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The evolution will be televised

For more information, visit: www.kitd.com | [email protected]

From the cinema screen and TV set, to tablets, phones and game consoles, the evolution in video has transformed the way the world watches. Social, flexible and multi-device – anytime and anywhere.

Stay ahead of the change with the KIT Platform. A scalable and fully-customizable cloud-based video asset management system that’s helping thousands of clients to produce, manage and deliver socially-enabled video experiences to audiences all over the world.

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12 Analyst cornerIHS Screen Digest’s Guy Bisson kicks off the first in a line of exclusive columns for CSI by looking at multi- channel strategies of Europe’s majors

14 TranscodingHow do companies decide between hardware, soft-ware, cloud and other options? Page 46 also tackles the transcode farm infrastructure decisions

18 Satellite interferenceCarrier ID is touted as a potential solution to this multi-million dollar problem but a range of other measures need to be in place too

24 COVER STORY - Android STBs2012 looks set to be the year that Google’s Android OS stakes its claim on the set-top box market, but are payTV operators ready?

32 MPEG-DASHWill the new standard usher in the era of file format interoperability and provide a template for ABRS?

36 OTT securityWith TV Everywhere gathering pace and premium content becoming available over-the-top, we assess how the security risks can be overcome.

40 Market commentaryAn expert speculates how the Italian media and adver-tising market might change this year

46 PlayoutChello DMC shares its thoughts on playout’s future

49 Events diaryLooking ahead to the key shows in 2012

EditorGoran Nastic

Commercial managerTiro Bestonso

Design and productionMatt Mills (Manager)Jason TuckerMatleena Lilja-PellingKeem Chung

Regular contributorsAdrian Pennington, Philip Hunter, David Adams, Stephen Cousins, Joe O’Halloran

CirculationJoel Whitefoot (Manager) AccountsMarilou Tait, Lynta Kamaray

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Managing DirectorJohn WoodsPublishing DirectorMark EvansISSN 1467-5935

Perspective Publishing3 London Wall BuildingsLondonEC2M 5PDwww.perspectivepublishing.com

Reports:Happy New Year to all our readers! 2012 started off with some promising developments in the UK market with the entry of Netflix, the popular US streaming service, which promises to shake up digital content in these shores and eventually on mainland Europe too. Over-the-top video has been discussed in industry circles for a while now but these types of offer-ings (not least online movies) will finally push them into the consumer mainstream and

every day understanding. Technology wise, the newly ratified MPEG-DASH standard could prove a game changer as far as such streaming and multi-screen are concerned, a topic we analyse on page 32. Home gateways are also not new concepts but they are among the other real world deployment trends to watch out for this year, with UPC’s Horizon and others, well, looming on the horizon. Goran Nastic, editor

Contents

CSI is audited by ABC

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news in brief

First DTH for Georgia

Georgian service provider

MagtiCom has launched the

country’s first domestic direct-to-

home satellite platform, MagtiSat,

via Astra, to be broadcast in

DVB-S2 and MPEG-4 encoding.

MagtiCom, which operates both

mobile and fixed telecoms

networks, will make the MagtiSat

payTV offer available beginning

January 23. It will offer 75 TV

channels that include the most

popular SD and HD channels. At

the initial stage, MagtiCom will

offer three packages: start, basic

and HD, which will be available

throughout the country from the

start. Cable reach is limited in

Georgia and it is expected that

satellite will accelerate the

country’s switchover to DTV.

A new technology and innovation

centre has been announced to help

UK businesses develop satellite-based

products and services and stimulate

growth across the economy. The

government’s Technology Strategy

Board will establish a so-called

Satellite Applications Catapult, which

will focus on applications of R&D in

the areas of communications,

broadcasting, positioning and

observation.

The new ‘Catapult’, the UK’s

fourth across a range of industries,

will provide in-orbit test facilities,

allowing UK organisations to

demonstrate new satellite

technologies. The TSB said it

removes significant cost barriers and

shortens the time UK businesses will

wait to achieve a first flight

demonstration for new equipment

and technologies in space.

This approach was recently

pioneered in the TechDemoSat

project, which was jointly funded by

the TSB and Surrey Satellite

Technology. The Catapult, expected

to open by the end of 2012, will also

provide UK businesses, including

SMEs, access to advanced systems

for data capture and analysis to

support the development of new

services delivered by satellites.

These include distance learning,

telemedicine, urban planning,

precision agriculture, traffic

management and meteorology.

It is hoped the Catapult will

help to achieve targets set out in

the UK Space Innovation and

Growth Strategy to grow UK

market share from 6% to 10% by

2030 and create 100,000 new high

value jobs. Satellite services are

expected to be an important

growth area for the UK economy in

the next decade and beyond.

Worldwide, the space sector is

expected to grow to £400 billion

by 2030.

A tender will be issued shortly

for a consortium to set up and run

the new Catapult centre.

New satellite centre to open in UK

News

http://www.atxnetworks.com

news in brief

Tablets help iPlayer to

record year

The BBC’s iPlayer catch-up

service has experienced a record

year of growth, driven by a range

of connected devices, with tablets

almost catching up to mobile

phones in terms of viewing

figures. Some seven million BBC

programmes were watched on the

iPlayer via connected TV sets in

December, an increase of 1,000%

year on year. Ten million views

came on tablets (up 596%) vs

13m of programmes watched via

mobiles (up 163%). PCs remain

the most popular platform,

accounting for two thirds of

programme requests throughout

2011. The total viewing figures

for December saw 187m monthly

requests for programmes across

all platforms, a 29% year-on-year

rise. Overall, 1.94bn TV and

radio programmes were requested

across all its platforms last year.

Suomi TV part of Fox

News Corp owned Fox

International Channels (FIC) has

acquired Finnish free-to-air

channel Suomi TV. The addition

extends FIC’s Nordic operations

which include National

Geographic Channel (HD), Nat

Geo Wild (HD), Baby TV and

Norwegian channel Fox Crime.

Following the deal, Suomi TV

will carry FIC content such as

Jurassic CSI and Mega Factories.

Ziggo to offer HBO

Dutch cableco Ziggo will offer

HBO premium channels to

customers from February. HBO,

HBO2 and HBO3 will be

broadcast in HD and SD 24/7

with no ads for a monthly

subscription of EUR14.95.

Customers can also access the

streaming and VoD services HBO

Go and HBO on Demand.

06 January-February 2012 www.csimagazine.com

News

CSI Awards 2012 open for entryWe are delighted to announce the

launch of the CSI Awards for 2012,

which are now in their tenth year.

Established in 2003 they have

gone on to become among the

most prestigious and competitive

technology awards in the industry,

designed to recognise and reward

innovation and excellence in the

cable, satellite, broadcast, IPTV,

telco, internet/online/OTT video

and mobile TV and associated

sectors.

The awards are open to any

company or organisation supplying

relevant products, software or

services and embrace the entire

ecosystem, from production and

playout through to transmission and

in-home distribution.

Last year we launched an

extremely well received TV

Everywhere category, reflecting the

amount of work and attention that’s

going into the multi-screen space.

This year, we feel that Social TV has

matured sufficiently as a concept to

warrant its own individual category.

The recent investment that BSkB,

one of Europe’s largest broadcasters.

has made in social TV start-up

Zeebox shows how important the

‘new’ social element and associated

ties with second screen or

companion applications have

become.

More details, including categories,

entering criteria, judging procedures,

and shortlist announcement can be

seen online at www.csimagazine.

com/awards

Euro 2012 networks almost in placePolish Telecom and Orange have

announced the successful completion

of the first phase of tests of the

technology infrastructure and

services to be provided during the

UEFA European Football

Championship.

Connecting the stadiums in

Poland and the International

Broadcasting Centre, the

companies said this marks a critical

and key stage of preparations for

the tournament being held in

Poland and the Ukraine.

The tests, which included disaster

recovery procedures and

communication channels, have

been conducted in a specially built

laboratory, created in TP Group’s

Data Centre in Warsaw in

September. Now that is has been

verified in the lab, the entire network

infrastructure will now be transferred

to the stadiums in Warsaw, Poznan,

Wroclaw, Gdansk and the

International Broadcasting Centre.

The next phase of technological

preparation will be finalising the

implementation of a solution based

on the new generation ROADM

transmission network, which will

provide two independent

transmission routes to each Polish

stadium, the broadcasting centre and

the border with Ukraine, providing

the secure backbone for all of the TV

broadcasts from all of the matches.

The technology partnership includes

delivery of over 6,000 internet and

corporate networks access points,

300 wireless access points, almost

1,000 Sharp TV sets and 130 LCD

monitors.

TP and Orange said they

guarantee 99.999% reliability of the

data transmission services during

match days.

Orange portal on TCL smart TVsFrench telco Orange has entered a

deal with Chinese TV manufacturer

TCL to launch its content and

services portal on all new TCL

smart TVs in Europe.

The portal will be first rolled out

in Q1 2012 on all TCL and

Thomson-branded smart TVs in

France, before being rolled out to

other European countries in 2012.

The portal can be accessed in one

click using the direct access key on

TCL TV remote controls and offers a

sampling of Orange’s content and

services on all of the manufacturer’s

smart TVs in France.

Available services include

Orange Sport Info, Liveradio, an

enhanced EPG, trailers of the

week’s movie releases, and free

content from Orange’s cinema

series channels. Other content

and services will be added in the

near future.

AWARDS201210th ANNIVERSARY

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cstb.qxd 25/10/2011 15:34 Page 1

http://www.cstb.ru

news in brief

M6 channel on Xbox

French broadcaster M6 has gone

live with an over-the-top (OTT)

service for the Microsoft Xbox

360 platform, which broadens its

reach to more than two million

potential customers. The new

branded channel, developed in

partnership with SyncTV as a

dedicated app on the console,

was launched at the end of

December. Premium content

offerings include VoD TV series

US-based The Good Wife, Hawaii

5-0, and NCIS, with more

innovative French programming

in the pipeline.

Akamai supports HTTP, UV

Akamai has standardised on

HTTP as the primary delivery

protocol, which includes HTTP

Live Streaming (HLS) and

Smooth HD Streaming for

delivery across its HD Network.

Akamai also made Adobe HTTP

Dynamic Streaming (HDS)

available across its platform. Also

new is the Akamai for UltraViolet

solution available to support

library-style entitlement models

through a simplified workflow, an

intelligent cloud-based delivery

platform, and broad security

measures. The solution also

streamlines access code

redemption, account management

and stream management with the

UltraViolet Coordinator.

Jazztel goes OTT

Nagra has enabled a new OTT

solution for Spanish ISP Jazztel,

based on the platform Nagra has

already implemented at Prisa TV

for their Canal+ Yomvi service

and internet brand. In a Spanish

market first, the new offer allows

Jazztel subscribers to access local

content including CANAL+ VoD

and HD as well as live TV

services available on Prisa TV.


News

Sky makes social TV play The UK’s leading payTV operator

BSkyB has acquired a 10% stake in

social TV start-up zeebox. Sky aims

to give its customers an “augmented

TV” experience through the zeebox

partnership and shows how

significant the concept of social TV

and second screen companion device

interactivity has become for major

broadcasters.

The deal secures exclusive rights

in the UK to integrate zeebox’s

technology into Sky’s range of

mobile apps. Zeebox will first

appear in the Sky+ app, which

already offers subscribers an

interactive programming guide to

schedule digital recordings.

The Financial Times reports that

as part of the deal, BSkyB’s

advertising-sales house, Sky Media,

will sell sponsorship and product

placement opportunities around

zeebox’s ‘Zeetags’, accompanying

text that highlights actors, characters

and topics being shown on screen.

Zeebox is expected to use the

investment to expand internationally,

being for the time being only

available in the UK.

Zeebox, a venture led by former

BBC iPlayer head Anthony Rose,

launched late last year with initial

available initially as an iPad TV EPG

app. It shows users information, apps

and further downloads about shows

they are watching, creates live

hyperlinks out of material discussed

in shows and lets users both follow

show-based social network chat and

see what their friends are watching.

Standard zeebox features include

related Twitter feeds and news,

instant chat with friends,and

information on tagged programme

content via Wikipedia

The company struck its first

broadcast deal with Channel 4 in

November which saw viewers of new

series Desperate Scousewives given a

bespoke social TV experience and

unique interactive content via the

app. The companies said they would

use it to explore how the zeebox app

experience can be optimised by the

introduction of specifically

commissioned content.

Netflix launches in UK and Ireland to shake up Euro streaming marketHaving been busy securing local

content deals in the last few months,

online video subscription service

Netflix today entered the competitive

UK and Irish markets.

The company will offer

unlimited access to a range of TV

shows and films priced at £5.99 in

the UK and EUR6.99 in Ireland

after an initial free, one-month

trial. Users will be able to stream

through a range of connected

devices, including smart TVs, game

consoles, Blu-ray players, tablets and

mobile phones.

At launch, Netflix is offering films

and TV programmes from

All3Media, the BBC, CBS, Channel

4’s 4oD, Disney UK & Ireland, ITV,

Lionsgate UK, MGM, Miramax,

Momentum Pictures, NBCUniversal,

Paramount, Sony Pictures

Entertainment, Twentieth Century

Fox and Viacom International Media

Networks. Shows such as 24, Top

Gear and The Inbetweeners are

covered by these deals.

Although Netflix recently

reported that it delivered more than

two billion hours of TV shows and

movies streamed in Q4 2011, it will

find the going tougher in the UK

where it comes up against a host of

online movie rivals including

Amazon’s LoveFilm, BlinkBox,

YouTube and the newly launched

hmvon-demand.

CEO Reed Hastings admitted that

the venture is expected to take more

than two years to achieve profitab-

ility in the UK, longer than in previo-

us launch markets such as Canada.

Back in its US home market,

Netflix is facing a class-action

lawsuit, claiming that company

executives concealed negative trends

that preceded the plummeting of its

stock. Claims further state that it

gave false and misleading statements

about its business practices and

studio contracts, which combined to

inflate the company’s stock price, but

which the went into free-fall last year

on the back of a number of

misjudgements. Hastings is among

the defendants.

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news in brief

65M DVB-T2 sets in 2015

Shipments of DVB-T2-enabled

TV sets are expected to grow

from 3.4 million in 2011 to 64.7

million in 2015, when shipments

will equal DVB-T sets, according

to an update from DisplaySearch.

Growth is driven by the decision

by the Russian and Indian

governments to move to T2,

which will kick-start a virtuous

cycle of rapid adoption and cost

reduction, said NPD. The new

digital transmission technology

will be introduced as much in

mature markets like the UK and

Sweden as it will in counties such

as Nigeria and Kenya. As a result,

a critical mass of countries have

now adopted or committed to the

T2 standard as analogue switch-

off reaches completion in many

parts of the world.

Entropic to buy Trident’s

STB business

Entropic has submitted a $55

million bid for the set-top box

system-on-a-chip (SoC) business

of Trident Microsystems after the

company filed for Chapter 11

bankruptcy. As part of the

intended acquisition, Entropic

would obtain Trident’s complete

STB product portfolio, comprised

of a suite of digital STB

components and system solutions

for worldwide satellite, terrestrial,

cable and IPTV networks,

including STB SoCs, DOCSIS

modems, interface devices and

media processors, as well as DTA

devices. Entropic said it intends

to invest in service and support

for the existing Trident STB

customer base, as well as advance

Trident’s STB product line to

provide customers with next

generation, integrated MoCA

based chip-set solutions. Entropic

would gain 385 employees and

some facilities globally.


News

UltraViolet signs 750,000 homesThe DECE consortium has said that

more than 750,000 households have

registered with the UltraViolet

scheme to create and start using

personal digital libraries, following

the launch of an initial 19 titles.

The update on the roll-out was

given at this week’s CES show,

where it was announced that the

number of registered users is

expected to grow exponentially in

the year ahead, as Hollywood

studios offering UltraViolet

films and TV shows, through

UltraViolet-enabled DVDs and

Blu-rays as well as electronic

sell through (EST), plan to expand

the scope and scale of UltraViolet.

Together, Sony Pictures Home

Entertainment, Universal Studios

Home Entertainment and Warner

Bros Home Entertainment Group

promised to release hundreds of

additional UltraViolet-enabled titles

in 2012, including new releases,

catalogue and TV titles.

For the UK market, where

UltraViolet first became available in

December, planned titles this year

include Crazy Stupid Love, Midnight

in Paris and Dolphin Tale. Further

announcements on relevant products

and services in the country are

expected soon.

DECE plans to begin UltraViolet

roll-out in Canada in the coming

months, with specific details on

timing to be announced, as well as a

number of other territories in 2012

and 2013.

The standard has been gathering a

greater level of support from a range

of companies, with the likes of

Samsung, Akamai, Neustar Media

and Rovi developing Blu-ray players

and related technologies for the

forthcoming UltraViolet Common

File Format that will make download

functionality consistent across all

retailers.

The initiative launched to a

lukewarm reception in the US, where

consumers complained that the

system was overly complex and

didn’t work well at launch. And

while it has garnered a great deal

of momentum within the industry

there are still those that question its

value, business model and potential

impact.

Swisscom to offer catch-up TVSwiss incumbent telco Swisscom is

enhancing its TV service over the

next few weeks with the launch of

catch-up TV and a new

application that enables

customers to change TV

channels with their iPads

as it witnesses strong

growth in video-on-demand viewing.

The new function will allow

Swisscom TV plus customers to

watch around 70 channels up to 24

hours after they have been

broadcast. It comes on the back of

market tests performed with several

hundred customers.

The test will be extended in stages

over the coming weeks, each time

encompassing several thousand more

customers, with the aim of

having all Swisscom TV plus

customers benefiting from this

new service at no extra cost

by mid-year.

The iPad app has been available

since July 2010 giving customers the

ability to watch Swisscom TV on the

move. The app has been downloaded

more than 150,000 times and has

now been extended to act as a

remote control for the home

television.

Swisscom has 600,000 households

subscribing to its IPTV service, with

films and live sporting events on

demand proving popular with 6.3

million VoD views in 2011. The

constantly growing use of TV on

demand confirms the trend towards

individualised TV consumption,

according to the company.

The telco also said it is adding six

new HD channels to its basic

offering (SF 1, SF 2, TSR 1, TSR2,

RSI LA 1 and RSI LA 2) on the

back of national broadcaster SRG

beginning their transmission in

late February.

China’s CCTV launches on FreeviewVision IPTV has launched the first

dedicated Chinese language

channels to use the company’s

internet broadcast playout services,

delivering entertainment via

FreeviewHD channel 111, the UK’s

free-to-air satellite platform.

Through this service, China

Central Television (CCTV), the

largest TV network in China, is able

to use the FreeviewHD electronic

programme guide (EPG) to deliver

new channels to the Chinese

speaking audience in the UK.

CCTV Channel 9 broadcasts a

mixture of programming including

film and drama; CCTV Channel 4

provides a range of documentaries;

while a third channel provides the

latest news coverage from China and

worldwide.


news in brief

Channel 4 exec joins

Facebook

Former Channel 4 commercial

controller Ed Couchman has

been hired as Facebook’s new

UK sales manager. He will

replace Facebook’s current UK

sales manager Jon Harvey, who

leaves next month. Couchman

played a part in the channel’s

4oD catch-up service and its new

interactive video-on-demand ad

suite last year.

Sky deploys 100G network

Alcatel-Lucent has upgraded

BSkyB’s DWDM optical

transmission network to 100G

speeds, a first for the UK, in

order to enhance video delivery

over the broadcaster’s network.

Because it can be deployed on its

existing optical infrastructure,

Sky is able to support 100G

capacity through a relatively

simple, quick and cost effective

in-service network upgrade,

according to the vendor.

Roku comes to UK

US streaming platform Roku is

launching in the UK with the

introduction of two models, the

Roku LT priced at £49.99 and

the Roku 2 XS at £99.99. Both

products deliver over 40 channels

of online entertainment content

including on-demand films and

programmes from Netflix, which

launched in these countries on

Monday, and games such as

Angry Birds, to almost any TV

without the need for a PC.

Colombia adopts DVB-T2

Following Colombia’s National

Television Commission (CNTV)

recommendation to migrate from

DVB-T to the new DVB-T2

standard, the Colombian

government officially adopted T2

at the end of December 2011.

News

Iridium and KVH team on maritime satellite broadbandIridium Communications and KVH

Industries have entered into an

agreement to offer what they claim is

the first fully global broadband

satellite communications service for

the maritime market.

Under the deal, KVH will provide

an integrated service package that

combines its mini-VSAT Broadband

service and the Iridium OpenPort

broadband service. The combined

offering will deliver the maritime

industry the first seamless and global

broadband connectivity, the

companies said in a statement.

The integrated shipboard system

will use common below-deck user

interface equipment for voice and

data connections. If mini-VSAT

Broadband service is ever

unavailable, the system switches

over to the Iridium OpenPort

service automatically.

“We are enthusiastic that KVH

is our first distribution partner to

launch Iridium’s new VSAT

companion service offering,” said

Greg Ewert, executive vice

president, global distribution

channels, Iridium.

KVH has the largest Ku-band

VSAT coverage offering, now

bolstered to the remotest regions.

IEEE looks to mobile video standardsIn anticipation of future mobile video

growth, IEEE has undertaken a

standards initiative with development

projects focusing on 3D as well as

more efficient downloading and

streaming of content to mobile

devices.

The three projects include IEEE

P1907.1 “Standard for Network-

Adaptive Quality of Experience

(QoE) Management Scheme for

Real-Time Mobile Video

Communications,” IEEE P2200

“Standard Protocol for Stream

Management in Media Client

Devices” and IEEE P3333 “Standard

for the Quality Assessment of Three

Dimensional (3D) Displays, 3D

Contents and 3D Devices based on

Human Factors.”

P1907.1 is is intended to

dramatically enhance the user

experience for real-time mobile video

which currently lags behind other

broadcast mediums.

P2200 is being launched to enable

more efficient downloading and

streaming of high-quality content

through the standardisation of

time-shifted caching to mobile

devices. The standard is aimed at

improving user experience and

relieving congestion on wireless

networks.

P3333 is designed to establish

methods of quality assessment of

3D displays, contents and devices

based on human factors such as

photosensitive seizures, motion

sickness and visual fatigue.

Video accounts for more than

half of all global mobile data

traffic, growing 66% of all global

mobile data traffic by 2015

according to Cisco data.

Women are heavy digital usersParks Associates has released

somewhat surprising results based

on its consumer survey which show

that women’s digital media habits

outpaced that of their male

counterparts in 2011.

The research firm reports that

women share more content online

and download more movies

and music than men. For

example, women are 73% more likely

than men to have watched a full-

length TV show online in the past

30 days.

It also found women have higher

purchase intentions than men for

almost all of the popular CE devices,

with one-fifth of women surveyed

planning to purchase a laptop or

a smartphone.

Once women own a CE product,

their usage evolves from practical

and social applications to include

all categories of usage to become

heavy users, making this segment

critical to reach for CE makers and

service providers..

Women are 40% more likely

than men to play games on

Facebook, and and nearly equal

percentages of men and women

own and play on Microsoft’s Xbox

360 and Sony’s PS3.

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2012 11


You want to succeed in the

international channel

market… so what makes

more sense: roll-out as

many different channel

brands as possible, or put

all of your energy into a

select few? The major international channel

groups have taken a variety of approaches to their

channel roll-out strategies across Europe. In some

cases this is a function of history, in others a

stated policy of brand focus, yet an examination

of both standard and HD roll-out provides a

telling insight into the wider international goals of

channel-owners as well as their historical

involvement in the region.

In terms of their brand portfolios, the major

international channel groups divide roughly into

three segments:

• groupsthatsimplyhavelimitedchannel

activityinEurope;

• groupsthathavefocusedon

concentratingtheirbrandactivityarounda

core;and

• groupsthatrelyonbrandexpansionto

growdistribution.

History and strategy

Back in the days of analogue, the pioneers of

multi-channel television in Europe often made do

with a single pan-regional feed. As markets

matured, localisation became increasingly

important, especially as localised advertising

sales began to take off. Strategies developed

quickly beyond simply adding local language

tracks towards country-specific programming

and continuity.

The next logical step, boosted further by the

voracious demand for channels in the early days

of digital, was to launch brands specifically

targeting certain countries or demographics. It

would be fair to say that most of the major

operators active in Europe during the ‘90s

pursued this strategy to some degree. Groups like

Viacom continue to support a large number of

channel brands in Europe. The pay-off, for

Viacom at least, is wider household reach than

many of its peers.

Strengthening the parent brand

For other groups, however, a focus on consistent

branding and property consolidation has been

a priority for several of the majors. While this

trend has in part been driven by the integration

of acquisitions, there has been

a more fundamental trend

to streamline portfolios to

increase the brand awareness

and strengthen the portfolio

as a whole. Disney and NBC

are prime examples of this trend, Disney having

integrated the Jetix brand and NBC the Hallmark

portfolio.

Coming full circle

Despite the attention given to strengthening core

brands, recent developments have led to renewed

expansion of channel portfolios in Europe as

groups increasingly target new demographics

beyond their traditional core and explore entirely

new genres. Such a strategy can be seen as a

reflection of the increasingly competitive

advertising market as well as the increasingly

crowded subscription channel market, where the

unique gains increasing power.

HDTV: beginnings of diversification

The less favourable economics of HD channels

means that the groups most active in diversified

HD portfolios are those that also have a ready-

made platform on which to exploit the

channels: Sky, Viasat and Chello being among

the HD majors.

The HDTV channel market is still very much

in its infancy from a brand perspective. Most of

the active HD channels in Europe fall within a

limited range of genres: film, sport, documentary

and entertainment. But as the market for HD

grows, and the demand from pay TV operators for

new HD channels becomes increasingly strong,

we are beginning to see diversification.

Channel brand strategiesDespitetheattentiongiventostrengtheningcorebrands,recentdevelopmentshaveledtorenewedexpansionofchannelportfoliosinEurope

12January-February2012 www.csimagazine.com

Analyst corner

Guy Bisson isresearchdirector,television,atIHSScreenDigest.Here,hegivesCSIreadersexclusiveinsightfromthecompany’s

newchannelstrategiesservice

0

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Total EMEA active channel brands

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Total EMEA active channel brands

EMEA: HD channel brands

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18


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The multi-screen boom is

driving demand for delivery

of content in different

formats and in turn the

ability to transcode between

them. At the same time,

quality expectations on

multi-screen devices including smartphones,

tablets and PCs are rising all the time and

stimulating creation of ever more formats to

support specific combinations of compression

standard, frame rate, aspect ratio, and audio

quality. But operators are also constrained by

costs, and so are seeking to deploy transcoding as

efficiently as possible, which means carefully

evaluating the various options.

The first step before delving into technologies

or architectures is to consider the overall content

strategy and the target audiences for the services,

according to Tomas Petru, president of Visual

Unity, a Czech based multi-screen systems

integrator. “Rather than technical parameters, I

feel that the ‘specific’ factor is identifying the

workflow that will serve the content strategy,”

says Petru.

This content strategy will require not just

transcoding, but also the other ingredients of a

multi-screen ecosystem, including the headend,

packager that creates the unicast streams, content

management system, CDN (content distribution

network), as well as all the content management

and back office support.”

As Yuval Fisher, CTO at video infrastructure

vendor RGB Networks points out, no single

company provides all the components of this

multi-screen infrastructure, despite the marketing

hype. “No one company really offers all of these

components, but RGB is involved in an ecosystem

of partners that can offer a complete solution,”

says Fisher.

Transcoding though is a particularly important

part of this ecosystem to get right, since it

determines the quality of the service delivered to

multiple devices, and is also capable of wasting

money. So having identified the content strategy,

the next logical step is to work out how

transcoding will fit with the existing ecosystem,

and this involves considering the target devices,

the content profile, and the breakdown

between live and file-based content for

on-demand viewing.

Multi-screen delivery imposes new demands

on the delivery infrastructure for both these

categories, as is pointed out by Benoit Fouchard,

chief strategy officer at French video encoding

and transcoding specialist ATEME. “In the live

transcoding domain, there is a significant

difference between single screen, transcoding a

channel to create a single output stream, typically

for viewing on a TV, and multi-screen, or

transcoding each channel to multiple formats

suitable for adaptive delivery

on multiple streams,” notes

Fouchard. “In the file

transcoding segment, the same

distinction is relevant, and we

would call it TV VoD versus multi-screen VoD.”

But, as Fouchard adds, a category of

transcoding deployment has emerged with the

so-called mezzanine format, where a service

provider converts a “studio master” into a single

intermediate format. This avoids the cost of

transcoding within the operator’s infrastructure,

passing the buck to the end devices, which have

to convert the mezzanine stream into a suitable

format for their display.

Indeed the mezzanine format was conceived to

provide TV service providers with a convenient

content structure that would serve all their target

screens from the largest HD display to the smal-

lest handset. But as always with the one-size-fits-

all approach there are downsides. In order to

guarantee good quality for all target screens, the

mezzanine format frame size has to be equal to

that of the largest target device, say 1280 x 720

for 720p HD. That is all right, but the bit rate has

a minimum of five times and perhaps ten times

that of the highest bit rate target device, in order

to avoid any artefacts.

“The mezzanine format may over-deliver, at an

excessive bit transit per recipient for many devi-

ces’ actual needs,” says Mike Nann, director of

marketing at media workflow technology vendor

Digital Rapids.

Transcoding in the target device is one of the

deployment options for the industry, and so the

fact it may consume up to ten times more

bandwidth than necessary is a distinct handicap,

especially for mobile TV. Another issue for

operators is the lack of control over quality. “The

quality, performance and reliability are entirely

dependent on the device, and out of the

operator’s control,” notes Nann.

The other two deployment options for

transcoding are an external cloud infrastructure,

and in-house, although in practice some operators

will combine the two in a hybrid approach. In

Whose transcode is it anyway?Cloud and software are set to win out in the great trans-coding debate, but not just yet, says Philip Hunter


Transcoding

If you are in Eastern Europe or the Middle East, you can forget any cloud service as it will not be effective for the daily volume level that I expect a broadcaster will have.”


some cases transcoding may be done in one place,

and other aspects of the ecosystem such as

metadata management in another.

Cloud, in-house, hardware or software?

Contrary to popular belief, the cloud movement

is not having things all its own way. The

advantages of transcoding in the cloud are well

publicised, including minimising capital

expenditure as well as ongoing maintenance costs,

while offloading the burden of supporting

multiple formats. It also brings flexible or elastic

scalability, making it easier and again less

expensive to expand operat-ions on demand,

although the costs involved will depend on the

contractual arrangement, which is an important

consideration itself.

But the potential downsides are equally

convincing, including security concerns, and,

rather like with transcoding in the device, loss of

control over reliability and performance. It is true

that cloud infrastructure vendors argue these

concerns are perceived rather than actual, and

that both performance and reliability can be

guaranteed in service level agreements. These

vendors can do less though over another issue,

which is the bandwidth required to upload

content to the cloud, which as Nann argues is

particularly significant for mezzanine files, and

generally for long-form content.

Another factor to consider is whether suitable

cloud services are available in the area of

operation. “The technology choices are very

dependent on where the broadcaster is

geographically,” says Visual Unity’s Petru. “If you

are in Eastern Europe or the Middle East, you

can forget any cloud service as it will not be

effective for the daily volume level that I expect a

broadcaster will have.”

At present it boils down to the cloud model not

yet being mature enough for larger operations,

even where services are available, according to

Boris Felts, marketing VP at encoding and

transcoding vendor Envivio. “It makes sense for

enterprise scale applications but for a large

operator it’s premature because you have to pay

for that upload bandwidth, so it breaks down if

you have a large number of files.”

By that reckoning, bandwidth costs will have to

fall significantly further to make the cloud truly

competitive. Meanwhile in-house approaches are

prevailing, transcoding being brought closer to the

centre of operations in some cases as part of a

general trend for broadcasting applications to be

incorporated within the data centres alongside

other corporate services such as payroll

and accounting.

“In Europe we sold to two major operators

software and applications running in their own

Transcoding

When watching television programmes or films, how is your viewing time split on the following devices?

Base Size: UK (506)

Do you own any of the following devices?

(Tick all that apply)Base Size: UK (506)

97%

Low Latency

Figure 1 - CPU optimisations

High Quality

Low Energy High throughput

C

D D

A2 A1

In home TV

Laptop

In home computer

Smartphone

Games Consoles

Blu Ray player

Tablet (e.g. Ipad)

Other

TV viewing by device

Device ownership

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

60.7

26.9

12.4

10.6

6.7

5.9

4.6

2.3

0

20

40

60

80

100

Smartphone

Tablet

Regular mobile phone (voice and text only)

Laptop

Source: QuickPlay Media survey

www.csimagazine.com January-February 2011 15


data centres,” says Felts. “So instead of the model

where we ship appliances, these are partners with

standard blade servers. Rather than having a

video headend with equipment in the network,

this is moving into the data centre and run partly

by IT and partly by the video group.”

The decision over whether to deploy trans-

coding within the data centre in this way may

depend on whether most of the content is live or

file based, with the latter fitting particularly well

into conventional IT. For live transcoding,

performance of standard blade servers may be

inadequate, and this relates to another debate in

the field, between performing the task in software

on general purpose CPUs (central processing

units), or on dedicated hardware.

“A small number of operators have bought into

the idea that software brings value by adding

flexibility, so that they can configure more or

fewer services as needs change,” says RGB’s

Fisher. “But there is no doubt that today

hardware-based encoding services are

considerably denser and use much less power

than software solutions. Moreover, encoding

needs don’t vary that much, so that a flexible

cloud doesn’t bring that much value. Therefore,

the bulk of service providers are going with

hardware-based solutions at least for

computationally intensive tasks such as

real-time transcoding.”

But this could well change, Fisher agrees,

as hardware acceleration techniques migrate

into standard CPU architectures. Ever since

Intel produced the first PC chips a generation

ago, this trend has been evident, with previously

specialised functions being incorporated in

generic silicon, and this is happening in the

broadcast sector. For this reason, Felts at Envivio

believes that many operators will switch to

software approaches once the current generation

of dedicated transcoding ASICs become

redundant in around three years time.

“CPUs are doubling in density every year, so

the software approach will catch up in density in

two or three years,” argues Felts. “Some operators

have realised already that,

even for dense applica-

tions, they would rather

invest in appliances that

will run in the data centre

and evolve, rather than

spending the money on

dedicated hardware and

having to replace it three years from now.”

Here too a hybrid approach is possible,

with some multi-stream services using software

transcoding so that they can be adapted readily

to support new formats and resolutions, while

dedicated and well established transcoding

operations, in particular MPEG-2 to MPEG-4

conversion within cable networks, are run in

ASICs. That approach makes sense because

MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 conversion is not going to

change and so might as well be done as efficiently

as possible.

MPEG-DASH as a transcoding broker

Whether done in software or hardware,

supporting multiple formats and integrating them

within the adaptive streaming infrastructures that

are becoming standard for multi-screen delivery

does bring additional complexity.

“Many of the non-H.264 encoding solutions

offered today are derivatives of H.264 and differ

only slightly, but these differences can impede

overall market growth since they can prevent

interoperability across the whole system, hence

the need for transcoding,” says Will Bakewell,

president of Visionary Solutions, who is also an

advocate of HTTP Live Streaming.

For this reason MPEG has been developing a

new standard called MPEG-DASH, designed to

unify adaptive streaming over the HTTP protocol

via a common universal format. It can be regarded

as a transcoding broker, shielding operators from

the complexity of having to produce content in a

suitable format for every potential target device.

“The introduction of MPEG-DASH as a single

format is rapidly gaining traction in the market for

its ability to scale and standardise, which in turn

may make this type of content easier to

implement,” says Derek Bell, senior director for

product management at QuickPlay Media. MPEG-

DASH was ratified in December 2011 and is

being promoted as an international standard by

ISO (International Standards Organisation).

Whatever relief MPEG-DASH does bring

in reducing the complexity of transcoding, it

will do little to relieve the burden of workflow

and management, where operators will be seeking

as much automation as possible to contain costs

and make full blown TV Everywhere services

viable. On this front Digital Rapids has been

active, with version 2.0 of its Transcode Manager

software launched at IBC 2011 supporting

integration of workflow logic directly into the

transcoding pipeline.

This enables the delivery system to make

decisions over which transcodes to execute, on

the basis of content attributes and information

contained in metadata. “It enables workflows to

self-correct in mid-task based upon the success of

earlier efforts,” claims Nann. “This enables more

intelligent workflows, and a more efficient

processing path from ingest to delivery, and

reduced errors.”

When it comes to the fast growing transcoding

problem, at least vendors are on the case. But as

yet there is no single solution, and operators will

have to shop around for several products to meet

their requirements, although some are clubbing

together to create transcoding ecosystems.

In the hardware vs cloud debate, Bakewell

concedes that “The solution sets delivered will

probably shift back and forth across this

continuum for years.”

Transcoding


“The mezzanine for-mat may over-deliver”

When watching television programmes or films, how is your viewing time split on the following devices?

Base Size: UK (506)

Do you own any of the following devices?

(Tick all that apply)Base Size: UK (506)

97%

Low Latency

Figure 1 - CPU optimisations

High Quality


C

D D

A2 A1

In home TV

Laptop

In home computer

Smartphone

Games Consoles

Blu Ray player

Tablet (e.g. Ipad)

Other

TV viewing by device

Device ownership

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

60.7

26.9

12.4

10.6

6.7

5.9

4.6

2.3

0

20

40

60

80

100

Smartphone

Tablet

Regular mobile phone (voice and text only)

Laptop

Source: QuickPlay Media survey


50-51_directory.indd 1 20/01/2012 16:46:44

http://www.digitalrapids.com

No-one knows how much

money interference is

costing the global satellite

industry, because that’s

not the sort of

information that any

satellite service operator

would happily divulge. But we can make an

educated guess. Martin Coleman, executive

director at the satellite Interference Reduction

Group (sIRG) estimates the figure at “hundreds

of millions of pounds worldwide”.

Interference is an expensive irritant for

broadcasters (and potentially infuriating for

consumers and other end users) too. “We use a

very high number of transponders worldwide,”

says Paul Cohen, vice-president of satellite

engineering at Fox. “Our goal is always to

produce the best quality signal. Any kind of

interference causes us to have to reroute signals,

or could interrupt our revenue stream. So we’re

extremely interested in any kind of advance.

Carrier ID has certainly been a topic

we’ve discussed.”

A lot of people have been discussing Carrier

ID (CID) lately. It makes it possible for satellite

service providers to identify the source of

interference quickly, at modulator level rather

than in the transmission stream, where it can be

blotted out by, yes, interference.

2011 was the year for CID. In October, DVB

accepted it as a work item. That followed the

announcement in September by the sIRG and the

Global VSAT Forum (GVF), of an initiative

aimed at introducing video CID across the

industry in time for the 2012 Olympics.

The technology included in the proposed DVB

specification holds CID information within a

separate carrier, making it visible to operators

without them needing to interrupt the main feed,

so saving time in identifying and mitigating the

interference. Comtech has developed a technology

called MetaCarrier, which embeds and detects the

CID on video and data satellite carriers. It uses

spread spectrum technologies that do not add

noticeable noise to the carriers or relays.

Carrier ID is not the only initiative for

interference reduction underway. Other industry

groups are working on various branches of the

problem. They include the GVF, the Radio

Frequency Interference End Users Initiative (RFI-

EUI) and the World Broadcasting Unions

International Satellite Operations Group (WBU-

ISOG). They support CID, but are also

considering other technical measures and

promotion of best practice and better training.

However, even with a large amount of

goodwill behind it, a cross-industry initiative

moves slowly. The sIRG’s Coleman clearly

sometimes feels frustrated. “Everybody wants

to do this, but getting them to actually do it is

unbelievable,” he says. “It’s taken three years to

get to the industry saying ‘we

must do something’.”

He says he is grateful to

manufacturers including

Comtech, Newtec and Verizon

for helping present CID to the DVB. “So there’s

two major milestones: a satellite operator saying

yes and manufacturers saying they want to build it

into the standard.” Test carriers are now being

put into place in Europe and the US, to test

the NIT (network information table) and

Comtech’s solution.

“The aim is that all video transmissions will

have the NIT on them for the 2012 Olympics,”

says Coleman. “Long term we want proper

standardised technology in and everybody using

it. The aim for that is around 2015, but it’s

going to take a while. That’s why we’re trying to

tackle things practically and trying to minimise

the cost.”

Identifying the sourceDavid Adams asks if Carrier ID is a solution to the thorny problem of satellite interference


Satellite interference

“Everybody wants to do this, but getting them to actually do it is unbelievable. It’s taken three years to get to the industry saying ‘we must do something”

These jamming signal (spikes) is deliberately “stepping” through a desired one. Time changing signals are harder to locate and more effective for denial of service

Sweeping Jamming Signal (Source: sIRG)


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Intelsat is among the industry players

supporting the initiative. “It’s a good idea,” says

Ron Busch, vice-president, network operations, at

Intelsat. “We recognise it’s not perfect, but we

want to start. The Comtech MetaCarrier

technology seems robust. I guess we run into the

issue of how are the other manufacturers going to

play with that, but we think it’s great Comtech

came up with something. Its chances of

succeeding are high, from discussions we’ve had.

This is definitely the way the industry wants to

go. The user community, (satellite) operators

and manufacturers will be behind it once there’s

a standard.”

Thomas Van Den Driessche, director of

vertical markets at Newtec, says it is essential the

best solutions and approaches are adopted if CID

is to fulfil its potential. “In September 2011

different manufacturers acknowledged that there’s

a need for a more robust and standardised

solution,” he says. “At IBC I sat down with

Ericsson, Comtech and others. Now Newtec will

start the development of a more robust Carrier

ID solution. We’re hoping that that process is

going to lead us into a very strict technical

description in a couple of months, after which

we can start implementing.”

Newtec also offers other interference counter

measures, including a self-install technology for

VSAT, technology that helps hold a signal during

interference and its MENOS networking solution,

within which terminals are automatically

configured.

Den Driessche was quick to add that the

company will implement whatever comes out the

DVB-standardisation committee in this area.

Proactive and reactive measures

David Hartshorn, secretary general of the GVF, is

enthusiastic about Carrier ID, but says it’s

important not to let it overshadow other technical

and non-technical initiatives that could help

mitigate or reduce the incidence of interference.

“There are two categories of initiative

underway,” he notes. “Some are reactive measures

like Carrier ID. Then you have the proactive,

preventative initiatives which seek to prevent

under-trained personnel from getting their hands

on the transmitting equipment in the first place,

or to prevent the production of systems with

deficient designs, which if deployed would create

interference. There is huge interest in the training

piece and the product quality assurance piece, as

well as in Carrier ID.”

Meanwhile the sIRG announced a working

group for Satellite ID in December. It will aim to

find cost-effective ways to introduce Satellite ID

and will work towards a standard suitable for auto-

deploy systems.

“The up and coming problem is dealing with

audio comms equipment on the move,” says

Coleman. “Our satellites are not easily enough

identified. The big problem is guaranteeing you’re

on the right one. So we have a group hammering

out what might work. Then we’ve got to bring

manufacturers in to make it happen.”

Among the proactive measures that can be

taken to reduce the incidence of satellite

interference, the most important may be

training. But while the GVF and its members

collectively train thousands of VSAT installers

and SNG (satellite news gathering) equipment

operators, along with operators of satellite

equipment used for other consumer, commercial

or government/military purposes, this still leaves

tens of thousands more who are untrained or

poorly trained.

“There are a lot of users out there who don’t

come from a satellite background,” points out

Intelsat’s Busch. “We need to have these people

trained, to understand they can’t just put an

antenna out there. They need to understand the

environment they’re working in, the equipment

and modulation techniques. Our metrics show

that the vast majority of interference issues are

caused by human error.” He would like to see

more certification schemes.

“We’re looking at best practices as another way

to ensure people do what they should,” he

continues. “Even things as simple as calling into

the operations centre if you’re going to

communicate with the satellite. Or calling the ops

centre immediately if you have an issue, rather

than troubleshooting while we’re running around

here trying to work out what’s happening.”

Data gathering could be seen as both a reactive

and proactive counter measure. Satellite service

operators and industry associations gather data

related to interference, with the Space Data

Association (SDA) now managing and sharing

this data to help refine interference

countermeasures. A new SDA tool will help

operators to locate transmitters responsible for

interference.

Finally, GVF’s Hartshorn raises the issue of

satellites being forced to share frequency with

wireless technologies. This has caused many

interference problems on C-band where wireless

service providers have installed equipment



A majority of RFI incidents are attributed to faulty installation practices, uplink errors and poor equipment maintenance regimes. These training and certification courses educate technicians on proper equipment installation and operational parameters.


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6398-CSI.indd 1 1/13/2012 12:15:18 PM

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Low Latency

High Quality


C

B

K1A1

Figure 3 - Cloud-based file transcoding

K2

Interference Types 6 Month Average (JUL-DEC 2010)

47% Unauthorized Carrier

33% Cross-Pol/Copol

8% Adjacent Satellite Interfernence

7% Sweeper

3% Retransmit/FM Rebroadcast

2% Transponder Compression

Source Intelsat

47%33%

7%

3%2%

8%

without considering the proximity of satellite

earth-stations. “There are reports of interference

throughout the entire C-band range,” he says.

“Worldwide, the wireless sector is exploring

potential for sharing most satellite bands. Ka-band

and Ku-band are in the cross hairs. It’s essential

that we protect access to those bands for

broadcasters.”

Grounds for optimism

That aside, there do seem to be grounds for

optimism. “Overall, over the past couple of years

there have been so many things going on that it’s

difficult to show data that says things have

improved, but maybe we are making a change in

that things aren’t getting any worse even though

there have been a lot of satellites launched and

that usually creates interference,” says Busch. “In

my gut I feel we’ve improved, but I don’t have

metrics to prove it.”

Hartshorn is also positive, although again he

stresses the need for an emphasis on preventative

measures. “If you are only implementing reactive

measures we will need to keep reacting,” he

argues. “The long term-solution is to prevent.”

And sIRG’s Coleman says he’ll keep

trying to push CID forward. “If manufacturers are

putting money on the table to solve this that’s

good,” he says. “We can’t force it. Eventually it

will become a standard and everybody will just do

it, but if you insist on it we’ll just hit a brick wall.

We have to hammer the table a little bit then

back off again.

“All the technology is there, it’s all doable and

operators are losing a lot of money in the

meantime. We think it’s hundreds of millions

across the planet and we’re suggesting doing

something that won’t cost an awful lot but will go

a long way to dealing with it.”

Geo Stationary satellite subjected to Interference

Legi

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ate

Sig

nal Jam

ming S

ignal

Satellite coverage on earth surface

http://www.dvbworld.org

If five years ago, someone told you that

their mobile phone was operated by

Android you would have given them a

funny look and wondered what planet

they were on, but today the word Android

is widely recognised as Google’s hugely

successful operating system for mobile

phones and tablets, which is now installed in over

200 million devices worldwide.

This year

Android looks set to

turn heads again as

payTV service providers and

CE makers gear up to introduce a new generation

of set top boxes powered by the open standard

platform. But what format the OS will ultimately

take for pay TV and how the STBs will be

configured is still open to interpretation - Google

has not yet announced a definitive open standard

payTV version of Android OS and it’s not clear

whether its own beleaguered Google TV product,

which runs on a modified version of Android 2.1,

will be ported into an open source version.

Android STB developments so far have focused

on adapted versions of the mobile OS. LG

recently released a hybrid Android box with IP

and broadcast capability, which has been

deployed by South Korean cable operator

GBN in what appears to be

the first ever pay TV

implementation of Android.

EchoStar Europe’s HDX-200

IP STB was demoed at IBC

2011 and is based on Android

Gingerbread version 2.3.4.

Meanwhile, Russian company

NetUP has developed an

Android-based IPTV system,

NetUP.tv, which it claims runs

on much faster hardware than

traditional STBs.

Service providers could

gain a lot from adopting an Android strategy in

the STB. As a recognised brand, Android has a

huge number of dedicated users, provides an

efficient applications framework, and compatible

STBs would gain access to the large library of

applications available in the Android Market.

Google search engine support could open up new

possibilities for advanced programme search and

recommendation. And from a developers’

perspective, Android provides advanced

development tools and documentation, and

comprehensive support for the latest technologies

such as video and audio codecs, HTML5

and HLS.

On the downside, adopting a new version of

Android could mean significant capital

investment in hardware – the latest mobile

versions of the OS require dual core processors to

run – plus ongoing investment in security and

system updates to ensure compatibility. Others

will question whether the open source platform is

robust enough from a security perspective in light

of the reported hacks of Android on mobiles.

Control of content is also an issue: operators have

traditionally used solutions that preserve their

‘walled garden’ and allow them to keep a lid on

how content is sold and delivered to consumers.

Ceding any of that control away to Google could

be seen as a threat.

Despite these drawbacks, the industry appears

receptive to the benefits of Android. UAE telco

Etisalat recently announced that it would embrace

the Android platform, although it admitted the

OS posed a headache due to the fast moving

nature of iterations and updates. “You don’t want

it becoming your core OS,” a company exec said.

Space invader


Android STBs

2012 looks set to be the year that Google’s Android operating sys-tem stakes its claim on the set-top box market, but are payTV operators ready for the challenges posed by the open

standard platform? By Stephen Cousins


Android STBs

EchoStar Europe also received positive

feedback when it demoed the HDX-200 box at

IBC (pictured on the next page). Users were

invited to test TV-adapted versions of popular

mobile apps such as Angry Birds and IMDb, says

Mark Goodburn, director of marketing and

communications: “We had a great deal of interest

from content owners, IP providers and traditional

broadcasters who see the product as providing an

opportunity to extend their content and services

to new customers... many of the operators we are

talking to plan to use Android as a scalable, open

industry standard middleware platform to build

their applications and services on.”

Here come the apps

With its vast ecosystem of applications, Android

could offer significant added value over other

hybrid approaches such as HbbTV or the video-

on-demand joint venture YouView, backed by the

BBC, ITV, TalkTalk, Channel 4, Channel 5 and

BT, which have a long way to go to match its

diversity of content.

Access to apps in the Android Market could

dramatically enhance the viewer experience,

provided the software and UI ports well into a TV

environment. Several operators and content

owners have already developed Android apps for

mobile products, which could be migrated to TV

and gaming could become a new focus on TV.

However, the demand for TV-based applications is

likely to be limited compared to on mobiles or

tablets, warns Andrew Glasspool, managing

partner at digital media specialist Farncombe:

“The history of middleware is littered with

companies that wanted to offer lots of apps on

STBs but failed to find a market for them. At the

end of the day, a very powerful EPG and search

functions are most important and Android

“In respect of content management, there is little prac-tical difference between a con-ventional Linux or RTOS-based STB and an Android STB because Android is just a specific implementation of Linux”

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Incorporating the Android™ operating system and supporting WebKit and Adobe® Flash® Player, our universal IP STB puts

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scalable and cost effective solution to enhance your IP delivered service.

HDX-200: Android™ IP STB.

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delivers a very effective way to write those

applications.”

Utilising more powerful hardware, Android

STBs will gain access to more complex functions,

such as providing Adobe Flash support. The

Android-based STB Logitech developed to run the

first iteration of Google TV had comparable

processing power to a nettop, says Dan Simmons,

senior analyst at research consultancy HIS Screen

Digest: “It had an elevated bill of materials over a

regular STB, plus the extra components needed to

enable it to broadcast TV. However, if the

technology were to proliferate the hardware would

be come less specialised, more generic chip

solutions would be used and costs would come

down,” he points out.

A simpler solution could make more financial

sense to operators, however, he adds: “HbbTV

provides an advanced UI, it has a strong graphics

capability and is designed to work with more

limited hardware, which makes investment in an

Android STB seem less appealing,” he says.

Conflicts of interest

This concern over TV’s broadcast legacy is shared

by Bob Hannent, senior technology manager at

Humax: “The most suitable deployment for

Android is in a pure IPTV environment because

there is no need to be concerned about a

broadcast legacy. A product like HbbTV is a

simpler and more mature option in the payTV

space.” Humax, for its part, has developed its own

HbbTV solution.

Paradoxically, the openness of the Android

platform is also what will turn off many service

providers over concerns that it will cede away

their control of content and security. In the

mobile realm, telcos essentially sell customers a

voice telephony and data pipeline, not content, so

there is no conflict of interest with Google. But in

the payTV space, service providers sell the

pipeline, as well as a range of content packages,

so involving Google and providing access to other

companies’ content through Android Market

could create problems.

A personalised Android solution is still

possible, however, says Hannent: “It remains

possible to provide a walled garden so that the

operator can manage and limit access to the wider

web if they so wish. In respect of content

management, there is little practical difference

between a conventional Linux or RTOS-based

STB and an Android STB, because Android is just

a specific implementation of Linux. The operator

can build their own marketplace for apps to

prevent abuse of the product, but it must also take

extra steps to ensure the system is locked down to

avoid hacking,” he says.

A customised version of Android could impact

on content and personal data security as it would

require the operator to invest resources and

money to provide the software updates to close

down weaknesses. It’s a step change from the

traditional approach to payTV security, which is

usually handled inside the smart card and

therefore fairly easy to lockdown and maintain.

However, by sticking to a relatively pure,

unmodified version of Android OS, operators

could leverage Google’s investment in security

and software updates, says Farncombe’s

Glasspool: “Security updates are expensive to

develop, test and carry out, but provided you

haven’t modified the Android software too much,

Google wo

space invader: is paytv ready for android?€¦ · this year, we feel that social tv has matured...

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