Sky Interactive Launch- July 29, 2005 I went along to the launch of the new Sky Interactive E-Business service, Site Control, yesterday. I have blogged about this in a previous post so it was interesting to see how the proposition hangs together.Sky has obviously put a lot of thought into making the implementation, marketing and user proposition simple. I was really impressed with the simplicity of launching a site through the portal. It uses WTVML (an Interactive TV standard) for the presentation layer, so you still have to...http://www.gilesblackburn.co.uk/2005/07/sky-interactive-launch.html Audio Newspapers- July 25, 2005 Otodio is a London based startup that plans to provide a text to speech engine that "enables printed content to be 'listened to' over a digital radio."This could another step towards the "talking web". I'm thinking of the in car digital radio service where you specify which website (or probably RSS feed) you want to have read out to you. It could become the automated podcasting solution......hang on, I'd better go and patent that one...http://www.gilesblackburn.co.uk/2005/07/audio-newspapers.html London Terror- July 22, 2005 Well yesterday was an interesting day. I was in the office when the failed bomb attack at Warren street happened. They cordoned off our whole street as a precaution while they were making sure that the bomb was safe. Strangely, they didn't evacuate the buildings, so we were there looking out on a street that was completely deserted, save for a policeman. Not the most relaxing experience...http://www.gilesblackburn.co.uk/2005/07/london-terror.html Mobile content demand set to triple- July 20, 2005 If this report from LogicaCMG is to be believed, the demand for mobile content is going to triple in the next 12 months. Unsurprisingly, it is led by ringtones, games and music. This is great news for the industry, but it will put real pressure on to sort out the issues around digital rights management.The biggest challenge for content owners will be how they provide a framework that protects their rights and their content from piracy, while at the same time, allows the inherent power of viral.http://www.gilesblackburn.co.uk/2005/07/mobile-content-demand-set-to-triple.html Democratic entertainment- July 18, 2005 Tim Rice pointed out on Top Gear yesterday that the cost of creating and manufacturing professional sounding music products (Singles and Albums) has gone down dramatically over the last 20 years. You can create and press an album in your bedroom without getting anyone else involved. In the old days, at least one person (the A&R person at the label) had to like your music before it got turned into a product because of the costs of producing Vinyl or CD's. Clearly he thinks this lack of critical..http://www.gilesblackburn.co.uk/2005/07/democratic-entertainment.html Update on the Open Media Network- July 11, 2005 A friend at the BBC told me yesterday that they are syndicating content to the Open Media Network. I suppose that since OMN is effectively a public access broadcasting service, it makes perfect sense. I think that there is more to it than that though. I suspect that the BBC are using OMN as a testing ground to prove the concept of their IMP platform. This will provide BBC content using the Kontiki platform (which runs OMN). It makes sense for them to see what works and what doesn't before they..http://www.gilesblackburn.co.uk/2005/07/update-on-open-media-network.html Sky to add broadband port to next generation platform- July 6, 2005 Sky's next generation box will have a port to allow connection to your existing broadband service. This means that Sky Interactive could start to offer rich content services through the TV to customers with broadband.http://www.gilesblackburn.co.uk/2005/07/sky-to-add-broadband-port-to-next.html |