Software Firm Develops MediaSpeak for Electronic Media
By Tayo Ajakaye
Fast tracking software firm, Sirl Technologies has celebrated the successful launch of a product which allows the audience to communicate directly to a television programme via SMS.
MediaSpeak, as the first real-time SMS to television application is called, enables the subscriber to send his SMS to a particular number which is scrolled directly to the screen untouched.
Before now, electronic media have had to contend with typing such receives SMS before scrolling them on screen.
The Managing Director of the Company, Mr. Segun Adekoya and its Marketing Manager, Segun Bajela, who spoke to THISDAY on the product stated that "Sirl Technologies has been able to successfully demonstrate the dependability, reliability and ingenuity of indigenous solution providers, through the successful introduction of Nigeria's first truly real-time SMS to tv application."
On Channels Television where the product debuted some Saturdays ago, the viewing public has been sending in an average of 500 messages per programme.
MediaSpeak, Bajela said, has come to eliminate the trend in the country where broadcasting staff type the text of messages sent in by viewers of programmes who want to contribute to discussions, participate in quiz or vote in an opinion poll. This has been described as cumbersome, and extremely untidy moreso as it denies several viewers the opportunity to get their views on the screen.
Said Adekoya, "An obvious advantage of SMS to tv convergence is the increase in viewers' participation in programmes to formerly unimaginable numbers." He said that going by the estimation of the Lisbon Report, a typical one-hour programme on television could attract up to 100,000 SMS messages. It therefore represents a huge scource of income to the various stakeholders including the mobile network operators, content service providers and media houses.
According to the Sirl officials, MediaSpeak supports various various SMS to television formats such as tele-chart, tele-text, tele-voting, and tele-commerce to mention just a few.
Describing how the product works, the Sirl officials said MediaSpeak is a mobile messaging platform designed to make possible the convergence of media networks including mobile wireless, World Wide Web, e-mail, broadcast media and newsprint.
According to them, "MediaSpeak is a middleware service provision application that may run at the edge of any media network and in some instance may be an integral part of a mobile network operator's SMS-C."
As a platform that facilitates interactivity between viewers of a TV or Cable programs, an SMS that originates from the viewer's mobile terminal {GSM phone} is first sent to the operator's SMS-C, which then routes the message dynamically via a TCP/IP connection using an SMPP messaging protocol to an appropriate gateway on MediaSpeak. This message is then processed in real-time according to a predefined programme code and messaging format. The processed message is rendered visually on screen in real-time to the excitement of the participating viewer.
MediaSpeak is described as a carrier-grade application that leverages inherent capability of the CDMA infrastructure-bandwidth of about 115.2Kbps-thereby relieving the GSM network of any unpredictable surge in traffic. A pre-emptive design philosophy is employed in developing the application.
A key feature of MediaSpeak is its ability to store and forward messages and its multi-threading features with which multiple interactive services from several media brands and broadcasters is handled transparently and effortlessly.
The product is also designed to support the delivery of contents from multiple mobile network operators. The application performance is guaranteed of servicing unlimited subscribers with unlimited number of interactive sessions concurrently without any noticeable performance degradation.
MediaSpeak system resources, Adekoya stressed, would be deployed based on the total throughput of all the SMSC connected to the application.
"MediaSpeak provides a carrier-grade reliability and availability through the use of Clustering and Load Balancing Technologies," Bajela further explained.
Sirl Technologies Limited is a new generation Information and Communications technology company with specialization in building networks, distributed and web-based software applications. Its developmental philosophy is such that ensures that products are built using globally acclaimed developmental methodologies with time tested security features.
"The Company is committed to the development of unique products and services that would positively impact on our local economy. We believe that the availability of the appropriate technology, that is customizable/adaptable to the peculiar needs of the Nigerian ( and potentially African) socio-economic and political situation, would bring about a positive revolution in our economy," the company said in a statement.
It pointed out that it had been able to ddevelop product and services which are of relevance to various segments of the market with products that are of significant benefits to both public and private enterprises and also to individuals.
The Company's statement further adds: "we develop unique e-business and e-commerce applications with all its complements to automate various business processes in areas such as e-marketing, e-recruitment, e-CRM, ERP and the like
"We have also developed products that are of significant relevance to the banking, energy, insurance, marketing, human resources, broadcasting, merchandising, logistica and other industries, using both the web and mobile technology to ensure that our products make life more convenient for a larger part of our populace.
"It is an important goal for our company to make technology available, accessible and affordable thus making life less cumbersome."
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