Oceanic Time Warner Cable Launches Multiscreen Interactive TV Channel

--"SportsChoice" Channel is Based on Ligos's MediaRig Mosaic System

Time Warner Cable's Hawaii-based Oceanic Time Warner Cable division (note: the MSO has traditionally used the division as a test bed for new interactive TV technologies) has launched a multiscreen interactive TV channel, dubbed "SportsChoice," using the MediaRig Mosaic system from San Francisco-based Ligos. Ligos touts MediaRig Mosaic as a compact, cost-effective solution for MSO's that want to provide their subscribers with a rich visual and navigation experience. Located on channel 200 of Oceanic's EPG, SportsChoice presents viewers with a tiled mosaic of thumbnails, each consisting of a live video stream. Viewers use the arrow buttons on their remotes to highlight individual thumbnails and hear their accompanying audio, and can switch the thumbnail they have highlighted to full-screen mode, if something on it captures their interest. In addition to its multiscreen mosaic, SportsChoice devotes a portion of its screen to sponsors, adding and displaying clickable advertiser banners on a dynamic rotating basis. When viewers select one of these banners, they are taken to Oceanic's sponsor portal, where they are given the option of viewing a product video from the advertiser. According to Ligos, the ability to dynamically change content on the fly or as-scheduled is a unique feature of MediaRig Mosaic, and SportsChoice is one of the first video-rich navigation channels to explore the potential of this capability. "We're very excited about SportsChoice and what it means for both our subscribers and our advertisers," Oceanic Time Warner Cable president, Nate Smith, said in a prepared statement. "We have a history of firsts with our advanced interactive services, and we're pleased to add Ligos MediaRig Mosaic platform to our extensive offerings."

According to Ligos, a single MediaRig Mosaic unit will serve in the place of up to a dozen hardware MPEG decoders and a stack of other equipment that would otherwise be required to generate a single guide channel. The company says that it consolidates an array of functions--including MPEG decoding, re-scaling, compositing, navigation metadata, re-encoding, and multiplexing--into a single, compact platform that can be managed online in real time either locally or remotely. The technology can be used for such applications as EPG's, VOD and PPV gateways, localization, audio-only channels, specialty advertising and more, Ligos says.

Originally Published: November 6, 2006  in [itvt] Issue 7.03 Part 3

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