Fremont, CA and Tokyo, Japan April 8th, 2010 – The FLO Forum®, an international consortium of global wireless industry leaders, today announced that keynote speakers from across the mobile media value chain delivered a clear message that FLO-enabled broadcast mobile media services can offer immediate and tangible benefits to Japanese consumers while providing significant revenue opportunities for the Japan market. Speakers at the Mobile Media Summit agreed that MediaFLO broadcast technologies and services provide a clear path for Japanese companies to compete in global markets, and highlighted the readiness of MediaFLO technology as an optimal mobile media solution for Japanese consumers.
The event drew over 400 attendees representing service providers, network operators, broadcasters, mobile device manufacturers, content owners and aggregators, technology enablers, regulators and press from around the world. C-level speakers from the FLO Forum, Kyocera, LinkMedia, MediaFLO Japan Planning, Participe TV and Qualcomm discussed the changing landscape of mobile media in Japan, explored the commercialization of mobile media services and showcased FLO trials in numerous international markets. A prevailing theme echoed by attendees and speakers alike was that an overwhelming consumer demand for premium content on-the-go exists in Japan, and that MediaFLO technology has clearly demonstrated the ability and immediate readiness to meet this demand.
“The Mobile Media Summit addressed several key topics facing the mobile media ecosystem, and highlighted how MediaFLO technology can be used to solve those issues. With the increasing amounts of video content being viewed on mobile devices, and how entirely new categories of media such as digital signage, eReaders as well as new and unique devices including netbooks and smartbooks are creating a whole new definition for mobile media, a key takeaway from the Summit is that broadcast technologies are ideally designed to accommodate the varied content categories that consumers demand. For mobile media to become truly ubiquitous, combining broadcast technologies such as FLO and unicast 3G with dual mode one-seg will help tailor a range of business models and user experiences. Finally, it was noted that MediaFLO technology is on the list of Japan MIC approved technologies for mobile media broadcast, and the FLO Forum looks forward to supporting the remainder of the Japan MIC licensing process,” said Kamil Grajski, President of the FLO Forum®.
“Consumers are changing, especially the younger ones. Mobile entertainment is engrained in their lifestyle and, as such, demand for it is at an all time high,” said Kazuhiko Masuda, President of MediaFLO Japan Planning, in his presentation on the advantages of MediaFLO. “Following our extensive and successful in-country trial in Okinawa, we are properly positioned to launch a mobile media broadcast network in Japan by the end of 2011. While the criteria that MIC must consider in granting any license are complex and diverse, we believe that the combination of launch readiness backed by a national and global ecosystem should have strong weight.”
The dedicated Demo Showcase featured products and information on services from nine FLO Forum® member companies, and highlighted the wide spectrum of FLO-enabled offerings available in the Japanese market while echoing the ecosystem’s dedication to realizing the business potential of MediaFLO in Japan. International companies including Irdeto, Nagravision, KDDI, Leader Electronics, Anritsu, Teamcast, Dielectric, Maspro and Qualcomm displayed their latest products and developments reinforcing their ongoing support for FLO and strong commitment to the FLO Forum’s vision and goals.
About FLO Technology
FLO™ technology is a new air interface with multicasting capabilities designed to increase capacity and reduce content delivery costs to mobile handsets. FLO technology enables mobile users to see and hear high quality video and audio, browse news, sports and weather updates, or watch the stock ticker — wherever they are, anytime, and without delays.
Designed from the ground up specifically to multicast significant volumes of rich multimedia content, FLO enables wireless operators to cost-effectively deliver news, entertainment, and informational programming in clips and streaming video to millions of mobile users at once. FLO provides the technology for distributing multimedia content efficiently and economically without impacting current networks.
About the FLO Forum
The FLO Forum is a multi-company initiative committed to advancing the global standardization of FLO technology. Composed of industry-leading organizations, the FLO Forum works to develop products and services, based on FLO technology, that enable the delivery of advanced multimedia services to wireless consumers. The FLO Forum is organized to promote the global standardization of FLO technology, including compliance and certification benchmarks for the technology. Current members include, Anritsu Corporation, Bandai Channel Co., LTD., CETECOM Inc., Averna Test Systems Inc., Dielectric, Harris Corporation, Irdeto, IRT – Institut fur Rundfunktechnik, ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation, KDDI Corporation, Korea Electronics Technology Institute, LEADER Electronics Corp., Maspro Denkoh Corp., Media Excel Inc., Nagravision SA, NEC Corporation, Newport Media, Inc., NEXTWAVE Inc, ProTelevision Technologies, Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd., Qualcomm, Roundbox, Samsung Electronics, TeamCast, Toshiba Corporation
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