p22-24,26-27 IPTV@IBC08 Networks v4 23/7/08 14:32 Page 27
Cable & Satellite Europe IPTV@IBC08 > The networked home
between devices if in-home wiring is necessary. “All Home networking is a key area for future develop-
homes are different so every type of network will be dif- ment for other set-top box manufacturers. Wojciech
ferent. It could be that you have to combine a number of Doganowski, vice-president, IPTV business at ADB (IBC
different solutions.” The Digital Living Network Alliance Stand 4.B48), says that his company is investing time
(DLNA), a standards body that seeks to enable the shar- and money in developing DLNA products that could
ing of personal digital media between consumer elec- connect with other devices.
tronics devices, could make the connected home easier, In terms of home networking applications,
says Fielibert, but operators do not want to be first to Doganowski says that the first move is likely to be around
market with a managed home network that doesn’t work taking content stored on the PC. “I think that the easiest
properly. “No-one wants to be the guinea-pig but I think case for users to accept and the easiest for security
you will see managed home network services from serv- providers is accessing content from the PC,” he says.
ice providers within one year,” he says. Second, he says, is moving video from a DVR to other
With DVR, IPTV boxes can be used to deliver HDTV TVs around the home. Finally, operators will want to
in bandwidth-constrained networks. Fielibert says that in enable subscribers to move video from a set-top to other
the US, Cisco has deployed boxes with the ability to devices such as the PC or gaming console or mobile
transcode from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 so that they can device, which will require confidence on the part of the
store HD content on the hard disk more efficiently. operator and content owner that everything will remain
Transcoding in real time presents a further challenge. in a secure environment.
Transcoding to many different formats may not be nec- The key to success will be to make things as easy as
essary since the service provider is likely to want to sup- possible for consumers, as Pirelli’s Pellegrini points out:
port only a limited number of devices. In other cases, it “The distribution and circulation of video services
may not be necessary to transcode video but it will be throughout the home is just one example of the role an
helpful to reformat it for viewing on a smaller screen. “It operator can play, by helping consumers enjoy multime-
makes business sense in general to migrate to DVR. I dia content with a quality-of-experience guarantee that
don’t see anyone not having a DVR except where you may not be easily obtained by off-the-shelf consumer
have multi-room boxes,” says Fielibert. electronics products, unless you are a tech-savvy user.” ●
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