The system, based on Narrowstep's Television Operating System (TelVOS), offerse multiple channels that provide searchable video archives, VOD, scheduled content, and live events. Potential applications are said to include retail, education, government information, and company and employee TV channels.
The service supports GPRS, 3G, and 4G, and offers data rates ranging from 33 Kbps to 1.8 Mbps. Viewers can select the data rate appropriate for their phone and network service.
System administrators can view detailed statistics on where, when, and for how long content items and channels are viewed, thereby providing valuable research feedback and supporting one-to-one advertising, according to Narrowstep. Advertising can be distributed geographically by country and by subject, by analyzing the viewer's selections.
"These are very early days for video channel delivery to mobile devices," said Narrowstep CEO Iolo Jones. "Mobiles are now where broadband was five years ago. The costs being charged by the networks remain a big issue to the development of this industry and our platform provides an alternative route to market for content owners that is already proven in the broadband world."
Narrowstep's MobilePlayer client currently supports content in Windows Media format, only. Supported devices currently include Windows Mobile and Pocket PC devices such as HP's iPAQ h5555 and Sprint's SP-i600 Smartphone in the US, and the iPAQ 6430 and Orange's SPV cell phone in the UK. "We plan to add further formats, as well as the ability to download and interact with clips, in due course," Jones added.
An example of the content access system can be viewed using a Windows Media enabled mobile phone or using a web browser on a PC,
here (screenshot above-right).
Related stories:
