Astro B.yond Bloggers Night, Modesto's Desa Sri Hartamas

13 January 2010 marked the official launching of the Malaysia's First High Definition Television Commercial for Astro B.yond. We are proud to the among the Malaysian bloggers who are invited to attend and witness this meaningful event. What do you know about Astro B.yond? It is a multi phased innovation that begins with the first ever High Definition broadcast service in Malaysia.

The event took place at Modesto's, Desa Sri Hartamas. This venue is far better than the previous Mister Potato Fiesta 2009. We reached here about 30 minutes earlier.

The front part of Modesto's is sort of a bistro while the behind part is a bar and dance club.

Upon registration, we were given a goodies bag and also opportunity to pen down our new year resolution on an erected board. Can you spot mine? Too bad that my resolution was not able to achieve that night. However, I still have the chance of winning a LG HDTV by writing this post event summary. Can you support me, please?

Here are what contained inside the goodies bag. A 2010 diary book, an Astro pen, an Astrolife tumble and a file containing post coverage news release by Astro. Wonder why there is a magnifier? I will let you know later.

We were served with soft drinks (choice of Coke or Sprite) and fruit punch. Wan Nah with some candles decoration placed on the table.

While waiting for the event to kick start, we were also served with Modesto's pizza. We were seated at quite a strategic place which was at the bar. The stage was in front of us and we can anytime grabbed a drink from the bar. Also, we sort of make friend with this bartender who was quite cooperative for that photo. He also told us the mixtures used to make the fruit punch which including the wine that he was holding, Ribena Blackcurrent and etc.

The crowd while waiting the event to be started.

Huh.. Crime scene inside a club house? Were we entering to a wrong place? Well, actually that was the theme for a game that will be carried out later on that night. Besides that, Astro would like to introduce a Facebook game called 'Murder in the Details which you can find at their Facebook fan page. Simply log on to the page and read the details on how to participate for the game. All you need to do is to spot the clues, gather the evidence and you will stand a chance to be one of 10 lucky winners to walk home with Astro B.yond sets with 1 year free subscription to Astro B.yond and a 32'' LG HDTV. OMG!! The prizes are fabulous. So, wait no more to log in now.

At the front stage, there were 5 sets of HDTV with each showing the different 5 HD channels on Astro. The 5 channels are Astro SuperSport HD (Channel 831), HBO HD (Channel 431), National Geographic Channel HD (Channel 573), HISTORY HD (Channel 575) and ESPN HD (Channel 832).

Now, it was the time to take photo with these HD TV showign the 5 HD channels on Astro.

Proudly showing you the Astro B.yond TV Commercial in High Definition (HD). This television commercial with duration of approximately 2.30 minutes is one of the longest in Malaysian television commercial history. More significantly, this television commercial was not watched yet by any of the ASTRO staff. We, the bloggers were amongst the first to witness the launching of this television commercial. Bloggers rock!

Do you feel impressed with the television commercial? So, do you know the meaning behind all these 5 tags as shown above?

1. Experience like never before
   • High Definition broadcast will enable viewers to enjoy approximately 5 times the detail of standard definition television broadcast.
2. See like never before
   • At 720p and 1080i broadcast, there is at least 2 times resolution and 5 times greater in detail, sharpness and clarity. You will also see lifelike images with greater true to life colours.
3. Hear like near before
   • With the Dolby Digital technology, you will experience the multi-dimensional audio as in the cinema right in your living room.
4. Touch like never before
   • Broadcasts include new features such as 7 days’ programme guide for one-touch convenience.
5. Feel like never before
   • Broadcasts images are in a 16:9 aspect ratio of which you can enjoy panoramic widescreen viewing.

We were also given the opportunity to watch the feedbacks from famous bloggers in HD. They include KY Speaks, Saimatkong, Redmummy and many more.

Emcee of the night.

Officiating speech by Mr. Henry Tan, Chief Operating Officer of Astro. According to him, Astro are committed to innovation in content, technology and customer experience. It was a well accept fact that bloggers are game changes and the success of blogging have drive Astro to change the game too realising that the people are the killer app for internet age. And now, Astro is going to make the changes with their proud Astro B.yond.

After the speech and realising the bloggers' stomach were groaning loud, it was the time for the long awaited dinner. I too was hungry as I did not take my lunch.

Me & Chie Chek took the 3 big plates to cater for 5 of us. However, Vun took his own plate too so total were 4 plates altogether. Foods include spaghetti, big fat hotdogs, chicken, pasta, mutton, chocolate cakes and many many more. Wow.. simply delicious and great dinner!!

At close to 8.30 pm, the bartender started to give away beers. OMG!! Did I mention beers? Oh great!! I love Nuffnang for inviting me to eat, drink and enjoy the launching night!

Seated at the bar, we can easily grabbed the beers when it runs out.

Arghh while I was busy enjoying my meal, there were loud sounds vibrating in my ears. It was a sort of a drum performance by a group of instrumentalists. CC went to capture them with Wan Nah's camera while I was still with my meal before I joined him later.

Alright, enjoy their musical performance while I continue with my meal. =P

After that, SixthSeal or Huai Bin appeared on stage and took the emcee rule. He was explaining on how bloggers can win themselves the Astro B.yond sets. He told us that there was a crime scene that had taken place and we were required to find out who was the murdered.

All we need to do was to group into 5 people (ngam ngam hor for us) and registered with Robb. Spot my name on his paper? It was top right side of the paper he was holding. Bloggers were then required to search the clues that were placed in the clubhouse EXCEPT the washroom.

We were given a magnifier per team and we have to look around for clues like the above. We need to analyse the pasted paper as the clues in wording were hidden behind. I found it useless to use the magnifier but a handphone torchlight function will be a good tool.

The group who can guess the murderer correctly will be the winner while groups who guess wrongly will be disqualified. At a point of time, I heard they were saying FRESH was the murderer and bring her out to win. I was just beside FRESH, a Nuffnang lady staff (I dunno her name). At that time, I wasn't sure whether the murderer was a male of female but from the clues, the murderer was clad in red. Within seconds later, she was grabbed out to the stage. Arghh.. I'm was so slow!!! The murderer was actually among the Nuffnang staff who had a white band (plaster) on their hands. After the winning group has been certified, Robb, Huai Bin and Fresh made a scene play to demonstrate how the murder took place. Fresh accidentally stabbed Huai Bin with a knife and he fall down on the ground as in the picture above. Bloggers were given sufficient time to take his picture laying death before Robb came and cried for the death and also running away from the scene too. Haha. Interesting scene play!

So, who was the winning group? It was the team by Gareth, Horng, KY, Terence and Eric. But, how 5 of them going to share an Astro B.yond set? So, the emcee then asked about 5 questions (if not mistaken) and the one who can answered the most will be the winner. Robb was given the task to check their answers. Question asked were like when was the official launch of Astro B.yond, name one feature of Astro B.yond, what is the microsite for Astro B.yond Facebook and others.

The winner went to Eric Yong who walked away with Astro B.yond sets with free subscription till December 2010 and a 32'' LG HDTV. Congrats!! The rest of the team mates won themselves another goodies bag. Hopefully, it wasn't the same like the one given upon registration. Haha.

Alright, that's the end for the night. It was time for photo and parties!!!

The crowd who mingle around taking photographs. For this time, I did not really join them. Haha. I'm shy.. ok although I met with many familiar faces.~~

CC & Charlene & ME Also, it was the continuation of BEER time with the loud music played by the Deejay!~

OMG! What happened to CC? He was vomiting into the goodies bag. Oi!! Let me take the stuff inside first!!

Check out the top right picture. I was drunk I guess haha with red tomato faces. Actually, I only drank 3-4 glasses of beers. Do I need to mention again it was totally FOC?

Vun, Charlene, Wan Nah, CC, ME

Mr. Henry Tan, COO of Astro and us.

Mr. Henry, do you remember your promise to pick me and gave the Astro B.yond set to me?

Robb and us

Robb, do you remember my blog address and to call me when Mr. Henry sent you my name?

Alright, the final picture of the event. I did not realised they were pasting their name sticker on my back until I see it through my own camera. Haha.

Hope you guys enjoy the post and most importantly, I wish to take this opportunity to thank Astro and Nuffnang for organising this Astro B.yond Bloggers Night at Modesto's Sri Hartamas. For more information about Astro B.yond, click here. If you aren't a blogger or do not play FB but wish to experience Astro B.yond, you can sign up at the website or call ASTRO customer Hotline at 1300823838. Additional service fee of RM 20 per month and a commitment of 12 months are required. You will get a new B.yond box, smart card, outdoor unit dish, HD Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cable and remote control. New set up installation fee will be waived in exchange for existing box.