Pakistan's InCable selects Exset DMS middleware

Pakistan cable operator InCable creates new revenue and viewer value with Exset’s DMS

THE NETHERLANDS — InCable has become the latest operator to select Exset in order to create and deploy value add and dynamic advertising services across its digital cable network. One of the largest Pakistani cable operators, it’s based in Lahore and is currently rapidly expanding its digital network.

InCable deploying Exset’s complete ecosystem with the latest bundled services. This is a turnkey integrated solution recently launched by the company at the heart of which sits its flagship DMS 5.0 middleware.

Mahmood Ulhaq, Exset’s Director of Business Development Asia, said, “We have worked with InCable to understand the market pressures it faces. We’re now supplying the powerful DMS 5.0 as well as surrounding technology. This includes high cost-effective, DMS-integrated Newland set-tops and EPG services together with dynamic ad insertion. InCable benefits by receiving set-tops with DMS integrated; the ability to create and launch services via the EPG; security options; and the DMS publishing engine. Then there’s also the enhanced EPG UI and its smart advertising capabilities.”

Irfan Goraya, Managing Director of I. N Cable pvt Ltd, said, “We very carefully looked at the market and we chose not to go with the cheapest option because we know that route has failed people in the past. We wanted a comprehensive solution that can help power our digital network rollout from both a technical and business perspective. Exset is providing that, not least with its consultancy services.”

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (PEMRA) current analogue switch-off date for the country is the end of September 2016. There have been challenges as the country moves from analogue to digital infrastructure with that date not the first that was announced.

Ulhaq said, “We are providing operators with the ability to create services in a digital world over and above video, adding massive additional value to their proposition, helping them drive the digital transition. This helps them in their arguments to convince subscribers to move to digital by creating a whole range of services at a price point that is attractive to the population. In turn, this increases their revenue and will reduce churn.”

EXSET is from Russia ACTUALLY, NOT Netherlands.

Exset and Newland target cable operators in Pakistan

Exset Continues DMS Integration With Newland Set-tops To Drive Pakistan Cable Digital Transition

THE NETHERLANDS — Exset, pioneers of TV ecosystems for enhanced digital TV services, has today announced that it’s now directly selling the latest version of its Value Added Service DMS ecosystem integrated with Newland set-top boxes to cable operators in Pakistan.

The Pakistan cable industry is facing challenges as it moves from an analogue to digital infrastructure. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (PEMRA) current analogue switch-off date is the end of September 2016. Exset has successfully integrated its DMS middleware with set-top boxes from Newland to create a value-added services ecosystem designed to power this digital transition and to open up new opportunities for Pakistani cable operators.

Mahmood Ulhaq, Exset’s Director of Business Development, Asia said,” With our experience as Exset in other countries, and in the wider television industry, we believe the most powerful factor of the move to digital are the opportunities that it opens up for viewers, advertisers and cable operators alike. If deployed correctly, digital cable will add real value. But there are challenges and that’s where DMS and Exset come in.”

Designed specifically to deliver new revenue streams for operators in an ever more challenging market, DMS offers monetised services over and above video. DMS enables subscription fees – and set-top box costs – to be kept very low, vital in driving the successful migration to digital across the country.

DMS includes multiple value-add services: fully integrated EPG ad-insertion; interactive blue button ad service; push VoD – operators can pre-load their most popular content to the viewer’s set-top box; USB-based PVR capabilities; ‘Red Button’ interactive services – providing additional magazine services (weather, news, and sports, for example) at the touch of a button on the remote, or opening up additional video from a programme stream.

Ulhaq said, “What’s required in Pakistan, as in other countries in transition, is a holistic approach to digital cable, both technologically – which we provide – and from a business perspective. It requires multiple parties – operators, advertisers, technology suppliers, the regulator and monitoring companies – operating together and those are the parties with which Exset is working to drive opportunities forwards.”

Exset is exhibiting on the Rentak Setia booth 4A1-03 at Broadcast Asia 2016.

Exset supplies DMS-equipped STBs to Pakistan’s Cable Media Group

Exset Supplies DMS 4.0-equipped Set-tops To Pakistan’s Cable Media Group For Value-add Services

THE NETHERLANDS –– Exset, pioneers of TV ecosystems for enhanced digital TV services, has today announced that it is supplying the latest version of its Value Added Service DMS 4.0 technology to major Pakistan cable operator Cable Media Group.

Exset has successfully integrated the recently upgraded middleware with set-top boxes from Gospell that are to be deployed by CMG shortly. Designed specifically to deliver new revenue streams for operators in an ever more challenging market, DMS offers monetised services over and above video. DMS 4.0 enables subscription fees – and set-top box costs – to be kept very low, vital in driving the successful migration to digital across the country. The technology has also been successfully integrated with set-tops from Newland and is also being deployed by Russian pay-TV operator Tricolor.

DMS 4.0 now includes fully integrated EPG ad-insertion, allowing operators and content providers to reach a new audience as soon as users turn on their TV. The second key development is an Interactive Blue Button Ad Service; when instructed, pressing the blue button on a banner ad results in complete advert detail being revealed.

CMG is based in Karachi with offices in Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Multan and is expanding across an additional 40 cities, with its networks serving all the major conurbations.

Andrew Pons, Global Director of Sales and Marketing with Exset, said, “Both CMG and Tricolor are building for the future and the provision of value-add services, we believe, is an essential tool in moving populations to a digital subscription model. By integrating with vendors we are able to satisfy both cost and technological requirements. Exset is helping to power the digital transition in emerging markets. Subscription fees can be minimised via the use of DMS with revenues driven up by providing value-add services. Those services attract people to make the switch to digital in markets where low ARPU’s are getting lower all the time.”

Exset DMS integrated with DTV Research STBs

Exset’s DMS Integrated With DTV Research Set-Tops For Emerging Market Value-Add Services

THE NETHERLANDS — Exset, pioneers of TV ecosystems for enhanced digital TV services, has today announced that its DMS 2.0 value-add service solution is now fully integrated with DTV Research’s set-top technology, making DMS 2.0 available to already-deployed boxes. DTV Research has millions of set-tops already rolled out in emerging markets with DMS 2.0 able to be downloaded over-the-air or installed from the outset.

Exset’s DMS is a unique business and technology model that makes pay-TV self-financing in emerging markets without depending exclusively on subscriber fees for revenue. With its dynamic EPG to allow ad insertion and QR services pages to allow interactive advertising to disconnect homes, DMS bridges the gap between technology and value-added service creation, producing digital television platforms that can be monetised where previously it was virtually impossible. This allows populations to benefit from new information and entertainment services, while operators and governments, when partnering with Exset, monetise digital switchover and assist in bringing about social transformation.

Andrew Pons, Global Director of Sales and Marketing with Exset, says, “We have worked closely with DTV Research to create a seamless integration and to allow over-the-air downloading of our technology. We are now providing operators with multiple ways of deploying DMS 2.0 and we are working with DTV Research to identify opportunities both with deployed boxes and new customers. It’s vital for emerging markets that we keep the cost to an absolute minimum while providing a route to far greater ARPU and reduced churn.”

Exset will be available to discuss this important development during CABSAT, March 10-12, Dubai. DTV Research is a subsidiary of General Satellite.

Exset brings interactivity to sub $20 STBs

NOVEMBER 19, 2014 20.23 EUROPE/LONDON BY ROBERT BRIEL

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In developing countries, switching from analogue to digital is not always smooth sailing.

“People have free TV. Why should they now pay $100 for a set-top box?” asked Andrew Pons, Director of Global Sales and Marketing, Exset, during the recent GS Summit ’14 in St Petersburg.

“Who pays for it? A difficult story to tell, especially when elections come up. Managing the cost in emerging markets is difficult. Digitisation has it challenges, but we offer a digital TV starter model for operators.”

Exset, a technology company founded out of General Satellite, claims to have found the answer in providing operators means to generate additional income via the STB,
Indonesia 60% watches FTA.

The company is registered in the Netherlands, and has offices in Estonia, UK, Russia, and Asia, and offers products and project management for launch of services.

“It does take a new way of thinking in managing your platform. We can add services at no extra cost to infrastructure, services that can be sold to third parties, but are managed by the operator. This is an opportunity for operators to generate new income and new revenue streams.”

Using open standards (MHEG) the Exset DMS (Digital Monetisation System) will run on sub-$20 STBs. Examples are ad insertion, banners on EPGs, red button services, push-VOD, and connecting to smart phone with QR code.

“We advise operators to make one channel available for these new services. When people switch on the TV, the STB will automatically turn on this channel and show a welcome page, which can contain an ad, both billboard-type ads and videos are possible.”

With push-VOD, the operator can offer pay-per-view movies at, say, $0.50 per title. “In many countries piracy is still rampant and people buy illegal DVDs on the market for $1 a piece. So the operator can offer an attractive legal alternative.” At the moment a test is running with One TV in Cambodia.

Another application is to show a QR code on the screen, which can be scanned by a smartphone. “In a lot of countries a lot of people don’t have internet access, but mobile is everywhere.”

With regards to red button services, Exset is currently running tests with the Russian DTH platform Tricolor.

Cambodia’s One TV, Pakistan’s CMG partner Exset

Cambodia’s television programming provider, One TV, and Pakistan’s Cable Media Group (CMG), have installed Netherlands-based broadcast technology provider, Exset’s Digital Monetisation System (DMS) technology to power a range of value-add digital cable services and to monetise digital television platforms.

One TV, a joint project of the Russia’s GS Group and Cambodia’s Royal Group, has installed Exset’s DMS 2.0. Using DMS-ready set-top boxes from HDT (Hyundai), One TV will initially offer an onscreen home page that acts as a TV portal to information services including sports, news and One TV promotional offerings.

CMG which carries around 100 channels, is currently in the test phase, both in terms of technology and precisely which services will initially be launched using DMS. It is using E-TEK set-top boxes for the rollout.

“DMS will give our customers a new service and will enable us to generate new revenues without increasing the cost the viewer,” said Karakhan Karakhanov CTO of One TV. “DMS allows us to obtain new revenue streams through advertising and other value-add services. ARPU will be higher that it would otherwise have been,” said CMG’s Numan N Ahmed.

Donex enters into strategic partnership to make 1 million STBs

Donex Industries Limited has entered a strategic partnership with Exset, a Netherland based CAS, middleware and Digital Monetisation System (DMS) provider, for the manufacture of STBs for the Indian home cable market using Exset’s DMS.

Donex will manufacture around one million STBs per year which to help enable digitization even in remote areas. DMS helps make pay-TV self-financing without depending exclusively on subscriber fees for revenue.

“The close cooperation between Exset and Donex’s STB R&D team has enabled us to design a truly optimised software platform,” said Vinod Kinger, CEO & MD of Donex Industries Ltd said. “The DMS service combined with hardware conditional access provides an interactive pay-TV solution which will help the cable operators to drive ARPU’s to new levels.”

Exset and Mstar design STBs for emerging markets

Exset has announced a close cooperation with MStar to create a semiconductor solution and software platform suited to Exset’s Digital Monetization ecosystem.

This strategic alliance has seen the combining of MStar’s silicon, hardware conditional access and software stack to create a set-top box architecture and reference design in synergy with Exset’s Digital Monetization System (DMS).

In a statement, the companies said: “DMS is Exset’s unique business and technology model that makes pay-TV self-financing without depending exclusively on subscriber fees for revenue. DMS bridges the gap between technology supply and value-add service creation, facilitating digital television platforms that can be monetised in emerging markets where previously virtually impossible. This allows populations to benefit from new information and entertainment services while operators and governments, when partnering with Exset, monetise digital switchover and assist in bringing about social transformation.”

Scot Cuthbertson, Technical Director, MStar Europe, said, “The close cooperation between broadcast technology vendor Exset and MStar’s set-top box R&D team enabled us to design a truly optimised platform. The DMS service combined with hardware conditional access provides an interactive pay-TV solution at a new cost/performance tier in the market. Exset was able to capitalise on MStar’s end-to-end silicon, software and support resources to deliver a highly efficient solution.”

The set-top box reference design and software stack will be supplied to relevant companies for set-top box customisation and manufacture.

Alex Borland, CEO, Exset, said, “The set-top box reference design is essential to the deployment of DMS and we’re really pleased to be partnering with MStar because of the company’s acknowledged expertise in the field. Together we have been able to create a fantastic user experience at a price point that will make people really sit up and listen.”

Exset is a broadcast technology and solutions company founded in 2011. It is based in The Netherlands with offices in the UK, Estonia and India.----------------NOT True!