C-DAC: Press Kit - Archives(Press Releases) - Mindport and C-DAC sign MoU to jointly develop and market DVD based multi-lingual interactive subtitling technology for TV Broadcasting

Mindport, a leading Media Commerce Technology provider for electronic pay media, interactive applications and the Internet, today announced that the company has signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with C-DAC - The Center for the Development of Advanced Computing, a society under Department of Electronics (DoE), Government of India.

C-DAC has developed a unique Indian Languages Embedded Subtitling System called LIPS (Language Independent Program Subtitling). The LIPS system is a vital broadcasting component of multicultural, multi-lingual societies such as the Indian subcontinent. The current system operates by passing all data via a suitable carrier, usually VBI (Vertical Blanking Interval) to the broadcast point. In future a customized STP (Set Top Box) will receive the data and key in a selected language to the signal as part of the digital solution.

Mindport and C-DAC will redesign the subtitle mastering station to incorporate the requirements of a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) authoring system. This will allow DVD-based programming to be roadcast via digital transmission through a multiplexer and received by a DVD compliant STB. As an additional part of this development, an STB decoder used in DTH (Direct To Home) reception will replace the current subtitle decoder, comparable to a closed caption application.

Shri. R.K. Arora, Executive Director, C-DAC observed "the reach of
C-DAC’s multilingual subtitling technology is already there to Indian TV viewers, but with this new collaboration we will be able to provide quality TV programs through DVD to Cable TV and DTH, including Pay TV, users countrywide."

Mindport announces this MOU, in conjunction with C-DAC, as part of Mindport's strategic move into the new, and massive, developing market in India. Jamie Styles, who is now based in New Delhi, India, working with Mindport Solutions, the company's systems integration and consulting division commented "Mindport is ideally suited to further the development of LIPS. This project will bring together the expertise of two innovative Mindport companies, OpenTV and Mindport Media Commerce Technology (MCT). These two Mindport companies have already developed proven interactive broadcasting technology that has been successfully deployed around the world. By combining this Mindport experience with the solid foundation already put in place by C-DAC, we will be able to create a new system that meets all the requirements of this diverse market."

Mindport is a global solutions provider of media commerce technologies forpay-TV and the Internet, enabling platform and channel operators to maximize their eBusiness opportunities. Mindport has focused on the key areas of the required technology, including software and hardware, and is well placed to integrate them successfully. The company operates in six focus areas to fulfill your requirements: Conditional Access, Customer Care and Billing, Interactive Set-top Box Operating Systems, System Integration and Consultancy, Content Management Systems and Set-top Boxes.

Mindport has 450 employees, and has offices in the Netherlands (Hoofddorp), China (Beijing), USA (San Diego), South Africa (Johannesburg), Australia (Sydney) and New Delhi (India).

Five of the six businesses are 100% owned by Mindport. OpenTV, a worldwide leader in interactive television software for the digital television receiver is 80% owned by Mindport and 20% by Sun Microsystems. OpenTV is headquartered in Mountain View, CA and has European operations in France.

C-DAC is India’s national initiative in the high performance computing (supercomputers) area. It has also another area of its activity in multilingual multimedia technology development. As part of this activity, C-DAC has established its position of eminence in offering multilingual technology products for word processing, database managing, desk top publishing, eMailing etc. which are used by a very large number of users countrywide. C-DAC has also developed a number of video products for multilingual subtitling, dubbing, news reading etc. C-DAC has its centres located in Pune, Bangalore, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai.