Neo Arena

Mobile World Congress

Jussi Kangasoja — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:50:44 +0000

GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009

Neo Arena was represented at annual GSMA Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain. Project Manager Kimmo Paajanen and Mobile Researcher & Consultant Jussi Kangasoja were delegates in several seminar and congress sessions focusing on i.e. M-Payment, Mobile Broadband and Mobile Internet.

Speakers in sessions (in addition to the Tuesdays keynotes by Steve Balmer (Microsoft), Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo (Nokia) and many others) were high ranked such as Josh Silverman (Skype), Vic Gundotra (Google) or Sol Trujillo (Telstra).

Animation series Pojat (“The Boys”) is the first launch of the Format pilots by Neo Arena.

Ulla Alakangas — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:48:39 +0000

Pojat is an animation series created by Alpakka Media. Two three-minutes-long pilot episodes are produced with Neo Arena’s support. Pojat is a story of imaginary plays of two boys.

Format pilots aims to develop non-fictive commercial TV formats and market them for TV channels. Project also strives for exploiting not only traditional distribution channels but also new media like digital TV network, internet and mobile platforms.

Aimed distribution channels for Pojat are TV and internet. According to Alpakka Media’s CEO Niina Veittikoski the company has produced content for both TV and internet throughout its history. “The idea came from a notice that there was no content for young children in the internet, so we decided to start producing it.”, says Veittikoski. The first concept by Alpakka Media was Hertan Maailma (Hertta’s World) which includes TV animations and internet games. Hertan Maailma has become one of the most popular contents of Pikku Kakkonen (a Finnish magazine programme for children).

Niina Veittikoski is glad to be able to start producing a concept for Pojat as a Format pilot with Neo Arena: “It’s convenient for small companies to share costs.” Veittikoski is also happy for finding skillful makers for animations through Neo Arena. Whole production, including sound, is accomplished at Oulu Region.

New Technological Solutions to Benefit Neo Arena’s Pilot Companions

Ulla Alakangas — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:53:52 +0000

Neo Arena, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have in conjunction with Akravideo developed Videoeditor, a technological solution which can isolate separate video feeds from singular video shots by enabling zooming in on multiple details. By using the Videoeditor one camera footage feels like a multi camera set-up. This enables versatile live video broadcasts in a cost-efficient manner. Neo Arena’s pilot companions are entitled to the use of the Videoeditor. (Akravideo, the owner of Videoeditor, issues the licenses).

Neo Arena and VTT have also assessed the use of adaptive data transfer technology with mobile devices. In the past, the data connection has been lost with weaker connections. Adaptive transfer technologies enable keeping the feed, although the image quality weakens. Neo Arena’s pilot projects will test how adaptive data transfer might improve the usability of video services.

Furthermore, Neo Arena pilot companions have the opportunity to deploy the technological solutions developed in the Expeshare and Cantata projects within the VTT. Neo Arena pilot projects can use intelligent metadata and content collection solutions, which enables implementing GPS information and content analysis. Services offering metadata and video can easily be designed. Personal video channels, GPS-based video services, automated video creation such as video editing or video walls can be set up. The Expeshare and Cantata projects are partially funded by TEKES (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) ITEA/EUREKA-projects.

The Findings of Neo Arena Published as Wiki

Ulla Alakangas — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:55:24 +0000

Neo Arena has collected the findings of its first work packages into a single volume. The Multichannel Distribution Toolbox provides the backbone for successful multichannel distribution platforms and it also clarifies a great deal of the contextual and technological terminology involved. However, new experiences and wider views appear continuously as the technology keeps evolving. Therefore the Multichannel Distribution Toolbox is published in an electronic wiki-version at the address: http://wiki.neoarena.fi/en.

Interaction and the simplicity to make changes make wikis efficient tools for collaborative writing. It is easy to keep facts up to date. If you feel that you could help us develop The Multichannel Distribution Toolbox, please contact us at Neo Arena in order to obtain rights to update wiki.

Research Pilot on the Air Guitar World Championships

Ulla Alakangas — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:57:05 +0000

Neo Arena and Oulun Music Video Festival (OMVF), KalevaPlussa and the Pikisaari unit of Oulu Vocational College (OSAO) combine forces for a live broadcast from the Air Guitar World Championships. The production is a part of the pilot agreement between Neo arena and OMVF.

The objective of the pilot is to test cost efficient multichannel distribution of OMVF’s core event – the Air Guitar World Championships in order to receive global publicity. The pilot research tests whether the present media school co-operation with OSAO Pikisaari could yield such quality content with commercial potential

The live broadcast can be viewed on www.omvf.net August 22, 8:20 PM (GMT+2). The event is shot by Pikisaari multicam crew and directed by Karoliina Lehmikangas. Neo Arena tests producing a platform-free Flash stream alongside with the traditional Windows Media, Quicktime and mobile streams. The Flash stream can be watched with any computers running on Windows, Mac or Linux operating systems, as long as the web browsers have support for Flash.

Neo Arena Group on LinkedIn

Ulla Alakangas — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:13:53 +0000

Neo Arena Group on LinkedIn welcomes all innovative digital media researchers, developers and/or geeks to join our ‘channel’. Joining will allow you to find and contact other Neo Arena members on LinkedIn. The goal of this group is to help members:

Reach other members of Neo Arena
Accelerate careers/business through referrals from Neo Arena Group members
Know more than a name - view rich professional profiles from fellow Neo Arena Group members
Create new success stories - Opportunity for Neo Arena Partnership.

The Benefits of Partnership are for:

Technical Evaluators: You will learn how to communicate with Content Creators and how to produce good technical solutions for multichannel environment
Content Creators: You learn how to design and produce content to multichannel environment
Business Oriented Partner: You will understand the business possibilities of multichannel environments

Here’s the link to join:
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/153374/7E1C1438640D
Hope to see you in the group!

Scan Code with Your Camera Phone

Jussi Kangasoja — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:02:11 +0000

Now it’s easy to tune to Neo Arena. Just scan the two-dimensional matrix barcode with your camera phone to find the channel. The code on the web site leads you to the service which is definitely worth visiting: Neo Arena’s launched mobile optimised web service. If you own Nokia N93, N93i, N95 or E90 cell phone, you just have to click the barcode reader open and scan the datamatrix.

Nokia has combined two innovations, phone camera and 2D codes to the advantage of mobile users. Mobile codes are like ordinary barcodes but their structure can hold more information. The datamatrix can hold information such as link, phone number, email address and/or bare text.

You can also create codes by yourself. The format should be Datamatrix (DM) or Quick Response (QR) and the screen to be scanned have the qualities such as those of a plasma display or a liquid crystal display (LCD). There are many engines to generate 2D codes on the web. Check more information on Nokia web site http://mobilecodes.nokia.com.

12 000 visitors at www.neoarena.fi during February

Ulla Alakangas — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:12:53 +0000

Finnish and International Masters’ Championships in Ski Jumping tempted 12 000 visitors on Neo Arena’s web pages during February. Most visitors were from Finland, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Norway, Austria and USA. Most people visited www.neoarena.fi on February 2nd, when Neo Arena produced a live test broadcast from Finnish Masters’ HS-80 –ski jump competition from Taivalkoski. The live broadcast gathered 2600 viewers during the day.

Also the Video on Demand service has gathered hits: the Matti Nykänen’s World’s Championship in HS-40 Masters’ competition got 2300 viewers for Matti Nykänen – I’m on Fire mini series within time under a week. Parts 2 and 3 of Matti series were published almost simultaneously with national media’s internet tv contents. This was possible due the on-field editing and good internet connections from Taivalkoski.

Other most watched videos in Video On Demand Service in the moment are the compilation of Finnish Masters’ Championships on ski jumping and the interview of American ski jumper, Don West. Other steadily popular programmes are Raatikainen –music documentary and the mobile phone optimised music video of Rinneradio orchestra directed by Henri Turunen, which is also seen this week on Tampere Film Festival’s “Finnish Music Videos” -screening.

Neo Arena office thanks and wishes all visitors the best time with Ski jumping contents!

Ski Jumping Veterans on Live Broadcast!

ileoo — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:07:47 +0000

XIX International Masters Championships ski jumping competitions’ live
broadcasts on Neo Arena:

- Fri, 29th February, at 9.55 AM, HS-80, all age groups
- Sat, 1st March at 10.25 AM, International team event, HS-80, all age
groups

Watch live broadcast here!

Later there will be compilations of both live broadcasts on Video On Demand Service.

World Champion Matti Nykänen’s victory jump on HS-40 competition on Thu 28th will be also available on Video On Demand Service: Matti Nykänen - I’m on Fire part III !

Clips from Finnish Ski Jumping Masters Championships on Video On Demand

Ulla Alakangas — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:16:39 +0000

Neo Arena participated in Finnish Ski Jumping Masters Championships in Taivalkoski on 2nd - 3rd February to test new camera equipment and broadcast technique, which will be exploited in XIX International Masters Championships in 27th Feb – 2nd March 2008.

There’s no doubt that the biggest star of Finnish Masters Championships was Matti Nykänen, whose attending competition, ski jumping HS-50, was followed widely in the Finnish media. Now Neo Arena offers the unique opportunity to see the first part of series Matti Nykänen – I’m on Fire, which follows Matti’s comeback. The second and final part will be available in Neo Arena´s Video on Demand Service after XIX International Masters Championships.

Neo Arena’s live broadcast test in HS-80 competition went out pretty well. Internet connection worked great but the camera group faced some troubles. Despite of the fact that there were some hasty changes in shot order, there weren’t interruptions in transmitting. In spite of the test, Sunday’s broadcast gathered viewers all around the world. There were spectators even such far as from Canada, Chile, New Zealand and Thailand. On Neo Arena’s Video on Demand service there is also a compilation of the HS-80 all groups’ winners in action.

Neo Arena broadcasts live International Masters Championships on Friday 29th from 10 AM on http://www.neoarena.fi. The competition will be at HS-80. On Saturday 1st from 10.30 AM, Arena is open for HS-80 team event. Join in and enjoy!