ITWorx Develops Rotana TV and Radio Streaming Gadget

Rotana started as a record company in 1987 and grew to become the leading producer/distributor of Arabic music and film globally, with the highest revenue-generating mobile content corporation in the entire Middle East, North Africa, the Gulf, and Europe. Rotana is owned by HRH Prince Al Waleed Ben Talal Ben Abdel Aziz Al Saud.

As one of the leading producers/distributors of Arabic music and film globally, Rotana sought to increase the mediums through which users could view its channels, thus increasing its viewership rates.

Accordingly, Rotana Digital Media, a subsidiary of Rotana Global, sought to develop a Windows Gadget that would become downloadable via Rotana’s websites. This gadget aims at increasing viewership rates of the various Rotana channels, as well as providing marketing information to customers.

ITWORX developed Rotana TV and Radio Streaming Gadget, enabling users to view different channel highlights and program schedules from their desktops.

The gadget is downloadable through the Rotana online portal. A link is added to the portal’s main page that directs the user to the gadget page, which provides instructions on the gadget features and system prerequisites.

The gadget is designed to appear on the user’s desktop once they turn on their computers and operates once they are connected to the internet. Users have the quickest access to the content repository like TV and music streams, downloads, news, and links to other featured services such as Top 10 songs, albums, etc.

Having their branded desktop application on many users’ desktops, mobile operators have the best opportunity to provide their customers with information about their services and promotions through the ads spots, interstitial ads, and branded audio and video channels.

The gadget’s main menu consists of several categories: TV channels, music channels, other services (brought by the operator), downloads, and news.

Seven (7) TV channels are already broadcasted Free To Air. Upon clicking on any channel, it is considered a request to stream the channel, optimized based on the user’s available bandwidth.

There are also four (4) Audio channels available, in addition to the mobile operator branded TV channel. An icon on the right side of each channel indicates the type of channel, either audio or video. The rest of the streaming experience is typical of the TV channels’ category.

The ‘other services’ category delivers a list of links that are, namely, brought by the mobile operator, as in the case of the Zain and du® gadgets. Like the Online Portal, the building blocks are designed to appear within an IFrame that pop-upon the left side of the gadget’s main menu. The building blocks currently available within the gadget are Top 10 (artists, albums, songs), managing purchased items (songs, videos), and creating playlists.

Downloads include a list of all types of downloads available on the online portal, either branded content or pay for content. Exactly like the Brought By experience, all the links are to be opened within the IFrame within its dimensions.

As for the news, a ticker starts once the gadget operates. A button beside the newsfeed gives the user the ability to choose his/her default preferred news type (entertainment, international, sports, etc.) among the ones that the mobile operator agreed to include. Clicking the RSS orange button that opens the full RSS within the IFrame enables the user to read more about specific news. The IFrame shows the most recent five (5) topics of the selected category. Next and Previous buttons appear under the IFrame to let users bounce forward and backward to another five (5) news topics.

The ITWorx team used the WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) technology for the first time and developed the gadget successfully.

which was used for the first time by the team.

▪ Enabling users to view different channel highlights & program schedules from their desktops

▪ Providing access to most of the content repository (TV & Music streams, Downloads, News…etc.)

▪ Allowing mobile operators to provide their customers with information about their services and promotions

▪ Giving the user the ability to choose his/her default preferred news type

▪ Windows Presentation Foundation

▪ Windows Server 2003

▪ Internet Information Services

▪ Microsoft SQL Server 2005

▪ Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

▪ Microsoft .Net framework 3.0

▪ Windows Presentation Foundation

▪ Windows Server 2003

▪ Internet Information Services

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