UK software provider Tamblin is aiming to make interactive television easier and more cost-effective for broadcasters and programme producers.
Tamblin has launched a library of templates available on a pay-as-you-go basis. The Tamblin i-ZoneTV On-Demand library offers broadcasters a range of pre-designed, tested templates, including pages for competitions, quizzes, information and voting.
The templates are based on their core system that has been used to publish over 60 interactive television services in the UK in the last 18 months.
Stuart Waite, chief executive of Tamblin, says many broadcasters want to provide interactive television services, but simply cannot afford the up-front costs of specialist software, design tools or developers. “Tamblin has created a unique licensing model that offers broadcasters a cost-effective way of creating and publishing interactive services in hours rather than months, using proven interactive templates that offer an economic return on investment and additional revenue opportunities.”
Tamblin is also advocating the use of its tools to manage the building of applications developed using the OpenTV software development kit, enabling producers to manage applications and their content using a web-based interface, without the need for intervention from a software developer.
In addition, the company has launched Gallery and Response products that enable broadcasters and production teams to make use of mobile phones for interaction, allowing them to reach both analogue and digital viewers.
Gallery provides a content and template management system for broadcast graphics systems, allowing rapid deployment of ‘text-to-screen’ applications.
Response enables producers to aggregate, analyse and filter data captured from SMS text messages and MMS picture messages, as well as the web and digital television services, providing support for real-time moderation.
Tamblin also announced a partnership with mobile communication services company Opera Telecom to integrate with their Dragon system for SMS and MMS services.
“For a long time broadcasters and producers have been held back by their local technology platforms,” said Mark Janes, commercial director at Tamblin. “Now interactivity can be added at any time, using the right mix of user interaction and programme production values”.