Plenware – Cybercom's Finnish subsidiary – wins in Grand One competition

Plenware announced some wins for its customers’ services web sites at the Grand One competition – Finland’s largest digital media competition. YLE Areena (Internet TV and radio service) won in the best consumer-oriented service category, and Kauppalehti.fi (commerce and business newspaper) received recognition for its web site renewals.

"We're delighted to receive this acknowledgment," says Sami Somero, head of Plenware operations. "Plenware invests heavily in Internet TV services and probably has the most extensive expertise in Finland when it comes to Internet TV implementation. Our customers added attractive high-quality content to these services, which are very popular and accelerate current and new service development. Our technology experts transformed Plenware’s capabilities in service development and maintenance into a customer proposition."

Plenware’s initial implementation was in 2001 – Finland's first significant Internet TV service, which was enabled with RealMedia. Since then, all Internet TV projects have had special challenges and conditions. For example, YLE’s solutions involved flexible functions and volumes of content and visitors (user-rights management and chargeability constitute additional requirements).

Regarding YLE Areena, the Grand One judges stated that "This win illustrates YLE's clear understanding of its mission and its target groups. The service is an excellent example – on national and international levels – of what Internet is at its best: always available, relevant, and entertaining for users – and preferably for free."

The panel attributed recognition of Kauppalehti.fi to its state-of-the-art data structuring – plus the polished layout and extremely wide range of supplementary services. Together, Plenware and Kauppalehti designed the service.

Internet TV's future looks very bright, and networks are starting to realise its potential. Internet newspapers display news items with video clips, and Internet TV content is displayed via TV and multimedia cell phones. Hybrid digital boxes that connect the Internet TV and digital TV are now on the market. So when it comes to these technologies, Plenware is on the cutting edge.