UDCast, Alliance-Sat, Divona : a nice story of synergies on the French Riviera

When the pioneer from Sophia for the introduction of the satellite on the Net, the music contents provider from Nice and Divona, the satellite operator from Monaco are all working together…

It is a good example of synergies between companies from the French Riviera given by UDCast at Sophia Antipolis, Alliance-Sat in Nice and Divona at Monaco. All three gathered for the same project: to offer a communication and diffusion solution of data through the satellite featuring images and sounds of the pharmacy. All of them have brought their contribution for a “product” which already works and has to be presented to the press on Thursday, October 18th at 10.00 AM at the head office of Alliance-Sat in Nice (369, promenade des Anglais).Gathered competenciesUDcast, based at Sophia Antipolis, is the technician of the team. The start-up, through a technology of unidirectional links, succeeded to introduce the satellite on the Internet. Funded by researchers from the INRIA Sophia, it creates and edits communication software products ready to use. These software allow to completely introduce on the Internet special links such as digital satellite links (DVB-S), hertzian digital (DVB-T) and digital radio (DAB). UDCast has thus brought software products and routers allowing to make the system work.Alliance-Sat from Nice, is an added value content provider. It is the musician of the trio and above all, the professional of the pharmacy. The company, a subsidiary of Unichem (fourth provider of drugs worldwide), is specialised in the sound emission by satellite. It creates music programmes that you can choose, especially adapted to the work atmosphere of the client.Continuously updated and without interruptions, these programmes allow more than 15 days for the diffusion of varied music and never repeated without any handling. The use of several atmosphere networks and the management of personal messages thanks to the development of specific software are also planned. Alliance-Sat, in the project, thus brings the business content.Regarding Divona from Monaco, it is a satellite operator. The company, a subsidiary of Monaco Telecom (global operator and subsidiary of Vivendi), it allows the diffusion, bringing to the project the bandwidth it needed.A radio to be tailored for pharmaciesThe wonder at the beginning was as follows: how can you introduce communication through the satellite in a pharmacy both for animation and awareness purposes to health prevention for all? How can you offer flexibility allowing to tailor some of the messages spread in each pharmacy?The active partnership undertaken by the three companies established on the French Riviera led to the creation of an integrated technical solution and totally reliable. It already allows to offer images with sounds (music programmes and health messages) through the satellite to several pharmacies spread all over the hexagon (500 nowadays, more than one thousand at the end of December and 2,000 by next year). Affordable to everyone for a decent price, a radio to be tailored, which plays entertaining music and give as well specific health advice (problems related to the sun, summer on the Riviera, information on mushrooms at autumn in some regions where people pick them up, etc.)Didier Tymen, CEO at UDCast, claude Gras, General Manager at Allaince-Sat and Jean-Louis Oustrières, CEO at Divona will thus explain how this technical partnership was built. Then, a show of the multimedia solution selected will be carried out, and a pharmacist will bring its testimony. It already makes it a nice story of synergies on the French Riviera…