Vobile Sponsors TV Hackfest Competition - Winner Work at Play Best Utilized Vobile's Second-Screen API

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Vobile, the worldwide leading provider of video and audio content identification and management services, announced today it recently sponsored a challenge at TV Hackfest, a gathering of developers, designers, agencies, creatives and entrepreneurs who build, design, and show how future video entertainment could be delivered within an interactive multi-screen environment.  Team APPplause from Work at Play garnered two wins during the event, taking home best commercial concept and the Vobile Sponsor award for best use of the Vobile API.

TV Hackfest was held February 7^th-8^th at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, concurrently with the annual Apps World North America exhibition. The goal of Hackfest TV is to encourage the development of TV technologies, SDKs and APIs as well as briefs and competitions.  The event attracted considerable media attention from outlets including The Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times as well as a Japan-based film crew from international broadcasting company NHK World who are creating a documentary on Hackathons and the surrounding culture.

"Sponsoring TV Hackfest is an important endeavor for us as we are encouraging top developers to utilize our API in new ways and are also promoting overall innovation in the second-screen arena," said Yangbin Wang, CEO of Vobile. "Our technology is supporting a whole new array of second-screen experiences for ecommerce, infotainment and numerous social applications that are fundamentally changing the way people interact with television content."

"We knew very early on that we wanted to incorporate Vobile's API into our hack," said David Gratton, CEO of Work at Play "The identification technology inspired us to think of how audiences could connect and interact with TV content anytime and anywhere: at home, at a bar, or at a friend's house.  The second screen is something we're continually exploring at Work at Play, and we're excited to have the opportunity to work with cutting edge technology from Vobile and others to create memorable entertainment experiences."

Work at Play is a new kind of studio that adds value for its clients by moving brand  experiences out to the mobile and social worlds, in part through innovative second-screen technology. The Work at Play hacking team consisted of two developers and the CEO.

"We were able to quickly integrate the Vobile API/SDK in to our working prototype, an Android application built on the PhoneGap framework that records user excitement on what is currently being watched, identified via image, video or audio recognition," said Ronn Abueg & Dirk Reinbold, of Team APPplause, Work at Play. "The best part of the API was that it returned predictable results, even during a rushed demo/presentation with less-than-optimal Wi-Fi."

Judges for The TV Hackfest come from leading firms including Google TV, twitter, CNN, Facebook, Voxeo Labs, Advance Ventures, Transmedia, and Aether.  More information about Hackfest can be found at www.hackfest.tv/northamerica/.

Vobile offers TVsync, a service that supports connected second-screen experiences. It can be utilized with nearly any combination of devices and media, effectively linking audio or video to corresponding content on other devices.

About Vobile:

Vobile is the worldwide leading provider of video and audio content identification and management services. Its patented core VDNA technology enables fully automated identification, tracking and management of any video and audio content with high accuracy and scalability. Vobile operated the VDNA Database, (VDDB), which is the most comprehensive database of authorized video fingerprints, metadata and business rules from major movie studios, television networks and record labels. Founded in 2005, the company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with additional offices in China, Japan and Singapore. For more information, please visit http://www.vobileinc.com.

Vobile, VDNA, VDDB, TVSync, the Vobile, VDNA, VDDB and TVSync logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Vobile, Inc.

SOURCE Vobile