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Utah Scientific routes
the way to IP with
Arista Networks
The Leyard LED MultiTouch is a new
interactive LED video wall developed by
Leyard. Designed for narrow pixel pitch LED
video walls, the Leyard LED MultiTouch is
available in 0.9mm and 1.2mm pixel pitches.
Using Leyard PLTS (Pliable LED Touch
Surface) technology, the solution is able to
provide a 32-point simultaneous interactive
surface for a dynamic multi-user experience.
Next Month @ X-Platform
TV Everywhere
PANELLISTS
Mock Pak Lum
CTO
StarHub
Michael Cronk
Chairman,
Alliance for IP Media
Solutions (AIMS)
Peter Bithos
CEO, HOOQ
R
Technologies are emerging to bridge the gap between broadcasters
and their audiences, who are increasingly sharing their lifestyles and
media experiences with other users of social media platforms. How are
broadcasters and content producers approaching each of these individual
platforms differently? Josephine Tan finds some answers …
emember the time when American Idol
first started? Millions of fans were fixated
on their TV screens, with their phones
and computers by their side. In order
to get their favourite contestant into the
next round, they were vigorously voting
through telephone lines, Internet and SMS
texts. That was in 2002, when the phenom-
enal reality singing competition ushered in
second-screen audience participation with
the introduction of text-based and mobile
voting, creating a point of interaction be-
tween the broadcaster and the audience.
While broadcasting may have led the
interactive content wave for more than
a decade, many of these interactions are
being migrated to social media platforms
such as Twitter, the World Economic Fo-
rum pointed out in its white paper, Digital
Transformation of Industries: Media, Enter-
tainment and Information.
The ubiquity of social media and
smartphones, according to the 2016
report, empowers content creators with
“greater power” to create new storylines,
and with improved connectivity, data
collection and analytics, content creators
are able to take advantage of this to har-
ness their audiences’ ideas when creating
shows. The report also revealed that ena-
bling audiences to interact with content
creators has the potential to build more
loyalty and engagement with the content
— particularly if second-screen support
for an interactive, community-based ex-
perience can be designed.
There is a need for media operators to
establish a connection with their viewers
in order to retain them on their platform,
as viewers can be loyal to a platform if
they feel included, or if they know that the
operator is responding from the other end,
says Marini Ramlan, general manager,
innovation and distribution, Primeworks
Studios, the content subsidiary of Media
Prima.
Interactive TV requires the viewer’s
participation to influence the outcome of
the main content, Marini tells APB. “As
for social TV, it means that the viewer is
commenting and discussing the content
on social media platforms such as Face-
book, Instagram and Twitter. Sometimes,
content creators like us will create special
content surrounding the main programme
designed to engage with
its communities.”
For instance, Prime-
works Studios and Wau Ani-
mation have created two game
apps for the Malaysian animated
series Ejen Ali. Available for down-
load on Android and iOS devices,
the two games — Ejen Ali: MATA
Training Academy and Ejen Ali:
Emergency — are designed for
users to play independently
without the need to correspond
with the actual animated series
aired on TV.
Marini explains: “Ejen Ali is the
first animation series to be produced
as the intellectual property (IP) of
Media Prima. We developed
the games to build our IP
and create market awareness.
The games also enable us to
evaluate the interaction level
among our targeted viewers
aged between nine and 12.”
In the early stages of the series
roll-out, she reveals that an ex-
periment was conducted to test
the interactivity of cross-media.
She elaborates: “The format was
simple — during telecast, we ran
TV bugs that displayed special codes,
which can be used to unlock levels in
the Ejen Ali game. However, the results
were not too encouraging as we found
that we needed a high frequency of
on-screen graphic logos and promo-
tions to encourage engagement. We
also learnt that people who are playing
our games are older compared to the
children watching the series on our
free-to-air (FTA) platforms.”
To better understand its audi-
ences, Primeworks Studios has shifted
its concentration onto building the
Ejen Ali community on social media
platforms, and has been producing
different types of content to suit each
platform. “We have created Instagram
Art for our global fans, YouTube
tutorials for the communities, and
episode reviews for our older fans on
Facebook,” Marini says. “These kinds
of special content helps keep Ejen Ali
appealing for both ourselves as IP
Leyard unveils interactive
LED video wall
Cultivating a comm
engaged audiences
Paving the way to IP broadcasting is Utah
Scientic, who has been developing next-
generation solutions that integrate it