The Future of Television - will it be IP TV or Internet TV ?
Over the last decade, the growth of satellite service, the rise of digital cable, and the birth of
IPTV describes a system capable of receiving and displaying a video stream encoded as a series of Internet Protocol packets. If you've ever watched a video clip on your computer, you've used an IPTV system in its broadest sense. When most people discuss IPTV, though, they're talking about watching traditional channels on your television, where people demand a smooth, high-resolution, lag-free picture, and it's the telcos that are jumping headfirst into this market. Once known only as phone companies, the telcos now want to turn a "triple play" of voice, data, and video that will retire the side and put them securely in the batter's box.
IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is a system where a digital television service is delivered by using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection. A general definition of IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks.
For residential users, IPTV is often provided in conjunction with Video on Demand and may be bundled with Internet services such as Web access and VoIP. The commercial bundling of IPTV, VoIP and Internet access is referred to as "Triple Play" service (adding mobility is called "Quadruple Play"). IPTV is typically supplied by a service provider using a closed network infrastructure. This closed network approach is in competition with the delivery of TV content over the public Internet, called Internet Television. In businesses, IPTV may be used to deliver television content over corporate LANs.
Architecture of IPTV
Broadcast IPTV has two major architecture forms: free and fee based. As of June 2006, there are over 1,300 free IPTV channels available. This sector is growing rapidly and major television broadcasters worldwide are transmitting their broadcast signal over the Internet. These free IPTV channels require only an Internet connection and an Internet enabled device such as a personal computer,
In December 2005, independently produced mariposaHD became the first original IPTV broadcast available in an
Because IPTV uses standard networking protocols, it promises lower costs for operators and lower prices for users. Using set-top boxes with broadband Internet connections, video can be streamed to households more efficiently than current coaxial cable. ISPs are upgrading their networks to bring higher speeds and to allow multiple High Definition TV channels.
In 2006, AT&T launched its U-Verse IPTV service. Comprised of a national head end and regional video serving offices, AT&T offered over 300 channels in 11 cities with more to be added in 2007 and beyond. While using IP protocols, AT&T has built a private IP network exclusively for video transport.
Local IPTV, as used by businesses for Audio Visual AV distribution on their company networks is typically based on a mixture of: a) Conventional TV reception equipment and IPTV encodersmulticast b) IPTV Gateways that take broadcast MPEG channels and IP wrap them to create streams.
IPTV uses a two-way digital broadcast signal sent through a switched telephone or cable network by way of a broadband connection and a set-top box programmed with software (much like a cable or
Currently,
Protocols
IPTV covers both live TV (multicasting) as well as stored video (Video on Demand
In standards-based IPTV systems, the primary underlying protocols used for:
Live TV is using IGMP version 2 for connecting to a multicast stream (TV channel) and for changing from one multicast stream to another (TV channel change).
Currently, the only alternatives to IPTV are traditional TV distribution technologies such as terrestrial, satellite and cable. However, cable can be upgraded to two-way capability and can thus also carry IPTV.
NPVR (network-based Personal Video Recorder)
Network Personal Video Recording is a consumer service where real-time broadcast television is captured in the network on a server allowing the end user to access the recorded programs on the schedule of their choice, rather than being tied to the broadcast schedule. The NPVR system provides time-shifted viewing of broadcast programs, allowing subscribers to record and watch programs at their convenience, without the requirement of a truly personal PVR device. It could be compared as a "PVR that is built into the network" -- however that would be slightly misleading unless the word "Personal" is, of course, changed to "Public" for this context.
Subscribers can choose from the programmes available in the network-based library, when they want, without needing yet another device or remote control. However, many people would still prefer to have their own PVR device, as it would allow them to choose exactly what they want to record. This bypasses the strict copyright and licensing regulations, as well as other limitations, that often prevent the network itself from providing "on demand" access to certain programmes (see Heroes, below).
In the
Advantages
The IP-based platform offers significant advantages, including the ability to integrate television with other IP-based services like high speed Internet access and VoIP.
A switched IP network also allows for the delivery of significantly more content and functionality. In a typical TV or satellite network, using broadcast video technology, all the content constantly flows downstream to each customer, and the customer switches the content at the set-top box. The customer can select from as many choices as the telecomms, cable or satellite company can stuff into the “pipe” flowing into the home. A switched IP network works differently. Content remains in the network, and only the content the customer selects is sent into the customer’s home. That frees up bandwidth, and the customer’s choice is less restricted by the size of the “pipe” into the home. This also implies that the customer's privacy could be compromised to a greater extent than is possible with traditional TV or satellite networks. It may also provide a means to hack into, or at least disrupt (see Denial of Service) the private network.
Interactivity
An IP-based platform also allows significant opportunities to make the TV viewing experience more interactive and personalized. The supplier may, for example, include an interactive program guide that allows viewers to search for content by title or actor’s name, or a picture-in-picture functionality that allows them to “channel surf” without leaving the program they’re watching. Viewers may be able to look up a player’s stats while watching a sports game, or control the camera angle. They also may be able to access photos or music from their PC on their television, use a wireless phone to schedule a recording of their favorite show, or even adjust parental controls so their child can watch a documentary for a school report, while they’re away from home.
Note that this is all possible, to some degree, with existing digital terrestrial, satellite and cable networks in tandem with modern set top boxes.
VoD
VoD stands for Video on Demand. VoD permits a customer to browse an online programme or film catalogue, to watch trailers and to then select a selected recording for playback. The playout of the selected movie starts nearly instantaneously on the customer's TV or PC.
Technically, when the customer selects the movie, a point-to-point unicast connection is set up between the customer's decoder (SetTopBox or PC) and the delivering streaming server. The signalling for the trick play functionality (pause, slow-motion, wind/rewind etc.) is assured by RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol).
The most common codecs used for VoD are MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and VC-1.
In an attempt to avoid content piracy, the VoD content is usually encrypted. Whilst encryption of satellite and cable TV broadcasts is an old practice, with IPTV technology it can effectively be thought of as a form of Digital Rights Management. A film that is chosen, for example, may be playable for 24 hours following payment, after which time it becomes unavailable.
IPTV based Converged Services
Another advantage of an IP-based network is the opportunity for integration and convergence. Converged services implies interaction of existing services in a seamless manner to create new value added services. One good example is On-Screen Caller ID, getting Caller ID on your TV and the ability to handle it (send it to voice mail, etc). IP-based services will help to enable efforts to provide consumers anytime-anywhere access to content over their televisions, PCs and cell phones, and to integrate services and content to tie them together. Within businesses and institutions, IPTV eliminates the need to run a parallel infrastructure to deliver live and stored video services.
Limitations
Because IPTV requires real-time data transmission and uses the Internet Protocol, it is sensitive to packet loss and delays if the IPTV connection is not fast enough or picture break-up or loss if the streamed data is unreliable. This latter problem has proved particularly troublesome when attempting to stream IPTV across wireless links. Improvements in wireless technology are now starting to provide equipment to solve the problem.
IPTV vs. Internet Television: Key Differences
What is the difference between IPTV, the Internet Protocol-based TV paradigm heralded by major telecom providers and large media groups (Microsoft included) and the Internet Television painted by the Long TailOurmedia, the Internet Archive, Brightcove, and the availability of amazing new technology opportunities such as faster and faster net connections, free unlimited storage space, BitTorrent, MPEG4 and powerful low-cost hardware and software production tools? phenomenon,
Are they two opposite and diverging forces or are they the different aspects of the same media phenomenon portrayed in different ways?
If you ask these questions around today, few people will be able to answer in a clear and articulate way. Even those executives working for would-be IPTV ventures would give no credit whatsoever to the idea that an alternative way of leveraging Internet strengths for the commercial delivery of video content exists. Most of the time they see only theirs.
So, what are the key differences between these two radically different approaches to distributing video content via IP and which the related-issues that make them important to me and you?
The choice, for those who can see it, appears to be between a universe of highly diversified and dynamic independent production and one dominated by secure dedicated private delivery networks distributing more traditional types of video-based content largely provided by Hollywood and other established big media conglomerates.
IPTV is represented by a profile of closed, proprietary TV systems such as those present today on cable services but delivered via IP-based secure channels representing a sharp increase in control of content distribution.
Internet Television is instead an open evolving framework in which a very large number of small and medium-sized video producers contribute highly innovative niche content alongside with offerings from more traditional retail and distribution channels.
Nonetheless key differences, being able to appreciate the true nature of these two models remains a challenging task for the uninitiated reader unless she starts to look a little deeper into the differentiating details.
What is IPTV
IPTV is not TV that is broadcast over the Internet.
"IPTV is generally funded and supported by large telecom providers who have undertaken the mission of creating a competitive replacement product for digital cable and satellite services." (Jeremy Allaire)
"While the "IP" in its name stands for Internet Protocol, that doesn't mean people will log onto their favorite Web page to access television programming. The IP refers to a method of sending information over a secure, tightly managed network that results in a superior entertainment experience."
(Source: Businessweeek - "The real meaning of IPTV")
IPTV is particularly good for the established media content production business, including
(Source: Businessweeek - "The real meaning of IPTV").
The way IPTV television is being conceived integrates multiple ways to monitor and record user choices, preferences and selections over time therefore appearing as an ideal platform on which to add personalized e-commerce options and more targeted advertising.
- IP-TV is a carrier-led and controlled platform. There is a physical carrier that has physical pipes and infrastructure that it operates and controls. The consumer interacts directly with that operator/carrier.
- As such this is an end-to-end system or semi-closed network (infrastructure is all within the carrier environment, and cannot be normally accessed to the Internet as a whole. Further to this, the deployment infrastructure and devices to access it are all managed and operated by the IP-TV carrier).
- IPTV is definitely a massive connectivity infrastructure upgrade to be deployed over a number of years, and which underlines major changes and upgrades to connectivity, transport and delivery devices both on the operator environment as well as on the consumer side.
- IPTV approach is a fundamentally geographically-bound approach. This is mainly due to the fact that the deployment infrastructure is based in regions and in neighborhoods connected to consumer premises (users homes). User experience is also bound to their living rooms and set-top boxes. Local regulations and policies further influence and limit IP-TV to be a strongly geographically-bound model.
- IPTV will offer essentially the same product and programming offered by digital cable and satellite providers. Similar on-demand and pay per view products probably with some extra integration with voice, and different pricing.
IPTV Issues
Will it be easy for the telecom companies to acquire, license and distribute existing commercial video content?
Can the telcos with little or no experience with the licensing of video content, hope to become smart players of this emerging industry?
For now this remains an open question:
"It won't be easy. Already, the entertainment industry is entwined in a web of complicated and often exclusive licensing deals, and getting the right content will be a challenge for the telcos."
This is what Bob Greene, senior vice president of advanced services for Starz Entertainment Group LLC told his audience a few days ago, at the 13th annual Symposium, “Next Generation Media Networks".
"Movies are typically licensed on an exclusive basis for about eight or nine years, says, after which licensing is finally opened up to general broadcast rights." Greene also said that breaking into these exclusive relationships is the biggest barrier to those who want to start delivering video content over IP.
(Source: Lightreading IPTV vs. Me Too TV )
Reed Hasting, founder and CEO of Netflix, adds that "the industry had reached a crucial juncture", and where what we are left with it's a choice between an open and highly diversified grassroots Internet-based TV panorama vs. a highly-commercial, secure and controlled multiplicity of private networks modeled after traditional cable and satellite TV operations governed by major world telcos.
Unfortunately what telcos are doing, is dumping large amounts of money into creating IP-based versions of existing cable and satellite offerings, without any understanding of what the new emerging paradigm of Internet of Video, has really to offer.
A great model for marketing video and television-type content through secure and protected IP telecom networks could be modeled after what successfully done by NTT DoCoMo in Japan, where the telecom giant takes a cut of the overall sales and subscriptions revenues in exchange for providing new content providers with tools and services to market their content on their distribution network.
What is Internet Television
So, what is then the alternative open internet of video that Jeremy Allaire of Brightcove evangelizes about?
- Internet Television, is quite different in terms of the model for the consumer, the publisher and for the infrastructure used itself.
- In the Internet of Video, as Jeremy Allaire calls it, or Internet Television approach, the model is open to any rights holder, as it is based on the same publishing model that exists on the Web: anyone can create an endpoint and publish that on a global basis.
- Internet Television is open to any rights holder no matter whether this is an individual creating a video for a very small audience or a traditional publisher that offers linear cable channels.
- The Internet Television approach the publisher has a direct communication channel to the consumer.
The content publisher is able to directly reach the consumers on the multiple devices independent of any specific carrier or operator. Internet Television is in fact an approach that also attempts to be as device independent as possible. Thanks to open standards and formats which have helped create this opportunity, Internet Television wants to be just as the web is today. Accessible from any type of computer and connection around the world..... and not physically tied to the user living room or set-top box.
- Internet Television will be deeply integrated into the existing Internet user experience and into the mechanisms that users use to access services, discover resources and share experiences in the Internet world, in the near future will merge with the world of video and television services seamlessly.
- Internet Television is an outgrowth, not an overhaul. Internet Television is able to ride on existing lowest common denominator infrastructure including broadband, ADSL, wi-fi, cable, satellite doesn't require new infrastructure to work or provide value to users.
- Internet Television uses a global reach business model, where video and television services that are offered in one geography can be accessed from any other global geography (as long as content distribution rights are in place).
- Internet Television promises access to many new products and much broader range of programming that we have been accustomed to retail video world and dramatically more control, as to when and where and how users can access that video/tv programming."
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"An open platform gives content providers control over the brand and customer relationship," says Jeremy Allaire of BrightCove.
This, he feels, will create an explosion of niche content that people can access directly over open, IP-based systems. "Nearly every small niche can be economically supportable."
And also:
"Beyond looking at Internet Television as an ideal platform for marketing and distribution, it is interesting to think about how the Internet facilitates a distributed and collaborative environment for media production.
It won't surprise me to see new "media collectives" modeled after open source projects that form together to put forth a particular view point - be it for entertainment or informational programs.
Is this a missing piece to create a platform for citizen's media? "
But the question is: Which one would YOU want, and why?
Comments
Still Real Time Streaming is a far fetched technology for Video Packet Data.Unless we combine Sattelite downlink & cable uplink & it wud be cost effective & tech. efficient also.