p10-12,14,16 IPTV@IBC08 VOD v3 23/7/08 14:45 Page 14
IPTV@IBC08 > On-demand business models Cable & Satellite Europe
the network, close to the end users, to avoid costly The cost to telcos of upgrading networks to cope with
upgrades of the whole backbone. “This is one of the main on-demand services should not be underestimated,
reasons why Edgeware has developed the Orbit 2x according to Digital Rapids’ Stevenson. “An increased
streaming platform, since it allows truly distributed number of localised headends with sizeable caches of
deployments, where the telcos can add streaming capaci- high-demand content can reduce the load on the primary
ty anywhere in their existing network where it makes network, but at a considerable investment,” he warns.
most economical sense. Through distributed deploy- As the range of business models and complexity of
ments it is also possible to scale the capacity with services on offer in the market develops, technology ven-
increased subscriber uptake, while minimising the dors are having to ensure their solutions are not only able
investments in the core network.” to meet the demands of operators but that they are also
Generally, the more subscribers an operator has, the compatible with other vendors, as OpenTV’s Huntington
further out in the network the operator must go. Le Manq explains. “We have standard solutions for every VOD
explains further the benefits of a decentralised network: offering, including pay-per-view, subscription and free as
“DSL VOD networks are often decentralised to cope with well as advanced services like catch-up and startover. We
bottlenecks within the core network. This makes sure that are integrating with all the major VOD bit-pump vendors
popular content is pushed toward the edge while long tail as well as VOD server management solutions to ensure
content remains on central servers. By offering more we can deliver effective solutions to our operators.”
streaming capacity to edge servers overall storage require- Edgeware, meanwhile, has partnered with middleware
ments can be reduced by 30-50%.” Thomson’s Sapphire specialist Dreampark (IBC Stand 5.A21) to offer a fully
VOD server can ingest video assets and stream them integrated IPTV service that supports interactive features.
based on subscriber requests. As well as straight VOD, it The combined offering, includes network PVR, time-shift
also supports advanced services such as, network PVR TV with trick-play, startover TV, historic electronic pro-
and time-shifting. gramme guide and scheduled recordings. The network
In these types of decentralised networks, managing the PVR services use Dreampark’s Dreamgallery 3.4 release,
flow of content depending on demand is key. Harmonic’s which supports the time shift services offered by
Armada product is an asset manager that distributes Edgeware’s Orbit 2x server platform. Another example of
assets based on popularity and available resources. recent technology partnerships is conditional access ven-
Edgeware has teamed Combined with a clustered server architecture it can for- dor Verimatrix (IBC Stand 4.B45) and technology giant
up with Dreampark to ward content to the point of usage when someone wants Motorola (IBC Stand 1.D31) entering into reseller agree-
offer an integrated a title, and keep popular titles there, for example. ments for IPTV solutions. Under the agreement,
IPTV service. The According to Harmonic, this system is vital considering Verimatrix’s Video Content Authority System for IPTV
network PVR services that, statistically, in a traditional pay-VOD model, only a operators has been integrated with Motorola’s end-to-end
use Dreampark’s small number of popular titles generate in excess of 50% IPTV solution.
Dreamgallery 3.4 of the revenue, with the top 80-120 titles generating
release. approximately 50% of the sessions in any given time.
Quality of service
Once telcos have upgraded their networks, struck the
deals with studios and channels and compiled a com-
pelling catalogue of content, Fautier believes one of the
things that could hold back VOD offerings is the issue of
navigating the array of titles at a user’s disposal. “The
number of titles has nothing to do with the take-rate
because people need to navigate the titles. The biggest
problem is the navigation. As well as a good recommen-
dation engine, operators need an attractive user interface.
The user interfaces of most IPTV operators are in a cable-
style architecture, so they are very busy, very boring.”
For that reason, Harmonic has been developing a rec-
ommendation engine and user interface and recently
began demonstrating a new concept called Gator. It is a
video-focussed navigation engine that Fautier likens to
navigating the iTunes store, in that it’s “very visual”. One
aspect allows users to watch previews while they’re
searching for titles. “It’s an application server that doesn’t
need much interaction with the middleware. We serve
searchable archive at www.informamedia.com
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