News - November 2007  

ASK TongFang has been selected to manufacture the contactless inlays for the 12.2m RFID tickets of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Tickets, set to include anti-counterfeiting printed security features, will be provided by China Bank Note. ASK and Tsinghua Tongfang hope the Games will boost contactless technology deployment in China. Meanwhile, data peripherals manufacturer Access Interface Solutions (Access IS) has released a miniature bar code imager designed to read bar coded tickets from mobile phone and PDA displays. By presenting a mobile device face down onto the LSR110 the bar code is read on contact. Unlike a conventional bar code scanning wand, the LSR110 is sufficiently rugged and intuitive for the general public to use.
Paperless ticketing is set for significant growth as mobile devices with multi-media capability have become widely adopted. Access IS has also announced that it is working with Mobiqa, whose technology resizes a bar code to optimise it for display on every mobile phone.

Online poker company Mansion has become the Presenting Sponsor of the 2007 BC Poker Championships, Canada's premier Poker event. During the event, the Mansionpoker.com logo will be prominently displayed on the Main Event Final Table. The BC Poker Championships will be filmed and post-edited into an action-packed two-hour highlights package. The Championship boasts an impressive C$3.6m overall prize pool, and a Main Event prize pool of C$2.45m.

GigaMedia has secured an exclusive licence from games manufacturer Electronic Arts to offer and operate the new sports game National Basketball Association (NBA) Street Online in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. NBA Street Online is an online version of EA's popular NBA games series, featuring street basketball action with NBA superstars, all in true-to-life detail. Meanwhile, the NBA has officially re-launched its online shopping site, NBAStore.com, offering fans the chance to win almost $10,000 worth of prizes including a grand prize delivered personally by NBA Legend Clyde ‘The Glide’ Drexler.

Cricinfo has become the world's first dedicated cricket website to enter the free-to-access mobile content sector with the launch of Cricinfo MobiCast, a live ball-by-ball update and score card application. In launching the new service in time for England's Test match tour of Sri Lanka, the world's largest cricket website partnered with Plusmo, the mobile widgets provider whose applications already achieve 10m mobile page views globally per month. The new application is compatible with more than 500 internet/GPRS-enabled handsets. Fans select from a menu of match action to receive live updates from Cricinfo's ball-by-ball coverage and scorecards for international games.

Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) has been named as the new Title Sponsor for the first Formula One Grand Prix in Singapore, to be held in 2008. The event will now officially be known as the ‘2008 Formula One SingTel Singapore Grand Prix’.

Kiwi public service broadcaster TVNZ has secured the 2008 Beijing Olympics' new media rights for the New Zealand market. Chief executive Rick Ellis says online and mobile phone delivery of the Olympics will offer New Zealanders personalised viewing, and the opportunity to experience the thrills and emotion of the Games anywhere, anytime. TVNZ will launch an initial online presence focusing on the Olympics from January 2008. New media producers from TVNZ's emerging business division will be part of the production teams in Beijing and Auckland both before and during the Games.

Brazilian soccer club Palmeiras has signed a partnership with Visa and the technology company Outplan to turn the central bleachers of its stadium, Palestra Itália, into a VIP space, with numbered chairs and an exclusive lounge. According to the website Máquina do Esporte, the new space will have plasma screens, vending machines, luncheonettes, stores, new bathrooms and living spaces. The Brazilian Championship side has also announced a new ticketing product in partnership with Visa. Futebolcard will serve as both a credit card and an entrance pass to the stadium. Purchasers can select their seats when using the card online.

S&T’s Databox sponsor Infostrada Sport won an award at the inaugural ISEMS SportBusiness awards in London during November 2007.
The Dutch company won first prize in the Media Services category for providing what the judges described as an "outstanding" news service at the Asian Games in Doha last December.
Infostrada's team of about 150 staff and 350 volunteers were commended for their outstanding efforts.
Since its success in Doha, Infostrada Sports has run the successful event news service at the Rugby World Cup in France and is now in the running for Beijing 2008, which would be its fourth Olympic Games as a contractor.

UK and Ireland sports broadcaster Setanta has recently completed a campaign on ADI’s Football Network to promote its Premiership subscription package to soccer fans across the UK. Its campaign ran on giant in-stadium LED screens at some of the UK’s leading clubs (Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Everton, Fulham, Portsmouth, Reading and West Ham) throughout the first six matches of the season. In addition to stadium screens, the advert also ran on the double-sided rotating LED screen at Aston Villa that ADI has recently installed in the club’s car-park, enabling Setanta to target fans not only during matches, but also as they entered or left the ground.