caught Sanath). In fact pausing & reading the slogans/boards that lots of fans are holding was amazing, use to miss it earlier. Remember one sweet text of a fan saying "There are 2 types of batsmen 1. SACHIN 2......" (the camera moved and missed who the 2nd one is). No worries just pressed the rewind button & found who the 2nd one is "There are 2 types of batsmen 1. SACHIN 2. ALL D OTHER".

I was watching the match on Chill, Saurab Tiwari came for batting & the guests arrived. Simply watched the match after they left & from the very moment where I left. Its just pause, enter the time and start playing from where you left. Well I had all the comfort watching the match & gonna enjoy every match like this from now onwards. Don't worry will not miss all my Live matches.

IPTV from iControl has Cool feature too, with everything that Chill has, but for the LIVE TV. Yes I can become third umpire of LIVE match too (just kidding).

IPL, Advertisements and Zoozoos – Who is loved most?

IPL fever is ON and people are throughly enjoying it. Playing & Watching cricket is boy's passion & once the IPL season is ON, they go crazy. What about the gals, what do they like in cricket ? Especially now when IPL is all set to show its glamor in season three. Well even gals are enjoying cricket equally. Its no more the guys only, who are cricket freaks. Actually everybody is loving the cricket season - The IPL season.
Something that started with IPL and is loved equally is The ZooZoos. Infact Zoozoo grabbed a lot of non cricket lovers to watch cricket. ZooZoo came in IPL season 2 & they rocked. Whats more attractive about them is that they are not the animated characters. Yes there are real man & woman wearing the ZooZoo costume. Well I was amazed to see that & since then fell in love with them. [Check them here : Video 1 & Video2 ]
ZooZoo first came in IPL season 2 (April 2009) , & now they are back to rock IPL season 3 again. I remember they grabbed the social media too. I became their fan on Facebook & even participated in the "Complete the Zoozoo story" contest. It was fun watching the incomplete Ad and then guessing what will happen in the second half.
Well in season 3 of IPL ZooZoos have a lot on facebook. They are updating the new ads before showing them on TV, just to grab more fans & are providing E-cards etc. I am still following them on FB. And as far as TV is concerned we all are loving them even now. There are thousands of zoozoo fans & I can tell you one crazy fan, thats my Mom. I dare to touch the remote & my mom throws those heavy scolding bangs on me. She never lets me change the channel during the breaks. All because every new match has got a new innovation of zoozoos and she doesn't want to miss even a single one.
IPL this season is bringing something more with zoozoos. Its bringing a lot of new Ads of mobile devices and Television sets. Karbonn the new mobile phone is seen a lot on the screen of score boards. Though these Ads din't attracted me much. Another cell phone that can be seen in the IPL Ads is MicroMax, endorsed by Akki (Akshay Kumar). Akki is also endorsing LG 's 3D TV in the IPL Ads. Then there is videocon advertising its satellite TV. Lets see whats more in the IPL's Advertisement bag, till then I'll watch my favorite Zoozoos.

Changing Definition of News

One of the most important and influential roles that television plays in the life of many societies and individuals is, as the primary source of news, current events, and various opinions and world views, keeping people informed constantly about what’s going on in the world. Especially in today's 24/7 news channels era. While newspapers are still around, TV News is something people follow regularly. And while TV news have been around for many decades now, they are even more accessible and attractive to viewers.
The untiring exhaustive coverage of the Kargil war between India and Pakistan gained more publicity and attracted more viewers towards the electronic channel. After the huge success of news programme 'Aaj Tak', TV Today Aaj Tak group, launched a 24-hour Hindi news channel with the same name 'Aaj Tak'. Within 11 months of its launch, Aaj Tak emerged as one of India's best news channel and was awarded Best News Channel award from Indian Television Academy Awards. The 'Sahara India Parivar' launched a 24-hour national Hindi news channel, Sahara Samay.
All these news channels had a great start. All were full of zest / enthusiasm & showed some really quality news or in other words lets say The Meaningful News. But as the time is passing news channels are lowering their quality day by day. The news is turning into Masala News. In words of Mr Bachchan in the movie Rann " TRP ke naam per sensationalism becha ja raha hai ". News channels today are not worried about the key issues, rather they are interested in TRPs. Not only this news channels sometimes show such stuffs which are exaggerated. Once news was supposed to be accurate & correct. Why its not so now ? Why can't news channels report something which is informative.
I remember, I read this blog talking about swine flu & the media spreading panic about it. Totally agreeing with this blog post, even I would like to ask news people that, is our system always on wrong path or its just the way you people turn it into your reports ? As lochanrajeev says, on one side you are saying swine flu's vaccination will take 6-7 months in India & when America says the same stuff with a little variations, we are praising them. May be thats not a big thing as we watch such news on regular basis but it is a big problem. It is something called creating panic by exaggeration. I am sorry to say that news media today is exaggerating everyone though its work is to awake the society, bring the revolution. And at the end another Rann dialogue that really touched me " Jahan Lakshya hona chahiye tha Khabrein aur madhyam huna chahiye tha paisa, wahan aaj paisa ban gaya hai lakshya or khabrein kewal madhyam "

Do watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNUTKAapXTA

Hope that brings some revolution in news world. Jago patrkaro get up & get awake.

Television - The Easy Learning Tool

What is the last thing that you learned from TV ? We learn from TV every time we watch it. What we learn is the question? TV is a wonderful teacher but it may also show things that you are not comfortable with. One should establish a limit on what you watch. Sitting with family while watching TV is something we all should follow. A good TV should be interactive, you should talk, discuss what you watch. Do the activities related to knowledge. A TV is something age-appropriate. Watching shows that are research based & are intentionally meant for teaching are beneficial.

You can make TV viewing fun for the whole family along with the learning. TV is a tool, just like any other media. Especially now when you get IPTV – The interactive TV. Using IPTV one can learn, plan what to watch, how much to watch and can actually interact with the TV. TV like iControl IPTV in India are making it possible. You get features like parental control, using which you set or plan what you want to watch and what you don't. There are cool features of play-pause-rewind called the CHILL & COOL feature. Interactive educational games help you learn a lot while having fun. And as mentioned earlier discuss what you watch, iControl IPTV has a brilliant facility for that. You get your TV shows recorded automatically. Whenever you feel like discussing a show you can simply watch the show, pause it wherever needed. And can have all DVD like features. All this is present in iControl IPTV 's CHILL & COOL feature. You get everything to watch on TV but its not necessary that you want to watch everything. Todays digital TV service provider's Pay-per-view lets you do that. You get parental control options with which you set what your TV should show.

The most important thing to remember when using television as a learning tool is that you’re in charge of the clicker. If you’re watching a video, you can pause it to discuss something funny or scary, or a behavior that you think is a great example for teaching your kids. If your kid wants to recall something you can go back to that part and can recall. This helps kids learn better and its more fun too. All thanks to today's technology, learning is so organized, easy and simple.

No more Idiot Box, The Digital TV is Here

Those were the days, the days when watching your own TV was Royal. Classic times, when movies were telecasted once in a week. The mythological shows were everyone's favorite. Making sure that no single episode should be missed. The time when changing channel wasn't that easy. When TV was only a "tele" "vision" (only limited channel views).

Gone are the days of those Idiot Box (Idiot Box is a slang for television), requiring efforts. Its the time of digital TV. The time in which Royal not only means big & costly. The Royal means digital, the quality, the feature and the applications. Watching "Interactive" TV is Royal now. Having 100 TV channels is not the only thing people want today. You have 100+ channels, Music, Games and a lot more. You not only watch your TV, you now even have the Triple play options. Triple play, the technology which enables voice, data and video on your TV. What does that mean? That means you can access internet on the TV and a lot more. You use Web cams and do video conferencing through your Digital TV now.

IPTV is making all this possible, it is making television Interactive. It has Shopping, Classifieds, Play-Pause-Rewind LIVE TV and many other options for interactive TVs. Its the time when missing an episode does not mean end of the world. You no more rush to watch your favorite show. You smartly go back to the time and watch the missed show using Time Shift features. Shopping or window shopping, whatever it is you can do all on your TV. Just use your TV Remote and buy what you want. A lot more than 500 Movies are there in the video libraries (Video on Demand). iControl IPTV, MyWay IPTV and Airtel IPTV are three big IPTV players in India. Though iControl IPTV wins the race with its better features and facilities. FTTH is the latest buzz today, making the interaction more faster. And iControl wins here too, as it recently launched FTTH in Jaipur.

The Digital TV is making television as good and fun as it was in the golden era. Who thought of pausing the LIVE TV in the Golden Era. All that we missed in our idiot box, is now present in the Digital TV. Its the Smart TV Era – The Digital TV Era .

200 Free TV channels – The game changer

DTH television service is spreading like fire in the country. Cable TV is vanishing in thin air. People today want the quality along with quantity. Yes! DTH is providing them all that they want. We have a good number of DTH service providers today - Dish TV, TataSky, Airtel and lots more. I don't think I need to name them, we all are aware of them. I talked about them in my previous posts too. So what is it that we are here to talk about? Its DD Direct Plus.

Well DD Direct Plus or lets say DoorDarshan Direct Plus is the country's only Free To Air (FTA) direct to home (DTH) service run by Prasar Bharati that provides satellite channels and audio programming. They are currently providing only 59 FTA channels, most of which are DoorDarshan's own. Also the All India Radio channels are included in the package. At present DD Direct reaches 6 million homes, while private DTH operators cater to 14-16 million homes. Officials expect its reach to expand to 30 million homes within months of launching the new product. What is it that will give it a 30 million home connection? Its the new package. Wondering what this new package got? Its the upcoming Free 200 channels that DD Direct is planning to launch in the end of this year. The idea behind this initiative is to make the DTH service more viewer friendly and adequate dose of popular entertainment channels will make it more attractive.

The recent news about this service really brought a shock to most private DTH Service providers. Paying a huge amount of security and other charges along with daily monthly rent for getting more than 100 digital channels looks costly when you have such a great offer, where you pay only for the set top box (STB).Obviously you will opt for the free one. India is a place where a simple "SALE" tag attracts a lot of audience and when you get something for FREE then you can imagine what an amount of customers DD Direct will get. [POLL] Would you continue paying private DTH for the same channels that you are getting for free?

Well looking at the other side of the coin, the question that arises is that will the payed channels let their channels be telecasted for free? Will they agree with Doordarshan? DD Direct must be having a plan for making these paid channels go with them. I guess yes! I read HT report on this, saying :

The moot question is whether some pay channels will be willing to turn free to take advantage of the huge viewership DD Direct expects to offer, making up in advertising rates what they lose from subscriptions. Officials said they offered another incentive: the carriage fee — annual price of beaming a channel — Doordarshan charges is lower than private operators. "If DD Direct can put together a good combination, it will have a good market," said Uday Shankar, CEO Star India. "But I doubt pay channels will shift."

Some other things that DD Direct need to have in order to attract its customers are a good collection of applications. With Tatasky, dish TV etc having gaming applications and lot more to offer , DD Direct too need to get solution or lets say some good applications.

Don't know whether it will be possible or not for DD to bring 200 Free channels. All we can do is wait for the year to end and check it out what happens. Keeping my fingers crossed and waiting for this Game changer.

IPTV- HOW IT WORKS

"IPTV" is a recent buzzword emerged only a few years ago. In a nutshell, it means the delivery of television over Internet Protocol networks. But for the telecommunication industry, IPTV means much more. IPTV is an "entirely new multimedia experience" extending the borders of conventional "broadcast" television; it is an integrated, 'all-embracing' media platform offering a bundle of diverse content and communication services from a single provider over a single network to a single user device – all with a single payment.


Regardless of the service provider, IPTV is a vertically organized and closely controlled system. It is invariably managed by a single service provider that controls all elements of the value chain: content provision, content packaging, distribution, reception, relationship with the user and payments. The service provider is responsible for the end-to-end quality of the services. It often makes use of proprietary technology solutions. Several broadcasters, telcos and consumer-electronics manufacturers have joined forces in order to explore possible synergies between IPTV and DTT (Direct Terrestrial Television).

Three areas of possible synergies may be considered: complementary coverage, common sets of services and common set-top boxes. Whereas DTT is generally designed to cover the whole national territory, it is probably not viable to implement BTV services over a whole territory, as the number of DSLAMs required would be very large (and therefore expensive). On the other hand, reception of DTT services indoors without external aerials may require excessive transmission power. In such cases, BTV could help and provide the same channels (plus any value-added services), so that both television platforms can be considered complementary.
A common set-top box for both DTT and IPTV has been developed by several manufacturers in order to enable this “synergetic” scenario to materialize. It would be advantageous if both DTT and BTV would provide similar television services of comparable service quality.


This figure shows the how IPTV systems are composed of content providers, distribution networks, viewing devices, and IPTV service operators-
The content providers include existing television networks, on demand content providers (content aggregators), and independent content provider companies. This example shows a distribution networks that uses many types of systems to transfer IP video packets from the content source to the viewing devices.
IPTV viewing devices include standard televisions (with adapters), multimedia computers, and multimedia mobile devices.
The IPTV system operator manages how customers can connect to the system which services they can receive.

The viewing devices or adapters convert digital television signals into a form that can be controlled and viewed by users. Broadband access providers supply the high-speed data connection that can transfer the digital video television signals. Service providers identify and control the connections between the viewing devices and the content providers (media sources). Media content providers create information that people want to view or obtain.
Media Content Providers
IPTV content sources can range from live TV networks (such as CNN) to niche on-demand content from micro-producers. IPTV systems can delivery an unlimited number of channels as each television set only require one TV channel connection which can be linked to any other TV source the IPTV operator can provide.
IPTV Service Providers
IPTV service providers obtain the rights to transmit media programming to their customers. While IPTV service providers may focus on provide TV services in geographic areas (such as where they own or control TV distribution rights), IPTV service providers can technically provide programming anywhere in the world they can reach customers through a broadband data connection.
IP Distribution Systems
IP distribution systems transfer media programs from the content sources to viewing devices. There are many types of systems that can distribute IP data packets which include telecom, wireless, cable TV systems, power companies (data over power line), and competitive access providers (such as new optical networks).
IPTV Viewing Devices
IPTV viewing devices can receive media in IP form and convert it into media that can be viewed by the user. IP viewing devices range from standard televisions that use IP set top boxes to convert IP video signals into a format that can be viewed on a standard television to mobile telephones with digital video viewing capabilities

BSNL WITH AKSH OPTIFIBRE BRINGING FTTH IN INDIA

Lets have a brief description of FTTH before talking about its presence in India.

FTTH, or Fiber To The Home, refers to fiber optic cable that replaces the standard copper wire of the local Telco. FTTH is desirable because it can carry high-speed broadband services integrating voice, data and video, and runs directly to the junction box at the home or building.

Traditional copper telephone wires carry analog signals generated by telephone equipment, including fax machines. The Internet utilizes a backbone of fiber optic cables capable of delivering incredible bandwidth. This inherent ability makes the Internet a prime source for advancing network technologies that can be brought to the home or business. Most subscribers, however, log on to this network through copper lines with limited capacity. This creates a bottleneck for advancing technologies that increasingly require greater bandwidth. FTTH bridges this gap.

Fiber optic cables are made of glass fiber that can carry data at speeds exceeding 2.5 gigabits per second (gbps). FTTH services commonly offer a fleet of plans with differing speeds that are price dependent. At the lower end of the scale, a service plan might offer speeds of 10 megabits per second (mbps), while typical DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service running on existing copper lines is 1.5 mbps. A more expensive FTTH plan might offer data transfer speeds of over 100 mbps —- that's about 66 times faster than typical DSL.

This was a briefing about FTTH, now talking about FTTH in India.

BSNL and Aksh Optifibre unveiled the country's first Fiber to the Home (FTTH) technology, which will enable faster Internet connectivity and quality TV viewing experience. This will help their IPTV- iControl IPTV in providing the best quality video to viewers.
This launch will enable Aksh and BSNL to provide multiplay services with high definition content to its customers. The technology will further allow iControl IPTV customers to experience speed of 100 MBS on their Internet connections. This technology will replace 'last mile connectivity' with optical fiber cables.
Currently, 'last mile' connections between homes and telephone exchanges are almost entirely copper-based.This launch will bring India on the same technological plane as advanced countries like China, Singapore, Japan and UK. Aksh Optifibre Ltd Managing Director Mr. Kailash Choudhari said the launch will allow end-users who have invested in High Definition televisions to enjoy the benefits of their investment in the latest technology.

Well for me FTTH in India, that too BSNL providing it is really a good news. New technology, good quality and faster speed of internet access. India is pacing up and is bringing all the technology that a developed nation need. Hope the technology development pace grow like this and more. Thanks BSNL & Aksh for providing this new technology.

TV With More Entertainment

Television is something everyone is aware about. It is one of the daily use machine in our life. People spend lot of money for entertainment. TV is something we all get entertained from and its the cheapest mode of entertainment too. I would say TV is one time investment, life time entertainment package.

Dance, Music, Movies, News, National and international all type of channels under one roof. And not only this. Along with TV channels that we are watching since a long time, now we get various applications and features too. Games, Shopping, classifieds, job hunt , matrimony, messaging, FM, video library and a lot more stuff are now provided in a single device i.e. your TV. IPTV and Direct to home TV are making this possible. Especially when the TV is running with the help of internet technology, then you can imagine what all it can provide. Yes I am talking about the Internet Protocol TV (IPTV). It can do a lot more with the word interaction.

Wanna play cricket? Just go to the games application and play it.
Wanna read a story? No need to search for a book, simply use your TV's remote.
Wanna have a mind exercise ? Play the puzzles and sudoku on your TV.
Wanna book a travel ticket ? just go for it use your TV.
Tired of searching a soul mate, TV comes to help you.
Wanna know your area's restaurant and hotels just surf your TV.
Well whatever you want to know your TV gives you the answer.

If FM on Saturday nights is your choice then listen to it on your TV only. Not only this video share is a feature which will definitely turn you ON. Yes! Share your picnic videos or your wedding videos with the help of your TV. And it is very possibly in India and its secure too. I saw this cool feature on iControl IPTV and since then have fallen in love with its applications and features. IPTVs is really a technology to look forward. Its letting you do a lot in the television world.

I must say TV is a total entertainment package. If 10 out of my 50+ friends are going out for new year party then rest are getting entertained through TV at home that too the whole family together enjoys. There are some IPTVs letting you browse you tube videos, what else do you need? No need to rush and buy tickets to attend an event when you get to watch it on your TV with equal fun. TV entertainment is no more with limitations of time. You can record the the shows you feel you will miss, but that is not all. IPTV lets you watch all the shows any time without even recording. It auto saves the TV content (shows) and the viewer can watch later the auto recorded shows. Let me tell you the IPTV recording memory has no comparison with the memory of your STB. Live TV pause-rewind is something that comes to help when your favorite entertainment TV show is getting interrupted. Triple play is the word adding more comfort and entertainment to your TV viewing. It lets voice, video and data to be accessible on your TV.
So when all the entertainment modes are available at a single place then you call it as a mega entertainment i.e Television.

TV - The new Playground for kids

Gone are the days when kids used to leave their homework incomplete, hearing the noises of the friends playing outside. The games like Kanche (marbels), chupan-chupayi (hide n seek), chor-police, phitu-gram, gulli danda, tipi-tipi-tap etc. etc. are rarely seen on the streets. Kids today don't even know the name of these games. Now parents are not concerned about their kid's injuries that they might get while playing outside, rather they are worried about the mental health of their kids and the eye-sights. All these concerns are coz of the games that kids play today – the Video games.

Digital games started with the small hand games gadgets called the game boy, that can be carried anywhere. Then the craze built up, kids started using the game boys with TV and then the game boy with QWERTY keyboard. I remember how much I insisted my parents for a game boy with QWERTY keyboard. A time came when the craze for game boy vanished and kids favorite was PC games. Kids use to stick to their PCs for hours. Many of my friends got spectacles on their eyes just because of this. Then the Play Stations (PS) came and they still are popular. All the PS series made a good money. Even the X-boxes gained popularity and still are popular. The only problem with PS and X-box in India is that they are costly for general public. May be that is why Online games became the playground for kids and also because online gaming is interactive & fun for kids.

Strange na ? Kids today love playing with their friends but in the virtual world and once there was a time when whole muhalla (neigborhood) kids used to gather and play. Remeber the time whenever there was a power cut and we all used to come out in mass and play hide & Seek. Anyways if I call PS and X-box costly then even Online gaming is costly and that is why the one very successful playground of today came to existance - The Television.

Television is the Entertainment world today and the entertainment is not limited its getting wider day by day. I'll talk about it in my next post for now lets talk about this post. Well nowadays many TV service providers are present and almost all of them provide the game application. So no need to get a game boy, insert a cassette and then play the game. You get all on your TV only. No need to spend money in buying the game console & other stuff. TV service providers try to put educational games, so that the kids learn while playing. There are a lot many TV service providers in India and different games are provided by each.

Tatasky provides Codered, Candyman, SpeedSpell, Monbase Mayhem etc. Dish TV got 3 Section for kids : MiniKids TV, Playjam and Quizzy and Big TV has iGames like badminton, basketball, chess etc. Even IPTV service providers like iControl provide a good collection of knowledgeable games like Sudoku, I2Quiz, Recognize Me etc. MyWay IPTV provides games like freecell, tic tac toe, tactiles etc.

No need to spend unnecessary money on those stuffs which you get for free. Kids love games on TV and enjoy them equally. Television is really a new playground for kids. In fact sometimes I spent a lot of time playing games like sudoku, Tic tac toe etc on TV. So not only kids even other age groups find TV a playground.

Your Favorite TV Service Providers Reaching Public

Advertising is something helping huge as well as small brands reach public. Brands come with unique & attractive ideas in the industry and promote their products through advertisements. They try to cover everything their product has, in a single Ad and thus expect more customers. You can see the two different brands of same product type, competing with each other in the Ad world. When everyone is gaining something or other through the advertisements then why would TV Service providers stay behind. Specially today when the TV service providers are spreading like fire. We have cable operators providing TV services, then there are DTH / Digital / Satellite Televisions and IPTV. Different brands use these technologies & thus providing the TV service. The DTH technology, has a good number of brands : Airtel, Tatasky, Dish TV, Sun Direct, Big TV and D2H Videocon TV.

Dish TV is one DTH service provider that I feel updates its image very often in order to reach people. It signed a big star as its brand ambassador – Shah Rukh Khan, with a slogan: Wish Karo Dish Karo. It was quite attractive tag line and when king khan himself says them with his star style, people simply love it. After the success of Wish Karo Dish Karo, Dish TV switched over to Sabse Zyada Wish Karo. Currently they are bringing the happiness at homes by saying Ghar Aayi Zindagi. The sweet advertisement having adorable baby girl, SRK and Tisca.
TataSky also promoted itself with a big star – Amir Khan. Amir who is known for his quality of work created magic for tatasky too. People came to know about tatasky broadly. Not only the actor but its slogan was also catchy – Tatasky : Isko Laga Dala Toh Life Jhinga Lala. The latest tatasky ads have a puppet explaining all its applications in a nice way. And when talking about catchy slogans Sun Direct : Ghar Ghar mein Sun Tan tana tan is also a good slogan.
Videocon d2h is the new kid in the DTH market, its providing d2h DTH service. The more focus of d2h is on static media promotions i.e. Banners, Hording, posters etc. You can find d2h hording in almost every busy street of Delhi.

The IPTV market too is in the advertisement world to popularise itself. With iControl taking the initiative of promoting IPTV through advertisements. You can watch the iControl promo on channels like NDTV imagine, IBN 7, UTV Movies etc. When talking about the IPTV industry iControl plays a major role. iControl is in 22 cities of India which is the highest number of cities any IPTV service provider is available at, in India. MyWay is another IPTV service provider, but its doing much to reach the mass as much as iControl is. In fact big names like Airtel and Reliance are also jumping into the IPTV industry. The big brands have not yet reached the media to promote them, nor they are trying to reach public at a large scale. iControl wins the race in case of IPTVs. It is not only showing Ad with slogan : Taki Rishton mein pause na aaye but its getting itself in to the public with the help of social media. You can find iControl reaching public through twitter, facebook and orkut. Even Dish TV, Tatasky and SUN Direct too are using social media for promoting their products. The social media is becoming a good source of reaching the public. iControl recently had seminars and press conferences in order to reach people and get a good amount of customers. So the brands are not leaving any source behind for the promotions and thus reach the people.

What did I miss this New Year Eve

Every one in my office missed something or other this new year eve. Someone missed his maid and had to cook the food. Some missed the drinks and others missed a grand party. Different people missed different things. But what we all together at office missed was a office party. Though had a small party on 1st January, but 31st Eve party is something different and more fun.

While talking about our new year eve, what most of us miss is a Good New Year TV show. All my colleagues had the same view about the television shows that we watch now on new year eve. The shows that use to come on DD national were worth watching and spending a good new year eve with family. I miss Jaspal Bhati 's show on the new year eve. In fact now what the TV got is the events on big stage having dance shows for new year. All that you see on television is one or the other star is dancing with 20-30 background dancers and there's a couple of anchors (host) cracking a bit of jokes in their conversation. I don't think such shows have any comparison with the shows that we watched in 90s. One single person had such a charisma that he use to hold millions of people sit on their seat and had a brilliant talent to make every single person laugh. And the comedy was so... hilarious that you can't stop laughing. Well its something not only me but many people miss.

The shows that we loved watching on New Year Eve, had good mix of entertainment, fun, culture, values and all that we loved. The Skits with a moral a lesson to learn, such things are something missing in today's shows. Now the theme is dance and a grand event making a lot of money through passes and tickets. Earlier the shows were not huge, the live audience was limited in number. The emphasis was on mass audience watching television rather than the live audience. The earlier shows had cultural values, they use to show some classical, cultural, folk dances along with some skits and plays about the general awareness. There was a complete package of entertainment.

I don't know why but now the TV shows are not close to heart. People watch one show now and they forget about it in a weeks time. I missed my new year eve this time. Had no plans with the friends as we all decided to party in RMT (Rajai Mongfali & TV) with family. Office party was a small event on 1st of January. So had not much to do on the eve except RMT. Had Rajai and mongfali at home but TV was something very boring. There was nothing worth watching on TV. Same dance shows with a crowded audience. So what I did on the eve? I had a good time sleeping on 31st Dec 2009 night and I just hope you people had an eve, better than mine. So what did you missed this new year eve? Just share your moments through the comments and have a fantastic year 2010.

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year.