Published on June 27, 2005

To encourage Internet broadband, Shin Broadband Internet, a subsidiary of Shin Satellite Plc, has announced three services – My Theater, Arel Universal Conference Business Solution and My IPTV.

Shin Satellite Plc’s chief financial officer and general manager of Shin Broadband Internet (SBI) Tanadit Charoenchan said the company had developed, and is now offering, new broadband services for entertainment and business.

For entertainment it offers two services, My Theatre and My IPTV.

My Theatre is a movie-on-demand entertainment service that will be provided via a satellite broadband network. The service has been developed and was tested late last year in Ratchaburi province.

My Theatre allows rural villagers to enjoy not only movies but also music, karaoke and video games in a special theatre in Ratchaburi.

“We have provided five rooms there. In each room, people can order whatever entertainment they desire with service charges set by the hour,” Tanadit said.

The company has also moved one step ahead to a franchise model and is seeking partners. To assist partners with the My Theatre service, it has converted 200 to 300 movie titles and 1,000 songs into a “film-less” platform for delivery. Each title has been encoded with encryption technology for copyright protection.

Investment costs start at and go up to Bt1 million with franchisees having to connect to the IP-satellite network. The company aims to have 12 franchisees in the next six to 12 months. Its goal is to eventually have 300 franchisees throughout the country.

In the near future, this service will be available for people in homes or condominiums under the “theatre-to-home” concept. With iPSTAR, a new-generation IP satellite with a capacity of up to 40 gigabits per second, it can serve the demands of high-speed broadband content, smoothly providing movies to home television sets.

“It’s not only people in Bangkok who can enjoy movies at home but also anyone throughout the country as the satellite provides nationwide coverage,” Tanadit said.

Theoretically, the home-movie service could become a reality by next year with the availability of the iPSTAR satellite.

Another entertainment application is My IPTV, previously known as “IPTV”. The service is a television station over the Internet. Broadband users can access it free of charge, but they have to register first.

The company is seeking partners to provide broadband content via the My IPTV channel as the IP-based network allows people to easily become TV producers. Just by having a webcam camera, people can produce their own programmes for broadcast to broadband users.

For business, the company, together with its foreign partner Arel Communications & Software, is offering a service to allow corporate users to easily conduct video conferences.

With its Arel Universal Conference Business Solution, even small organisations with only five people can video conference over the IP-satellite network.

Riri Elfassy, senior business development director of Arel Communications & Software, said that just by having a computer with appropriate software and connecting with the Internet, people can video conference with each other, even if they are in different countries.

“It allows many people to participate at the same time in an online meeting. It is suitable for companies with many branches. It allows companies to conduct meetings easily and efficiently as it offers many features such as a virtual whiteboard to let participants share information in real time. Participants can share digital document files or presentations easily,” Riri said. Tanadit said the move is to encourage much more use among broadband users.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation

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