Special Report
Taking a
get in on the act. Viewers, remember, are not
interested at all in the carrier that brings the
content to their homes: they are simply
interested in the content itself. They will
choose the right mix of programming and
added value functionality that meets their
broad look
requirements - and if another platform comes
along with a better balance, then they will
move.
Every service provider will know some of
the solutions but not the whole story. Telcos
are adept at managing a network to the home
at IPTV
but know little about video delivery;
conventional broadcasters can handle the
content but may struggle with interactive
return paths. Everyone needs help somewhere.
But, equally, everyone needs to move quickly,
because time to market is critical. The risk is
that the competition will beat you to the
audience.
At Thomson we have developed all the
THIERRY BOUDARD, IPTV global solution manager at
skills to deliver an end to end solution,
Thomson, reports.
whatever the requirement. We start, of course,
with a comprehensive knowledge of video
T
he history of IPTV - delivering interactive content and video on demand to production and management, but for the
television services using the Internet true triple play services. And now that purposes of this story we offer a full headend
protocol - has been short but functionality has become attractive to other system, including the most powerful
dynamic. It started as a solution for service providers. compression engine on the market, and
telcos, who needed to find a new way to keep So today that definition of delivering highly functional multiplexing and network
subscribers on their copper. It rapidly television over IP can now encompass a processing tools. Alongside that we have a
developed interesting new functionality which number of platforms: cable most obviously, comprehensive service management platform,
seemed attractive to an audience - from but also satellite and terrestrial are keen to SmartVision, to provide the administration
tools for the whole operation.
In the home we are a world market leader
in set-top boxes. But the simple set-top box
may not be enough any more. Triple play
services combine voice, data and video into a
single stream, and it makes sense for the
primary customer portal to handle all of
them. The home hub bundles into a single
device not just interactive STB functionality
but wireless and ethernet networking for
Internet access and even voice over IP
telephony.
Thomson’s end to end solution includes
the Cirpack platform, another market leader
this time in soft switching for telephony, that
can be delivered not just for ‘traditional’ VoIP
over the copper last mile, but also for cable
operators. Digital cable is now commonplace,
and thanks to the DOCSIS protocol there is
now a standardised way to deliver high speed
data and multi-line telephony over existing
cable networks. Advanced services such as
video on demand can be delivered over IP
over DOCSIS over cable.
Satellite and terrestrial broadcasters,
looking enviously at the interactivity offered
by the return path inherent in IPTV and cable,
are keen to add their own functionality, and
this can be achieved through hybrid set-top
guide2iptv iptv 22 september 2008
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