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Tag: iptv

  • The Perspectives for Over the Top Television


    INTERVIEW. The emergence of Over the Top Television (OTT) technologies is not widely viewed as a threat to the existence of telcos in their quest to transform IPTV services, an official has said.

    Victor Dominguez, vice president of DS2, a leading provider of semiconductors for high-speed communications over existing wires, said fears doing the rounds in the information communication technology sector had no substance at the moment.

    “It is early to say. OTT has a huge potential and there is growing acceptance in some regions like the USA. The message I am hearing from telcos is that OTT is ok and will have market adoption, but cannot deliver quality.”

    “When it comes to good TV experience, the telcos are saying that they still have an advantage. Also, they are currently in discussions on whether OTT will be able to pay for premium content (without counting on a monthly subscription fee of the end user),” said Dominguez.

     Victor Dominguez

    Dominguez was reacting to questions by Biz-News.com on whether the emergence of OTT would pose any threats to the existing IPTV.

    He said small format to medium quality OTT was fine, but quickly noted that large format to HD/high quality IPTV was better.

    “On the other hand OTT has its own challenges with more and more quality content being provided over free DTT,” said Dominguez.

    Although he admitted that the OTT and IPTV would compete and fill in different market demands, Dominguez hinted that the regular internet connection offerings from telcos were rather expensive nowadays.

    He dismissed any partnerships between OTT and telcos.

    Dominguez’s DS2 was founded in 1998 and has more than 130 employees based in Santa Clara, Tokyo (Japan), Taipei and Valencia (Spain).

    Dominguez said because DS2 chips could operate over power lines, phone lines and coaxial cable, users didn’t have to install new Ethernet wires to set up a robust wired network.

    “DS2 technology is widely used in many markets, including consumer home networks, IPTV distribution applications, Smart Grid or Ethernet over Coax services."

    “Telco IPTV (ie, a broadcast-quality TV service provided by a Telecommunication Service Provider, as opposed to "Internet TV" or "Over-the-Top TV" services such as Hulu.com or Apple iTunes) is one of the main drivers for wired home networking (and powerline networking in particular)."

    “There are multiple reasons why Telco Service Providers choose powerline-based solutions for IPTV distribution instead of Wireless solutions like 802.11n,” said Dominguez.

    He said wireless LANs, which usually have signal propagation problems where there are multiple walls between a transmitter and a receiver, especially with metal and concrete walls Wireless LAN signals, were not easily contained inside a single home.
    He said as a result there was potential for interference to neighbour Wireless LANs, especially in densely populated areas.

    He said most Wireless LAN products did not have the reliability and Quality of Service (QoS) required to support applications like HDTV.

    “Delivering broadcast-quality HDTV channels in a Telco IPTV environment is specially challenging because the content is delivered over multicast UDP streams. UDP does not have automatic retransmission capabilities, so any lost UDP packet may create visual artifacts (macroblocking) on the TV screen."

    “Also, most Set-Top Boxes (STB) used in Telco IPTV applications have limited reception buffers, which means that they are very sensitive to packet latency and jitter. DS2 provides high-speed powerline communication chipsets specially designed for Telco IPTV applications, that provide the performance, latency and QoS required for HD video streaming."

    “For applications where maximum performance is required, DS2 offers the DSS9101+DSS7800 chipset (Aitana), with a maximum PHY data rate of 200 Mbps. DS2 also offers a lower speed solution, the DSS8101+DSS7800 chipset (Montgo), with a maximum PHY data rate of 100 Mbps,” Dominguez said.

    He said both solutions were fully interoperable and pinned compatible, allowing system designers to create multiple products with a common PCB design.

    Dominguez said both Aitana and Montgo chips were powered by DS2’s SPIRIT firmware, which provides advanced capabilities such as TR-069 compliant remote management, programmable QoS, automatic repeating capabilities, secure firmware upgrade, automatic multicast support via IGMP-snooping and many other features.

  • New Opportunities for IPTV

    INTERVIEW. In a wide-ranging interview with Biz-news.com, Benjamin Schwarz, chief technology officer for CTO Innovation Consulting Group, who has 20 years of international experience in consulting and in Telco & Media organization, gave an insight into the IPTV development.

    He also talks about the new opportunities the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa gives IPTV. He is convinced the World Cup would witness a tremendous shift to new and highly advanced 3D video demonstrations.

    Content key to IPTV

    Acquiring content for IPTV has become reasonable and content owners are now recognising operators as legitimate in their business, Schwarz revealed.

    He said while a few years back it was impossible to engage in VoD negotiations, with time this has changed for the better.

    “In VoD negotiations ‘minimum guarantees’ are still a stumbling block whereas a few years ago they were in an impassable barrier,” he said.

    Benjamin Schwarz

    Technology due-diligence requirements are also relaxing and majors are beginning to realise that in smaller markets where piracy is rife it’s better to have a little revenue-stream even if it means letting go of the precious ‘minimum guarantees’ rather than having nothing,” Schwarz added.

    He explained that through the years it has become much easier to get content for IPTV operators through the technological developments.

    “A new content aggregation business is coming into existence with specialist VoD outfits like Grey Juice Labs or bigger live TV aggregators like Avail Media. There are even highly specialised consultancies like 3Vision in the UK.

    “So all in all, it’s a lot easier to get access to content now than it was just a few years ago,” said Schwarz.

    Focusing on the growth of IPTV in terms of market and technology, Schwarz said once Telcos got their offers in place, most markets would have a significant IPTV user base of 10 to 30 percent of households.

    He also noted that in future there would be a shift between telcos and content operators.

    IPTV continues to make positive strides

    Meanwhile, strategic technological alliances seem to be the required solution to the array of challenges that were faced by IPTV’s early adopters, Schwarz said.

    Schwarz believes the challenges have since lessened significantly since suppliers such as Microsoft, Cisco, Motorola and Thomson offered a complete end-to-end solution, and other smaller vendors have already integrated with others.

    He said early IPTV adopters faced huge challenges in access to content while the second challenge was the technical difficulty in delivering a Quality of Experience (QoE).

    “The first challenge has all but gone; the market has a lot more actors in it now, and access to an entry-level channel line-up as well as a decent VoD catalogue is within most operators’ reach,” said Schwarz.

    He said standards such as those of the Open IPTV forum have had a much positive impact. However, unlike with content, the technological challenge still remains in South Africa .

    “User expectations of quality are getting higher all the time. So, even as we learn to reach the targets, they are being pulled further away all the time,” said Schwarz.

    He said an example of this could be observed in the user interface.

    “Users interface design is good example of such a moving target. We’re getting so much better all the time, yet never quite good enough,” he said.

    Two most prevalent issues in the projects were recently seen at the CTOiC in 2009 – Over-The-Top (OTT) & Hybrid.

    The OTT issue has many sides. Some content operators want to deliver OTT directly to Network operators’ customers.

    “This is for example, what Joost failed to do, but in many cases they work together as is the case with the BBC’s iPlayer and VirginMedia” said Schwarz.

    However operators with walled garden approaches view OTT as a necessary evil because it will enable only just enough and subscribers won’t churn, – not a feature more.

    TV widgets from the entities like Yahoo! confuse the picture further. Set makers are adopting different stances with their new connected TVs in this raging war.

    “I don’t know how the dust will settle on this. I suppose users, the market will have to decide,” said Schwarz.

    2010 World Cup to showcase advanced IPTV technology

    The forthcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa will see a leading international forum of the electronic media industry demonstrating highly sophisticated technology aimed at improving television communication and quality.

    Schwarz said the 3D video would precisely demonstrate how serious IBC would execute its latest technological advancement in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2012 London Olympics.

    “This year IBC showed some great 3D video demonstration, so I definitely think that will be important. I imagine that the coming World Cup in your country (South Africa) will be too soon; we’ll probably see some demos around that event though.

    “London’s Olympics in 2012 will be the real launch of 3D. Satellite and Cablecos might be first to market but for once they won’t steal the show from IPTV because the extra bandwidth required is pretty small so it will be a level playing field,” said Schwarz.

    Schwarz believes a lot of venture capital would be channeled towards this technological development as evidenced by the on-going huge debate on the social aspect of television.

    Turning to IPTV system, Schwarz said since the landscape of electronic technology was changing at an ever-increasing pace, he was convinced that some of the Content Operators who use CTOiC would survive while the old would find the going tough.

  • ADVERTORIAL: IPTV World Forum North America – The Key Event For The IPTV Industry


    Both AT&T – now with over a million subscribers – and Verizon have made huge in-roads into the market with their IP based services.

    Largely as a result of these two companies’ successes, North America is expected to account for a large proportion of the world’s new IPTV subscriptions during the next few years.

    They join the significant number of regional and local telecoms operators in North America who pioneered this new digital TV platform – but the big question is whether any company bringing Pay TV to market this late – even those with the resources of AT&T – can gain significant market share on a national basis?

    The question also remains how regional telcos can build a compelling TV offering at a realistic level of investment.

    These are two of the many themes that will be addressed at the IPTV World Forum North America conference and exhibition being held 21-22 July 2009 at the Millennium Broadway Hotel, New York.

    The two-day event will draw together leading IPTV service providers, content providers, analysts and key technology vendors for what is expected to become one of the key events in the North American IPTV calendar.

    The programme will focus on all the key topical issues on IP&TV in North America, including:

    • monetising OTT in the TV experience
    • how to roll out whole home DVR
    • assessing the impact of the Broadband stimulus package on the US video market
    • hybrid solutions for the delivery of TV and IP and EPG2.0
    • content discovery and search

    A highly interactive, intensive, high level networking conference, it features quality case-study led presentations from carriers, service providers & content owners, interactive full value chain panel discussion and analyst roundtable briefings.

    A key feature will be the opportunities for delegates and all participants to discuss presentations and pose questions to the speakers after the sessions.

    Among the industry leaders participating are:

    • Terry Denson, VP of content Strategy and Acquisition, Verizon
    • Jeff Weber, Vice President of Video Product and Strategy, AT&T
    • Daniel O’Callaghan, Chairman IPTV Interoperability Forum (ATIS) and Principal Member of Technical Staff, Verizon
    • Franz Kurath, Executive Director, Broadband Content, AT&T Operations Inc.

    There will also be leading representatives from Surewest Communications, Cox Communications, Qwest Communications, OPATSCO and many more.

    The event also features an exhibition, where vendors, manufacturers and service providers can showcase their latest products and do business with a pre-qualified audience.

    During the conference sessions, a wide range of themes will be covered, such as considering how the influence of IP is being felt most keenly outside the managed telco services space.

    In particular, the rise of Over the Top TV services, delivered over the open internet, provides a potentially massive disruption to the traditional TV service model.

    Whilst these services clearly popular with the public, the search for successful business models – which enhance rather than undermine existing offers – remains a challenge that the industry must embrace.

    Then there’s the comparision between markets on either side of the Atlantic, with North American IPTV service providers facing a tougher test than their European counterparts.

    The latter have benefited from a natural watershed in the Pay TV marketplace thanks to the introduction of DVR (Digital Video Recorder), true VOD and Replay TV, and HDTV.

    In the US, VOD is an established cable offering and HDTV is available widely on cable and satellite.

    Cable operators have also pursued an increasingly aggressive triple-play strategy (they now have 24 million broadband Internet customers and 5 million telephone customers) and this makes it even harder to tempt customers from their legacy suppliers.

    Yet cable operators can also reap huge benefits from the implementation of IP, and potentially can enhance their services to combine IP efficiency & interactivity with existing bandwidth to deliver a highly compelling consumer solution.

    Also being covered is the new boom area in the global IPTV market, hybrid IPTV solutions – which combine managed IPTV with other delivery mechanisms such as DTH or Satellite.

    Already there have been landmark deployments from early IPTV adopters such as Orange/France Telecom, Portugal Telecom & BT Vision.

    Whilst SES Americom’s strategic withdrawal has marked an early failure in the US market, partnership models will increasingly be a feature of new TV service in North America, particularly in more circumspect times.

    This conference will provide participants with the opportunity to hear, learn from, and network with the leaders in the IP&TV American industry.

    IP&TV Forum North America is the second annual event and part of the IPTV World Series of events organised by Informa Telecoms & Media globally.
    For more information, please click HERE.

  • Envivio Selected For Türk Telekom's New IPTV Service


    Envivio has announced that its Convergence Series video headend has been selected for Türk Telekom’s IPTV project in Turkey.

    The IP video convergence provider said Türk Telekom will use its 4Caster C4 SD and 4Caster HD30 HD MPEG-4 AVC encoders and the 4Manager NMS, to deliver standard and high definition channels for its new IPTV service.

    The 4Caster C4 provides video compression for all three screens of consumer video – TVs, PCs and mobile devices – on a single platform.

    Envivio’s 4Caster HD30 delivers high quality, high definition encoded content at less than half the bit rates required by MPEG-2.

    The company’s Convergence Series architecture allows MPEG-2 content downlinked from satellite to be delivered to the compression system directly over a local IP network.

    This all-IP, all-digital processing of content eliminates the need for traditional intermediate analog or digital video and audio interfaces between MPEG-2 decoders and MPEG-4 encoders.

    Julien Signès, president and CEO of Envivio. said: "Forward-thinking operators around the world recognize that quality of service is a dominant factor in their success and the C4 and HD30 both deliver the very highest picture quality."

    The IPTV headend for Türk Telekom, which serves more than 30 million customers, is being installed by Birtel the partner of Envivio in Ankara, Turkey.

  • On Demand Group Wins Greek VoD Contract for IPTV launch


    On Demand Group has won the VOD and subscription VOD contract from OTE for its upcoming IPTV service in Greece.

    ODG is Virgin Media TV’s content management partner for its VOD service in the UK, which is the largest VOD service outside of North America with over 50m views per month.

    Tony Kelly, CEO of ODG said the TVOD and SVOD offering would help kick-start the IPTV launch.

    "The range of movies, TV series, kids programming, documentaries and music videos will help to underpin the successful launch and regular and sustained viewing of VOD in Greece,” he said.

    OTE’s FilmExpress transaction VOD (TVOD) service includes blockbuster movies from major Hollywood studios including Disney-ABC-ESPN Television, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.

    Subscribers to the service can select a movie of their choice for a 24-hour rental period with full DVD-like features including control to pause, fast forward, rewind or watch over again.

    OTE’s FilmClub subscription VOD (SVOD) service includes a wide range of TV series from CBS, HBO, HIT, Lions Gate and Warner Bros, as well as documentaries from National Geographic.

    The SVOD service also includes library movies from HBO, Lions Gate, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros, and hundreds of international and local music videos from EMI, Universal Music and Sony Music.

    Subscribers will also receive more than 30 digital broadcast channels.

  • Broadcast International and Fixstars Develop Software-based H.264 Real-time Encoder


    A PC-based H.264 software encoder that offers advanced encoding solutions has been developed by Broadcast International and Fixstars Corporation.

    The CodecSys CE-100/200 has been designed to improve the productivity of IPTV content creation in areas like Blu-ray disk authoring, digitization of video archives and large scale surveillance camera networks.

    Rod Tiede, president and CEO of Broadcast International, said the availability of the CE-100/200 is significant because it fills a "huge void" in terms of solving the global bandwidth crisis.

    "We’ve seen over and over that the biggest technology problem the world will face in the coming years with regards to video content is video compression and making more bandwidth available to accommodate the popularity and demand for more online video," he said.

    CodecSys CE-100/200 is comprised of Broadcast International’s ultra-high speed video compression software running on IBM’s BladeCenter QS21 server, powered by the Cell/B.E. processor.

    It was originally developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba to provide the computing power for cutting-edge gaming applications.

    Tiede said the the Cell/B.E. processor on the QS21 helps CodecSys AVC set a new standard for H.264 encoders.

    He said it gave the broadcast industry the ability to handle a high volume of premium quality video and a large number of video channels.

    The CE-100/200 is available immediately.

  • HD Content Helps Freesat Double Sales


    Freesat doubled sales of its satellite packages in the last quarter of 2008.

    Emma Scott, MD of the UK’s free-to-air digital satellite television service, said high definition content from the BBC and ITV have helped drive sales.

    Since the service launched in May 2008, over 200,000 sales have been recorded, with 100,000 of those coming in the months since September.

    "Freesat is able to offer incredible HD with no subscription," said Scott.

    "We’re thrilled that both the BBC and ITV are investing more in HD programming in 2009.

    Scott said key goals in 2009 include increasing Freesat’s product range and distribution by the quality and choice of channels and services available, and the anticipated launch of IPTV services, like BBC iPlayer onto Freesat later this year.

  • Comstar Launches Stream-branded HDTV


    Russian telecomms operator Comstar-UTS has fully launched Stream-branded HDTV services in Moscow in the upgraded sections of the MGTS network.

    It has also introduced a package offering broadband internet access at speeds of up to 20Mbps.

    The Comstar-UTS HDTV package offers three channels – MelodyZen, Voom TV and Luxe TV – and costs R200 (USD $8) a month to receive.

    On top of this, it is also offering a new HD VOD service, with movies costing R100 (USD $4) each.

  • AT&T To Boost HD Line-up With MPEG-4


    AT&T is to continue growing its high-definition channel line-up in the US with the help of increasingly efficient MPEG-4 compression.

    The telco’s U-verse TV service currently delivers MPEG-4 video in the range of 6 to 8 Megabits per second.

    The use of improved video compression will allow that to be reduced to 5 Mbps, with the expectation that further improvements are likely.

    Earlier this month, AT&T launched Total Home DVR, initially in San Francisco, which lets U-verse TV deliver five simultaneous HD streams: two live and three from the DVR.

    John Donovan, AT&T’s CTO, said efficiency gains would allow it to support more simultaneous IPTV streams, upping the live HD streams to three and the recorded HD streams to four in 2009.

    MPEG-4 equipment is allowing IPTV service providers some help against their cable TV competitors, who mostly use MPEG-2 compression.

    Speaking at an investment conference, Donovan noted that video now exceeds 40 per cent of AT&T’s total IP backbone traffic whereas three years ago it was negligible.

    “If you download one HD video movie, it’s the equivalent of 35,000 rich-content web pages, or 2,000 songs,” he said. “So it’s very, very dramatic.”

    The growth in broadband data is driving the telco’s content-distribution network services, which replicate Internet content.
    AT&T will invest $70 million this year tripling CDN storage and server capacity, according to Donovan.

  • Full HD broadcasting claims mislead consumers

    The Blu-ray Disc Association has taken issue with announcements from satellite and cable providers that they offer “full HD” programming – but report says Blu-ray not threatened by full HD broadcasting

    Satellite and cable providers on both sides of the Atlantic have recently claimed they are offering full HD – or 1080p – programming.

    These assertions have annoyed the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) – not least because the publicity material has stated video quality matches that of Blu-ray.

    The BDA is objecting to these claims of equality, suggesting the comparisons are irresponsible and misleading.

    It argues that satellite companies cannot technically match the Blu-ray experience and it will do whatever it can to prevent consumers receiving incorrect information.

    However, a report from Strategy Analytics suggests that satellite providers are competing primarily with cable and IPTV companies, and not with the Blu-ray Disc format itself.

    It states that Blu-ray content providers and device vendors have little to fear. Instead, they should focus on developing emerging Blu-ray business models and improving the availability of Blu-ray content and devices.

    Despite this, a statement from the BDA said advertising by companies claiming their products deliver high definition picture and sound “equal” to that delivered by Blu-ray Disc are “irresponsible and are misleading to consumers”.

    “Up conversion and satellite broadcast cannot provide a true Blu-ray high definition experience, as neither is technically capable of producing the quality delivered by Blu-ray players and Blu-ray discs,” the statement said.

    The BDA said it was exploring these claims further and will take “appropriate action”, as necessary, to prevent consumers seeking the ultimate in high-definition home entertainment from being misled.

    David Mercer, principal analyst at Strategy Analytics, said 1080p, or Full HD, is the video quality benchmark set by the Blu-ray Disc format.

    “It was inevitable that television service providers would seek to emulate this standard, but their aim is primarily to increase the pressure on rival services, rather than compete with Blu-ray itself,” he said.

    DirecTV and Dish Network in the US, as well as cable operator Numericable in France, have recently introduced Full HD programming in the 1080p format.

    However, according to Strategy Analytics research, many consumers are confused by HDTV services. In the company’s most recent survey, 15 per cent of European consumers believe that they are receiving HDTV service, whereas in reality the figure is only 2 per cent.

    Mercer said that one of the main objectives of Blu-ray Disc developers was to set a benchmark in video quality that would provide sufficient encouragement for DVD owners to upgrade.

    It was also to provide a challenge that few, if any, alternative video distribution platforms could hope to match, at least in the foreseeable future.

    “Those assumptions are now being questioned by recent announcements from broadcasting service providers on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.

    “These claims have clearly struck a sensitive nerve within the Blu-ray community, which, given their strategy as outlined above, is perhaps not surprising.”

    Mercer said that instinctively he agreed with the BDA because he didn’t believe that DirecTV or Dish would actually be offering programming at the same level of quality of BD.

    But he added that the technical arguments to prove the claim that they are not “technically capable” of doing so could be very difficult to prove one way or the other.

    “In the end, these new Full HD initiatives are more of a statement of competitiveness against rival service providers than against BD itself,” he said.

    “As has often been the case in the past, the satellite providers in the US are battling against cable companies, and now IPTV providers, to set new benchmarks in quality and customer experience.

    “The 1080p story is just another phase in that competitive battle, but it is unlikely to seriously affect Blu-ray’s potential.”

    Is the BDA right to get stroppy? Will this end up in the courts? Please let us know your thoughts.