"Better quality of life with international standards: an accessible world for all"
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) (jointly referred to as the “Organizers”) are organizing an IPTV application challenge titled “Better quality of life with international standards: an accessible world for all” (hereinafter, the “Challenge”)
By entering the Challenge, participants agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions (hereinafter, “Rules”). All decisions of ITU and IPC ((including those related to disqualification for violation of these Rules) are final and without appeal.
Article 1. No purchase or payment of any kind is required to enter this Challenge.
Article 2. The Challenge is open to participants from countries that are members of ITU (see
http://itu.int/members). Participants may be individuals, legally established entities (profit, non-profit, academic) and public sector organizations, though not all are eligible for the cash prize. Participants are responsible for compliance with legal requirements of their country. Members of the jury, staff of ITU, of IPC and of the sponsor(s) of this Challenge are not eligible to participate in this Challenge.
- Individuals must be of age of majority in their country at the time of entry. Collaboration among individuals is allowed, however, the Challenge prize shall be awarded only to the individual who submitted the winning submission, in accordance with these Rules. Individuals who join teams must meet the eligibility requirements.
- Organizations must be legally established entities (profit, non-profit, academic) or public sector organizations in their respective countries.
Article 3. Submitted applications will be selected and awarded for the following categories:
-
Best App – Individual/SME (small and medium enterprise)
Individuals and private sector organizations (profit or non-profit) with fewer than 50 employees may compete for this award category with a single cash prize of
USD 5,000, for one (1) winning application. -
Best App – Corporate/Public Sector
Public sector organizations of any size and legally established entities (profit, non-profit, academic) with 50 or more employees may compete for this non-cash award category. A certificate will be presented to the winner of this category as an award.
In addition, at the discretion of the Organizers, a number of submitted applications may be selected from the aforementioned categories as honourable mentions without receiving any cash prize.
Article 4. The Challenge has two phases: a submission selection phase (from 16 November 2014 until 1200 hours, 15 April 2015 Central European Time-CET) followed by an implementation phase (from 16 April 2015 until 15 March 2016). Only complete submissions (see article 6) submitted during the submission period (see Article 6) will be considered. At the end of the submission selection phase, the best submissions will be selected to continue to the implementation phase. Only applications which have successfully completed the implementation phase, in accordance to these Rules, will be eligible for consideration for an award.
Article 5. Participants must register online before making a submission. Online registration will be available on the Challenge website at: http://itu.int/challenges/iptv. The online registration period will run from 1 August 2014 until 1200 hours, 30 November 2014 CET (Central European Time). When registering, the following information needs to be provided:
- Participant information (name, country, postal address, e-mail address and phone number);
- Category that the entry falls in (see Article 3 above);
- ITU-T Recommendation(s) that the application runs over;
- Application title (optional);
- Application outline, a brief description of the objective and function of the application (optional).
Following the registration, a registration ID and a work ID that must be included in the submission, a description form, an account ID and a password to access video contents, as well as information on the FTP area (see Article 6) will be sent to the registered participant by e-mail.
Article 6. The submission period will run from 16 November 2014 until 1200 hours, 15 January 2015 CET (Central European Time). All submissions must be submitted in English in electronic format to ITU through its FTP area. Information on the FTP will be sent to each registered participant by e-mail. Only submissions to this FTP area will be accepted. A submission must be comprised of:
- a description of the application;
- presentation slides in “.ppt” or “.pdf” format illustrating the application’s proposed features, system overview and functions with mock-up screens;
- a short video in ITU-T H.264 format (http://itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.264) lasting a maximum of five minutes that demonstrates the concept of how the application would run; and
- a minimalistic prototype of the application running on an ITU-T IPTV platform (optional).
The description of the application must use the form which will be sent by e-mail to the registered participants, and must include the following information:
- Registration ID and Work ID (see Article 5);
- Application title;
- Description of the application following the guidelines to be available at the Challenge website, including:
- Summary of the application (maximum 150 words);
- Detailed concept of the application with technical description (maximum 5000 words);
- How to use the application;
- What are the user benefits;
- Appealing points of the application on each evaluation criterion (see Article 9), if any;
ITU will acknowledge receipt of a submission by e-mail. Once submitted, the participant cannot make any changes or alterations to the submission unless they receive a request or permission from ITU.
Article 7. Participants may submit more than one application; however, a submitted application must not be substantially similar to a prior application submitted by the same participant at this or previous challenges. A separate registration is required for each submission of an application.
Article 8. Submissions must be original applications that are not currently under review by another contest, be solely owned by the participant and must not violate the intellectual property rights of other parties. Participants will retain the intellectual property rights to their submitted application.
Article 9. During the submission selection phase, submissions will be judged by a jury, determined by the Organizers. Decisions of the jury are final and without appeal. The jury judges all submissions that pass the initial screening on the contents based on the following criteria in improving audiovisual accessibility and interactivity:
- Relevance to the challenge's theme (1/5);
- Degree of innovation (1/5);
- Level of interactivity (1/5);
- Value to society (1/5);
- User friendliness/ease of use (0.5/5);
- Overall quality (0.5/5).
ITU will notify the finalists via e-mail by
15 April 2015. If the finalists cannot be contacted by ITU, or do not respond within seven (7) calendar days from the time ITU sends its notification, ITU and IPC may decide to select other finalists , or not to select any finalists at all.
Article 10. During the implementation phase, the finalists whose submissions have been selected during the submission selection phase will be asked to further develop their applications for actual deployment in systems built ITU-T’s international IPTV standards. To this end, the finalists may opt to receive technical support by advisors selected by ITU. At the end of the implementation phase, the selected applications must run fully on the reference ITU-T IPTV platform and display all the features documented in the submission. Applications need to meet this criterion satisfactorily to be eligible for an award. More specifically, applications must run over ITU-T IPTV standards, in particular:
In addition, any video content must be encoded using ITU-T H.264 "Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual services" (
http://itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.264). Optionally, videos may be encoded using ITU-T H.265 "Advanced video coding" (
http://itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.265). Participants can use video contents to be provided by ITU and IPC for their submission(s); access to the video contents will be provided after online registration (see Article 5). The file structure of the application must follow the details found in draft Recommendation H.IPTV-Widget "IPTV Widget Service" (
http://itu.int/md/T09-IPTV.GSI-120924-TD-GEN-0482).
Article 11. ITU will notify the two (2) winners of the Challenge (one for each category, as per article 3) via e-mail by
15 March 2016. If the winner(s) cannot be contacted by ITU, or does not respond within seven (7) calendar days from the time ITU sends its notification, ITU and IPC may decide to award the prize for the Challenge to other participant(s), or not to award the prize at all.
Article 12. Participants are responsible for any expenses they may incur during preparation and submission of their application(s).
Article 13. By participating in the Challenge, participants grant the Organizers and their assignees a non-exclusive, four-year, world-wide, royalty-free license to use, modify, host, communicate, publicly display and distribute the contents of their submission(s) (including any application and video) for promotional, informational, educational and awareness-raising purposes, or for any other purposes in line with the Organizers’ mandates. This license does not prevent the participants from licensing their application (whether royalty-free or for royalties) at any time for commercial purposes to any third party (including the sponsor(s) of this Challenge). The Organizers may, at their sole discretion, decide whether to use any of the contents of a submission for the aforementioned purposes.
Article 14. The winning applications will officially be announced and showcased at
the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, and featured on the Challenge's website at
http://itu.int/challenges/iptv and in an ITU and IPC press release. The winners are responsible for any expenses made in order to attend the awards ceremony which will take place in Rio de Janeiro during the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, including but not limited to travel and accommodation costs, travel insurance, etc. They are also responsible for all administrative formalities which might be required for their travel to
Rio de Janeiro and for all applicable taxes and fees associated with receipt and/or use of an award. No transfer or substitution of an award is permitted.
Article 15. The winners will receive a four-year right to use the Challenge logo on their own promotional materials for the awarded application.
Article 16. Participation in the Challenge does not grant any of the participants any right to use the ITU logo, the IPC logo, or the logo of the sponsors.
Article 17. By entering the Challenge, participants agree to release and hold harmless the ITU and IPC from and against any and all claims, expenses, and liability, including but not limited to negligence and damages of any kind to persons and property, infringement of trademark, copyright or other intellectual property rights arising out of or relating to their participation in the Challenge and the contents of their submission(s), including the submitted applications.
Article 18. Nothing herein shall constitute or be considered to be a limitation or a waiver of the privileges and immunities of ITU and IPC, which are specifically reserved.
