Sling Media and Symbian have announced a partnership to deliver a powerful Mobile TV experience to Symbian smartphones. Sling Media will deliver a version of its SlingPlayer Mobile software application, currently available only in the US and Canada, for Symbian OS in select European and Asian countries during Q4 2006, and will extend availability to the US shortly thereafter. SlingPlayer Mobile will delivers customers complete home TV experience on mobile handsets using standard network connections, including 3G cellular and wi-fi.
The new SlingPlayer Mobile for Symbian OS software package will enable users to transform their supported Symbian smartphones on S60 and UIQ into personal, on-the-go digital TVs, providing anytime, anywhere access to their living room television experience. Any program that can be watched at home will be viewable through a Slingbox on supported Symbian smartphones using 3G or wi-fi, including support for terrestrial TV, Freeview, cable, and satellite TV. In addition, SlingPlayer Mobile lets users control their home personal video recorder (PVR) to watch recorded shows, pause, and rewind live TV or even queue new recordings while away from home.
The combined Mobile TV experience is driven by Sling Medias breakthrough product, the Slingbox. The Slingbox redirects, or placeshifts, a single live TV stream from a standard or Freeview cable connection, cable box, satellite receiver or PVR to the viewers 3G handset or PC located anywhere in the home or anywhere in the world.
Symbians market leading position drove our decision to work with them and deliver the Slingbox experience to a large mobile customer base, says Sling Media CEO, Blake Krikorian. “People love their living room TV programming and simply want the ability to watch it on any device wherever they happen to be, whether at work on their PC, around the home on their wireless laptop, or on the go via their mobile phone. Ive been using a beta version of the SlingPlayer Mobile on a Symbian smartphone, and its pure sweetness.”
For Symbian, Vice President, US operations, Jerry Panagrossi adds:
Symbian works collaboratively with its licensees and partners to foster innovation and set trends for new Smartphone features and capabilities, thereby expanding the market for 3G-based multimedia applications. SlingPlayer Mobile is a breakthrough in Mobile TV viewing that captures the essence of the new Smartphone lifestyle, representing a new level of interaction with the world and immediacy for information and entertainment.