Decru, Inc. and Flight System Consulting Inc. today announced that Tomo-Digi Corporation, a subsidiary of Tokyo Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS) and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic) responsible for integrated data broadcast services, has developed a secure interactive broadcasting system that incorporates technology from Decru Inc., Flight Systems Consulting, and Oracle Corporation. This system is called the "personal information database for terrestrial/ broadcasting satellite (BS)/communications satellite (CS) digital broadcast services," and has recently been deployed by TBS and other broadcast providers, enabling them to securely expand their interactive broadcast capabilities.
To meet strong customer demand, TBS began offering data broadcasting services, including high-quality program delivery, bi-directional communication, multi-channel services and broadcasting for text and still images, in December of 2000. Because of the interactive nature of these services, TBS must capture and store information about its TV audience, including personal information from viewers. To ensure the privacy of this data, Tomo-Digi developed this secure, highly-available database system and began offering this secure service for digital broadcasting.
A primary requirement for the solution was high availability, as broadcasting requires 24x7x365 operation. Furthermore, Tomo-Digi required scalability for future expansion, as the number of households that can access digital broadcasting services is rapidly increasing. A final, critical requirement was to ensure that TV audiences' personal data was stored and managed securely. For system availability and scalability, Tomo-Digi chose Oracle Japan's Oracle Database and Flight's Total Cluster clustering solution. Tomo-Digi also selected Decru DataFortT storage security appliances to securely store and manage personal information without impacting performance. The system was designed and prepared by Flight System Consulting in February 2004, and launched April 2004.
"The combined system of these three products matches to our needs beautifully," said Mr. Yosuke Funahashi, General Manager of Creation and Sales division at Tomo-Digi Corporation. "We can now realize high-availability, scalability, and security, without incurring a performance penalty."
Tomo-Digi plans to offer the system to other local broadcasting stations, UHF stations, or other network stations. Digital terrestrial broadcasting services will soon be accessible via mobile phones, and digital broadcasting terminals will be diversified. Tomo-Digi's system supports a broad range of media and is anticipated to play an important role in building the infrastructure for secure digital broadcasting services.
"Consumers are demanding more from the companies that manage their personal information," said Dan Avida, president and CEO of Decru. "TBS has demonstrated leadership and innovation in the emerging market for interactive digital broadcasting, and also in their approach toward securing customer data. Decru is pleased to be a part of the solution."
Add a Comment
No messages on this article yet