The inaugural edition of World OTT Show by Trescon set to strengthen the inevitable future of video streaming in Asia

Singapore, May 31, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – Having hosted some of the industry's biggest tech conferences and high-level summits all over the world, Trescon is now venturing into the OTT space. World OTT Show will congregate renowned thought-leaders, subject matter experts, and technology innovators from Asia on 17 June 2021, in a constructive, open-dialogue, virtual environment.

More than 400 million people now use OTT video streaming services across the Asia Pacific region, with over 69 per cent of video viewers in the region watch streaming videos at least once a week.

"In 2021, the streaming providers in Asia have a massive opportunity to take their services to a global audience. Many of the conversations we have with some of the providers in this region are precisely about how we can scale their services offering beyond a regional play into a global one and I think we'll start seeing a lot more of these regional Asian OTT services go global and build significant businesses for themselves outside their own borders," said Paolo Cuttorelli, VP and GM at Evergent.

As many consumers are forced to stay confined in their homes and on their electronic devices due to the Covid-19, OTT consumption across Asia has witnessed a surge like never before. It has become one of the fastest-growing media channels in the region grabbing the advertiser's attention.

"Southeast Asia's video streaming market continues to experience massive growth and platform owners across verticals are placing huge investment bets. World OTT Show offers a platform to exchange varied perspectives between media, telecoms, and broadcast to explore this avenue of business in the new normal," said Mithun Shetty, CEO of Trescon.

The conference is designed to explore the endless possibilities of OTT products that are streamlined to focus on user interfaces, user behavior; enhanced streaming and storage technologies, and generating revenue through streamlined subscriptions.

Some of the powerful voices in the industry to share their expertise on OTT Monetization, Content OTT planning, Audio OTT, CX for OTT, and much more, include:

– Andreas Von Maltzahn, Co-Founder, iwonder, Singapore
– Adam Ware, VP, and GM – National Networks and Platforms, Sinclair Broadcast Group/STIRR, US
– Zubin Jimmy Dubash, COO Digital Businesses, Shemaroo, India
– Siddhartha Roy, Chief Operating Officer, Hungama Digital Media, India
– Anna Ysabel F. Driz, Director of Advertising Sales and Brand Solutions, WeTV iflix, Philippines
– Dushyantt Kohli, Chief Operating Officer, Khabri Audio platform, India

The conference will be hosted on the virtual events platform Vmeets to help participants network and conduct business in an interactive and immersive virtual environment. Participants can also engage with speakers in Q&A sessions and network with solution providers in virtual exhibition booths, private consultation rooms, and private networking rooms.

World OTT Show is officially sponsored by Lead Sponsor – Setplex; Platinum Sponsor – Brightcove; Gold Sponsor – Evergent; Silver Sponsor – Limelight Networks; Bronze Sponsor – Smartlabs

To attend the show, register here: https://tresconglobal.com/conferences/ott/asia/free-pass-registration

About World OTT Show

World OTT Show is a thought-leadership driven, business-focused initiative that provides a platform for CxOs, OTT heads, and OTT directors among others, looking to explore the latest services and devices powered by OTT to transforms business functions.

The show is virtually hosting business leaders across industry sectors from ASIA who will meet, network, learn and engage with some of the world?s renowned technology thought-leaders, subject matter experts, and technology innovators in a constructive, open-dialogue environment.

For further details about the announcement, please contact:
Aishwarya G Bhandary
Corporate Communications Executive
marketing@tresconglobal.com

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

Positivity reigns among the Filipino video industry’s top leaders at AVIA’s Philippines In View

MANILA, May 21, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – The Asia Video Industry Association's (AVIA) Philippines In View seminar held on 18th May brought together more than 700 industry delegates to discuss the state of the TV and video industry in the archipelago country with over 7000 islands. Some of the industry luminaries present include Manuel V Pangilinan, Chairman, President and CEO of PLDT, Ernest Cu, President & CEO of Globe and Dennis Anthony Uy, Founder & CEO of Converge ICT Solutions.

The seminar opened with a discussion on Policy and Regulations for the 21st Century in the Philippines with Arnold "ALI" I. Atienza, Undersecretary, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for Government Digital Broadcast Television and the Digitalization of the Entertainment Industry Sector, Emerging Technologies, Senior Citizens, Persons with Disabilities and Special Needs Sector. Undersecretary Atienza reiterated that the impact of TV could not be overemphasised, being a source of business, shopping, spiritual fulfilment, medical and legal information, among many others, for the average Filipino. While it needs to be regulated without affecting freedom of speech and expression, challenges remain regulating it across the different platforms. Hence the DICT welcomed industry and the private sector, to work closely with the DICT for help and support.

In a country that has been buffeted by major changes in the media industry over the last year, TV continued to remain resilient. According to Leo Jaymar G. Uy, Head of Research, BusinessWorld, despite total tv ad spend shrinking by a slight 4% year on year, digital video ad spend actually rose by 4.8%. And even though viewership has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, it is showing signs of recovery. Pay TV subscriptions have also increased and the roll-out of digital terrestrial television (DTT) continues to progress. Online is certainly one of the beneficiaries of growth as well, with OTT adoption expected to continue rising even after the effects of the pandemic. Constraints on internet speed and infrastructure also suggests there is still room for growth in this segment, and with the country's relatively low internet penetration rate, Pay TV can still coexist with OTT.

Robert P. Galang, President and CEO, Cignal TV and TV5, shared these sentiments as well. Galang expects growth for both Free and Pay TV in the next 5 years, as well as with DTT. Even though TV5's bread and butter will still be subscriptions on DTH, it is also seeing growth in OTT and ad revenue for TV5. While continued consolidation will have an impact on Pay TV, Galang still believes it is a strong proposition and the move to digital will provide an even bigger market for Pay TV.

Indeed, the growth in OTT has made Philippines the most attractive market for OTT advertisers in Southeast Asia, with the highest advertising attractiveness index, according to a recent report by The TradeDesk and Kantar. Marilyn See, SVP and Head for Digital Publishing and Digital Advertising, GMA New Media, also said that spend on YouTube has been moving to OTT inventory, and it was a matter of time before OTT revenues can outpace TV ad spend.

This move to digital has been a large part of Globe's transformation through the decades. In the keynote conversation with Ernest Cu, President & CEO of Globe, Cu shared that it was part of Globe's purpose to make people's lives better and solve everyday problems in a digital way. "It is a journey we have embarked on for many years, it's just part of what we do now, as part of our DNA at Globe," said Cu. And while streaming now dominates the entertainment landscape, the pandemic also brought about dramatic changes in consumer habits and a need for new lines of services, from remote health services to online grocery shopping, paving the way for a huge leap in ecommerce and making GCash the largest e-wallet service in the Philippines today. "We live by the adage, if we don't disrupt ourselves, somebody else will… the other alternative is to go away and be obsolete," summed up Cu.

Philippines In View is generously supported by Gold Sponsor Globe and Silver Sponsors Brightcove, TV5MONDE, Cignal, PLDT, Smart.

For media enquiries and additional background please contact:
Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia
Twitter: @AsiaVideoIA

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

Positivity reigns among the Filipino video industry’s top leaders at AVIA’s Philippines In View

Rakuten Mobile and NEC Partner to Promote Open RAN in Global Telecom Markets

TOKYO, May 18, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – Rakuten Mobile, Inc. and NEC Corporation announced today the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote Open RAN (open radio access networks) in global mobile telecommunications markets.

In Japan, NEC is currently providing 5G radio units (5G RU) for Rakuten Mobile's fully virtualized cloud-native mobile network. The two companies are also jointly developing Rakuten Mobile's containerized(1) 5G Stand Alone (SA) core network (5GC)(2). Under the MoU, Rakuten Mobile and NEC will expand upon their domestic collaboration to date to provide 5G and 4G Radios and engineering services for Open RAN systems aligned with O-RAN specifications(3) for global markets, and accelerate the global expansion of the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP).

Open RAN refers to radio access networks (RAN) where the interfaces and protocols between the RAN components are open and interoperable. This allows operators to select and combine the equipment to suit their needs and deploy networks without legacy vendor lock-in. As 5G services expand and diversify, both Rakuten Mobile and NEC are looking to promote Open RAN standards in the global market in order to further boost network scalability and the operational efficiency made possible by virtualization.

RCP, Rakuten Mobile's fully virtualized and containerized cloud-native mobile network platform, allows telecom companies and enterprises around the world to deploy virtualized networks at high speed and low cost.

"Rakuten Mobile has successfully designed, launched and now operates a fully virtualized mobile network. This unique network architecture built on Open RAN standards continues to attract significant interest from operators, enterprises and governments around the world," commented Tareq Amin, Representative Director, Executive Vice President and CTO of Rakuten Mobile. "With NEC's excellent level of technical expertise in radio and track record of providing our high quality 5G sub-6 RU, this collaboration will accelerate the global expansion of Rakuten Communications Platform and promote adoption of Open RAN in global markets."

"This MoU will empower both NEC and Rakuten Mobile to contribute in an even more comprehensive way to the opening and virtualization of cellular networks around the world," commented NEC Executive Vice President Atsuo Kawamura. "NEC is already providing Rakuten Mobile with BSS/OSS, 5G RU and 5G core solutions for its revolutionary fully virtualized cloud-native network. We hope to continue contributing to the expansion of the Rakuten Communications Platform as it rolls out around the globe."

By leveraging deep experience in construction and operation of a fully virtualized cloud-native mobile network and providing revolutionary services and expertise in Open RAN, Rakuten Mobile and NEC aim to provide high quality network technologies to customers around the world.

(1) In containers, the application execution environment is separated from other OS processes, allowing applications to be run using less computer resources than a virtualized environment.
(2 ) For more information about the collaborations between Rakuten Mobile and NEC to date, please see the following press releases:
new windowhttps://corp.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/english/news/press/2020/0324_01/
new windowhttps://corp.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/english/news/press/2020/0603_01/
(3) The O-RAN specifications are the Open RAN specifications for open and interoperable RAN defined by the O-RAN ALLIANCE. Rakuten Mobile joined the O-RAN ALLIANCE in August 2020, and in November 2020, Tareq Amin, Representative Director, Executive Vice President and CTO of Rakuten Mobile, was appointed as a member of the board of directors of the O-RAN ALLIANCE. For more information, please see the following press release: https://corp.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/english/news/press/2020/1104_03/

About Rakuten Mobile

Rakuten Mobile, Inc. is a Rakuten Group company responsible for mobile communications, including mobile network operator (MNO) and mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) businesses, as well as ICT and energy. Through continuous innovation and the deployment of advanced technology, Rakuten Mobile aims to redefine expectations in the mobile communications industry in order to provide appealing and convenient services that respond to diverse customer needs.

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation has established itself as a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies while promoting the brand statement of "Orchestrating a brighter world." NEC enables businesses and communities to adapt to rapid changes taking place in both society and the market as it provides for the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. For more information, visit NEC at https://www.nec.com.

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

New survey shows Vietnam among highest in online piracy in Southeast Asia

HANOI, Vietnam, May 17, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – A new study of the online content viewing behaviour of Vietnamese consumers has found that 60% access streaming piracy websites or torrent sites. The levels of piracy went as high as 65% within the 18-24 age demographic. The survey, commissioned by the Asia Video Industry Association's Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) and conducted by YouGov, found that 59% of consumers who accessed piracy sites cancelled their subscriptions to both local and international content services.

The levels of piracy in Vietnam now dwarfs neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia, which have both seen substantial reductions in online piracy in the last 18 months. In Indonesia, a similar YouGov survey found a massive 55% reduction in Indonesian consumers accessing piracy services with 28% of consumers admitting to accessing piracy websites in 2020, compared to 63% in 2019. In Malaysia, a YouGov survey found a 64% decline in users accessing piracy sites in 2020 when compared to a similar YouGov survey in 2019. In both countries a key variable for the decline in online piracy levels was the government's proactive piracy site blocking initiative.

The recent YouGov survey suggests that a regulatory site blocking mechanism would be supported by the majority of Vietnamese consumers. When given choices of what they thought were effective measures of reducing piracy behaviour, 48% of Vietnamese agree that a "government order or law for ISPs to block piracy websites" would be the most effective.

The damage that digital content theft does to the Vietnamese creative industries is without dispute. However, the damage done to Vietnamese consumers because of the nexus between online piracy and malware, also needs to be better understood and actioned by government and stakeholders. When asked by YouGov about the negative consequences of online piracy, Vietnamese consumers placed funding crime groups (58%) , malware risks (55%) and loss of jobs in the creative industry (49%) as their top three concerns. The malware risk was corroborated in a March 2021 study by UK-based White Bullet, which also found that 72% of popular piracy sites in Vietnam contain high risk advertising such as illegal gambling ads and fraud/malware ads. The study tracked advertising on over 800 popular piracy websites in Vietnam for a three-week period.

Of those Vietnamese consumers who admit to accessing streaming piracy websites or torrent sites, 35% said they would stop this behaviour should the government take deterrent action.

Neil Gane, the General Manager of AVIA's Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) commented, "The wide variety of legal services in Vietnam which provide premium entertainment content are reliable and importantly are legal. The piracy alternatives fund crime groups, put consumers at risk of malware infection and are unreliable. Piracy only benefits the criminal organisations who are behind these illegal websites.

Thomas Jayet, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Digital Satellite Television Company LTD (K+) commented, "In addition to sport content, K+ invests a huge budget in local movies, latest TV series, and Vietnamese box office titles to broadcast on our platforms. Such premium content gives audiences a better choice of quality and safe entertainment at home, as well as contributing to the sustainability of the local economy especially during the current Covid pandemic.

In order to protect this content, K+ applies diverse countermeasures ranging from technical anti-piracy measures. A critical anti-piracy strategy that has proven to be successful in Indonesia, Malaysia and other APAC jurisdictions, is site blocking. Based on an analysis of Vietnamese law, ISPs would seem to have an obligation to block their users from accessing piracy websites, but only upon an order from the competent authorities. What is required is legal clarity and government mandated procedures for rights holders to refer site blocking requests to government."

Phan Vu Tuan, Director of Phan Law Vietnam commented, "Piracy websites typically have a click-happy user base, and are being used more and more as clickbait to distribute malware. Unfortunately, the appetite for free content hides users from the very real risks of malware infection. The type of malware embedded within piracy websites can include particularly harmful malware such as remote access trojans which allows the hacker to activate and record from the device's webcam without the victim being aware."

YouGov is an international research and data analytics group. For further information visit https://hk.yougov.com. Study conducted in March 2021. All data is weighted to be representative of the online population. Sample size: Vietnam n=1,057

About the Asia Video Industry Association

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) is the trade association for the video industry and ecosystem in Asia Pacific. It serves to make the video industry stronger and healthier through promoting the common interests of its members. AVIA is the interlocutor for the industry with governments across the region, leads the fight against video piracy through its Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) programme and provides insight into the industry through reports and conferences aimed to support a vibrant video industry.

Contact AVIA
For media contacts and additional background:
Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia
Twitter: @AsiaVideoIA

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

CITIC Telecom CPC wins Accolade in AI Challenge Competition

HONG KONG, May 13, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited ("CITIC Telecom CPC"), a wholly owned subsidiary of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited (SEHK: 1883) today announced the winning of Overall 1st Runner-up at the latest "AI Challenge Computer Vision – Identifying Surgical Instrument" (AI Challenge) competition. The award is a recognition of the company's AI expertise, and reaffirm its long-term commitment to place innovation at the center of its strategy – Innovation Never Stops.

"The award is a testament to CITIC Telecom CPC's team and our passion for exploring ideas and creating unique solutions for enterprises," said Esmond Li, CEO of CITIC Telecom CPC.

Innovation and Intelligence – Transfrom the Future

To realize our motto "Innovation Never Stops", CITIC Telecom CPC has recently embarked on an innovative and intelligence transformation journey to cater for the changing needs of the future. At the heart of this transformation is the Intelligence and Communications Transformation MiiND (ICT-MiiND) Strategy. This strategy is guiding the company to transform from being a successful ICT solution provider into an intelligent technology-driven digitalization enabler. ICT-MiiND is also the powerhouse of the recent award-winning AI capabilities.

Integrating the latest technologies with innovative ideas, ICT-MiiND is the brain that leads enterprises to successful digital transformation. Building intelligence through advanced container technology; together with network, information security, and cloud computing solutions experience; fused years of practical experiences in digital transformation and resources from global technical partners, ICT-MiiND has developed the company's latest AIOps (Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations) platform, in which integrated with latest technologies like big data, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), internet of things (IoTs) and blockchain. Unlike other AIOps, ICT-MiiND provides different innovative and intelligent modules that integrated tailor-made and customized industry service scenarios to bring enterprises a smarter IT service management platform.

ICT-MiiND – Embracing Intelligent Innovation

Empowered by innovation and intelligence with smart learning and infrastructure, ICT-MiiND integrates full stack of services data to the ICT service platform. It performs periodic cycle of data collection, experience learning and correlation, as well as algorithmic analysis and modeling. This builds a foundation for developing a perception for dynamic business scenarios through understanding time, scenarios and industry applications. Through integrating this cognitive capability with the company's practical experiences and collective knowledge, ICT-MiiND can perform deep and self-learning to develop a self-evolving power that drives dynamic and continuous advancement.

Simply put, through cognitive thinking, digital tools and algorithms to correlate different business scenarios, ICT-MiiND develops automated, multi-dimensional analysis and assessment. ICT-MiiND can also continuously enhance its computational intelligence with machine learning and deep learning, in order to offer relevant responses that solve different business challenges and IT incidents with proactive solutions.

— Strong AI capabilities: Riding on different innovative tools and algorithms, ICT-MiiND is developed to provide analysis in multiple layers to study existing data, review its integrity and detect missing data. Its machine learning capabilities can also identify regular IT operation patterns, align that with changing business priorities to detect different levels of business impact from any IT anomalies.

— Simplicity and Precision: Deliver precise and comprehensive IT operation analysis through capturing massive volume of data from different incidents to develop AI and algorithmic modules and drive intelligent operation and maintenance capabilities. Analysis in dynamic perspectives – including factors like timing, correlations, cause and effect – enables inductive analysis to identify patterns and predictive analysis to forecast progression. A combination of these capabilities enable ICT-MiiND to actively detect anomalies and analyze root cause. It also provides a comprehensive macro view of the entire operations by reducing multiple and duplicating alerts.

— Active and comprehensive monitoring: Aiming to turn passive monitoring into proactive enhancement, ICT-MiiND combines macro monitoring of the entire operations together with intelligent analysis that deepens IT resource planning. This combination can transform ICT services provisioning from simply meeting SLAs to proactively identifying areas to improve IT performance and user experiences.

— Integrate business scenarios and human knowledge: Leverage the experience of managing different networks and IT challenges, as well as the understanding of individual customer's business processes, application architecture, infrastructure and security policies to develop business-driven AIOps algorithm. It demonstrates CITIC Telecom CPC's differentiating AI capabilities to develop AIOps tools that are unique from others in the market.

Innovation is part of our DNA

ICT-MiiND is an intelligent-driven strategy for the future. It rides on CITIC Telecom CPC's practical IT operations experiences, in-depth business knowledge and expertise in network, security and cloud into building different AIOps modules to provide exceptional IT services through intelligence.

Embracing years of practical experiences, deep industry knowhow with intelligent analysis and algorithmic capability, CITIC Telecom CPC is also deepening its innovation with the latest technologies like AR, IOTs and Blockchain, to form intelligent IT service management platform and applications, a true proactive digital business enabler.

Series of innovative offerings under the ICT-MiiND Strategy:

— AR-driven service platform: Leverage wearable AR technology, the company offers remote operation and maintenance service – DataHOUSE(TM) AR Remote Hand. It transforms field engineers' operations, maintenance and troubleshooting processes, driving a future-ready field service era.

— Blockchain-enabled business workflow tracking system manages application development and APIs to enable service governance. Some applications, including electronic leave application and electronic overseas travel application systems, are already supported by blockchain, while Sales management and CRM systems will be next.

— Integrates facial recognition technology into thermal detection system, CITIC Telecom CPC creates groundbreaking AI thermal detection systems to monitor temperature and identify individual employees or visitors to enable higher level of public health and safety.

— AI + SD-WAN is a network service that integrates AI, big data analytics and SD-WAN technologies. It achieves the integration between algorithmic analysis, WAN operations and linkages as well as application processing and business services delivery. Through intelligent analysis and smart machine learning of data across the network, it creates scenario planning through algorithmic and correlation analysis to design and develop dynamic routing to optimize network performance. It empowers enterprise customers to handle surging network traffic with an optimized network architecture.

"Supported by our global experiences, years of business knowhow and dedicated R&D capabilities for different industries, ICT-MiiND Strategy is not only a platform for intelligent IT service management, but the brain to empower digital success," said Daniel Kwong, Chief Information and Innovation Officer from CITIC Telecom CPC.

To know more about ICT-MiiND Strategy, please visit: https://www.citictel-cpc.com/EN/HK/Pages/ICT-MiiND

Demonstrating Precision in Computer Vision

Organized by Hong Kong Science and Technology Park and Hospital Authority, the AI Challenge is a competition that challenged contestants to build machine learning models to identify surgical instrument. The competition aims to explore the role of AI to assist human in performing surgical instrument counting at the hospital operating theatre – a task that takes place over hundred thousand times per year!

"Our dedicated Data Science and Innovation team has been building machine learning models since 2019 to digitize our internal operations. Through this competition, we'd like to benchmark our AI capabilities against others into solving other practical business problems," said Kwong.

"The award recognizes our expertise in AI to facilitate business operations, as well as our ability to extend these skills into different industries to provide enhanced services for our enterprise customers," added Kwong.

ICT-MiiND Roadmap

The introduction of ICT-MiiND marks only the first step of a three-stage development plan. In the second stage, ICT-MiiND is expected to integrate the newly acquired insight with advanced algorithm to offer predictive insights and response recommendations. Moving forward, ICT-MiiND is also expected to realize human-machine interactions and proactively support customers by providing recommendations and analysis using natural language processing (NLP) technologies and knowledge graph.

"ICT-MiiND demonstrates our commitment to deepen technology expertise towards endless innovation for our customers. It is the core for our transformation from an ICT solution provider into a technology-driven digitalization enabler," said Kwong.

About CITIC Telecom CPC

We are CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited ("CITIC Telecom CPC"), a wholly owned subsidiary of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited (SEHK: 1883), serving multinational enterprises the world over by addressing their ICT requirements with integrated digitalisation solutions built upon our flagship technology suites, comprising TrueCONNECT(TM) private network solutions, TrustCSI(TM) information security solutions, DataHOUSE(TM) cloud data center solutions, and SmartCLOUD(TM) cloud computing solutions.

With the motto "Innovation Never Stops", we leverage innovative technologies, embracing AI, AR, Big Data, IoT, and other cutting-edge emerging technologies to transform technical potential into business value for our customers. As enterprises digital transformation partner, we strive to help our customers achieving industry-leading position, high agility and cost-efficiency through digitalisation.

Bringing with our Global-Local capabilities, we are committed to providing our customers with one-stop-shop ICT solutions with superior quality. Having worldwide footprint across 160 countries, including Asia, Europe and America, Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, our global network resources connect over 160 points of presence (POPs), 18 Cloud service centers, 30+ data centers, and two dedicated 24×7 Security Operations Centers (SOCs). As one of the first managed service providers in Hong Kong to achieve multiple ICT-related certifications, including ISO 9001, 14001, 20000, 27001, and 27017, we have been offering professional local services, superior delivery capabilities as well as exceptional customer experience and best practices through our global presence and extensive industry knowhow, becoming a leading integrated intelligent ICT service provider to enterprise customers.

For more information please visit www.citictel-cpc.com

Media Contact:

Rowena Leung
CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited
(852) 2170 7536
Email: rowena.leung@citictel-cpc.com

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

CITIC Telecom CPC’s DataHOUSE AR Remote Hand wins Augmented & Virtual Reality Award for Telecommunications at SBR TEA 2021

SINGAPORE, May 5, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited (CITIC Telecom CPC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited (SEHK: 1883), is honored to announce that its innovative product, DataHOUSE™ AR Remote Hand, bagged the Augmented & Virtual Reality – Telecommunications Award during Singapore Business Review's (SBR) recently concluded Technology Excellence Awards (TEA).

DataHOUSE™ AR Remote Hand is a highly practical, productive, and effective tool for field engineers that allows them to do virtual collaborations with offsite members whilst streaming data in real-time. The technology employs AR glasses to allow field engineers to conveniently retrieve encrypted backend data from backend systems, so that they can conduct maintenance, troubleshooting, and field operations speedily. With virtual access to equipment history or status, service manuals, complicated technical procedures, troubleshooting logs, and graphics via a designated QR code for each device, they can utilise hand gestures to review a device's historical record to speed up analysis and troubleshooting, minimising downtime and costs whilst boosting field engineer productivity by up to 50%.

Traditionally, field engineers communicated with back-end support using email or phone. This makes it challenging to describe a troubleshooting situation. The AR Remote Hand solves this problem by allowing back-end engineers to view real-time images streamed via AR glasses through an AR operations console. Its powerful video conferencing feature also offers engineers instant support and fosters off-site collaboration between global operations and maintenance teams. It also overcomes the challenges of time zone, languages, distance barriers, and professional skill sets in multi-technology environments.

On the customer side, the current pandemic has made it difficult for enterprises' IT staff to travel to data centres and manage their equipment. Through its AR glasses, CITIC Telecom CPC's DataHOUSE AR Remote Hand can serve as the customers' remote hands. Not only does it show the status of on-site equipment as customers watch in real-time from offices or other locations through the AR operations console, but it also lets customers provide live instructions to CITIC Telecom CPC's on-site engineers as they troubleshoot equipment issues without customers being physically in the data centre.

AR Remote Hand solution is the brainchild of CITIC Telecom CPC's professional teams of data scientists and research and development experts. Combining their knowledge with experts from the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), which was founded by the Hong Kong government to enhance the city's competitiveness in technology-based industries through applied research, this collaboration has been very successful in creating a groundbreaking technology to revolutionize management and maintenance in data center scenarios.

CITIC Telecom CPC is now building additional enhancements in the new version of AR Remote Hand by expanding its range of supported vendor equipment and adding on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to extend more service coverage. As one of the trusted partners of leading multinational and business enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region, it maintains its integrity as the premier connectivity, cloud services, information security, and data centre provider in the world.

The Technology Excellence Awards was presented by Singapore Business Review via video conferencing throughout the second and third week of April. This year's nominations were judged by of Daryl Pereira, Head of Cyber at KPMG; Cheang Wai Keat, Partner, Consultant at Ernst & Young Advisory Pte. Ltd.; Henry Tan, Group Chief Executive Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Nexia TS; Sivakumar Saravan, Senior Partner at Crowe Singapore; Cecil Su, Director, Head of Cybersecurity of BDO Singapore.

About CITIC Telecom CPC

We are CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited (CITIC Telecom CPC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited (SEHK: 1883), serving multinational enterprises the world over by addressing their ICT requirements with integrated digitalisation solutions built upon our flagship technology suites, comprising TrueCONNECT™ private network solutions, TrustCSI™ information security solutions, DataHOUSE™ cloud data center solutions, and SmartCLOUD™ cloud computing solutions.

With the motto "Innovation Never Stops", we leverage innovative technologies, embracing AI, AR, Big Data, IoT, and other cutting-edge emerging technologies to transform technical potential into business value for our customers. As enterprises digital transformation partner, we strive to help our customers achieving industry-leading position, high agility and cost-efficiency through digitalisation.

Bringing with our Global-Local capabilities, we are committed to providing our customers with one-stop-shop ICT solutions with superior quality. Having a worldwide footprint across 160 countries, including Asia, Europe and America, Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, our global network resources connect over 160 points of presence (POPs), 18 Cloud service centers, 30+ data centers, and two dedicated 24×7 Security Operations Centers (SOCs). As one of the first managed service providers in Hong Kong to achieve multiple ICT-related certifications, including ISO 9001, 14001, 20000, 27001, and 27017, we have been offering professional local services, superior delivery capabilities as well as exceptional customer experience and best practices through our global presence and extensive industry know-how, becoming a leading integrated intelligent ICT service provider to enterprise customers. For more information please visit www.citictel-cpc.com.

About Singapore Business Review

The SBR Technology Excellence Awards is organised by Singapore Business Review (SBR), the definitive magazine for Singapore's business elite. Not only has it built its reputation and credibility as a publication, but it has also become a recognised symbol of excellence for multinational companies with offices in Singapore. Since then, SBR continuously strives to provide a platform where companies can showcase and celebrate their growth and success. SBR.com.sg.

Media Contact:
June Tay
CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited
+65 6692 8357
Email: june.tay@citictel-cpc.com

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

India sees Huge Headroom for Growth Across TV and Digital

SINGAPORE, May 5, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – At the Asia Video Industry Association's (AVIA) recent Future of Video India conference, industry leaders remained upbeat on the potential for growth despite a painful 2020 which had seen a 25% drop in TV advertising revenue.

The conference opened with an overview of the Future of Video in India with Mihir Shah, VP, India, at Media Partners Asia (MPA). With learnings from the last year and economic resurgence picking up in certain sectors, MPA predicts that in the next 5 years, with every new incremental dollar in the region, India will have 35% share, almost evenly divided between television and online video. While cable in general is going through a structural decline, Pay TV subscriptions will grow both in value and volume and continue to offer scale for the traditional media players. And with more than 60 online video services in India, the total addressable market will continue to expand.

This local expansion is what Sunil Rayan, President and Head of Disney+ Hotstar, is eyeing, with their next stage for growth primed at developing their product for India, with pricing and content made for the local market. As India is a mobile first market which drives individual viewing, while OTT and TV is not a zero sum game, OTT content needs to be far more engaging for individual viewing. "Fundamentally, we don't believe in a one-size-fits-all approach for India because there are multiple Indias within India, said Rayan.

The sentiment of diversity and positive co-existence between the platforms was echoed by Megha Tata, MD of South Asia for Discovery Communications India. "India lives in several centuries at the same time," commented Tata, and this is not only the beauty and complexity of the market but also the opportunity to do more. While it is still a long way away before the demise of the TV, a differentiated content and product offering remains a key focus. "Content is the king… distribution is the god.., that play of god and king will continue but differentiation of content… will play a critical part in decision making," added Tata.

This focus on local content is also what drives the content platforms. Monika Shergill, VP of Content for Netflix India, shared that premium storytelling was a new space in India, as Indian audiences were open to experimentation and yet gravitating towards highly local tastes. "Our job and our passion is to find the best stories… the biggest stories… the untold stories from India and to become the service of choice for Indians in India… and in different parts of the world," added Shergill.

For Nimisha Pandey, Head of Hindi Originals, ZEE5, while the initial focus was on building volume, it has now shifted to adding to the diversity and scaling up the content offering. Pandey too saw the need to up the game on the regional market for the next set of growth. "There is… so much demand that… there is much hope for everyone… to grow their businesses," said Pandey.

As the market where the next billion consumers of video will come from, Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer of ZEE5 Global summed it up best when she said, "It is the decade of video."

Future of Video India is generously supported by Bitmovin, Brightcove, Kaltura, NETFLIX, Vindicia and Xandr.

About the Asia Video Industry Association

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) is the trade association for the video industry and ecosystem in Asia Pacific. It serves to make the video industry stronger and healthier through promoting the common interests of its members. AVIA is the interlocutor for the industry with governments across the region, leads the fight against video piracy and provides insight into the video industry through reports and conferences aimed to support a vibrant video industry.

For media enquiries and additional background please contact:
Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia
Twitter: @AsiaVideoIA

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

AVIA appoints Celeste Campbell-Pitt as its new Chief Policy Officer for the region

SINGAPORE, Apr 30, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) has appointed a new Chief Policy Officer to be based in its Singapore office, a first for the role.

Celeste Campbell-Pitt joins AVIA on Monday 3rd May, initially joining Chief Policy Officer John Medeiros, who will be retiring after a transition period. Medeiros, who is based in Hong Kong, and joined the Association then known as CASBAA, in 2005 as Vice President of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs, has been Chief Policy Officer since 2013.

A key focus of AVIA is to represent the combined positions of its members and engage in constructive dialogue with governments so they may better understand the curated video industry and foster an environment of support for the growth of the industry. The Chief Policy Officer spearheads this goal, developing and executing policy initiatives relevant to the video industry, in consultation with and on behalf of AVIA member companies.

The role of the Chief Policy Officer has evolved over the years and has become a lot more critical as regulatory policies continue to develop alongside the sweeping changes the video industry has seen in recent years.

"This role is absolutely critical for AVIA and we have taken a long time to find the right person. While taking over from John who has made the role his own will be no easy task, I am delighted that we have found Celeste who has such a passion for the industry and a clear vision for how to build and develop the role," said Louis Boswell, CEO, AVIA.

Campbell-Pitt comes with over twenty years of business and legal experience in the media and entertainment industry across both Europe and Asia. Prior to joining AVIA, she was consulting with various global media and technology companies as well as private equity firms who were looking to expand into the Asia Pacific region. Campbell-Pitt was previously the Vice President and Head of Business Development and Advertising Sales at Discovery Networks Asia Pacific, after her stint at Endemol Shine Asia Group as the Director and Head of Commercial and Operations. She has also held Senior Legal Counsel positions in international media companies including Star, Turner and Channel Four in the UK.

About the Asia Video Industry Association

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) is the trade association for the video industry and ecosystem in Asia Pacific. It serves to make the video industry stronger and healthier through promoting the common interests of its members. AVIA is the interlocutor for the industry with governments across the region, leads the fight against video piracy through its Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) and provides insight into the video industry through reports and conferences aimed to support a vibrant video industry.

For media enquiries and additional background please contact:
Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia
Twitter: @AsiaVideoIA

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

AVIA OTT Summit 2021 – The Future of Video Streaming is Here!

Singapore, Apr 7, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – The Asia Video Industry Association's (AVIA) OTT Summit – The Future of Video Streaming welcomed 900 delegates and featured over 80 industry experts and leaders across the four-day conference this year.

Opening the OTT Summit was the streaming analyst Matthew Ball, Managing Partner of Epyllion Industries, who presented a deep dive into the OTT industry in the United states, being the most mature, most competitive, and most valuable video market with the most consumptive media consumers in the world.

In his session he highlighted that new subscriptions continued to dramatically outpace churn and content was clearly the key differentiator. And while content was king when it came to subscriber acquisitions, as a market matures it exhibits an unmistakeable preference for local content, as seen across the likes of China, India, Russia and France. "The OTT video industry is ultimately about content and the ability to create hit content is not equal," added Ball. Another key point was the fact that aggregation was already here with services such as Apple and Amazon TV.

This aggregation has led to a change in the way platforms operate today. For Euan Smith, Group COO and CEO, TV, Astro, their role as a platform was finding the best content and packaging it up into attractive bundles for the consumers in the most simplistic and attractive ways. Emily Wee, VP of Content & Operations at TM Net, also shared platforms were no longer the gatekeepers, as there were many ways for the consumers to subscribe now. "For the consumer… there has to be real value that we as the middleman put into the equation."

Putting the consumer at the heart of everything remained a key theme throughout the Summit, especially when it came to content strategy. For Kranti Gada, COO of Shemaroo Entertainment, their strategy was two-fold, with differing content to acquire consumers, and to keep them on the platform, as content challenges to fulfil consumer needs remained. As Lynn Ng, VP and Head of Content, APAC at Discovery Inc. summed up, "Ultimately, it comes down to consumer love."

However, addressing and monetizing these consumers remains the big question for premium video advertising. While OTT and Connected TV have grown exponentially both in volume and share, there is still a lot of education to be done as there is a lot more diverse ecosystem in TV now. Shared Anita Munro, Chief Investment Officer at Mindshare APAC, understanding consumption, understanding audiences and knowing where viewing is moving to is key to creating more seamless consumer journeys and more immersive content experiences.

Rounding up the Summit, the technology panels also shared customer experience as the next frontier for innovation. For Raul Aldrey, Chief Product Officer at MediaKind, live sports presented the opportunity for hyper personalized experiences where fans could dictate how they wanted to interact with the content. Pankaj Kedia, MD, Emerging Markets, Dolby Laboratories, also saw a lot of opportunity for both content creators and service providers to uplevel their game, for higher engagement, consumption and monetisation. As Sunita Kaur, SVP, APAC, Twitch concluded, "Customer experience… is what is going to drive our future."

The OTT Summit is generously supported by Gold Sponsors Brightcove, Google, Irdeto, TV5MONDE, Xandr and Silver Sponsors Alibaba Cloud, Encoding.com, iWedia, Kaltura, Lionsgate, Mediacorp, MediaKind, NETFLIX, PubMatic, SmartLabs, Synamedia, Vindicia, WarnerMedia, Zixi.

About the Asia Video Industry Association

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) is the trade association for the video industry and ecosystem in Asia Pacific. It serves to make the video industry stronger and healthier through promoting the common interests of its members. AVIA is the interlocutor for the industry with governments across the region, leads the fight against video piracy and provides insight into the video industry through reports and conferences aimed to support a vibrant video industry.

For media enquiries and additional background please contact:
Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia
Twitter: @AsiaVideoIA

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com