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Roku Lead Narrows, Apple TV Loses to Chromecast

Sales of Google’s Chromecast streaming media stick surpassed the Apple TV in Q1-Q3’14 – although Roku devices still lead. Chromecast sales were not counted in 2013, but were comfortably ahead of the ageing Apple TV this year (20% vs 17% market share). Roku’s lead also narrowed considerably (falling from 46% to 29%), while Amazon entered … Read more

SBB Invests CHF15 Million in LED Displays

The Swiss railway operator, SBB, is installing signage systems in 17 stations around the country. By the end of next year 44 large-format LED displays will have replaced existing departure and arrival boards. The first is already in pilot operation in Neuchâtel; its settings have not yet been optimised. About CHF15 million ($15.5 million) has … Read more

Sony Provides UltraHD For Free…ish

Sony is now offering customers five high-resolution films for free. Between 31st October and 27th December, customers with a 2014 Bravia UltraHD TV can take the ‘Privilege Movies 4k’ promotion to get 10 films, five of which will be loaned for free. The films will be sent on a pre-loaded HDD that can be unlocked … Read more

Sony TV Service Enters Beta

We have been hearing rumours about a Sony web-TV service for almost two years (since Display Monitor Vol 20 No 2), and now the company has finally followed through. Playstation Vue will be a cloud-based service combining live, on-demand and three-day catch-up TV content. It includes a recommendation engine and a smart search feature. The … Read more

Spanish Government Urged to Move DTT Deadline

Spanish trade bodies have urged the government to extend its DTT migration deadline (currently 31st December) by three months. The associations (Uteca, FORTA, Installers Federation Fenitel, the Consumers Association and Abertis Telecom) say that between two million and four million households could lose TV signals if the deadline remains as it is.

Spanish Pay-TV Rose in Q2

The number of pay-TV subscribers in Spain increased by 340,000 in Q2’14, says regulator CNMC, to 4.3 million. Telefonica’s Movistar service saw the largest growth, up 91% YoY to 1.2 million. Canal Plus lost 22,000 customers (1.3%), ending Q2 at 1.62 million. ONO was the third-largest company, losing 52,000 subscribers (-6.3%) to 777,000. Telecable, Euskaltel … Read more

Thomson Shows HD Broadcast on Single MUX

Thomson Video Networks has tested the broadcast of five HD channels from a single 24.8Mbps multiplex, in France. The country currently uses three multiplexes for HD broadcast. Thomson used its ViBE EM4000 HD/SD encoder and Netprocessor multiplexer/video processor in the demonstration. Content from five French broadcasters was encoded in MPEG-4 VBR, multiplexed by the Netprocesser … Read more