PS TV Comes to Germany
Sony’s Playstation TV (Display Monitor Vol 21 No 24) box is now available in Germany.
RTL Considers Netflix Rival…
The RTL Group is considering the launch of a Netflix-like SVOD service. Co-CEO Guillaume de Posch told French newspaper La Correspondance de la Presse that he feels it is a shame that US companies, like Netflix, are able to establish themselves in Europe without local competition. In contrast with Netflix CEO Reed Hasting’s remarks about … Read more
Swisscom Launches SVOD Service
Switzerland’s Swisscom has launched a rival SVOD service to Netflix called Teleclub Play. The service offers films, TV shows, documentaries, sports and childrens’ programming for CHF12.90 ($13.20) a month. Around 5,000 titles are currently part of the service, growing to around 7,000 by the end of the year.
Signagelive Wins Lithuanian Contract
Lithuania’s AB ‘Citadele’ bankas has deployed Samsung’s Smart Signage platform, using Signagelive’s SoC software. It is the country’s first financial institution to deploy the product. Signage has been installed in waiting areas in every bank in the country, to promote to new products and services to B2B customers. Each location uses six 40″ displays and … Read more
Sky Deutschland Brings UltraHD Concert to Germany
On 20th December, Sky Deutschland will broadcast a live concert in UltraHD – the first such broadcast in Germany. The Die Fantastischen Vier concert will be sent from Stuttgart’s Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle to four selected households and two multiplex cinemas in Berlin and Munich. Pubs and bars with Sky Sports will also be able to show the … Read more
Spain Not Ready for Digital
More than 1.8 million Spaniards (around 4% of the population) could lose DTT services after the country’s digital switchover is completed on 1st January. People living in areas that are traditionally difficult to distribute to, such as rural villages, may be out of range of signals, unless regional governments extend the signal range – although … Read more
TiVo Tops 5 Million
TiVo raised its subscriber count by 328,000 in Q3 – taking the total subscriber base to 5.1 million.
10,000 Touchscreens for New York
New York is to convert its old public payphones into free public Wi-Fi hubs, under the ‘LinkNYC’ scheme. As part of the rollout, touchscreens will be installed in the phone kiosks. In total, 10,000 payphones are to be converted, with plans for the first 500 next year. Titan is the advertising specialist involved.
40″ and 50″ Panel Supply Tight Till 2015
Asian sources expect the supply of 40″ and 50″ TV panels to be short until the end of the year. Suppliers expect to have orders tied up until January 2015. Innolux, for example, is seeing steady orders for UltraHD panels – which represent 30% of its 50″ product mix – from Chinese, Japanese and Korean … Read more
4Ever Captures and Tests Phase 2
France’s 4Ever consortium has captured a basketball game and music concert (the Transmusicales music festival in Rennes) using the UltraHD Phase 2 format (Display Monitor Vol 20 No 35). These events tested the higher framerates and high dynamic range included in Phase 2. Display Daily Comments UltraHD phase 2 is what everybody else is calling … Read more
Alienware Alpha Heralds ‘New Era of Gaming’
The Alienware Alpha PC gaming console (Display Monitor Vol 21 No 32) is now available in the USA, starting at $550. Although technically a Steam Machine, the device runs Windows 8.1 natively and boots into Alienware’s own Alpha UI. Users can launch Steam Big Picture mode from here.
AMD’s Omega Upscales to UltraHD for FullHD Display
AMD has announced a new driver for its GPUs and APUs that challenges Nvidia technologies. Replacing Catalyst 14.9, the Catalyst Omega driver is said to raise GPU performance by up to 19% on high-end GPUs and 29% on APUs, when used with newer games such as Bioshock Infinite. New features are also included, such as … Read more
