VIEWERS TO POWER NEW SKY MUSIC CHANNELS WITH INTERACTIVE VOTING FROM PURPLE LIZARD

Sky use 'off the shelf application from leading solutions provider to bring interactive voting to dynamic new music channels. Purple Lizard, the leading interactive solutions consultancy, today announced that Sky is using its cross-platform application, Interact Server to capture the imagination of its subscribers by bringing interactive voting to the Broadcasters three new music channels 'Flaunt, 'the Amp, and 'Scuzz.

London (PRWEB) July 24, 2003 - Purple Lizard, the leading interactive solutions consultancy, today announced that Sky is using its cross-platform application, Interact Server to capture the imagination of its subscribers by bringing interactive voting to the Broadcasters three new music channels 'Flaunt, 'the Amp, and 'Scuzz.

The solution, which is not available on any other music channel in the UK, will allow Sky viewers to decide which music videos are played on each of the three channels by voting via SMS, telephone or by pressing the red 'interactive button on their TV remote.

Through the Purple Lizard application, Sky will allow subscribers to use voting systems to decide which music videos should be played on the new music channels as well as facilitating more general voting on a variety of topics including a poll to find viewers most popular musical artist. In the future, Sky subscribers will also be able to use the technology to submit text dedications to each of the three channels, which will appear as scrolling text across the bottom of the screen.

Mark Negus, director Purple Lizard said, Interact Server enables Sky to exploit the return path capabilities of its broadcast platform using SMS, IVR and interactive TV media to deliver high-value enhanced customer interaction across its new music channels at a controlled cost.

Our application provides TV production companies and broadcasters like Sky with an 'off the shelf solution that adds an interactive element into any TV program or advert and negates the need for time consuming and expensive development of bespoke interactive applications, continued Negus.

Interact Server interfaces with third party systems to collate Sky viewers votes through SMS and fixed-line telephony (Interactive Voice Response) gateways in addition to the interactive TV votes that come from viewers set top boxes when they press the red button on their TV remote. The Purple Lizard application then feeds the voting data to outsourced video playout systems that broadcast the selected music videos as well as mapping onto Sky's own systems that work with set top boxes enabling viewers to interact with the content using their remote.

The cross-platform solution is fully customisable and allows TV production companies to include interactive elements in their programs without the need for costly investment in one-off purpose built applications. Interact Server provides Sky with real-time voting statistics over the Web for administration purposes.

The application was conceived out of the scalable and mission critical interactive voting technology originally developed by Purple Lizard for Channel 4s Big Brother 2, 3, 4 and Banzai. Interact Server was originally developed using the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) platform and is running on Oracles 9i Application server and Oracles 8i Database server.

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About Interact Server
Built on proven, scalable, industry-standard technology, Interact Server delivers immense flexibility and enables new functionality to be plugged in and existing components to be easily upgraded. The application facilitates a standard process for commissioning new services. New votes, for example, can be quickly and remotely configured, including text and supporting graphics, and then published onto a technology infrastructure capable of handling 1,000 votes per second from different channels.

The application reduces time to market and implementation costs for program makers while improving control and flexibility. It can be purchased off the shelf or leased through Purple Lizards application service provider (ASP), cutting out the need to invest in hardware to host the application.

About Purple Lizard
Purple Lizard Ltd is a leading provider of component-based technology solutions to the interactive entertainment and financial services sectors. Purple Lizard develops an integrated family of highly scalable, Java-based software products that enable enhanced digital entertainment and secure e-voting applications that can be deployed via the Web, digital TV, WAP, SMS, fixed-line phones, kiosks and other devices.

Purple Lizard's consulting services employ proven analysis and design techniques to ensure fast delivery of scalable, flexible, secure and reliable component-based Internet systems.

For further information please visit www.purple-lizard.com