The winners of the CSI Product of the Year Awards will be announced at IBC in September. In the meantime, Platform will continue to play an active role in ensuring that all our clients gain maximum coverage before, during and after the event. Our team will be in Amsterdam for on-site support and to hopefully help celebrate some awards wins.

We wish all nominated clients the best of luck on the night.

CSI Award Product of the Year Nominations:

ADB:

• Best customer premise equipment – 5720SX three-way hybrid set-top
• Best interactive TV technology/application – Carbo programme guide

Civolution:

• Best content-on-demand solution

Ericsson:

• Best content-on-demand solution – Xport
• Best IPTV technology or service – IPTV Remote
• 3D technology or service category – End-to-end 3D solution

ruwido:

• Best consumer premise technology – invitro

Tvinci:

• Best Web TV technology or service – MediaHub and MediaStore

T-VIPS:

• Best terrestrial wireless contribution/distribution/transmission solution – T-VIPS CP560 DVB-T2 Gateway
• Best fibre contribution/distribution/transport solution – T-VIPS TVG450

If you’d like any information about any of our clients at IBC 2010, or to get in touch to see how we could help your company plan a public relations programme for future exhibitions, please contact Gay Bell on +44 (0)20 7486 4900, gay@platformpr.com

We are delighted to have been appointed agency of record for ACCESS Systems Europe, one of the world’s leading software providers for connected and mobile devices, such as mobile phones, handheld devices, video game consoles, eBook readers, digital TVs and set top boxes.

ACCESS is headquartered in Japan and its products are deployed in over 900 million devices worldwide. The company is a key member of the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), and is driving seamless media connectivity and consumer TV choice through access to digital content at home and beyond.

We’re looking forward to working with ACCESS Systems Europe during this exciting period of digital innovation and growth.

·         Life Sucks

·         Everything Is Just Great

·         We Made a Little Mistake, We’re Being Exploited, But Now Everything Is Fixed

·         It’s a Little Problem

Now I know it’s a few years since I did a crisis management 101, but I seem to remember it went something like this:

·         Apologise

·         Take responsibility

·         Promise to investigate the problem [or report on the cause of it] and fix it

·         Apologise again [and ensure that it won’t happen again]

Oh, to use the words of Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, one more thing… Mr Jobs’ claim that the problem had been blown out of all proportion simply doesn’t stack up for me.  The way I see it, had Apple been proactive and adopted the four basic principles of crisis management they could have killed the story early on.

Lyndon

The most interesting part of the article, however, looked at metrics.  How are businesses measuring “social”?  The truth – most aren’t, but feel that doing something is preferable to doing nothing.  While social media measurement is still maturing, it’s clear that unless you have a clear idea of what the vision of success looks like, the chances of success are pretty slim.  And, if you can’t measure it – how will you know when you’ve succeeded?!

Lyndon

This is good news for the TV industry, but for those of us that remember the famous BBC test card F it heralds the end of an era.  But, it’s not hard to see why people have switched to digital TV: there’s the greater number of channels offering a broader range of content, an improved picture quality, and a range of interactive ‘red button’ information and video services.  In some parts of the UK consumers are already benefiting from DVB-T2 technology that enables them to watch free-to-air high definition TV (providing they have a Freeview HD set-top box or TV with an integrated T2 tuner).

Another good thing from the Digital UK report is that it also suggests that 1 in 3 people over the age of 65 feel that they had a better understanding of technology as a result of the digital switch… and that can only be a good thing, can’t it?

Steve is a 7ft robot made up of the waste product of the digital TV industry – namely analogue television technology.  Steve has, amongst other things, a TV with a CRT screen for a head, VCRs (video cassette recorders for the digital natives out there) for arms, all finished off with a combination of Freeview™ set-top boxes and antiquated remote controls.

I’ve minded Steve at Wembley and Wimbledon – or as close as we could get with a 7ft robot in tow, and had a number of conversations with the Metropolitan Police about Steve’s impending visit to their patch!  Needless to say I had to do some fast talking!  I’ve also helped Steve to get to grips with social media – with his own Twitter feed and Facebook page.

It’s fair to say the life of a PR is never a dull one!

Tim Warnes has joined Platform as Account Manager following roles with Al Jazeera Network in Qatar and Informa in the UK. Tim was educated in the UK and Japan and brings international skills and experience in communications and media to the team.

Having recently graduated from Ravensbourne College with a BA in Content Creation and Broadcasting, Emma Walsh joins Platform as Account Executive. Emma has previously worked on the marketing team at ‘Rave Live,’ the largest UK student broadcasting event, and has also contributed to broadcast industry magazines.

We’re delighted to have Tim and Emma on board and look forward to them playing an important role in Platform’s future.

They say that three is a crowd, but if that “crowd” is around one table at the awards dinner on March 23rd, then we’ll be in excellent company.

“We are seeing our existing clients looking to increase the PR value of attending an exhibition ,” explains Managing Director, Gay Bell. “If the rest of 2010 is as busy as the first few weeks of the year, it’s going to be a busy one for Platform.”

Some tips on how to use exhibitions for optimium PR value are available here.

About Platform

For media and broadcast technology and service providers, Platform provides highly effective and targeted PR and communications programmes based on a proven track-record in digital TV, mobile entertainment and telecoms. For more information: www.platformpr.com

We’re looking forward to working with TV Genius and communicating how search and recommendation will play an increasingly important role in the multi-channel, connected TV landscape.

Under Angela and her team’s expert guidance, we learnt how to cook Indian salads, prepare a curry, and make a delicious chocolate and chilli desert. Following a quick education on the essentials of Indian cuisine, we paired off and got cooking, with all dishes being prepared without a single culinary disaster! Having prepared our meals, the evening ended with the most fun bit – eating it. The food was delicious (if we may say so ourselves!) and the whole team really enjoyed the evening and have been busy making curries since!

We couldn’t recommend Angela’s cookery school highly enough, and if you’re ever in the area, make sure you pop into her deli as well.

Noel Matthews – Vice President of Business Development, EMEA and APAC, TANDBERG Television, part of the Ericsson Group

Nikki Paul, Marketing Manager, Miniweb Interactive