Distribution

Channel 4’s new channel, tentatively called More4,  will focus on history, property series, documentaries and drama.  More4 will also feature some original programming, spin-offs from Channel 4 shows and drama and entertainment bought in from the US.

"This shouldn’t be thought of as a factual channel. It’s more based on a demographic," a Channel 4 spokesman said. "If E4 targets the younger end of the Channel 4 audience demographic, More4 will be aimed at the older end of that demographic," he added. "At launch there will be less origination, more narrative repeats of Channel 4 shows – ‘another chance to see’ – and archive programming. There will be entertainment and drama, as well as factual programmes, and some acquisitions. You could also see More4 doing live streaming of some of our more upmarket Channel 4 factual stuff, like Regency House."

The Guardian speculates that More4 will have an annual budget of £10m-£20m, and the channel is not expected to launch for at least a year.

More4 is likely to broadcast for around 12 hours a day, probably from early evening to early morning, when it launches. The launch will be welcomed by the government, as it is another incentive for viewers to move away from analogue boradcasts.

Channel 4 is expected to broadcast More4 on Freeview but also seek carriage on Sky Digital and digital cable services NTL and Telewest.

Commercial and creative development of More4 will be led by the managing director of 4Channels, Dan Brook, and the head of digital programming, Murray Boland.

Sky also admitted publicly for the first time yesterday that it has plans to launch a mainstream channel to compete with BBC1, ITV, Channel 4 and Five.

4Ventures

Just in case you were going to forget, the Intel-sponsored One Unwired Day is going to be on 25 September. We would be surprised if you have missed it as it has so been heavily promoted.

To summarise, most of the companies involved in WiFi are getting together to give free access to their wireless networks, at a huge numbers of locations worldwide.

One of the biggest networks in the USA is Boingo who are gold sponsor of the event and will be present at the Wi-Fi festivals held in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. So keen is Boingo for the world  to become wireless, that they are also offering anyone who signs up for the One Unwired Day an additional two months free access.

They are also providing a network sniffer application that shows the wireless networks that are within range of your computer. It is in a similar vain to the long available NetStumbler, but has the added advantage of having a database of addresses around the world that provide free and pay for WiFi access.

We don’t really see One Unwired Day changing the world, but imagine that the huge amount of money that being spent on marketing should slightly raise WiFi in the publics consciousness.

Intel One Unwired Day

Find a One Unwired Day global hotspot

NetStumbler software

Boingo network sniffer software

USB drives have become widely popular, within business as well as for personal use. As presenters at business conferences know, if you turn up with your presentation not on one you’re seriously unfashionable. Individuals are using them to share their photo’s, music and video with friends.

The need to pull potentially large files from them in realtime (without copying the data to the local hard drive first) has lead Kingston Technology to bring out the DataTraveler 2.0 line of products. Utilising fast memory and the fast communications of USB 2.0, they have 1/8Gb, 1/4Gb, 1/2Gb and 1Gb models all of which can have their content protected using Kingston’s TravelerSafe software. They range in retail price from $74 – $349 and come with a five year warranty and should hold the data for ten years.

Link

With an estimated 50 million capable handsets in use, Oplayo intend to bring Windows Media 9 streaming to existing 2.5 and 3G phones.

Oplayo currently offer the popular Oplayer application for Symbian mobile phones which offers MVQ compression and throughput from about 10kbs up.

The Java-based Oplayer will adopt WM9 and they will be releasing a number of tools to support content providers – including encoding software, server software and a playlist generator.

Oplayo

The keenly anticipated Keynote at this morning’s d-cinema day at IBC was from Chuck Goldwater of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) outlined the areas that were of importance to them.

The US and Europe have a significantly different view on what digital cinema is all about. The US want to take it to the high end and make it an ‘experience’ that can’t be sampled in anywhere but a new form of 1,000 plus seater venues. The European’s see it as a way to make cinema more democratic, enabling people to see a wide variety at even the smallest venue, eg a small village hall. The difference between these visions lead them at different ends of the projection quality, which could mean that Hollywood studios would not allow their films to be distributed to lower resolution projectors.

Chuck Goldwater told the audience that Hollywood are committed to making d-cinema a “better experience than a 35mm print” currently gives, which translates to content being projected at a 4k resolution. They are also mindful that the currently availability of 4k projectors is restricted so are considering _allowing_ scalable resolution solutions for 2K projection but only until 4k is economically viable. To ensure their aim of 4k is attained they are actively working with the projector industry.

The DCI also see their role as encompassing considering and evaluating the packaging of the content use MXF, content security including key management systems and the exploration of compression schemes.

The DCI are keen that their views of standards are applied across the World. These standard including a common format, compatibility & interoperability and reliable & secure distribution.

It’s not clear yet how this high-end approach will work with the more inclusive European approach.

Where previous studies have been concerned by the belief that mobile phones may cause the brain to swell, or even cause cancer in exposed areas, a new study conducted by Lund University has warned that mobile phones allow albumen to pass into the brain. This in turn may cause the affected person to become senile prematurely. It is not clear if the neurons would recover or repair themselves.

A similar study conducted at Finland’s Nuclear Safety Authority also found that the exposure to radiation in from mobiles causes increased protein activity in hundreds of proteins. They did not conclude if there was any biological effect.

The Independent

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