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CASE STUDIES/COMMENT - Summer 2008
NBC/Digital Rapids
NBC has selected Digital Rapids to provide media encoding, transcoding and streaming systems for the network's Internet coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games from Beijing. Digital Rapids' DRC-Stream encoding and streaming solutions will enable NBC Olympics' live and on-demand online coverage. Some 2200 hours of video will be streamed live on the Internet at NBCOlympics.com, primarily encoded from video feeds into web-friendly streams through the DRC-Stream systems. Streams will be encoded in the VC-1 compression format for a viewing experience powered by Microsoft Silverlight technology. The encoded live streams will also be archived for viewers to watch on-demand. Digital Rapids Transcode Manager will be used to convert affiliate-provided content between compression and file formats for US domestic distribution. "We're thrilled to continue our relationship with NBC by supplying our solutions for coverage of this year's paramount event, the Beijing Olympics," says Briek Eksten, President of Digital Rapids. "The nearly unlimited scope of Internet-based video lends itself perfectly to coverage of an event of this scale, and our solutions are renowned for bringing video to the web with exceptional quality and reliability. We're pleased that NBC has again placed their trust in our technology and expertise for their ground-breaking online coverage." Rab Mukraj, Director of Digital Media Delivery at NBC Universal, adds: "Delivering an unparalleled online experience is a vital component of our unprecedented multi-platform coverage of the Beijing Olympics. The Digital Rapids encoding systems will enable an outstanding viewing experience for our online audience through superior encoded video quality and robust reliability, while providing us the workflow efficiencies needed for coverage of this magnitude."
Digital Rapids' DRC-Stream encoding solutions combine powerful hardware for video and audio capture and pre-processing with the intuitive Stream software interface, delivering reliable, high-quality, multi-format media encoding and streaming for professional applications such as high-end Internet TV and IPTV. The advanced, hardware-based video processing features enable superior quality and the most efficient use of bandwidth in the compressed result. Digital Rapids Transcode Manager provides automated, distributed transcoding with centralized management and exceptional load balancing intelligence for high-volume, multi-format workflows, increasing production volume while reducing operational costs. Details: www.digital-rapids.com
MTN/Colibria
The MTN Group is the leading provider of communication services in Africa and the Middle East with over 61m subscribers.
Innovation is paramount to MTN's brand values. With today's consumers searching for new, exciting and interactive ways to communicate, MTN was quick to recognise the opportunity for brand differentiation by launching an enhanced mobile messaging service.
In December 2007, MTN deployed a new mobile IM (MIM) service in South Africa, called ‘noknok', powered by Colibria.
The market:
- MTN is the second largest operator in South Africa, with a 36 per cent market share and 14.8m subscribers
- Mobile phone penetration is over 80 per cent, however Internet penetration is approximately 10 per cent, making this an ideal market for an enhanced mobile messaging service
- The market is technically challenging as many of the mobile phones in circulation are not recent models
- Third-party MIM services are already available making this a well educated, yet highly competitive market
Compatible with a wide range of handsets at launch, noknok is a feature-rich MIM service that offers a truly community-based mobile experience.
Operator benefits:
- A complementary revenue-generating service alongside voice and existing messaging technologies
- An enabling technology that enhances the functionality and usability of existing applications and services
- The technical infrastructure is modular, therefore new revenue-generating services and applications can easily be introduced
- Simple to download and install ensuring the user experience is intuitive and compelling
- Users can impulsively share experiences with friends and groups at the click of a button
- Fully interoperable so users can chat with friends on either the MTN network or the Vodacom network in South Africa
- Users can add anyone to their contact list. Those who don't have noknok on their mobile will receive messages as either an SMS or an MMS. This supports SMS continuity as advocated by the GSMA's PIM Initiative
- Incorporates Presence enabling users to see their contacts availability, status picture, status text and mood details
Noknok launched with a range of clients; including a PC client, a WAP client and MIM clients for Symbian and Java handsets. In addition a Java ‘Lite' client has been produced specifically targeted towards basic and low-cost handsets.
Noknok is about much more than just delivering messages instantly - noknok is also about establishing identities and promoting personalities. The next evolution of noknok will include content bots and non-P2P chat services to further grow and enhance the user experience.
Details: www.colibria.com
Turkcell/NeuStar
Back in 2004 Turkcell realised that mobile messaging solutions were due to become a mass market, globally ubiquitous service and recognised the timing was now right to begin to launch its own Mobile Instant Messaging (IM) solution. Turkcell turned to NeuStar for the technology needed to launch a service that was uniquely Turkcell's, and not just an extension to other fixed service provider offerings.
Turkcell needed to not only make the most of this new market opportunity, but also consider its existing customers and potential threats the new offering might have on its SMS revenues. The service had to clearly demonstrate customer benefits with functionality like Presence being at the heart of the user experience.
February 2005, TurkcellMessenger was launched to both prepaid and postpaid customers. The service could be used through a mobile application downloaded to the handset or via the PC, Web, and Wap clients, enabling IM.
TurkcellMessenger allowed subscribers to communicate in context for the first time, with a Presence enabled contacts list detailing their buddies' status (online/away/busy etc) and enabled them to control their own experience by activating their own status.
Two years into the service, TurkcellMessenger's chat rooms had become one of the most popular features of Turkcell's service with almost 50 per cent of the total IM traffic generated in chat rooms.
"We launched Turkcell Messenger on a flat rate monthly charge with a pay-per- message alternative and unlimited data usage for both, and used viral marketing techniques to promote the service", says Leylim Erenel- Product Manager. "Our chat rooms have become one of the most popular features, so we will look to extend these social network type applications for our customers".
Turkcell enjoyed an increase in the arpu of users who have subscribed to TurkcellMessenger. More surprisingly, helping to debunk the myth that mobile IM can potentially cannibalise text usage, Turkcell has also enjoyed a rise in the SMS usage of IM users. A recent analysis carried out by Turkcell showed that the SMS traffic created by users who subscribed to TurkcellMessenger at the beginning of Q4 2006 actually increased by 5.8 per cent during the same quarter.
On the back of this success, Turkcell extended the service this year and launched Turkcell Windows Live Messenger, allowing subscribers to log on to Windows Live Messenger on their mobile through a download application. In the first three months of deployment 1.1 million subscribers signed up to the service, following an effective marketing campaign. The service produced record-breaking statistics with subscribers logging in 15 million times and exchanging 800 million messages in just three months.
Details: www.neustar.biz
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