London, 16th May 2002 - Purple Lizard, the leading interactive solutions consultancy, today announced that it has partnered with Channel 4 Interactive, the interactive solutions arm of Channel 4, to develop and deploy the voting engine for hit TV show Big Brother.
Purple Lizard worked closely with the Channel 4 Interactive team and Sky to develop the voting engine for Sky Digital viewers of Channel 4's Big Brother. The voting engine will go live for Big Brother 3 on 24th May 2002.
The interactive TV solution enables viewers to vote out contestants using their television's remote control, allowing more people to vote with greater ease from the comfort of their armchairs. Purple Lizard product's scale to support millions of voters on interactive TV, Web, WAP and SMS, providing broadcasters with multiple revenue generating opportunities.
Doug Stoddart, Purple Lizard director said; "This is the second year that we have provided the interactive TV voting technology for Big Brother. The fact that 5.1 million votes were placed using Purple Lizard's voting engine to evict Big Brother 2 contestants last year is testament to the scalability and flexibility of our solutions."
"Interactive television changes the dynamic of the viewer experience from passive, one way communication to a two way exchange that draws in the audience by allowing interaction with the program." added Stoddart.
Peter Good, Head of Interactive and Enhanced TV at Channel 4 said, "Big Brother is one of Channel 4's most important programmes. Working with Purple Lizard to provide a robust interactive voting engine is key so we can successfully combine the broadcast show with interactivity."
"Viewer participation will be a fundamental element in shaping future programming for Channel 4," added Good.
The Java based voting engine can process over a thousand votes per second. The Purple Lizard developed application also provides real-time results over the Web for administration purposes. The engine was developed for the Channel 4 Interactive Java 2 Enterprise platform and runs on iPlanet 's Web Server and BEA's WebLogic Server.
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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.
For more information please contact:
Tim Hadley / Mark Casey
Prodigy Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7580 1366
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7580 1367
Email: tim@prodigypr.com / mark@prodigypr.com |
