Special Report
IPTV’s changing
infrastructure
By ANDY MATHIESON, director of Latens.
system marketed throughout the USA by
Echostar.
I
PTV has moved through a number of the eco-system In addition Latens BCAS is to be deployed
infrastructure waves, some of which have approach and to protect cable subscribers over a HITS
ebbed away while others are growing in extends it by satellite distribution system that is part of
intensity. There are many ways that an including sourcing Digicable’s nationwide roll-out plans. The
IPTV operator can choose to deploy security content and the nationwide roll-out will begin with 20 cable
and middleware, for simplicity I have delivery of content head-ends in major cities and then expand
segmented the following approaches: (usually by satellite) into other areas. This offering is designed and
• Do it yourself (DIY). to the operators built so that cable networks delivering
• Single vendor end-to-end system. central office. services based upon the Digicable solution can
• Best of breed - where the operator • The service support a diverse range of consumer set-top
chooses elements from third party vendors. delivery platform boxes and PVRs available in the Indian
• Eco-system - where the customer chooses approach - which market.
a system that has been built by partnerships of provides integrated
vendors. middleware and Service delivery platform
Each and every system has its pros and conditional access,
Andy Mathieson.
cons. DIY is potentially highly flexible and in which is flexible and scalable and crucially A service delivery platform is an efficient,
the early days of IPTV, when few, if any, IPTV follows DVB/broadcast infrastructure design flexible and powerful platform combining the
solutions were commercially available, it made principles functionality of centralised middleware and
a lot of sense. Few companies presently follow CA. A crucial advantage of this approach is
this approach, preferring to launch with HITS that it is architected to follow DVB/broadcast
proven solutions and use their internal standards, which for the first time enables
resources to design, build and deploy revenue HITS is so called because it enables IPTV operators to follow similar infrastructure
earning applications. centrally aggregated TV programming to be to those that have been proved efficient and
I think everyone is aware of the drawbacks distributed very cost-effectively via satellite to powerful and have been developed, and
of the single vendor approach, which includes IPTV operators within the chosen satellite’s played a crucial part in, the rise of digital
vendor lock-in, lack of flexibility and the fact footprint. television over the last 20 years.
that it’s likely that one or more of the modules In the run-up to IBC2008, Latens alone has Latens ECO is a high performance, state of
will be below par in terms of functionality. The been selected to be part of two HITS systems. the art software IPTV service delivery platform
best of breed approach made a lot of sense, Latens ECOsystem (ECO) service delivery that combines middleware functions and
however as more and more companies platform has been selected to be part of the world class conditional access security in a
produced an expanding number of ViP-TV end-to-end IPTV content and delivery single platform. Operator benefits that ECO
middleware, security and set-top box solutions provides, include:
the integration issues grew exponentially. • Reduced integration and capital
I think that most operators presently investment costs: turnkey deployment of ECO
launching IPTV systems are looking highly provides middleware functions with best in
favourably at the eco-system approach. Latens class conditional access in a single system,
is in a number of eco-systems and believes removing additional costly integration.
that this approach provides most of the • Highly differentiated and localised
advantages of the best-of-breed approach with service: with ECO, options are available for
none of its drawbacks. increased customisation and insertion of local age IPTV 30.
In addition to this move towards the eco- content.
system approach the following two relatively • Risk free solution: Latens CA technology
new developments are changing the IPTV is proven and deployed and is already
landscape yet again: approved by the content industry
• HITS (head-end in the sky), which takes • Quality of Experience: compelling viewer
Continued on P
guide2iptv iptv 28 september 2008
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