Ayew enjoying African support

Ghana still stands out as Africa’s best bet at the World Cup with the rest of the continent’s representatives struggling to keep hopes alive. The Black Stars’ 1-0 victory over Serbia on June 13 remains the only win secured by an African side at the competition so far and it’s given the continent hope of an African success as the likes of Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria, Ivory Coast and hosts South Africa all chase their first win after a set of disappointing results. For Andre Ayew, the Black Stars are enjoying massive support which compares to playing back home in Ghana. He says the team will continue to give off their best in their remaining group matches to make the continent proud. “It [game against Serbia] felt like we were playing in Ghana,” said Ghanaian midfielder Andre Ayew.  “We had that feeling that the people were behind us, they wanted us to succeed and we are going to try to make them proud,” he said. For the many fans, especially South Africans, despite the setbacks, they would be cheering every African team in support of the continent. “We don’t care which one—we want any African team to win the World Cup,” said South African fan Ali Chauke who is backing Ghana. “They say football unites a nation—here it is uniting a continent,” said Nigerian fan Ugonoma Ezulike.  Most fans said either Ghana or Ivory Coast would be the most likely teams to realise the African dream. Source: Ghanafa.org

Essien ruled out of World Cup

Michael Essien will miss the World Cup in South Africa

Black stars midfielder, Michael Essien, has been ruled out of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

An evaluation by a combined team of medical experts from the Ghana Football Association and Chelsea Football Club revealed that Essien will not make full recovery until the end of July.

The Ghana Football Association wishes him full recovery and a quick return to football action.

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The midfielder was in line of making his second consecutive appearance at the World Cup following his debut four years ago in Germany.

Ghana opens its World Cup campaign in group D against Serbia on June 13.


Source: ghanafa.org

Google launches smart TV service

Search giant Google has launched a TV service that unites live television with the web.

The "smart TV" service allows people to search both live channels as well as content from websites such as YouTube.
Special TV sets - or TVs connected to a Google box - will also allow people to access the web and download applications.
The first TV sets will be produced by Sony and should be available in the Autumn.
"Video should be consumed on the biggest, brightest, best screen in your house - the television," said Rishi Chandra of the firm. "That's not the PC, or mobile."
Google showed off the service at a launch event in San Francisco that was plagued by technical glitches.
The television sets will also rely on an Intel microprocessor and have control systems built by Logitech. Users can also control the TVs through mobile phones running Google's Android operating system.
The sets and boxes will also use the Android software as well as the firm' Chrome web browser. No details were given on pricing.

Source BBC

Smart TV arrives in Ghana

Ghana has become the first African country to have SMART TV, a new digital terrestrial television service. The service was launched by Next Generation Broadcasting (NGB) in collaboration with Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and would witness a commercial roll-out in the coming weeks.

According to Ahmed Wahab, Head of Marketing and Sale, Smart TV offers a smart mix of exciting local and international content for the entire family. It offers both pay-TV service and free-to-air service of existing local stations on the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) network. SMART TV will initially air in Accra and Kumasi and would later be extended to other regions in Ghana in the near future.

Technological development has brought about new and more efficient ways of recording, storing and processing electrical signals, enabling digital, rather than analogue, transmission. Digital television results from the application of this concept to the transmission of television signals. Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) is the broadcasting of the digital television signal over the radio spectrum.

Future transmission of Digital terrestrial television (DTT) in Ghana will be based on DVB-T technology and MPEG-4/H.264 video compression. Therefore, to receive DTT broadcasts, you should confirm, at a minimum, that the technical specification(s) of your equipment meet two requirements: It is compatible with the DVB-T standard; or it is capable of decoding MPEG-4/H.264 video.

If your equipment does not fulfill these conditions, you may take one of two courses of action: If you want to keep your current television set, you need to purchase an external device, usually a set-top-box connected between the aerial and the television set, meeting the two conditions above; or If you prefer to buy a new television set and not install this external device, you should acquire an integrated digital television set which is already capable of DVB-T reception and decoding MPEG-4/H.264 video. If you also receive other television services such as Pay TV Service on the DTT platform.

DTT offers better picture and sound quality, provides space for the introduction of new channels and enables the provision of new services such as electronic programme guides (EPG), super-teletext, interactive services and high definition television.

Smart TV belongs to a Swedish multinational company called Next Generation Broadcasting (NGB) which is partnering Fox International Channel as the only platform to provide Fox Entertainment in Ghana. It starts operations in Ghana with 16 channels including FOX, Showtime, Star, TRACE Tropical, Setanta Africa, BBC News, HiNolly, HomeBase, GOD TV, Kids, NET2, Viasat1, TV3 Ghana, GTV and TV Africa. Smart TV is set to launch in Kenya and Uganda later this year.

Pricing for the SMART TV digibox would start from a promotional price of GHC 89.

Smart TV Full package

Including: Decoder, antenna and programme card

Customers will have to sign an agreement to pay 12 monthly subscription

Price: GHC 119

Smart TV Standard package *

Including: Decoder, antenna

Price: GCH 173

SMART TV Subscription

1 Month Top up voucher – GHC 19

3 months Top up voucher – GHC 50