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  • Sony Develops 240fps Single Lens 3D Camera

    Sony announced the development of a single lens 3D camera technology capable of recording “natural and smooth” 3D images of even fast-moving subject matter such as sports, at 240fps.

    The new technology combines an optical system for single lens 3D camera which captures the left and right images simultaneously, together with existing high frame rate (HFR) recording technology to realize 240fps 3D filming.

    In existing half mirror 3D camera systems with separate lenses for the left and right eyes, the parallax range is adjustable, enabling the depth of the 3D images to be modified.

    However, when operating the zoom and focus functions of such systems, the sensitivity of the human eye, in particular to differences in the size and rotational movement of dual images, as well as any vertical misalignment or difference in image quality has meant that complex technology has been required to ensure that each camera lens is closely coordinated, and there are no discrepancies in the optical axis, image size, and focus.

    According to Sony, the introduction of a single lens system resolves any issues that may occur as a result of having different optical characteristics for each eye. Furthermore, they say, by using mirrors in place of shutters, incoming light can now be simultaneously separated into left and right images and recorded as it reaches the parallel light area (the area where diverging light from the point of focus on the subject matter becomes parallel) of the relay lens.

    The separated left and right images are then processed and recorded with the respective left and right image sensors. As there is no difference in time between when the left and right eye images are captured, it is possible for natural and smooth 3D images to be captured, even of scenes involving rapid movement.

    Sony has made some optical tests that have shown that a frame rate 240fps represents the limit of human visual perception, and beyond that it becomes difficult to detect differences in terms of blur and “jerkiness” of moving images (where images that were continuous are now seen as a series of distinct snapshots).

    The company assures that with the new technology even when polarized glasses are not used, viewers will still be able to see natural 2D images, as the disparity of the images for left and right eyes are within the range that human eyes can recognize as a blur.

    A prototype model incorporating this technology will be demonstrated at “CEATEC JAPAN 2009”, to be held in Chiba city, Japan, from October 6th.

  • AIRCOM Reveals the Economic Reality of LTE Migration

    AIRCOM International, the network planning and optimisation consultancy, revealed the economic reality of LTE migration facing mobile operators around the world – as much as US$1.78 billion for a tier one US operator in the first year.

    As the economic downturn puts pressure on credit markets, and mobile operators attempt to limit significant CAPEX commitments, AIRCOM says they believe that innovative approaches to LTE network roll out, network sharing for example, will be essential in ensuring the profitable delivery of future mobile services.

    LTE investments vary by region, the legacy equipment operators have in place and the spectrum they have available. However, AIRCOM estimates the total CAPEX investment facing a tier one mobile operator in the first year of roll out to be as follows:

    "With an all IP-based network infrastructure, LTE requires completely new thinking compared to previous mobile technologies. Mobile operators around the world face very different challenges in embracing LTE, which will have serious implications on the levels of finance they need to raise," said Margaret Rice-Jones, CEO at AIRCOM International.

    While raising capital in today’s volatile global financial markets continues to prove difficult, operators and supporting infrastructure vendors are struggling to find the necessary credit to support the necessary enhancements to their radio network, backhaul and core network infrastructures.

    Rice-Jones continues: "Very few operators have the available resources or shareholder freedom to meet these costs. This means that innovation within the mobile industry needs to be redefined. It has been traditionally tied to finding the next "killer application". The economic reality of the mobile industry now means that true innovation is finding technology that will enable operators to deliver services more cost effectively."

    AIRCOM believes mobile operators can embrace innovation in a variety of different ways. Most significantly, operators must accept that the techniques used to drive efficiencies and revenues with previous technologies will not be applicable to LTE.

    Mobile operators must therefore find new business models to monetise LTE, compared to subsidising handsets and offering free voice minutes in return for fixed-term contacts.

    The significant investment required for LTE deployment could also see mobile operators globally embracing network sharing as a means of reducing CAPEX and OPEX. Other innovative ways of lowering costs include the automation of key optimisation processes through the roll out of self-organising networks (SON) and the deployment of femtocells within a network to cost-effectively provide macro network offload capabilities as well as indoor coverage solutions.

    "Despite the financial commitment required, there can be no doubting the tremendous potential of LTE technology in taking mobile services to the next level," added Rice-Jones.

    "LTE represents a major evolution and mobile operators must take an intelligent approach to network migration. With careful planning however, LTE will deliver sufficient network capacity and data speeds to further enhance the delivery of high bandwidth services to consumers globally."

  • AT&T and TerreStar to Offer Integrated Cellular/Satellite Solution

    AT&T has announced plans to work with TerreStar to offer an integrated smartphone mobility solution that will combine primary cellular wireless connectivity with the ability to connect to a satellite network as a backup, using one phone number and one smartphone device.

    This new solution will provide users with an access to both cellular and satellite networks through a handset that is – as the companies claim – both smaller and more feature-rich than previous satellite devices.

    The TerreStar Genus smartphone combines GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA terrestrial wireless capability with satellite voice and data capability. The device runs on the Windows Mobile and includes 2.6” touchscreen, WiFi, Bluetooth® and GPS.

    The device gives users the option to access theTerreStar satellite network when AT&T’s cellular wireless network is unavailable.

    AT&T wireless users with a line of sight to the satellite will be able to access voice and data coverage in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and in territorial waters.

    When cellular networks are unavailable, TerreStar’s satellite will act as a cell site in the sky to provide coverage to help users stay connected. The solution announced today is well-suited for government, energy, utility, transportation and maritime users. AT&T states that it can provide a critical communications back-up capability, important to public safety agencies, first responders, emergency services and disaster recovery groups.

    The integrated cellular/satellite solution will combine the satellite network-related charges on the customer’s regular wireless bill. AT&T’s monthly invoice will include the customer’s cellular voice and data service charges, the satellite network access subscription feature charge and the satellite voice and data roaming charges.

    It is expected to be available for enterprise, government and small business customers and their corporate liable users in the first quarter of 2010. AT&T informs that the company is working on a similar solution for consumers.

  • Akamai Brings HDTV-Like Experience Online

    Akamai Technologies has launched the Akamai HD Network, its next generation video delivery offering and the first platform to deliver HD video online to viewers using Adobe Flash technology, Microsoft Silverlight, and to the iPhone, at broadcast-level audience scale.

    The new HD Network combines Akamai’s patented HD EdgePlatform, adaptive bitrate streaming and DVR technology. It supports live and on-demand HD streaming.

    It was designed as one, comprehensive HD network reaching multiple playback environments and devices (including Flash, Silverlight, and the iPhone) especially for large-scale broadcasters and film distributors.

    According to the press release, the network leverages the following functionalities:

    • Adaptive Bitrate Streaming – a streaming process that is designed to enable uninterrupted playback at HD bitrates that seamlessly adjusts to fluctuations in available bandwidth
    • Instant Response – Immediate response to viewer interactions with the video player, including sub-second time-shifting (such as pause, rewind, seek and play commands) video startup times, and seamless stream switching
    • HD Video Player – Open, standards-based video player for faster time to market
    • HD Player Authentication – Authenticates player for all three environments ensuring only authorized players access content

    What makes this new HD network unique is that it delivers video from HTTP servers located closest to end users (over 50,000 in 900 networks in 70 countries) minimizing packet loss and maximizing streaming.

    “We’re entering a different online world, where many content owners and publishers need to deliver HD-quality video to a much wider online audience, with a higher level of interactivity for consumers. Delivering ‘web-quality’ content to ‘web-sized’ audiences is one thing, but delivering HD-quality content to broadcast-scale audiences is another," said Paul Sagan, President and CEO of Akamai.

    The firm says, two key trends have made it necessary to now evolve how streaming media is delivered on the internet. First, online audiences have grown to broadcast scale. Second, those viewers are demanding higher quality content. Studies show that when higher quality video content is offered, viewer engagement time increases. According to Jupiter Research, 60% of regular online video users are less likely to return to a site for video content if the viewing experience is poor.

    Supporting this level of traffic requires a global network that can manage millions of simultaneous users streaming very high bitrate content, they claims.

    "We are excited to see Akamai’s commitment to HTTP adaptive streaming as the future of online video delivery, as we have worked closely over the past year to build a robust end-to-end media delivery platform with IIS Smooth Streaming and Silverlight," said Steve Sklepowich, director for Silverlight at Microsoft Corp.

    "Together, we’ve proven that these true HD experiences can dramatically increase online viewing times for broadcasters,” he added

  • Dataram Unveils XcelaSAN Storage Optimization Appliance

    Dataram has introduced the XcelaSAN storage optimization appliance, as the company claims – the industry’s first solution to seamlessly deliver up to 30x performance improvement to existing applications.

    The XcelaSAN storage optimization appliance augments existing storage systems by transparently applying caching algorithms that serve the most active block-level data from high speed solid state storage, creating an intelligent, virtual solid state SAN.

    According to Dataram, by accessing under-utilized disk capacity and optimizing data performance of existing storage systems, XcelaSAN eliminates the need for additional hardware to increase application performance – providing investment protection by extending the life of the existing infrastructure and lowering the overall cost of storage ownership for organizations.

    In addition, as the customer’s storage infrastructure changes or consolidates, those new components will automatically benefit from the XcelaSAN storage optimization technology, the company says.

    “The XcelaSAN is an innovative solution which enables mid-sized organizations to seamlessly increase the performance of their existing business-critical applications within an hour of installation. These gains come without making changes to the customer’s existing storage systems, servers or applications," said John Freeman, Dataram’s President and CEO.

    XcelaSAN connects to a storage network using eight 4Gb/s Fibre Channel ports and can connect to the storage switch fabric or directly to back-end storage. It transparently installs in about an hour with no new host software required. The system is managed through a web-based browser for user-friendly operation.

    "It is now well understood that the benefit of a solid state infrastructure for compute-intensive environments is higher application performance with less equipment and lower operational costs," stated Jason Caulkins, Dataram Chief Technologist.

    "The question is no longer ‘How can I benefit from solid state storage?’ but ‘How do I best implement solid state in my existing infrastructure?”

    The XcelaSAN begins shipping during Q4 in the United States and in 1H 2010 throughout Europe and Asia. Pricing starts at $65,000.

  • IFA 2009: Menq Presents Mini GPS/GSM Tracker with GPRS

    VIDEO INTERVIEW: Biz-News.com interviewed Ann Meng, Marketing & Sales Manager of Menq International. She presented the company’s star product – mini GPS/GSM tracker with GPRS.

    This tiny device shows directly map location on any mobile without installing any software and transmits the SMS message of longitude, latitude and location link to cell phone. It supports indoor orientation, single location reporting and continuous tracking. In case of emergency, help message with location is send to all preset phone numbers.

    Menq’s products, include GPS/GPRS/GSM Trackers, Portable Navigation Device and GPS Mobile Phones, are sold to importers and ODM / OEM manufacturers in America, Asia, Europe and Middle East. In order to expand their overseas markets, the company have installed sales representatives in Germany and USA and is now actively seeking overseas partners to build up long term relationships.

  • Mobile application sales to hit $16 billion per year by 2013

    The number of smartphones sold each year will increase from around 165.2 million in 2009 to 422.96 million in 2013, with the total number of smartphone users approaching 1.6 billion, according to Wireless Expertise, an UK-based wireless market research and consulting firm.

    Its latest report “The future of mobile application storefronts” shows how smartphone penetration will reach approximately 28-30% of the total mobile market by 2013.

    “We expect smartphone growth to have a positive impact on the number of application downloads in the short- to mid-term,” said Anuj Khanna, CEO of Wireless Expertise and author of the report.

    Wireless Expertise forecasts that the global mobile app market – including games – will be worth $4.66 billion in 2009, rising to $16.60 billion, in 2013.

    With mobile phones outnumbering PCs around the world by 4:1, mobile applications represent an even bigger opportunity for the mobile industry than the fixed-line perceived the internet a decade ago.

    “With over four billion mobile users around the world compared to approximately one billion PCs, mobile will become the ideal channel for businesses to reach their consumers,” continued Khanna.

    “Mobile operators have to adopt a dual app store strategy, using the now widely-accepted app store model in conjunction with a browser-based widget store, to provide the greatest potential for a mass-market proposition.”

    The report credits Apple for growing and revolutionalising the applications market. “Apple has not only invigorated what was rapidly becoming a stagnant mobile content and services market, but its App Store has paved the way for professional content developers and publishers to stand side-by-side with the new breed of garage developers introducing innovative and functional apps,” said Khanna.

    “However, we expect Apple to face tough competition from mobile operators, independent service providers and competing vendor application portals in the next 18-24 months.”

    Wireless Expertise suggests that Nokia will be very active in the smartphone market and Nokia’s biggest advantage over Apple is its ability to offer Ovi on a wide range of handsets, ranging from the high-end to the mainstream. And the fact that Nokia is pushing its app store to a mass market is very encouraging.

    “Diverse and competing mobile operating systems from other vendors such as Symbian, Google Android, Microsoft Windows and Research in Motion will also help in growing the market,” concluded Khanna.

    “We predict the emergence of independent mobile application stores which specialise in niche content such as games and location-based services.”

    Mobile Operators releasing a mobile internet API would address the issue of fragmentation and help create a multichannel app services and content retail environment coupled with integrated billing and payment mechanisms.

    However, operators must be involved in the delivery and payment of the service with their own platforms giving improved revenue shares as high as 90% if they want to compete in this market.

  • Panasonic Develops 50-inch Full HD 3D PDP

    Aiming to bring Full HD 3D TVs to the market in 2010, Panasonic steps up its efforts in developing the related technology. The company has just developed a 50-inch Full HD 3D compatible plasma display panel (PDP) and high-precision active shutter glasses that enable the viewing of theater-quality, true-to-life 3D images in the living rooms.

    The new PDP and glasses evolved from Panasonic’s Full HD 3D Plasma Home Theater System that was developed in 2008 and comprised of a 103-inch PDP and a Blu-ray Disc player. The prototype PDP has a 50-inch screen, which is expected to become the most popular size for home theaters.

    This 50-inch PDP uses Panasonic’s newly-developed high-speed 3D drive technology that enables rapid illumination of pixels while maintaining brightness. The panel also incorporates a crosstalk reduction technology allowing for minimizing double-image (ghosting) that occurs when left- and right-eye images are alternately displayed.

    As PDPs are self-illuminating device with full motion-picture resolution, they offer fast response time and are suitable to display fast-moving images. The high-speed 3D drive technology involves the development of new panel materials and LSIs that accelerate the pixel illumination while maintaining brightness.

    Panasonic also developed the crosstalk reduction technology using phosphors with short luminescence decay time and illumination control technology to reduce double-images that occur when left- and right-eye image are alternated on the panel. This technology contributes to achieving high-quality clear pictures with high-contrast and accurate color reproduction. As the new technologies can also be applied to improve the quality of 2D images, they have expanded PDP’s potentials for further evolution.

    To reproduce 3D images, Panasonic uses the Full HD x 2 frame sequential method that displays time sequential images, alternately reproducing discrete 1920 x 1080 pixel images for the left and right eyes on the display frame by frame. The frame sequential method is widely used in showing Hollywood 3D movies in theaters.

    The active shutter glasses employ Panasonic’s technology that controls the timing of opening and closing the shutter in synchronization with the left- and right-eye images alternately shown on the PDP. According to the company, this technology enables significant reduction of crosstalk that degrades the image resolution in 3D display. The glasses are designed to fit for a wide range of users from children to the elderly.

    Panasonic has been working to develop its original Full HD 3D technology to create synergy between PDPs, which excel in moving picture resolution and color reproduction, and Blu-ray Disc players, which are able to faithfully reproduce high quality Hollywood 3D movies.

    The company continues to work on developing 3D products, targeting to launch the products in Japan, Europe, and the U.S. in 2010.

    Prototype Full HD 3D TV and glasses will be displayed at CEATEC JAPAN 2009 to be held from October 6 to 10 in Chiba City, east of Tokyo.

  • IFA 2009: Real Cable Feels the Difference

    VIDEO INTERVIEW. Quality cables become more and more important part of HD – both video and audio – markets. At IFA 2009 in Berlin, Biz-News.com interviewed Catherine Torchin, Managing Director and owner of Real Cable. She described to us the strategy of the company that has already been successful on 25 markets worldwide.

    Laurent Zawadil, Technical Menager for Real Cable, showed us the latest company’s product – innovative 1.4 HDMI cable with additional Ethernet Channel. The cable will be introduced to the market in October this year, but you can take a look at its main features right now.

    This is how the company described itself at this year’s IFA

    REAL CABLE was born in 1999 from the association of experience and conviction to answer the growing demand of High Fidelity and Home Theatre sound and picture perfection.

    Nowadays «Real Cable is one of the top cable manufacturers whose reputation has reached every corner of the world» commented a well-known journalist from a specialised press.

    Thanks to close collaboration with the major Hi-Fi and Home Theatre professionals, REAL CABLE was able to develop 4 product ranges: AVS, EVOLUTION, INNOVATION and MASTER, meeting the strictest technical demands in a variety of budget areas.

    Real Cable manufacture partners are in agreement with the most important certification norms and environmental regulations: ISO 9001 – ISO 9002 – ISO 14001 – HDMI LLC. All Real Cable products are ROHS compliant.

    Today REAL CABLE is a leading company on the French market in the field of high level cables for the Hi-Fi and Home Theatre equipment.

  • NETXUSA Expands Provisioning Capabilities of BroadSoft Service Providers


    NETXUSA    , a VoIP distributor and a BroadSoft partner, releases version 4.0 of their Provisioning & Professional Services (PPS) software.

    The company says this “major release” provides the solutions to manage a greater number of device types and options for deployment.

    Version 4.0 makes this possible by including a new configuration management system, which allows customers to manage an unlimited number of device configurations and device options for all customer-premises equipment (CPE).

    Through this solution, BroadWorks-powered service providers can make more product options available to their customer base, thus lowering cost of installations and reducing turn up times, NETXUSA claims.

    Unlimited network CPE support for configuration has been added with NETXUSA’s in-house proprietary software. Certified-CPE include routers, switches, IADs, gateways, ATAs, wireless and IP phones.

    Through BroadWorks Device Management, BroadSoft is believed to solve one of the most complex and time-consuming phases of delivering VoIP services – provisioning and configuring end devices. BroadWorks Device Management enables service providers to pre-configure end-user access devices at the customer site.

    A simple login process is used to retrieve the appropriate user-specific files directly from BroadWorks, and then providers manage and control all aspects of device configuration centrally in the network.

    According to Rick Boone, president of NETXUSA, this release as a “major milestone simplifying the service delivery for the BroadSoft channel.”

    “As a recognized BroadSoft partner we have kept the BroadWorks–powered service provider in mind with our seamless support for BroadWorks Device Management and our continued development to further integrate our solutions for a plug-n-play experience,” he said.

    David Bukovsky, vice president of products, BroadSoft, stated that the new features and back-office applications make Version 4.0 an attractive reseller recruitment tool for the BroadWorks-powered provider.