Philippines’ Orchestrack automates ad monitoring on radio

Founded in 2010 by two De La Salle graduates, Unyx Sta Ana and Raymond del Rosario, Orchestrack developed algorithms to identify sounds given a few seconds of audio data. This capability is similar to offerings from established players like Soundhound (100m users) and Shazam (20m users), or Google’s recently launched Sound Search service.

Now, Orchestrack has shifted their focus from music and copyright identification to ad monitoring on the air. According to Ms. Sta Ana “What we’re doing now is 24/7 advertising monitoring on radio, TV and streaming media, and offer it as a B2B SaaS to automate spot detection as proof of airing.” In short, they automate the measurement of ad impressions.

Currently advertisers’ pain point is having to confirm ‘proof of airing’ –that paid ads are actually aired over hundreds of radio stations over a contracted period. This monitoring is a time-consuming and manual effort. Read more

Senior leadership change at MyChina Channel, a startup by former MediaCorp MD

MyChina Channel (MCC), a Singapore-based media startup that aggregates, produces and distributes China related content for the global market, has announced in a press release yesterday the appointment of new senior management.

Joining Melvin Ang, founder and executive director, is Wayne Chou, board member of the financial committee for the Media Development Authority in Singapore. Wayne has more than a decade of experience in corporate strategy, planning and businesses development, investment, as well as divestiture of businesses. He will be the new CEO. Read more

Five things entrepreneurs must know about journalists, but are often clueless about

When entrepreneurs zig, journalists zag.

That’s how wide the gulf between the two worlds are.

Journalists are essentially publicity whores that live in a fast-paced work environment, rushing to and fro to cover scandal after scandal.

Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, often live for years in obscurity before getting their big break — the makers of Draw Something are a good example. A lot of them, unfortunately, will remain forever mired in the bog of insignificance.

And when journalists and entrepreneurs work together, it’s often an uneasy, contentious symbiosis. Entrepreneurs complain of being misquoted and misrepresented by journalists, while journalists gripe about being arm-twisted to write an article a certain way.

But it doesn’t always have to be this way. Having some tension is natural, and a healthy working relationship is attainable.

Entrepreneurs and journalists do need one another, so understanding both sides is an essential first step to making the partnership work.

Having lived and breathed in a newsroom environment in both the print and online world, I thought it’s time I share five things entrepreneurs must know about journalists, but unfortunately, are often clueless about. Read more

TWIA #49: Sean Bonner from Bode Media & Neoteny Labs

In our special interview series before the magic 50th episode, we have Sean Bonner (@seanbonner) from Bode Media and Neoteny Labs on our studio. While he is here to conduct business clinics for Neoteny Labs and JFDI Asia, he will also be attending Echelon 2010. We interviewed him in Hackerspace SG and tapped his brain on the lessons learned from mentoring young entrepreneurs and thoughts on the micro-venture capital space. Sean also shares with us what he looks forward in the coming Echelon 2010. You can go directly to TWIA website or listen the podcast here in SGEntrepreneurs. Read more

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65Bits #168: Secret location #462

Our friends at Tech65 starts off this week with their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape: [1] Google Editions: Bringing E-Books to Your Browser, [2] Adobe shows off prototype Android tablet running Air and Flash ‘flawlessly’, [3] Apple names iPad UK launch date and [4] Apple sells 1,000,000 iPads in revolution’s first month. Do click and check out their latest podcast here. You can now also listen to the Tech65 podcast here as well by coming to the blog post directly. Read more

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TWIA Episode 24: From TenCent to HTC

The TWIA crew is back without Cerventus who was on his way back to KL from Singapore during the recording. We discussed how the iPad performed with respect to the hosts of the show, while moving to the stories of the three new phones C3, C6 and E5 launched by Nokia and China has boosted the downloads in the Ovi Store. Marching on, we examine the reasons why TenCent (who owns QQ) have invested in Russia’s DST and whether HTC will acquire Palm. Finally, we end with more outsourcing horror stories, and with a bonus story from Mike on his review of the Opera Mini app on the iPhone. Do look forward to the special reviews for the upcoming Echelon and also the live show in Barcamp KL next week. You can go directly to TWIA website or listen the podcast here in SGEntrepreneurs. Read more

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TWIA Episode 18: Everyone’s a Scraper

The TWIA crew gathers after Chinese New Year without Daniel Cerventus to run thru a couple of stories that rumbles across the Asia landscape this week. Starting with Zynga’s global expansion into India, the crew ponders whether the foreign companies are shifting their focus away from China. Once again, censorship takes the headline in China and Indonesia. Of course, we devise the new googleometer where we ask if Google is really moving out of China with their gestures on canceling the Android event in Beijing. Finally, the biggest story that rocked Southeast Asia with Facebook acquiring Octazen, a Malaysian based company and finally the crew looks at the rise of the Global QQ and ending with a short commentary on Siok Siok’s new film, Twittamentary.
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In Conversation with Karen Seah, Founder from The Refinery Studio and SUPERMODELME.TV

SUPERMODELME.tv is a groundbreaking online reality TV show where 10 models from across the Asian continent will compete to be Asia’s next hottest face on runways and magazines. While just being more than an online reality TV show, the company behind it, Refinery Media has also introduced a revolutionary technology from A-STAR called the Hyperspot technology which provide an instant gratification can be delivered right to the viewers’ fingertips. It is not a simple task to combine fashion, entertainment and technology to put forward a product. Karen Seah the founder of The Refinery Studio – company behind SUPERMODELME.TV, has taken her time to drop by to give us the story behind the competition, how she straddles across different areas of expertise to create this online reality TV show, and her thoughts on being an entrepreneur. Read more

65Bits Episode 114 : Stuck in the rain at Maxwell

Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: [1] Tech65 mentioned on Chasing The Storm podcast, [2] GoThere.sg’s lucky draw contest, [3] Facebook’s new user interface, [4] Microsoft’s new ad campaign, [5] Palm Pre, and the Palm WebOS, [6] Intel misleading consumers about netbook and the Byte of the Week: Handbrake DVD to MPEG converter. Do click and check out their podcast.