What does the Internet of Things mean for you?

What does the Internet
of Things mean for you?
February 2015
Middleware evolution
2015 trends
IP multicasting
4k security & more
www.csimagazine.com
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Contents
24 2015 trends
We look into our crystal ball and identify some
of the key industry trends to watch out for
Commercial manager
John Woods
28 IP multicast
With an ABRS spec in the works by CableLabs,
multicast is set for a key role in live OTT delivery
05 News & analysis
All the latest industry and research news
12 Analyst corner
Strategy Analytics says CES 2015 brought to life
some of the technologies and platforms that will
drive next-gen content services
14 COVER STORY - IoT
It’s time for pay TV to move beyond media and
embrace the wider Internet of Things
18 IoT - commentary
Accenture looks at how cable operators can use
the IoT, and smart home services in particular, to
establish a competitive advantage
20 Middleware evolution
With intelligence moving into the cloud and an
increasing number of set-top box functions being
virtualised, where does this leave middleware?
30 CSI Awards
Find out more, including three new categories
32 Technology corner: G.fast
The standard is breathing new life into good old
copper networks
34 4k security
The imminent launch of the first 4k ultra HD
services is leading to some security rejigging
38 In-flight connectivity
Well and truly going global
Design and production
Matt Mills (Manager)
Jason Tucker
Matleena Lilja-Pelling
Keem Chung
Regular contributors
Adrian Pennington, Philip Hunter,
David Adams, Stephen Cousins,
Anna Tobin
Circulation
Joel Whitefoot
Accounts
Marilou Tait, Lynta Kamaray
Editorial
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41 DTG column
Introducing the Mobile Video Alliance...
42 Show diary
Here you can find details on some of the major
industry events in 2015
Editor’s report:
What impact will the emerging Internet of Things have on your business? IoT has become
along with the cloud as one of the buzzwords in recent times and a little like the cloud it
can mean different things to different people, partly because the underlying concept – that
of connection and communication – affects such a broad range of industry verticals and
stakeholders. These include automotive, transportation, healthcare, banking, retail and
many more (even farming – think connected sheep, combine harvester etc). For the television industry,
connected TVs were just the start. The first service providers are now finally engaging with energy
management and other ‘smart home’ opportunities. This area therefore forms the first in what will be a
series of articles in CSI looking at IoT or Internet of Everything (IoE) as some like to call it. From
security and data management to devices, M2M and network capacity there is so much more to delve
into and explore in this nascent space. Goran Nastic, editor
2015
Editor
Goran Nastic
Perspective Publishing
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ISSN 1467-5935
www.csimagazine.com
February 2015
03
Summit 2015
Future of TV Business Models
Thursday 21 May 2015
St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel
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News
Industry warns on ultra HD as HDR spec
expected by end-2015
Broadcasters are working hard to
navigate the “4k ultra HD jungle”
to ensure the right standards and
levels of interoperability are reached.
At the same time, there is a worry
that early 4k-only sets (ie, displays
offering only better resolution) could
tarnish the image of wider ultra
HD before it is rolled out by the
TV industry.
These were some of the points
discussed at an SES conference on
UHD. Because developments are
taking place much faster than with
HD, this is presenting both an
opportunity and a threat to
broadcasters it was decided.
One of the key areas of work
taking place in the UK is the UHD
Forum’s series of 4k plugfest events,
designed to ensure interoperability
throughout the entire value chain,
from studio through to the retailers.
The first plugfest, which took part
at the end of 2014, looked at the
HDMI 2.0 component, testing 4k TV
sets from ten manufacturers, STB
makers, Blu-ray players, silicon
vendors and AV receivers. It was
found that there was poor support
for 10-bit at 50/60Hz progressive and
many were only capable showing 4k
in 25 or 30Hz.
“The good news that’s not a big
challenge but the important message
is that problems won’t fix themselves
– interoperability is not a natural
occurrence”, said Richard LindsayDavies, DTG’s chief executive.
The 2nd plugfest looked at a range
of newer TVs and prototype models
coming to market this year and
focused on HEVC as well as HDMI
2.0 for various types of encoding
profiles and variety of resolutions, bit
rates, colour space and frame rates.
This one found a limited support for
the new HEVC compressions system:
60% of 2014 models can support it,
but only a small portion supported it
at 25/30Hz and 50/60Hz. This year’s
models all supported 50/60Hz UHD
with HEVC, reflecting quick
maturation cycles but issues were
identified with scaling, motion
judder, flat colours and lip synch.
Moreover, only half of the models
supported MPEG-DASH so thre is
still room for improvement there,
significant given that many of the
early 4k services are coming in IP.
The next plugfest is planned for
April which will add copy protection
(HDCP 2.2) into the mix and more
plugfests are anticipated for another
18-24 months as the technology
settles down and the first live
deployments take place.
“It’s important to ensure that
what’s created in the studios or OBs
appears correctly on the screen and
from a CE perspective delivers what
consumers expect,” said LindsayDavies. “Broadcasters still very much
feeling their way and working out
what’s good and bad.”
Lindsay-Davies also noted that the
UK’s UHD Forum is liaising with the
UHD Alliance, DVB, EBU and
others so as not to create an
isolated “technology island”.
A delegate from Samsung
pointed out the Digital Europe
work in this area: an upcoming
logo is intended to give the
industry a defined interoperability
point in terms of display capability.
It was finished in December last
year and products will come out in
2015 that if labelled with the DE
UHD logo will exhibit and support
the tech specs defined by the
license agreement. That logo is
aligned with DVB UHD Phase 1
(UHD-1).
Chris Johns of Sky echoed
DTG’s sentiment that UHD
is “more how than wow at
the moment.”
This is because while it is now
agreed that UHD is about screen
resolution, frame rate, colour
gamut, HDR and audio, early 4k
only takes in the resolution aspect,
which isn’t compelling enough,
according Johns. “We’re testing to
see what we can get away with and
what delivers that ‘kick’,” he said.
“Delivering mediocre in the
short term will not do industry any
favour. It’s frustrating that the
marketplace is flooded with screens
that can’t deliver the utopia we can
see, those bright, crisp clear
images,” he added.
Sky is playing with grading and
lighting, colour and luminescence,
which are seen by many as the
most important elements of the
UHD experience, and
standardisation work is expected
before the end of 2015 on the
production HDR front as ITU
meetings take place while MPEG
has also released a call for
proposals (see http://www.
csimagazine.com/csi/HDRstandard-by-end-of2015%E2%80%93BBC.php).
news in brief
SkyD may launch 4k by Q1
2016
Sky Deutschland has hinted it
could launch a 4k ultra HD
channel by early next year. SkyD
has been experimenting with
UHD technology for several years
now, having first trialled it back
in December 2012. Last summer,
the company transmitted live 4k
with 50fps (frames per second) in
HEVC during a Bundesliga
football match and after some
‘fine tuning’ since then it now
seems ready for some type of full,
if probably limited, service
launch. “We will get to that one
million [referring to the number
of people with 4k capable TV
sets] probably towards the end of
this year or early next year, and
that is also the time we have in
mind for any kind of launch,
whatever that may be” said
Stephan Heimbecher, head of
innovations and standards at
SkyD, speaking at an SES event
focused in London “The live
aspect of UHD was the main
focus from the beginning,
typically live sports,” Heimbecher
he said. However, he did say there
is still room for improvement in
the technical workflow and that
SkyD is still experimenting with
various camera angles for the best
4k experience. “It’s difficult to
find that point of going live, but
we are in a position to do live
production in UHD,” he
suggested. “The screens are out
there and people have
expectations but critical thing is
we make sure we don’t disappoint
them in these early days. There is
a difference between what you see
at a trade show and a real
broadcast environment,” added
Heimbecher, who also said
nothing has been decided yet on
whether any 4k channel would be
priced at a premium tier to HD.
www.csimagazine.com
February 2015
5
News
Football TV rights break £5bn
barrier
Sky and BT Sport have paid a
record £5.136bn for live Premier
League TV rights for three
seasons from 2016-17. The figure
represents a 70% increase on Sky
and BT’s current £3 billion deal.
Under the new deal, 168 games
will be shown live, at an average
cost of £10.2 million per match.
Sky paid £4.176 billion for 126
matches per season, including the
first Friday evening games and
both Sunday packages, having
secured five of the seven packages
on offer. BT paid £960 million
for 42 games per season, four
more than its present deal.
Netflix debuts in Cuba
Subscription streaming service
launches in the country starting
at $7.99 a month, part of its
continued global rollout. Netflix
will offer its original content and
a range of other programming, as
it does throughout Latin
America, where it has 5m
subscribers. The company said it
will offer content “as internet
access improves and credit and
debit cards become more widely
available”. But as reports suggest,
95% of the country doesn’t have a
fixed-line broadband connection
at home, while the average Cuban
salary is around $20 a month,
both factors limiting the (pay)
OTT opportunity in that market.
ARM boosts IoT proposition
ARM has acquired Offspark, a
Dutch developer of security
software for the Internet of
Things. Offspark specialises in
IoT communications security,
with its PolarSSL technology
deployed in a wide variety of
devices including sensor modules,
communication modules and
smartphones. ARM will help
developers build IoT products
with a high level of cryptography.
06
February 2015
First global standards for M2M
A big step for IoT interoperability
has taken place with the first
batch of specs released by
oneM2M, the global standards
initiative for machine-to-machine
communications.
oneM2M said the Release 1
standards will ensure optimised
M2M interworking and create a
foundation platform for IoT devices
and applications, both of which
should help with the deployment
of M2M technology.
The group said Release 1
provides sufficient building blocks
to enable today’s generation of
M2M and IoT applications to
interwork with each other.
oneM2M’s Release 1 is a set
of 10 specifications covering
requirements, architecture, API
specifications, security solutions
and mapping to common industry
protocols such as CoAP, MQTT
and HTTP. oneM2M Release 1
also makes use of OMA and
Broadband Forum specs for
Device Management capabilities.
“The horizontal service platform
we have created is already useable
over several underlying transport
technologies, such as Wi-Fi, fixedline, and cellular. This reduces the
complexity for the M2M application
developer, allows lower CAPEX and
OPEX for the service providers and
creates a world where ultimately
people will interact more seamlessly
with other people and machines in
their daily lives,” the group said.
More than 200 member
companies from the across the
world contributed to Release 1’s
development through the seven
leading ICT standards development
organisations and five industry
consortia that founded oneM2M.
This is the first step to achieve
further seamless interworking with
other IoT technologies.
• A new study from Strategy
Analytics predicts M2M connections
will grow from 368m in 2014 to
2.1bn by 2022. 75% of new M2M
connections will be on 3G or faster
networks by 2022. Smart metering
will remain one of the major areas
for M2M growth. Healthcare, home
automation, vehicles, retail and
transportation are the others.
HbbTV 2.0 specification released
The new specification paves the
way for a new wave of services
based on advances including
companion devices, HTML5 user
experiences and support for ultra
HD and HEVC.
The HbbTV Association, which
oversees the standard, said HbbTV
2.0 should enable seamless viewing
of video content across TV,
smartphones, PCs and tablets,
as well as innovative companion
applications that enhance the
TV experience with detailed
programme info, voting, play
to screen and other interactive
use cases.
www.csimagazine.com
Other benefits will include
standardised delivery of ultra HD
content with HEVC, improved
accessibility of services with better
support for subtitles in multiple
languages and access to broadcast
content captured to local storage in
the receiver.
This is achieved thanks to the
addition of a range of new
technologies and features including
support for HTML5, DVB CI Plus
1.4, HEVC video and TTML
subtitles. It also enhances support for
existing technologies including
MPEG DASH, DSM-CC object
carousel, synchronisation of apps to
TV and user input.
The HbbTV Association has been
working on the new HbbTV 2.0
specification for some time and
anticipates that manufacturers,
broadcasters, and operators will
begin introducing a new generation
of interactive broadcast and
broadband TV services in 2016.
The group is also at the same time
launching its tender process for the
supply of an HbbTV 2.0 Test Suite.
It is anticipated that the test suite
will also become available in 2016,
enabling the launch of HbbTV 2.0
compliant products and services
next year.
News
Net neutrality “a trojan horse” - analyst
news in brief
700Mhz up for grabs in
Germany
The German government
confirms it will auction off two
blocks of 30 MHz frequencies in
the 700 MHz band for mobile
broadband this summer.
Germany will be the first country
in Europe to sell 700 MHz
frequencies for mobile broadband
by migrating DTT broadcasting to
the DVB-T2 standard. Mobile
broadband using this spectrum
will be phased out, with the goal
of improving high-speed services
in rural areas. The auction also
includes spectrum in the
900MHz and 1800MHz
frequency bands, the current
licences for which expire on 31
December 2016.
Bouygues tests 300Mbps
mobile
French telco will rollout out ultrafast mobile broadband after
carrying out 300Mbps trials using
LTE tri-band carrier aggregation.
Bouygues Telecom said it is the
first operator in France to reach
this milestone, achieved by an
LTE-Advanced 3x CA technique
on its 4G network. The demo
made use of a spectrum width of
45 MHz via three aggregated
carriers on the frequency bands
that Bouygues Telecom uses for
4G. As a first step, Bouygues will
make ultra-fast mobile broadband
available to customers in Lyon at
the end of the summer once the
first compatible mobile devices
appear, and it will do so at no
extra cost.
4G in rural UK
EE plans to spend GBP1.5bn in
its network over the next three
years, partly to enable mobile
broadband in rural areas. It will
focus on extending 4G network to
more than 99% of the population.
08
February 2015
Europe should focus on the digital
skills gap as opposed to network
regulation, argues one analyst, who
also accuses Netflix of hijacking
the language of net neutrality.
One of the problems with the
net neutrality debate is that people
seem to get cornered into camps,
with political, economic and moral
ideologies clouding their
judgements. Nordic-based analyst
house Strand Consult tried to
weigh in looking at all sides of
the argument and offering its
own thinking on the subject,
arguing that efforts would be
best placed elsewhere.
“Net neutrality is probably
a Trojan horse for continued
regulation of the telecom industry
with the ultimate goal to turn
private networks into public
utilities. Human rights, innovation,
and progress are very important,
but they have little to do with net
neutrality, which is just a clever
way to privilege one set of
companies over another,” write
Strand in a research note.
“What net neutrality advocates
do instead is lobby against zero
rating, a business model that helps
truly impoverished people access
the Internet with their mobile
phone,” it continued.
Strand noted that EU authorities
should be commended for taking
the necessary steps to investigate
the need for net neutrality, but their
official reports do not provide
support for more rulemaking, having
found no evidence of violations on
content or interconnection networks.
It further noted that net neutrality
is already delivering unintended
consequences in the Netherlands.
The law was supposed to unleash
a flowering of Dutch content, but
instead it creates the ‘Netflix effect’,
where Dutch networks are now
clogged by a single American player.
When Netflix launched in the
country, its traffic ballooned from
zero to 20% of all downstream
network capacity almost overnight
with just a few subscribers.
“Imagine what happens when
Netflix reaches its goal to grow
subscribership to one-third of all
households. Literally the entire
network will be taken up by its video
streams,” Strand said, perhaps a little
too apprehensively.
“By hijacking the language of
net neutrality, Netflix hopes to win
price controls on interconnection
(and fiats to require operators to
place its servers in their facilities) to
solidify its market position against
other video upstarts. Netflix has
lobbied the FCC hard and got its
wish: the definition of broadband
was changed to suit its desire and
interconnection is now part of
net neutrality, something that was
never regulated before. “Indeed
net neutrality originally defined
was only about last mile access,”
it added.
With no empirical evidence
linking net neutrality to economic
growth, Strand argues the far greater
issue is the digital skills gap; almost
40 percent of Europeans don’t have
the skills they need to participate in
the digital economy, and there are
one million vacancies on the
continent as a result.
“It’s understandable to desire
protections in the digital society,
but a packet is not a person. Efforts
should be focused to empower
people, not micromanage networks.
Net neutrality is conservative
argument to keep things the same,”
it concluded.
KDG intros multi-screen OTT product
Germany’s largest cable network
operator, Kabel Deutschland,
has developed a free streaming
service for existing payTV and
broadband subscribers.
The TV App product, initially
designed for iOS devices,
marks Kabel Deutschland’s
first true multi-screen over-the-top
(OTT) product. The application
www.csimagazine.com
provides access to more than 50
unencrypted digital free-to-air TV
channels carried on the cable
network including Das Erste, ZDF,
ProSieben, Sat.1, Tele 5, DMAX and
Disney Channel.
KDG is using Kaltura’s OTT TV
platform, which powers similar
services from the likes of Yes and
Mediacorp. Kaltura said it designed,
developed and launched TV App in
three months for KDG.
Features include live TV, fast
channel change and favourite
channels. As the app evolves to add
new features and new platforms,
Kaltura believes TV App will play a
key role as KDG attracts new
subscribers and keeps existing
subscribers loyal.
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News
news in brief
Searching the dark Web
A new search engine under
development aims to cover
both the regular and so-called
‘dark’ Web, in the process
uncovering patterns and
relationships in online data
and building a better map of
more internet content. The
project, dubbed Memex, has
been in the works for a year
and is being developed by
17 different contractor teams
who are working with the
military’s Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency,
Wired reports. Google and Bing,
with search results influenced
by popularity and ranking, are
only able to capture some 5%
of the internet, said the report
from Wired.
MENA payTV subs to double despite piracy
The number of pay TV homes in the
Middle East and North Africa is set
to double between 2010 and 2020 to
21.3 million, with Turkey accounting
for a vast chunk of additions.
According to Digital TV
Research, only 18% of TV
households legitimately paid for TV
signals by end-2014. This
proportion will climb to 24% by
2020. Legitimate pay TV revenues
for the 20 countries covered in the
report will grow by 75% between
2010 and 2020 to $5.63 billion.
Turkey and Israel are expected to
contribute 51% of the region’s pay
TV revenues in 2020; down from
61% in 2014.
Piracy remains a major problem,
despite many efforts to eradicate it.
There are 34.3 million free-to-air
satellite TV homes in MENA and
DTV Research estimates that at least
10% of these homes also receive
pirated premium satellite TV signals.
Satellite TV will continue to
dominate pay TV revenues, taking
two-thirds of the 2020 total (similar
to the 2014 proportion). Satellite TV
revenues will be $3.76 billion in
2020. Turkey will account for $1,572
million of these revenues, followed by
Saudi Arabia with $674 million.
Saudi Arabia will take second place
from Israel in 2015.
Pay satellite TV penetration will
climb from 6.9% in 2010 to 11.8% in
2020, with subscriber numbers
doubling from 5.01 million to 10.32
million. Of the 10.32 million total in
2020, Turkey will contribute 5.32
million and Saudi Arabia 1.24
million. Penetration in 2020 will
reach 37% in Qatar, but will be less
than 5% in 10 other countries.
Pay satellite TV has grown due
mainly to the expansion of OSN
(1.16m subs) and beIN Sports
(819,000 subs).
There will be 6.16 million
legitimate IPTV subscribers across
the whole region by 2020, triple
the 2014 total. Turkey with 1.6
million subs will be the IPTV leader,
while Qatar will lead in penetration
with 35%.
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Analyst corner
CES 2015: Bringing the future
of TV to life
be pursuing a strategy of
multi-screen and multiplay
bundling to create additional
customer loyalty and
synergies.
User interfaces driven
by cloud technologies will
also create an opportunity
for service providers. Most
operators have significant
investments in set-top
boxes already deployed
in customers’ homes. Cloud UI, like the one
shown below from ActiveVideo, can reduce the
need to replace existing boxes, while allowing the
operator to deploy advanced services through
HTML5 interfaces.
European operators have already deployed a
number of innovative services and many have
welcomed and integrated new technologies. Virgin
Media was one of the first operators to integrate
Netflix into its TiVo set-top boxes, and Sky in the
UK has delivered an OTT service to consumer
devices through its Now TV service. However,
there is still a tremendous opportunity for
operators across the region to get in front of the
competition and deliver innovative services and
premium content. OTT competitors have not
gained a strong foothold yet, and content windows
will continue to be problematic.
The cloud will be a true game changer as it
offers the ability to address devices, reduce capital
and operating expenses, and potentially change
the business models of traditional operators.
Cloud DVR, virtualised encoding and
transcoding, and cloud UI will all enable
traditional pay TV operators to keep pace and
surpass their online video competitors.
Consumers are clamouring for the ability to view
content when, where and how they want. Those
service providers who embrace technology and
forge the future of TV will be the winners, while
those who do not will be quickly left behind.
What can we learn from CES? Jason Blackwell of Strategy
Analytics gives his take on the key technologies and trends
that will shape the industry this year
interface. 2015 will be the year
when UHD accelerates, and
operators will be rolling out trials
and commercial services in the
second half of the year.
Content security is also a key
issue throughout the industry. Irdeto
showed some amazing
demonstrations of how easily
consumers can purchase seemingly
legitimate boxes on the internet and
Image courtesy of CES
receive high quality content from
around the world for either a small
he future of TV is here, and the
subscription fee or for free. The company has also
2015 CES show brought to life
done analysis on the business model behind
some of the technologies and
piracy and how quickly pirates can make millions
platforms that will drive the
of dollars by selling these boxes and illegal
next-generation content services.
subscriptions. Irdeto even showed pirated content
The show set new records for
available on legal, unaltered Roku boxes. Nagra
attendance, with over 170,000
was also demonstrating its AnyCast Command
industry professionals combing through more than
content security. Decryption of content is done in
2.2 million square feet of exhibit space. However,
a module, and control word sharing, a typical way
the show was even more memorable as we saw an
pirates exploit content, is eliminated. The security
increasing presence of service providers, mostly in
technology is targeted at satellite and cable
closed-door meetings with technology vendors.
operators globally.
Several announcements, along with numerous
technology demonstrations, show that the TV
The power of the cloud
providers are looking to the future and working to
Cloud technologies continue to grow in
position their services to meet changing consumer
importance, as the delivery of content will be
requirements.
enabled to more devices, and consumers (as well
Ultra High Definition (UHD) has been the
as operators) will no longer be tied to traditional
hot topic for the past two years at CES, and
set-top boxes. Cisco announced that it will be
we are starting to see more momentum among
working with Kabel Deutschland to enable the
technology vendors and service providers to bring
German cable operator’s next-generation system
4k to their customers. Of course, UHD TVs were
with a target deployment in 2016 and 2017. The
everywhere on the show floors, but the real driver
platform will enable broadcast, IP, and OTT video
for services will be the underlying technology to
on multi-screen devices. The converged service
deliver content to these TVs. Vendors including
will utilise a consistent user interface across
Cisco, Arris, and Nagra showed several 4k set-top
devices and integrate search, recommendation,
boxes. In fact, Nagra was demonstrating a 4k setand personalisation as a key differentiator. Under
top box with eight tuners and an advanced user
Vodafone’s leadership, Kabel Deutschland will
T
12 February 2015
www.csimagazine.com
Jason Blackwell is director,
Service Provider Strategies, at
analyst firm Strategy Analytics
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IoT
T
Tapping into
the IoT
ocean
he Internet of Things (IoT)
is emerging from a lengthy
incubation period to become a
serious market that pay TV and
broadband operators must now
address both to derive new
revenues and also hold on to
their existing customers. The IoT heralds an
intensifying battle to own the home through
controlling the digital entry portal and it is
introducing a swathe of new competitors including
energy utilities like British Gas, online retail
groups such as Staples and Amazon, along with
security firms such as ADT.
Pay TV operators though are well placed to
compete by exploiting their existing customer
relationships, as well as their technology
partnerships with suppliers across the ecosystem,
including wireless communications in the home
and security. Now is the time to exploit a surge of
interest in IoT that has really gathered steam over
the last year as the requisite technologies,
including wireless networks in and outside the
home, along with sensors and coherent services,
come together at the right price point.
Another significant and sometimes overlooked
driver is the roll out of IPv6, the latest version of
the Internet’s IP protocol with a vastly increased
and effectively unlimited address space, as
opposed to the prevailing IPv4 confined in
principle to about four billion distinct devices.
As a result, analysts and key vendors around
the world have been revising up their predictions
for IoT growth over the next few years, although
with huge variations reflecting a high level of
uncertainty. So we have Gartner forecasting there
will be 25 billion IP connected devices in use
across the world by 2020, while Cisco calls for 50
billion and Morgan Stanley goes as high as 75
billion. Another measure is the value of the IoT
market, with Cisco now estimating that it will
have created $19 trillion in value by 2020.
These estimates are all based on the whole IoT
field including M2M (Machine to Machine)
14
February 2015
devices such as probes and environmental
monitors in remote locations. A more salient
measure for pay TV is the number of consumer
devices such as smart thermostats and security
cameras in the home, which is about half as
many. Gartner suggests there will be 13 billion of
those by 2020 and more saliently 2.9 billion in
2015, since that gives some indication of the
current potential. It is a lot of devices that
somebody is going to connect and also manage.
“This market is still held back largely due to
expensiveness and exclusivity of the IoT, often
designed for innovators and not the mass users.
But we should expect that in the near future, the
growth of competition in the developed areas and
the emergence of new applications will naturally
lead to products cheapening and their daily use,”
says Sergey Filimonov, head of GS Venture
corporate venture fund, which is ready to support
and develop projects in this area.
Smart home and other applications
One question for pay TV operators is what the
impact of IoT will be on the evolution of their
core platforms and on trends such as
virtualisation of the set top box or gateway.
Uncertainty over how the smart home will evolve
around new IoT applications could persuade
operators to reverse any trend towards migrating
“Intel’s Compute
Stick could appeal
to operators as a
low cost smart
home management
and connectivity
platform.”
www.csimagazine.com
It’s time for pay
TV to embrace the
Internet of Things, and
move beyond media,
says Philip Hunter
processing power to the cloud and stripping down
the set top.
“As payTV operators move to next generation
set-top boxes and other devices, such as dongles
like Chromecast, they are presented with the
opportunity to harness additional processing
power and more “generic” operating systems in
order to deploy complementary, tangential and
non-media applications and systems to boost
engagement and provide additional functionality
for the end consumer,” says Stuart Rosove, VP for
Internet of Things at Irdeto.
As Rosove hints, smaller physical formats can
still have plenty of power, an example being Intel’s
recently launched Compute Stick, an HDMIattached TV dongle incorporating 32GB of solid
state memory, 2GB RAM and capable of running
Windows 8.1. Priced at $149, more than three
times Google’s Chromecast, it is pitched initially
at consumers wanting to turn their TVs into
media centres, but it could appeal to operators as
a low cost smart home management and
connectivity platform.
The other question is what IoT applications or
services operators will need to support in the
foreseeable future and these come in two
categories: smart home and applications directly
associated with pay TV. The former’s current
main categories at present are environmental
control including smart heating and metering as
well as security monitoring, with remote
healthcare waiting in the wings to emerge as a
major sector over coming years. Smart home as a
whole is enjoying the strongest growth at present
according to Bill Ablondi, director for this sector
at technology consultancy and market research
firm Strategy Analytics.
“The US market will continue to lead in terms
of total revenues with 36% of the total global $60
billion in consumer spending we forecast for
2015,” says Ablondi. “By the end of 2015 more
than 100 million households in the world will
have at least one smart device, system or service
system – automated entertainment, energy,
IoT
Forecast of the Global Installed Base of Internet
Connectable Devices (Billions of Units)
Billions of Units
2014
2019
2024
19.7
46.6
85.8
100.0
Billions of Units
90.0
80.0
70.0
60.0
50.0
40.0
Lantz is less convinced that IoT will have much
impact on operators’ core TV services, but
believes it will bring new smart devices for
tracking consumer behaviour and social media
interaction around the programming. “The pay
TV consumer experience, that is watching video,
is unlikely to be changed much with new IoT
technologies,” believes Lanz. “Instead, the main
value from IoT technologies for the pay TV
experience will be by tracking consumer
behaviour and audience data.”
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
2014
2019
2024
Source: IHS
appliance, security or healthcare systems,
typically controlled remotely through internet
technology.”
Of particular interest for pay TV operators is a
category Strategy Analytics calls Remote Enabled
Entertainment Controls (REECs), which it
defines as enhanced STBs offered by cable or
IPTV operators for remote programming and
management of entertainment content. The firm
predicts that in Western Europe over 20% of
broadband households will use REECS by 2019,
generating an additional EUR2.1 billion for
service providers offering the capability. By 2019
REECs will account for 18% of the estimated
EUR13.7 billion Western European Smart Home
market, highlighting the desirability for operators
to start developing this remote capability if they
have not already.
REECs will also help position pay TV
operators in the general smart home market,
where remote access will be a primary
requirement, for example to set heating controls
or monitor security alarms remotely. It will also
help them establish the big screen TV itself as the
centre of the smart IoT home, according to
Michael Lantz, CEO of TV application
management vendor Accedo, headquartered in
Stockholm, Sweden.
“Clearly, pay TV operators are especially suited
for a premium video experience, so health
applications and real estate monitoring spring to
mind as exciting areas,” argues Lantz. The TV
should lend itself especially well to healthcare
with its potential for remote consultancy, as well
as displaying images.
Power consumption & security
Although the main focus is in the customer
premise, pay TV operators should also track the
evolution of IoT generally, since unexpected
opportunities are likely to crop up that may
involve synergy between external devices and
smart home services. One of the main challenges
for devices outside the home, especially those
remotely located in M2M applications, lies in
providing connectivity and processing at very low
power to maximise battery life. This is not just a
matter for the processors in the devices but also
the networks serving them.
On this front, the UK’s digital terrestrial
network provider Arqiva was early to spot an
opportunity by developing a cellular
communications service dedicated to IoT around
its infrastructure, aiming to combine universal
coverage in the country with low power
communications. It has taken two-way ultranarrowband technology from cellular equipment
vendor SIGFOX, which is optimised for
transmission of small amounts of data requiring
low bandwidth but also minimal battery drain, as
well as being as cheap as possible. Arqiva has
now joined an international network of operators
using SIGFOX technology, so it can enable IoT
communication across multiple countries,
currently embracing Spain, the Netherlands,
Russia and France, with plans to extend to other
major markets.
“We believe the national public access network
that we are building significantly reduces the
barriers to entry for IoT applications,” says Simon
Trist, product and proposition director for smart
metering and IoT at Arqiva. “The low power
consumption also means that batteries and
devices will last much longer, which will be vital
for a large number of “fit and forget” applications
from checking that smoke alarms are still working
through to flood monitoring.”
Apart from low power consumption, one of the
other main challenges for IoT is more nebulous
and harder to predict, and that is security. This is
especially the case in the home, given that many
of the applications call for external access over
the Internet for remote monitoring and control.
The nature of the threats depends on the IoT
application, as Steve Christian, marketing VP at
Verimatrix, points out.
“For example, if it’s energy management,
people might be worried about the thermostat
being remotely programmed to waste energy, or
preventing a home from turning heating on when
it’s needed,” says Christian. “With health
applications it’s privacy of data. With home
security, the fear might be that someone can
disable the locks to enable entry, or that someone
might turn on a surveillance camera to invade
your privacy.”
Providers of IoT services need to cater for all
these threats and they are not just theoretical, as
Ablondi points out. “Not surprisingly the Black
Hat crew (an informal group of security experts
highlighting vulnerabilities by breaking existing
protection mechanisms) has already demonstrated
“We have seen historically that combining
independently sound technologies can
introduce unexpected consequences in the
way they interact and this can lead to new
security vulnerabilities.”
www.csimagazine.com
February 2015
15
IoT
Satellite and IoT: just another IP node
Satellite and the Internet of Things might not
seem the most natural of bedfellows, but with
IP connectivity spreading all across the world,
so satellites orbiting the earth are no different,
writes Goran Nastic. In fact, Inmarsat, which is
positioning itself in the IoT/IoE space via its
next-gen Global Xpress (GX) Ka-band/L-band
hybrid network, sees IoT as the most
significant trend happening over last few years
and now wants to “ride the IoT wave”. For
instance, Inmarsat expects that M2M type
services are poised to comprise the majority of
L-band demand by 2020.
The satellite service provider held a wellattended Inmarsat Developer Conference in
January at its London HQ, marking what it
called the first steps in the shift towards an
open technology base and one in which the
company is taking its growing community of
developers with them.
“Satellite has been a little isolated in the
broader world of telecoms services. But things
are changing, the world is changing. Our
specific niche of satellite, and mobile in
particular, is adapting and needs to follow the
wider trend. We are developing an access
platform that makes satellite just another IP
node in the sky,” said Inmarsat CTO Michele
Franci at the event.
“We are going from a world of hardware
tailored to a specific use to one where devices
are designed so they can evolve from day one
to different apps and services. We are going to
be an interconnected network of networks.
Some of the solutions we are developing are
all about this, the interconnection to the rest
of the world and making it as easy and
seamless as possible,” said Franci.
In the move to IoT/IoE, objects will get
interconnected in more and more complex
ways, so Inmarsat wants to be able to adapt as
quickly and flexibly as possible to new needs,
markets and devices. Like traditional cable
operators, it wants to be more agile as a
satellite player and for this agility to translate
onto its developers through a standard set of
APIs built on top of the radio ‘building blocks’
that give them more freedom for things like
service management, service assurance,
provisioning and billing. This process will
take time, however, and won’t be finalised
until 2017.
Where Inmarsat sees the synergies is with
terrestrial mobile IoE applications and being
able to integrate with those to provide the fillin coverage where terrestrial mobile is not
available. “We want to be sure that to integrate
with us is the same as with wireless carriers;
we want to have the same architectures for
APIs and billing and provisioning so it’s all
automatic and seamless. It’s the IoE, yes, but
we are focused on a fairly specialised part of it,
which is Wide Area,” David Schoen, Inmarsat
VP, product and network innovation, told CSI.
“Satellite has a subordinate role in these
applications, but we’re trying to get ahead of
the rest of the industry by being that standard
interface and using the same architecture as
mobile service, that’s where we’re headed,”
Schoen added.
how they can hack into a home connected to the
Internet and turn on the lights and so on.”
However Ablondi was relatively sanguine over
the ability to guard against these threats. “There
are precautions that device manufacturers and
platform providers such as iControl, AlertMe,
AT&T Digital Life and MiOS can build in to their
offerings and they are doing that,” he said. “The
threats are there, but so are tools to defend
against them and they are getting better. I’m
seeing a lot of interest among anti-virus and DRM
companies in providing security tools for Smart
Home applications.” Pay TV operators in turn are
showing interest in working with their existing
security suppliers to anticipate and guard against
these threats, according to Christian.
It is not just homeowners that could potentially
be vulnerable to attacks against IoT devices. There
is also the potential to recruit connected devices
in large numbers to create Botnets for launching,
say, denial of service attacks against particular
websites or organisations on a much greater scale
than is possible today.
“A bot network today used to launch denial of
service attacks against sites on the Internet may
be comprised of thousands of computers around
the world,” notes James Kretchmar, CTO for
EMEA at Akamai. “If a commercial connected
home device were compromised and used in this
way it could easily be millions of devices
launching an attack, and while there may be less
bandwidth available to each individual device, the
16
February 2015
www.csimagazine.com
“Cable Europe
expects most of the
bandwidth used ten
years from now to be
machine-to-machine
(M2M) based.”
aggregated traffic and enormous number of
connections could easily overwhelm a site.”
Kretchmar also suggests that the IoT will most
likely introduce new perhaps subtle vulnerabilities
that are hard to anticipate in advance.
“We have seen historically that combining
independently sound technologies can introduce
unexpected consequences through quirks in the
way they interact with each other and this can
lead to serious new security vulnerabilities,”
says Kretchmar.
Integrating disparate IoT islands
These will come to the surface as the current
islands of IoT devices become connected, which is
only beginning to happen. Currently applications
like energy management and home security tend
to be deployed separately but through integration
the whole can become greater than the sum of the
parts and deliver new benefits. For example lights
could be switched on when somebody opens the
front door, exploiting integration between home
security and environmental control.
Integration could also be useful in the
context of pay TV. “For example, making the
smart home know what to do when an on-demand
movie is being played as opposed to live TV
would be an interesting use of IoT,” suggests
Irdeto’s Rosove. “Perhaps because the on-demand
content is available for a fixed time, the user may
want the house to be on complete ‘do not disturb’,
for example with phones automatically forwarded
to voice mail. However, for live TV, perhaps when
a call comes in, the show is paused. Then once
the call is complete, the show could automatically
rewind 15 to 20 seconds and then resume.”
The potential of integrated IoT is endless, but
so far there has been more hype than reality in
that direction. This year looks like being the first
of significant joined up IoT services.
Join us at
DVB
WORLD 2015
23-25 March | Copenhagen
Copenhagen, one of Europe’s great cities, is the location for the DVB World 2015
Conference and Exhibition. Join around 200 delegates, made up of broadcasters,
manufacturers, policymakers and other industry stakeholders from around the world at the
three day networking event to hear about the latest innovations and evolving technologies.
Speaker sessions include an impressive line-up of influential figures in the broadcast
industry to update and inform on the latest evolutions and their impact. Pre-conference
Masterclasses, focusing on particular DVB technologies and other issues, start the event.
Lunches, coffee break sessions and a night out for dinner and celebration provide the
opportunity to connect with other delegates, exchange ideas and
explore new horizons.
For further information on the program and the event
including sponsorship opportunities please visit the
DVB World website.
www.dvbworld.org
2015
IoT - commentary
Succeeding in the connected
home arena
accomplish this. This
booming market means
that we’ll continue to hear
the buzzword “Internet of
Things” for years to come.
This hype, in turn, raises
critical questions for cable
providers. How can legacy
cable providers – who are
rapidly transforming
themselves into
broadband,
entertainment, and
technology companies – evolve their offerings and
infrastructure to grow revenue and value in the
connected home ‘ecosystem’? How can they use
the Internet of Things to establish sustainable
advantages for customers?
John Hanson of Accenture looks at how cable operators
can use the Internet of Things (IoT) to establish sustainable
advantages for customers
Seeking a slice of the connected home
market
An array of innovations across the technology
landscape is converging to make smart, connected
products technically and economically feasible.
As a result, new and old companies of all sizes in
every industry want a piece of the pie. During the
Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas
this January, connected home products were
dominating the event. Every day, you see everyone
from electric utilities to service providers to
garage door manufacturers to software startups all
vying for space in this market.
Cable companies are already squarely in this
ecosystem, with the set top boxes and internet
gateway routers that provide voice, video, and
data in their customers’ homes. And cable
companies are aggressively building off this base
to bring innovative IoT services to market,
beginning with home security and rapidly
innovating with a wider range of home control
offerings.
I
f you look at any research report about the
Connected Home or the Internet of Things
(IoT), whether it’s from an analyst firm or
from the many companies competing in this
space, everyone seems to agree there is a
tremendous disruption to both the home
and the workplace taking place. IDC
predicts that the IoT could become a whopping
18
February 2015
$7.1 trillion industry by 2020. By the end of 2015,
according to Accenture, as many as 13 per cent of
consumers will own an in-home IoT device such as
a smart thermostat or in-home security camera.
In practice, we are seeing a growing number of
these devices that want to speak directly with
other devices on the network, but do not
necessarily need to access the public internet to
www.csimagazine.com
Challenges and recommendations - what
cable must do
At the same time, however, many other companies
have similar plans, and will happily consign cable
companies to simply providing the broadband
pipe these services ride on. The concern also
mounts when standardisation of device intra
networking is acted upon and these broadband
pipes lose their appeal and intra network traffic
satisfies the connected devices needs. To come
out on top, cable companies must “up their game”
IoT - commentary
“To come out on top,
cable companies
must ‘up their game’
in services and
customer experience,
product innovation,
and operations.”
in services and customer experience, product
innovation, and operations, if they want to survive
and thrive. Three key steps they should consider
include: open the platform; enable a high degree
of smart or automatic network functionality,
meaning the platform itself and services have to
be intelligent; and improve individualization.
Open the platform. Right now, cable companies
have platforms that are designed to make their set
top box work well with their network. If they want
to be a player in the connected home market, they
have to broaden this so that their platform can
accommodate “bring your own device (BYOD),”
and not just the set top box. For example, the
platform should accommodate everything from
light dimmers to home security networks,
thermostats and music players.
Enable a high degree of smart network
functionality. A cable company’s platform must be
intelligent, with an ability to “learn” about the
household and consumer and use this to improve
its services. The early version of this already
exists in services that collect data on what
consumers view and develop recommendations
based on this. Moving forward, if the network
notices that a home owner constantly turns up
the air conditioning in the late afternoon, a
prompt could be developed to do this
automatically, depending on whether or not the
user is in the house.
Improve individualisation. If a consumer wants
three elements of a package but not the fourth,
cable providers need to seamlessly support this
and any other individual preferences. To stay
competitive, cable companies should surpass
merely serving up content that users have
requested. They need to manage content and
analyse consumer insights so that service delivery
is personalised and seamless.
Provide a holistic, user-centric approach. Since
the idea of the connected home arose, there has
been increased interest in seeing what kind of
form it will take. The home is an intersection of
services; and thus there have been various
attempts from different industries to make the
connected home a reality as well as a solid
business case. When all is said and done, the
holistic approach will truly change how we
perceive the connected home. Undoubtedly, in
some cases a well-designed point solution can still
do the trick, say, in the form of a well-functioning
mobile home security service. But in the future we
will expect much more from our connected home
services.
It’s important for cable companies to provide a
holistic, user-centric approach because it shows
that the connected home is not just about the
home – it is about the important people in our
lives. It’s the kids, spouses and grandparents we
need to manage and divide our time with. These
important people turn real estate into homes.
Furthermore, it is about managing several
locations that might be special to us: the day to
day home, but perhaps also a boat, summer
cottage, or second residence.
Differentiate from IoT entrants
Successful cable providers will be those that
understand how and why the new consumer
requires much more than the traditional cable
model. They will also recognise that strategies for
interaction, new products and services, or
in-home technologies should be integrated.
Basically, the industry, which has been reinventing
itself, has to keep innovating. When it comes to
the IoT, cable providers will need to move quickly
to differentiate from new entrants by
incorporating an open platform, smart network
functionality, and individualisation into connected
home strategies and secure its place in this $7
trillion industry.
John Hanson is managing
director, North America
cable strategy, Accenture’s
Communications, Media &
Technology group
www.csimagazine.com
February 2015
19
Middleware evolution
Middleware metamorphosis
adopted HTML5,
using it for its
upcoming MediaFirst
TV Platform.
Like managed IPTV
and other legacy
networks, traditional
middleware is under
pressure from new
entrants offering pure OTT services delivered via
multi-screen apps or from service specific retail
STBs where content is delivered over the open
internet.
Gareth Crocker, product manager at STB
maker Amino, reckons the winners will be those
who can evolve fastest to embrace a flexible future
proof architecture that delivers high quality
alongside a rich blend of services with an easy to
use, engaging, personalised and intuitive user
experience. “The losers are those with a rigid
architecture that is too hard and too expensive to
adapt – such as the expensive thick native clients,
developed to optimise performance on legacy
STBs.”
Meanwhile, HTML middleware, the low-cost
option for many years, is starting to break into
new markets, as browser capabilities and platform
performance improves. HTML5 and W3C media
streaming technologies enable efficient streaming
delivery across all types of connected platforms –
and are the main disruptors to ‘legacy’
middleware today (see box out).
The role will likely become more complicated
as the consumer expects the same service on even
more devices with different screens, bandwidth
The onset of virtualisation, OTT, multi-screen and open source
platforms are reshaping the role and form of middleware,
discovers Goran Nastic
A
sked to define the
current state of the
middleware market,
the overwhelming
response from those
approached for this
feature was ‘fragmented
and challenging’. And yet there is also great
optimism for the future. The onset of two-way
connectivity, OTT delivery, cloud intelligence,
multi-screen, catch-up TV, personalisation,
Android, plug-and-play devices, 4k/ultra HD and a
myriad other developments are seen more of an
opportunity than a threat.
In the face of these changes, middleware is
being forced to adapt through more flexible
architectures, much like the wider (pay) TV
landscape itself. The world is moving from
hardware tailored to a specific use to one where
devices are designed so they can evolve to
different apps, demands and services. The
underlying toolkits like QT/Webkit and Blink are
now being included in more and more middleware
solutions. For middleware, this has meant
embracing Web technologies such as HTML5.
Operators are already adopting HTML5 for STB
and multi-screen UX, with the promise of
delivering payTV at Web speed.
“For us at Nagra, it constitutes the foundation
of our OpenTV5 connectware because it finally
allows marrying internet velocity to broadcast
reliability,” says Anthony Smith-Chaigneau, senior
director product marketing at Nagra.
In contrast to earlier years, the quality of the
UI is now one of the most important aspects of
the middleware market. In this sense, the category
of middleware is expanding its role in video,
becoming more than the layer that simply
manages a set-top box in a the home. “Middleware
has evolved to a customer management
technology, and in many cases is increasing its
involvement within the realm of user experience,”
says Peter Hahn, director of product management,
EMEA and APAC, SeaChange.
20
February 2015
“Middleware can now provide a user
experience with PC-like performance and a tablet
like experience. It’s really a metamorphosis,”
agrees Kirk Edwardson, head of marketing at
multi-screen software provider Espial.
Ted Malone, head of planning and strategy,
product area Mediaroom at Ericsson, adds that
what the industry is witnessing is the development
of standardised middleware solutions, enabled by
HTML5 and JavaScript UI programming that
make it easier and more flexible to create and run
apps. “This is a major improvement from past
middleware solutions that used proprietary UI
toolkits that required custom programming skills,”
says Malone. Ericsson is among those who have
“We have seen no
significant RDK
deployments and
many cancelled
implementations.”
Images courtesy of SeaChange
www.csimagazine.com
Middleware
Middleware
evolution
evolution
Source: Source:
Source:
SNL Kagan
Source:
MRG
SNL Kagan M
capabilities, content
capabilities,
protection
content
mechanism
protection mechanism
Table 2. Worldwide
TableTV2.Client-side
Worldwide Software/Middleware
TV Client-side Software/Middleware
Revenue for STBs
Revenue
and Home
for STBs
Media
andGateways
Home Media Gatew
and potentially and
evenpotentially
different billing
even different
platforms.
billing platforms.
The one thing that
Thewill
onenot
thing
change
that will
is the
not change is the
2014
2014
2015
2015
2016
2016
2017
2017
need for all the need
components
for all the
to components
have a centralto have a central
For Set-top Boxes
For Set-top Boxes
$540,540,648 $540,540,648
$526,208,157 $526,208,157
$513,976,546 $513,976,546
$500,177,866 $500,177,866
point of management,
point ofwhich
management,
is essentially
which
theis essentially
For the
Home Media
ForGateways
Home Media
$199,088,523
Gateways
$199,088,523
$246,392,072 $246,392,072
$289,262,124 $289,262,124
$326,414,099 $326,414,099
role of middleware,
role according
of middleware,
to Draccording
Neale to Dr Neale
Total (Worldwide)
Total (Worldwide)
$739,629,171 $739,629,171
$772,600,229 $772,600,229
$803,238,670 $803,238,670
$826,591,965 $826,591,965
Foster, COO and
Foster,
VP Global
COO and
SalesVP
TVGlobal
at
Sales TV at
Access. Similarly,
Access.
he believes
Similarly,
that he
middleware
believes that middleware
will need to evolve
willto
need
taketoadvantage
evolve to of
take
solutions
advantage ofconsequences
solutions
for
consequences
many years, for
warns
many
Stephen
years, warns Stephen
through local graphics
throughprocessing.
local graphics
Thisprocessing.
solution This solutio
that provide enhanced
that provide
cross enhanced
platform cross platform Reeder, commercial
Reeder,
director
commercial
at Ekioh.
director at Ekioh. typically moves typically
the middleware
moves the
functionality
middleware
to functionality to
functionality such
functionality
as statisticssuch
gathering,
as statistics gathering, “There is no doubt
“There
more
is solutions
no doubt are
more
being
solutions are
thebeing
network sidethe
and
network
runs onside
servers.
and runs on servers.
advertising and advertising
media searching.
and media searching.
developed on Android
developed
andon
Opensource
Android and
platforms,
Opensource platforms,
“If the middleware
“If the
UXmiddleware
is rendered UX
by ais rendered by a
“Middleware vendors
“Middleware
have struggled
vendors to
have
keep
struggledbut
to keep
these still don’t
but these
typically
stillencompass
don’t typically
the full
encompassbrowser,
the fullas surely
browser,
it will as
be,surely
with HTML5
it will be,and
with HTML5 and
pace with [OTTpace
change]
with while
[OTTstill
change]
providing
whilehigh
still providing
range ofhigh
middleware
rangeservices
of middleware
requiredservices
by service
required by
browser-based
service
media
browser-based
streamingmedia
technologies
streaming
then
technologies th
quality video services
qualityand
video
enhancing
services them
and enhancing
with
them
provides
with so typically
provides
needsoaugmentation
typically needinaugmentation
many
caninthis
many
be delivered
can this
on be
thedelivered
cloud? Clearly
on the the
cloud? Clearly the
value added services.
value added
So middleware
services. vendors
So middleware
need vendors
areas asneed
well as areas
improved
as well
security
as improved
features,”
security features,”
answer is yes,” explains
answer isAmino’s
yes,” explains
Crocker.
Amino’s Crocker.
to augment theirtotraditional
augment their
solutions
traditional
to try solutions
to
to
explains
try to Charlesexplains
Cheevers,
Charles
CTO Cheevers,
of CPE atCTO
Arris.of CPE at
There
Arris.
are already
There
solutions
are already
for hosting
solutions
HTML5
for hosting HTM
keep pace,” argues
keepDrpace,”
Foster.
argues Dr Foster.
Whether opensource
Whether
technologies
opensource
liketechnologies like
browsers on thebrowsers
cloud, with
on the cloud,
UX encoded
with the
as UX
a encoded a
“The middleware
“The
platform
middleware
has become
platform
onehas
silobecome
Android-L
one siloand RDK
Android-L
(moreand
of which
RDK (more
later), of
will
which later),
standard
will MPEGstandard
video stream
MPEG
forvideo
delivery
stream
to even
for delivery to e
of entertainmentofservices
entertainment
for operators,
serviceswith
for operators,lead
withto more or lead
less to
fragmentation
more or lessisfragmentation
up for
is up
legacy
for STBs. Anlegacy
acceptable
STBs. experience
An acceptable
is experience is
mobile and OTTmobile
being and
separated.
OTT being
Although
separated.
the Although
debate,
thebut the point
debate,is but
thatthe
middleware
point is that
hasmiddleware
to
achieved
has to with a achieved
latency ofwith
a few
a latency
hundred
of a few hundred
operators have done
operators
a great
have
jobdone
of presenting
a great job of presenting
host more and more
host more
applications
and more
andapplications
services and services
milliseconds. These
milliseconds.
cloud solutions
These cloud
are currently
solutions are curren
these separated these
services
separated
as a unified
services
offering,
as a unified
it
offering,
rather than
it less rather
these days.
than less these days.
being deployed being
by operators
deployed
wishing
by operators
to refresh
wishing to refresh
has damaged thehas
reputation
damagedof
themiddleware
reputationsince
of middleware
“Middleware
since
is “Middleware
becoming wayisless
becoming
monolithic
way less monolithic
their UX quicklytheir
andUX
addquickly
supplementary
and add services
supplementary servi
it has not been agile
it hasenough
not been
to agile
respond
enough
to the
to respondand
to the move toand
cloud
thewould
move to
seem
cloud
to doom
wouldthe
seem to doom
such astheYouTubesuch
for as
their
YouTube
legacy for
STBtheir legacy STB
need for unmanaged
need for
devices
unmanaged
and delivery
devices and delivery
need for intelligence
need STB
for intelligence
software. Yet,
STBwe
software.
still
Yet,deployments
we still
that
deployments
do not havethat
CPU/GPU
do not have CPU/GPU
methods,” he adds.
methods,” he adds.
see an important
seerole
an for
important
STB software
role forand
STB
wesoftware
are capabilities
and we areto generate
capabilities
richtographic
generate
UX.
rich graphic UX.
According to Malone,
According
vendors
to Malone,
that arevendors
largely that are
taking
largely
a modular
taking
approach
a modular
to this,
approach
continuing
to this,
the continuing
They the
do however
They
come
doathowever
the price
come
of both
at the price of both
dependent on set-top
dependent
box application
on set-top box
development
application development
role for middleware
role for
to optimise
middleware
metadata
to optimise metadata
server side cost server
and network
side cost
cost
and
fornetwork
guides using
cost for guides us
and middlewareand
are middleware
seeing their are
business
seeingmodels
their business
handling
modelsand management,
handling andprovide
management,
high provide high
MPEG video. Moreover,
MPEG video.
it is generally
Moreover,agreed
it is generally
that
agreed
threatened by Android,
threatened
RDK
by Android,
and HTML5/
RDK and HTML5/
performance app
performance
widgets andapp
secure
widgets
the overall
and secure the
theoverall
need to havethe
a full
needsettoofhave
features
a fullsuch
set ofasfeatures such as
JavaScript. Malone
JavaScript.
believesMalone
they will
believes
have tothey will have
experience,”
to
notes
experience,”
Espial’s Edwardson.
notes Espial’s Edwardson.liveTV, Catch-Up,
liveTV,
interactive,
Catch-Up,
Appinteractive,
Stores, PVR,
App Stores, PVR
move up the stack
move
andupfocus
the stack
on theand
user
focus on the user The message is The
that message
middleware
is that
remains
middleware remains
nPVR, Start-Over,
nPVR,
UIs Start-Over,
and many more,
UIs and
stillmany more, still
experience and experience
user interface
anddesign.
user interface
“Their design. “Their
the glue bringing
thetogether
glue bringing
the UXtogether
for thesethe UX for these
requires in-homerequires
technologies
in-home
ontechnologies
top of an on top of an
business value will
business
be lessvalue
in the
willmiddleware
be less in the
piece
middleware
services,
piece
whether
services,
they arewhether
delivered
they
viaare
IPTV,
delivered viaoperating
IPTV, system
operating
and its associated
system andmodules.
its associated modules.
and more in theand
usermore
experience
in the user
and experience
solution and solution
OTT, DTT, cable,
OTT,
satellite,
DTT, WiFi
cable,orsatellite,
LTE. The
WiFi or LTE. It
The
is also worth It
noting
is also
that
worth
many
noting
operators
that many
still operators
space,” he argues.
space,” he argues.
question is howquestion
much of isthe
how
software
much of
willthe
reside
software will
do not
reside
have a hybrid
do notcapability
have a hybrid
or return
capability
path or return path
Malone notes that
Malone
Google
notes
hasthat
become
Google
a has become
in the
a cloud. in the cloud.
option so this means
optionthat
so this
theremeans
is a long
thatterm
there is a long term
serious player with
serious
Android
playeraswith
a viable
Android
STB as a viable STB
future for even afuture
morefor
basic
even
middleware
a more basic
in amiddleware in a
middleware solution,
middleware
and what’s
solution,
appealing
and what’s
aboutappealing
O middleware,
about
Owhere
middleware,
art thou?
where art thou? device. For the device.
foreseeable
For the
future
foreseeable
at least, itfuture
is a at least, it is
Android as a middleware
Android assolution
a middleware
is that solution
it’s very is that
Middleware
it’s very services
Middleware
like DVR
services
are increasingly
like DVR are increasingly
case of the cloud
case
andofdevice
the cloud
centric
andcapabilities
device centric capabilitie
easy for somebody
easytofor
write
somebody
the apps.
to “We
writeare
thenow
apps. “We
moving
are now
to the Cloud
moving
and
to security
the Cloud
elements
and security
are elements
mutually
are enriching
mutually
each other
enriching each other
seeing lots of people
seeingthat
lotsare
of people
learningthat
howaretolearning how
moving
to from DVB-CAS
moving from
to IPDVB-CAS
DRM, so to
theIP DRM, so the
“The trend to host
“The
certain
trend functions
to host certain
in thefunctions in the
write apps on Android
write apps
using
on Java
Android
because
using
of Java
the because
middleware
of the layer
middleware
has to adapt
layer
to has
support
to adapt
theseto support
cloud
these
while guaranteeing
cloud while
a seamless
guaranteeing
user a seamless user
mobile market. mobile
This makes
market.
it much
This easier
makestoit build
much easier
features.
to build
As functions
features.
become
As functions
more and
become
more more and
experience
more
precisely
experience
calls for
precisely
an increasingly
calls for an increasingly
STB applications
STB
using
applications
the same programming
using the same programming
virtualised, middleware
virtualised,
nowmiddleware
becomes software
now becomes software
flexible softwareflexible
‘engine’software
within the
‘engine’
receiver
within
itself
the receiver its
skills. Similarly,skills.
this opens
Similarly,
up the
this
STB
opens
world
up to
the STB running
world toin the cloud
running
as opposed
in the cloud
to the
as opposed
set top to thethat
set top
is both cloud
thatand
is both
homecloud
network
and aware,”
home network
says aware,” s
the broader Android
the broader
marketplace
Android
of apps,
marketplace
games of apps,
box.games
In this case,
box.
theInfunctionality
this case, the
still
functionality
exists; it is still Nagra’s
exists; itSmith-Chaigneau.
is
Nagra’s Smith-Chaigneau.
and OTT clients,”
andsays
OTT
Malone.
clients,” says Malone.
just running in ajust
different
running
environment.
in a different environment. “Some companies
“Some
do argue
companies
that moving
do argue
thethat moving the
But those bringing
But mobile
those bringing
technologies,
mobilesuch
technologies,
as
Virtualised
such as STBsVirtualised
(vSTB) foresee
STBs (vSTB)
the creation
foresee
of theapplication
creation ofenvironment
application
into
environment
the Cloud is
into the Cloud is
Android, into the
Android,
TV market
into need
the TV
to market
carefullyneed to carefully
a STB with low-end
a STB
CPUs
with and
low-end
GPUs,
CPUs
leaving
and the
GPUs, leaving
inevitable,
the but Iinevitable,
have yet tobut
seeI ahave
convincing,
yet to see a convincing,
consider the implications
consider the
of implications
their actions of
as their
they actions
boxastothey
primarilybox
be to
a video
primarily
decoder
be asolution
video decoder solution
secure, virtual set
secure,
top box
virtual
thatset
renders
top box
thethat
UI in
renders the UI
are likely to be living
are likely
withtothe
be support
living with the support rather than something
rather than
that something
generates its
that
own
generates
UX
itsthe
own
Cloud.
UX Cloud
therendered
Cloud. Cloud
UIs require
rendered
extremely
UIs require extrem
February 2015February
21
2015
www.csimagazine.com
www.csimagazine.com
21
Middleware evolution
low latency between the CPE and the Cloud
server and that is broadly incompatible with
robust levels of security,” argues Ekioh’s Reeder.
Steve Christian, VP of marketing at Verimatrix,
agrees: “Potentially some heavyweight subsystems
like DVR are migrating to the cloud. However,
there is still a lot of code needed on the client end
to render some of these cloud-based interfaces.”
Amino’s Crocker thinks that where the split
between the STB, middleware capability and
cloud happens will be determined by the cost and
performance and make-up of a service offering.
Ultimately, the role of middleware will be
operator, platform and service dependent.
As the STB evolves to more powerful media
gateway platforms (see table) then middleware
will need to provide a rich, immersive experience.
For others, a connected device with an HTML5
Remote UI served from a media gateway is
enough.
It is generally agreed that middleware will
undergo further changes, but the functions it
provides will always be needed, whether
virtualised or not.
Even operators experimenting with vSTBs still
see the need for some hardware inside the home,
despite the costs and flexibility benefits promised
by virtualisation. Deutsche Telekom’s T-Labs,
which is testing the technology in some eastern
European markets, made this statement at a
conference towards the end of last year: “Once
the UI is centralised you don’t need to test against
each device, you only test once and you’re sure it
will work because central run time works in the
cloud. But while vSTBs might suggest that
hardware goes totally to the cloud that’s a
misconception. We need some hardware for video
decoding and processing of streams at the
customer end.”
“Whether it is called a middleware platform or
not, the functionality will always be there,” agrees
Dr Foster.
Reeder also points out that fully virtual STBs
22
February 2015
www.csimagazine.com
EME and DRM in HTML5
Moral/philosophical considerations aside from
free-internet proponents, this has been the topic
of much discussion and work within the W3C
standards body to extend and improve HTML5
over the last few years.
The use of HTML5 frees the operator from
many of the constraints of native middleware
apps that have hindered innovation and quick
development of new services, which is why
more and more middleware solutions are based
on the technology. Operators are in parallel
embracing adaptive rate streaming (ABR) and
DRM extensions as they deploy more IP-based
services and integrate OTT content.
Browser support for ABR and DRM is
becoming critical as HTML5 cloud-based
systems become the norm for STB
deployments. Media Source Extensions (MSE)
and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) are
becoming more prevalent – they have now been
adopted by all the major browser companies,
with Mozilla the last to fall in line in 2014.
The momentum behind HTML5 and W3C
streaming is growing but the problem, not least
from the consumer standpoint, is that the DRM
itself has become specific to device or browser.
EME does not solve the issue of adding a new
DRM to the list of DRMs supported by the
middleware. W3C MSE/EME could help
achieve consistency across the industry for OTT
content but the DRM component is stalling
efforts. While EME offer HTML5/JS
application interoperability (they include an
interface for HTML5/JS apps), they do not
provide DRM interoperability, which is why the
W3C EME specification - pushed by Netflix,
Widevine and Microsoft - is still in draft stage.
So despite calls for standardisation in the
area of DRM this is fraught with extra
commercial and political sensitivities, as
opposed to technical ones, and it remains to be
seen when this will be resolved.
Netflix leverages ABR streaming for the
video payload, building the UX app on HTML.
Other premium OTT streaming services so far
have required use of their own native embedded
players on STBs rather than HTML5. The main
reasons are to ensure premium content is
securely protected and also to guarantee a good
UX. This is why companies like Facebook have
adopted HTML5 and then fallen back to native
development for performance reasons.
“This is indicative of the tradeoff that will
always exist when looking to try and create a
standardised language for UIs and video display
but yet get every last MIP of performance out
of the hardware,” says Cheevers at Arris.
“HTML5 UI rendering is normally assumed
for those looking at using MSE and EME so
UI performance needs to be considered,”
agrees Ekioh’s Reeder. “HTML isn’t the most
suitable rendering technology for TV guides
on lower power hardware, and moving
stream manipulation and DRM into the
JavaScript layer requires significantly more
processing than a low power box has.
“Robust security introduces delay, and
whilst for video this isn’t really an issue, for
UIs it’s a killer,” argues Reeder. “It’s also
worth noting that if the CPE needs to manage
EME and MSE, then it’s powerful enough to
run the UI so why would anyone bother with
proprietary server-based UI solutions when
they could be investing their efforts in an
efficient ‘fit client’ solution which would
carry significantly lower operating costs?”
Until devices like connected TVs have the
performance and security to deliver Netflix via
HTML5, it will be necessary to support a
hybrid of native apps and browser based apps,
according to Amino’s Crocker. This is
something the company has been working on,
developing a lightweight application framework
to enable switching between HTML5
middleware and native premium OTT apps.
Crocker also points out that 2015 will see
the next generation of STB platforms enter
the market, which will have the performance
required to support a decent HTML5
middleware experience.
“Expect to see more and more HTML5
generated guide experiences – but also expect
the discerning MSO ask to try and constantly
improve performance of the STB device and
use whatever native acceleration capabilities
may exist in the device,” concludes Cheevers.
The industry goal, driven by the major
global OTT streaming service providers,
encoder manufacturers and CDN architects,
is to migrate to a unified media streaming
architecture, for delivery of content to any
device, with efficiency and scalability. This
may take some years to achieve.
Middleware
Middleware
evolution
evolution
are the pinnacleare
of the
proprietary
pinnacleinofan
proprietary
industry in an industry
which is strivingwhich
for open
is striving
systems.
for“It
open
seems
systems. “It seems
strange to introduce
strange
a new
to introduce
closed, black
a new
box
closed, black box
technology which
technology
has such which
obvious
has such obvious
shortcomings.” shortcomings.”
With regards toWith
middleware
regardsitself,
to middleware
the RDK itself,
is
the RDK
unlikely to damage
unlikely
the market.
to damage
Significantly,
the market.theSignificantly, th
RDK does not remove
RDK does
the not
needremove
for middleware
the need for
or middlewar
mandate any UX/UI
mandate
elements
any UX/UI
or design,
elements
and the
or design, and t
higher-level functionality
higher-level
is left
functionality
to each operator.
is left to each operato
“RDK offers no“RDK
head end
offers
component
no head end
– which
component – whi
RDK: innovation
RDK:
killer
innovation
or accelerator?
killer or accelerator?
one typically associates
one typically
with associates
user and system
with user and system
Until now, clientUntil
middleware
now, client
hasmiddleware
been proprietary
has been proprietary
management functions.
management
So while
functions.
RDK is
Soa while
usefulRDK is a use
and vendor driven
andbut
vendor
theredriven
have been
but there
efforts
have
at been efforts at
industry initiative
industry
to harmonise
initiativethe
to foundations
harmonise the
of foundation
standardisation standardisation
over the last 10-15
overyears
the last
that10-15
have years that have
the STB software
thestack,
STB it
software
doesn’tstack,
seem it
todoesn’t seem to
not generated much
not generated
market momentum.
much market momentum.
eliminate the need
eliminate
for what
thecould
need be
forcalled
what could
a
be called a
The reference design
The reference
kit (RDK)
design
is thekitlatest
(RDK) is the latest
middleware function
middleware
drivingfunction
the overall
driving
user the overall user
move (initially by
move
the (initially
cable industry
by thebut
cable
now
industry but now
interface,” says interface,”
Christian atsays
Verimatrix.
Christian at Verimatrix.
embracing otherembracing
platforms)other
to bring
platforms)
more oftothe
bring more
Open-Source
of the with
Open-Source
the demisewith
of MHEG5,
the demise
MHP,
of MHEG5,“RDK
MHP,is a start,“RDK
but it’sis not
a start,
prescriptive
but it’s not prescriptive
STB functionality
STB
into
functionality
a commodity.
intoItawas
commodity. ItACAP,
was OCAP, On-Ramp,
ACAP, OCAP,
EBIFOn-Ramp,
etc has shown
EBIF etc hasenough
shown to provide
enough
a stable
to provide
app development
a stable app development
introduced to speed
introduced
the STB
to development
speed the STB development
that in this industry
that in
it is
this
notindustry
only notit possible
is not only
butnot possible
environment
but and
environment
its base assumption
and its base
of hardware
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process. The pre-integrated
process. Thesoftware
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help operators control
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innovate
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top box price points,”
top boxargues
price Reeder.
points,” argues Reeder.
services layer which
services
runslayer
on top
which
of the
runsRDK
on top of the RDK
“The very fact that
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fact thataRDK
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Malone’s Ericsson
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also agrees
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body to managebody
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tellstechnology
us that thistells
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but is not middleware.
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another attempt
just another
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line ofinmiddleware
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but it’s not accelerating
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death of middleware.
the death of middlewa
open source/shared
opensource
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project,
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initiatives,” saysinitiatives,”
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says Smith-Chaigneau.
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to be are
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of other
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commonly usedcommonly
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claimstoofRDK’s
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velocity
Malone. says Malone.
then integrated then
to common
integrated
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on chip system on and
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and agility, Smith-Chaigneau
also argues thatalso
the argues that
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interesting
whether RDK
to see whether RD
firmware.
firmware.
RDK is in fact slowing
RDK is down
in factpayTV
slowing
operators’
down payTV operators’
fragments as thefragments
WebKit project
as the WebKit
has.
project has.
“Many cable companies
“Many cable
are considering
companies are considering
ability to rapidlyability
deploy
toservices.
rapidly deploy
“Its existence
services. “Its existence
moving over to moving
RDK because
over toitRDK
gives because
them a lot
it gives them
has been
a lot since 2008
has been
and since
we have
2008
seen
andnowe have seen Layer
no
cake Layer cake
more flexibility more
to shop
flexibility
around to
forshop
different
around for different
significant deployments
significant
to deployments
speak of and to
many
speak of andBut
many
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itself
middleware
can rest easy
itself
and
can
it rest easy and
hardware vendors,
hardware
and they
vendors,
don’t have
and they
to worry
don’t havecancelled
to worry implementations
cancelled implementations
due to its inherent
due to its inherent
looks like reports
looks
of its
like
death
reports
haveofbeen
its death
greatly
have been greatly
about the middleware
about the
solutions,”
middleware
says solutions,”
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weaknesses as an
weaknesses
incomplete
asspecification
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specification
exaggerated.
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exaggerated.
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RDK as aviews
means
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do much more now,
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driven
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potential to speed
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up the to
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speed
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on their RDK efforts,
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RDK
understands
efforts, CSI
there
understands
are
there
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are think of “If
it as
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that’s much
a pace that’satmuch
least 15 payTV
at least
operators
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actively
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actively contributing
middleware layers
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allowopened
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faster than thosefaster
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at the
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and
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where most of the
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development,”
Hahn. argues Hahn.
outlined operational
outlined
andoperational
OSS/BSS challenges
and OSS/BSS
that challenges
new innovation
that
new
is occurring
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as we
is occurring
add new as we add new
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machine
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theisRDK brings,the
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particularly
to in relationfeatures
to
– Cloudfeatures
services,
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services, Voice Navigation,
certainly evangelising
certainly
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benefits of an
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and
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and
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source platform,”
source
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holding back many
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There is, however,
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stack,” notes Cheevers.
source, potentially
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to
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further warns
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property, the restricted
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“The best
at Nagra.
strategy
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line of thinking.line of thinking.
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term be innovation
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the ‘engine-in-the-car’
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and look at
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business for proprietary
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only cause problems
only cause
if operators
problems
adopt
if operators
it thinkingadoptthe
it thinking
car as a whole.”
the car as a whole.”
because it is largely
because
going
it is
to largely
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that solution
it’s a complete
and unwittingly
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takeunwittingly
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message is The
that message
the middleware
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commoditised, Nagra’s
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Smith-Chaigneau
Nagra’s Smith-Chaigneau
isn’t
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of proprietary
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convinced. “Theconvinced.
Valhalla of“The
Open-Standards
Valhalla of Open-Standards
and
open ones,”
and he says.
open ones,” he says.
TV experience. TV experience.
www.csimagazine.com
www.csimagazine.com
February 2015February
23
2015
23
2015 trends
Crystal ball gazing time
drive the industry to adapt
business models, and
enforced content packages
will start to fragment.
Piksel thinks 2015 will
be the year where the
cable industry will come
“under its first serious
attack”, putting a big squeeze on the traditional
cable model and opening up the market.
“Netflix is also building serious momentum –
the company’s expansion plans and original
content strategy is impressive,” says Miles Weaver,
Innovation Programme Strategist. Weaver further
argues that HBO’s OTT play will have an impact
on Netflix, “and the streaming service may have a
fight on its hands,” despite it appearing on more
payTV STBs (one analyst even sees Netflix as a
likely acquisition target this year, more of which
below). Others also see Google/YouTube and
Apple eating into Netflix’s core market.
“We saw earlier in the year that HBO had
signed off on a deal that allowed Amazon Prime
subscribers to access some of the past seasons of
HBO’s content, and while HBO retains exclusivity
on blockbusters like Game of Thrones, Netflix
now has to compete on two fronts,” he adds.
Goran Nastic looks ahead to what we can expect to happen
over the next year – and what probably won’t
C
SI took its customary start-ofyear feedback from a variety
of industry players to try and
get an idea of some of the main
trends likely to play out in
2015. As technology is
famously fast moving and
unpredictable, some of these are doomed to fall
flat, but see if you agree with any of these picks…
1. OTT’s breakout year
Over-the-top and streaming video is not new, but
2015 will by all accounts be the year that OTT
truly comes of age and into the mainstream.
Large content providers, operators and media
owners are actively pursuing direct-to-consumer
(D2C) strategies in order to reach people
unwilling or unable to pay for a traditional
programming bundle.
HBO, CBS, Sony, Dish, ESPN, Verizon,
Discovery (on top of one from its founder and
former chairman, John Hendricks, called
CuriosityStream) and Viacom are all familiar
names that are looking to expand into the OTT
marketplace, as consumers demand greater
content choice through more flexible bundles.
Reuters calls the HBO launch “one of the most
closely watched moves in pay TV history”, though
the same could be said for any of these upcoming
services from the big sports and entertainment
brands. Indeed, Dish’s Sling TV comes with live
sports, something that is very hard to find online
24
February 2015
legally. ESPN and ESPN 2, the two most
popular sports channels in the US, are for the
first time part of the basic $20 bundle, which
should give live sports streaming a massive boost.
Parks Associates has already undertaken
research which claims that the upcoming 17% of
US broadband households are likely to subscribe
to HBO’s standalone online offering at an
assumed cost of $14.99 per month. This is a big
assumption, given reports that Sony’s own OTT
service may be charged as high as $60-$70, ie not
much less than legacy cable & satellite bundles.
New OTT packages should, and most likely will,
priced much more competitive than this and this
year looks set to be a big one for these platforms,
but one when the content gap between OTT and
conventional TV will significantly reduce.
Ericsson agrees; “We will see a growing
number of brands exploring a direct contentcreation approach, enhancing their consumer
relationships by shifting their focus from
surrounding content to creating it,” the company
tells CSI.
It also argues that the value of ‘ultimate
aggregation’ remains very high because both
fragmentation of services providing content and
the variance in supported consumption devices
can cause frustration to consumers. In addition,
the consumer will expect content services to be
more intelligent and relevant to their preferences,
so not just “skinny” offers but more
demographically targeted ones too. These will
www.csimagazine.com
2. Growth of quad-play and more M&As
If the recent activity in the UK and other
European markets is anything to go by, telco,
cable and even satellite operators will accelerate
the rollouts of OTT/IPTV and mobile in order
to provide customers with a complete quad-play
service. The aim is to increase customer loyalty,
boost revenue streams and lower churn.
Vodafone announced it is ready to compete
in the UK’s developing quad-play market,
joining BT (though its purchase of EE) and
Sky (through its MVNO partnership with O2).
Additional operators will follow in these footsteps,
according to Comigo, a developer of STB and
multi-screen solutions.
It will also drive further M&A activity, one of
the biggest trends of 2014. CCS predicts a tie-up
of Vodafone and Sky (already mooted in Ireland),
which would create a European quad-play
operator with the resources to bid aggressively for
sports rights. “In Germany Sky offers only pay-TV
and Vodafone is making an aggressive push into
fixed line services and needs to strengthen its payTV service. In Italy, Sky offers only pay-TV and
Vodafone has broadband and mobile,” says CCS.
2015 trends
CCS also predicts that a major internet player
will buy Netflix. “All Web players are looking for
a stronger presence in paid-for video, something
Netflix has achieved with remarkable success…
Yahoo, Alibaba and Google are potential suitors”.
3. Ultra HD/4k: Mainly on demand
The next 12-18 months will see more early
rollouts of UHD 4k services and many more
technical experiment, but 2015 won’t be the
breakout year for this emerging standard (indeed,
there is still no consensus on what exactly the
standard should encompass). Rather, it will be a
case of more and more of the pieces forming into
the overall jigsaw.
There will be some limited live 4k, such as
Tata’s broadcasting of the cricket world cup while
DirecTV has a new 4k satellite in orbit, but the
content creation, acquisition, production and
other challenges are such that in reality live won’t
happen on a meaningful scale until the football
and Olympic events next summer at the earliest. It
is these major sporting events will drive live ultra
HD, signalling broadcaster commitments to
the format. 4k will remain more readily available
via OTT than cable and satellite until then.
Rather, 2015 will see on-demand offerings
become more widespread. Alongside HEVC
compression, cloud encoding, GPU decoding
and cheaper UHDTV sets will act as an enabler.
Moreover, many VoD offerings are simply
upscaled from HD. But this will change.
Nevertheless, it is widely recognised that 4k is
beyond the hype stage that 3D never progressed
beyond, according to Ian Throw, Senior Director
Emerging Technology and Strategy, Harmonic.
TV manufacturers, meanwhile, will ramp
production: 60% of LG’s range is now UHD and
11% of all TV sets this year will be UHD-enabled,
a relatively small but visible proportion.
On the contribution side, Net Insight notes
that it is still to be determined whether the
solutions will be HEVC or JPEG2000 based, but
“if we learn from history we tend to prefer the
master to be of uncompromised quality,” the
company says.
All these developments will lay a foundation
for 2016. As analyst Colin Dixon surmises, the
UHD content production value chain seems to be
firming up, making 2015 “look a good, though
not breakout, year for the technology”.
4. Mobile video set for greater role
Many predict that the development of 4G LTE
networks will lead to an explosion in the number
of videos watched on the go.
“In 2015 we’re going to see mobile take a larger
role in the way we watch television,” says
Matthew Huntington, chief technology officer,
Freesat and member FreeTV Alliance
management committee.
The first is TV control via apps and services
such as remote record. The second way that
mobile will generate an even greater influence is
through the further evolution of home hubs
whereby viewers can access their video content
where and whenever they are by connecting to a
hub, this will mainly be through an in-home WiFi
connection but in some cases utilising a cellular
2015 trends
link to the home. “We’re going to see more
operators really investigating this space and how
they develop effective and reliable content
distribution methods that will stay one step ahead
of the competition,” says Huntingdon.
He also expects more partnerships appearing
between content owner, manufacturers and
operators as they work together to develop better
user experience systems. LTE-Broadcast can be
seen as one such innovation although support in
handsets remains an issue.
Broadpeak believes that a video delivery
approach based on a centralised network will
not be sustainable anymore, leading to the
deployment of CDNs dedicated to mobile
networks. Furthermore, the base stations
will become an integrated component of
a successful CDN strategy, according to
CEO Jacques Le Mancq.
On a broader wireless note, operators will
perform deeper engagements and investments
with WiFi and expect to see more WiFi roaming
relationships emerge among operators, as
last year’s breakthrough Comcast-Liberty
Global alliance.
5. Data & personalisation: context is king
Consumers want more personalised offerings so
content engagement and discovery will continue
to evolve towards a vision of context-sensitive
applications and targeted recommendations.
Piksel calls this ‘hyper-personalisation’, which
then creates a feedback loop of analytics and
understanding for suppliers.
“Over the next few years, the industry needs to
transition away from supporting the old adage
‘content is king’ and adopt the ‘context is king’
26
February 2015
strategy,” argues David Leporini, EVP Marketing,
Products and Security at Viaccess-Orca.
Payment specialist PayWizard agrees:
“Ultimately all content owners want to make
money from the content they own, and in 2015
we will see the role that actionable insights are
playing in the monetisation of TV everywhere.
Having subscriber data that content providers can
act upon not only helps them to understand who
their audience is, it also ensures they can deliver
marketing initiatives to acquire new customers
and retain existing ones. This year we will see
companies looking at ways to apply data to create
more engaging and personalised TV that viewers
want, enjoy and are happy to pay for.”
Rich metadata tagging in video frames will
provide detailed contextual information to enable
new levels of interactivity while viewing content.
This will enable new interactive services and
advertising based on the actual items, locations
and other information displayed on each scene
throughout the video, according to Espial.
ContentWise also believes that 2015 will be the
year where advanced personalisation of content
truly comes into its own, acting as a crucial
differentiator for today’s discerning multiscreen
viewers. The company points out that the
consumer experience for content discovery needs
to go far beyond the standard ‘most popular’ lists
and drill-down interfaces - personalisation in 2015
(personalisation 2.0?) will be about anticipating
the viewers’ next move, and pushing content that
is relevant and engaging.
This will come with a parallel focus on multiscreen metrics and cross-platform audience
measurement, according to Kaltura, which should
drive up the ad value of Web video.
www.csimagazine.com
6. Smart TVs: 3rd time lucky for Android TV?
The new Android TV is Google’s third attempt at
cracking the smart TV market and a report in the
Guardian noted that Sony, Sharp and Philips are
all betting on Google’s smart TV software for
2015, hoping the streaming product will become a
key selling points for dozens of new internet
connected TVs. Sony is launching 20 different
Android TV models, including 12 UHD 4K TVs,
meaning only its cheapest sets won’t include the
new Google software. It leaves Samsung, LG and
Panasonic as the only major brands not
committed to it.
The good news for smart TVs is that actual
connection rates to the internet are growing, but
this is offset by the fact that few users are
regularly using any apps beyond the video-centric
YouTube, iPlayer and a handful of others, a
phenomenon not helped by UI issues. Can
Google TV change that habit?
Opera Software believes that HTML5 will stay
far ahead of Android, with HTML5 capability set
to account for nearly 100% of smart TV volumes.
Aneesh Rajaram, SVP for TV & Devices, reckons
Android will account for only a small percentage
of the multiple operating systems shipping on
smart TVs in 2015 (Web OS will probably be
larger, and Linux certainly the largest, he says).
And some others…
Cloud PVR is finally coming. OK, so we’ve heard
this before but there will be a growing adoption of
cloud DVR services as functions migrate that way,
enabling efficiency and agility. The laws about
cloud-PVR are evolving, allowing more shared
copy approaches, whereby content is recorded
only once and instantly made available in all
formats for any screen, according to Broadpeak.
Operators are also looking to cloud-based
storage, virtual transcoding and CDN technology.
An RDK solution will be solidified for
broadband devices, promises RDK Management,
as it does the development of additional
localisation components for global operators.
Continued adoption of RDK will also see some
operators move to DevOps (aka agile delivery),
adds S3 Group.
DLNA’s VidiPath Guidelines are expected to
have a major impact on the connected home
during 2015 and beyond, according to the DLNA
at least. Now in the certification phase,
manufacturers are expected to release their first
certified products during the first quarter.
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PRODUCED BY:
IP multicast
Multicast to the masses
part of Imagine
Communications.
IP multicast is not a
new technology,
having first been
standardised in 1986,
and is today widely
deployed by telcos to
distribute IPTV
content, including
smaller ones like
Telekom Slovenia. In
the UK, BT and TalkTalk are using multicast to
distribute IPTV channels to BT and TalkTalk
YouView devices.
In the 4G arena, the world’s first LTE
Broadcast service, based on evolved multimedia
broadcast multicast services (MBMS), was
launched by South Korea’s KT Corp in January
2014. And other LTE Broadcast trials are
underway globally by firms including Telstra,
Verizon and AT&T, Vodafone in Germany, China
Telecom, and EE and the BBC in the UK.
Pay TV operators have until now typically used
IP multicast to deliver one-way streaming media
such as video to large groups of receivers, but
with live IP streaming coming into play as part of
cable’s TV Everywhere agenda, a more robust
multicast solution tailored to DOCSIS 3.0 and
able to support streaming to connected devices
both inside and outside the home is required.
At present, OTT devices, such as smartphones,
tablets, smart TVs and PCs, are not capable of
directly receiving multicast content so a
conversion must take place in the user’s home
network to convert the multicast signal back into
unicast.
CableLabs is working with its members and the
vendor community to develop a set of multicastassisted ABRS specifications and prototype
implementations designed to enable home
gateways to receive M-ABR streams and translate
them into unicast ABR streams for delivery within
the home. The organisation has been reported as
saying the technology will effectively serve groups
of viewers with a single 6Mbps stream,
significantly reducing bandwidth consumption.
According to Ed Miller, senior vice president
of Broadband Network Services at CableLabs,
home gateways will require a lightweight M-ABR
client software module, referred to as an
Embedded Multicast Client, to process the data.
He told CSI: “The interface specifications being
Consumer demand for OTT and multi-screen services is
increasing bandwidth constraints on networks, but IP multicast
technology - with an ABRS spec in the works by CableLabs could help operators to free up capacity, optimising the
delivery of live content. Stephen Cousins reports
T
he tectonic shift towards IP
video delivery, through set-top
boxes and the increasing variety
of connected devices, is forcing
telco and cable operators to
rethink their content
distribution models.
The streaming industry is currently built upon
a unicast delivery, with IP streams transmitted
separately to each individual receiver. At low
volumes this is manageable, and broadcasters
have been largely willing to bear the cost, but as
volumes grow, and demand for live streaming
video increases, networks are in danger of
clamming up, suffering from video quality drop
outs, and requiring investment in capital
infrastructure and associated operational
expenses. With 4k and other data intensive
services on the horizon, video bandwidth rates
will only increase, making optimisation even more
important.
With these concerns in mind, IP multicast is
being promoted as a more bandwidth-friendly way
to deliver IP video streams to a group of
consumers, which is increasingly gaining traction
in the cable industry.
Multicast enables bandwidth savings in an
ISP’s backbone by streaming content only once in
the network, regardless of the number of viewers
watching. Because the stream is never duplicated
on any link, and only one sustaining feed is
required, it is no longer necessary to carry
thousands of duplicate HTTP streams; routers
closer to the consumer simply copy the stream
out to all viewers. This ‘one-to-many’ approach
promises to eliminate the negative impact of live
content consumption peaks.
Multicast-assisted Adaptive BitRate
Multicast looks set to play a major role going
forward, especially with industry association
CableLabs currently leading a technical effort to
develop a multicast-assisted Adaptive BitRate
specification that will allow STBs to convert
multicast streams into unicast to push out to
devices. Similar solutions are being pioneered by
firms including RGB Networks (soon part of
Imagine), Octoshape and Broadpeak.
“To date, operators have been faced with going
down the costly route of redesigning their network
to add more unicast capacity. As such, a means of
multicast delivery for premium quality, live HD
services, compatible with the fast-channel change,
has become a top priority. Indeed, we only need
to look to CableLabs to see that agreement on a
cable-optimised version of multicast has moved to
the front burner,” says Simone Sassoli, VP of
marketing and business development at RGB, now
“M-ABR technology
will effectively serve
groups of viewers
with a single 6Mbps
stream.”
28
February 2015
www.csimagazine.com
IP multicast
IP multicast
potentially slowing
potentially
down adoption
slowing down
of the adoption of the
technology.
technology.
IP multicast servers
IP multicast
transmitservers
a singletransmit
data a single data
stream into routing
stream
infrastructure,
into routingwhich
infrastructure,
then
which then
efficiently replicates
efficiently
the data
replicates
stream the
for data
end stream for end
clients. This process
clients.
is onerous
This process
to ISPs,
is onerous
as it to ISPs, as it
means that multicast
meansprotocols
that multicast
have to
protocols
be
have to be
deployed on every
deployed
router on
in the
every
path
router
between
in the path between
sources and receivers.
sources and receivers.
Juniper Networks
Juniper
claimsNetworks
to have overcome
claims to this
have overcome
problem with itsproblem
Automatic
withMulticast
its Automatic
Tunneling
Multicast Tunnelin
(AMT) technology,
(AMT)
usedtechnology,
in its MX Series
used in3D
its MX Series 3D
Universal Edge Universal
Routers. Edge Routers.
If a lack of multicast
If a lack
support
of multicast
on any support
device on any device
along the path prevents
along thea path
particular
prevents
usera from
particular user from
joining a native joining
multicast
a native
stream,
multicast
then anstream,
AMT then an AMT
gateway requestsgateway
that anrequests
AMT-enabled
that anrouter
AMT-enabled router
joins the multicast
joinsonthe
behalf
multicast
of theon
user.
behalf of the user.
Specifically, AMT
Specifically,
establishesAMT
tunnels
establishes
that linktunnels that li
users on unicast-only
users on
networks
unicast-only
with the
networks
contentwith the conten
they want on multicast-enabled
they want on multicast-enabled
networks. To getnetworks. To g
the services, operators
the services,
need only
operators
deploy
need
AMTonly deploy AMTdeveloped will help
developed
accelerate
will help
the availability
accelerate of
the availability
claims to
of have developed
claims to have
approaches
developed
to improve
approaches toenabled
improve
routers enabled
at the edge
routers
of the
at the
network
edge as
of athe network as a
vendor productsvendor
and greatly
products
simplify
and greatly
the process
simplify the
its process
ability to support
its ability
of multicast
to support
andofserve
multicast and serve
tunnel endpoint,tunnel
the AMT
endpoint,
relay essentially
the AMT relay essentially
of achieving multi-vendor
of achieving
interoperability.
multi-vendor interoperability.
Existing
underlying
Existingapplications.
underlying
“OpenStack’s
applications.SDN
“OpenStack’s “translates”
SDN
native
“translates”
IP multicast
native
content.
IP multicast content.
customer-ownedcustomer-owned
equipment, suchequipment,
as routers,such as routers,
components do components
not always deal
do not
withalways
multicast
deal with multicast
Smart TVs, tablets,
Smart
or TVs,
PCs, tablets,
that canorconsume
PCs, that can consume
very well, Generic
veryRouting
well, Generic
Encapsulation
Routingtunnels
Encapsulation
No tunnels
magic pill No magic pill
ABR streams will
ABR
be streams
able to consume
will be able
content
to consume content
fail, and VLANfail,
support
and VLAN
dependssupport
on external
depends on external
So what does the
Sofuture
what does
hold the
for IP
future
multicast?
hold for IP multicast?
relayed from therelayed
M-ABR-enabled
from the M-ABR-enabled
home gateway homerouters
gateway
or switches
routers
thatorsupport
switches
VLAN
that support
tagging, VLANThe
tagging,
technology The
is certainly
technology
no magic
is certainly
pill solution
no magic pill solut
without modification.”
without modification.”
we have developed
we have
a fewdeveloped
approaches
a few
to enable
approaches totoenable
bandwidth constraints
to bandwidth
and constraints
the savings and
achieved
the savings achie
A proprietary cable
A proprietary
ABR solution
cablealong
ABRsimilar
solution along
support
similar
of multicast,”
supportsays
of multicast,”
Sassoli. says Sassoli.
will depend on awill
range
depend
of operational
on a rangefactors.
of operational
“It
factors. “
lines was launched
linesbywas
Broadpeak
launchedinby2013.
Broadpeak in 2013.
will depend on serving
will depend
group
onsizes,
serving
IP video
group sizes, IP video
NanoCDN utilises
NanoCDN
an existing
utilises
multicast-enabled
an existing multicast-enabled
Multiple concerns
Multiple concerns
subscriber penetration,
subscriber
cable
penetration,
modem downstream
cable modem downstre
cable network tocable
sendnetwork
a singleto
copy
sendofaasingle
live copy of As
a live
the industry As
sizes
theupindustry
the benefits
sizes up
of multicast,
the benefits ofchannel
multicast,
count, the
channel
prevalence
count, of
thetime-shifted
prevalence of time-shifted
channel to the home,
channel
where
to the
client
home,
software
where client software
a number of points
a number
need to
of be
points
considered.
need to There
be considered.
viewing,
There
etc. However,
viewing,the
etc.savings
However,
can the
be quite
savings can be quite
installed in the broadband
installed in home
the broadband
gateway converts
home gateway
is presently
converts no consumer
is presentlydemand
no consumer
for it - viewers
demand for itsignificant
- viewers for popular
significant
linear
forchannels
popular linear
and live
channels and live
it into unicast delivered
it into unicast
to devices
delivered
as ABR
to devices
either as ABR
just want
eithera quality
justexperience
want a quality
regardless
experience
of theregardless
events,”
of the says Miller
events,”
at CableLabs.
says Miller at CableLabs.
in Apple HLS (HTTP
in Apple
Live
HLS
Streaming)
(HTTP Live
or Streaming)technology
or
- so technology
access to it -via
so connected
access to itdevices
via connectedItdevices
could also be Ita could
more cost-effective
also be a more
method
cost-effective
of
metho
Microsoft Smooth
Microsoft
streaming
Smooth
modes.
streaming modes. must be seamless.
must
Forbeexample,
seamless.the
For
need
example,
for the need
taking
for the heat taking
off of servers
the heatduring
off ofpeak
servers
periods.
during peak perio
The services uses
The
devices’
services
hard
usesdrives
devices’
as ahard
localdrives
special
as a local
apps running
specialonapps
devices
running
would
onmake
devices would An
make
alternative option
An alternative
might beoption
to loadmight
balance
be to load balance
cache to enablecache
the time-shifting
to enable the
functionality
time-shifting functionality
usage of IP multicast
usage more
of IP multicast
complicated
more
than
complicatedand
than
offload content
and offload
to CDNs
content
closertotoCDNs
the closer to the
typically found with
typically
live found
TV streaming,
with livesuch
TV streaming,
as
accessing
such as data directly
accessing
viadata
the Web.
directly via the Web. network edge, but
network
serveredge,
or CDN
but server
costs scale
or CDN
withcosts scale w
pause and 60 second
pause rewinds,
and 60 second
avoiding
rewinds,
the need
avoiding the
“An
need
even bigger“An
obstacle
even bigger
might be
obstacle
generalmight be general
the size of the audience
the size of
served,
the audience
potentially
served, potentially
to make a unicast
to request
make a unicast
to an origin
request
server.
to an origin server.
support in handsets,”
support
notes
in handsets,”
George Robertson,
notes George Robertson,
ramping up costs.
ramping up costs.
“Leveraging home
“Leveraging
networks,home
operators
networks,
can operators
principal
can IP engineer
principal
at DTG.
IP engineer
“It’s well
at DTG.
known“It’s well known
Taking a broader
Taking
perspective,
a broader
IP multicast
perspective, IP multicast
cost-effectively manage
cost-effectively
the consumption
manage thepeaks
consumption
of
that
peaks
Apple
of do their
that own
Apple
thing
do their
and they
own would
thing and theycould
wouldhave a significant
could have
rolea significant
to play as traditional
role to play as traditio
live multiscreenlive
services
multiscreen
for millions
services
of for millions ofneed to see massive
needdemand
to see massive
before demand
switchingbefore
this switching
TV broadcast
this transitions
TV broadcast
to OTT.
transitions
“Everything
to OTT.
is “Everything
simultaneous viewers
simultaneous
using only
viewers
a fewusing
megabits
only a few megabits
on in the iPhone.”
on in the iPhone.”
going IP, at leastgoing
eventually,
IP, at least
and spectrum
eventually, and spectrum
per second fromper
their
second
network,”
from their
says Nivedita
network,” says Nivedita
Another concern
Another
is the need
concern
to configure
is the need
keyto configure
currently
key allocated
currently
to TVallocated
will soonto
have
TVto
will
besoon have to be
Nouvel, VP of marketing
Nouvel, VP
at of
Broadpeak.
marketing at Broadpeak.areas of the pathway
areas between
of the pathway
operators
between
and end
operatorsshared
and end
with other
shared
uses,”with
saidother
DTG’s
uses,”
Robertson.
said DTG’s Robertson
RGB is also working
RGB on
is also
the working
multicastonproblem
the multicast
users
problem
with multicast-enabled
users with multicast-enabled
equipment. There
equipment.
is
“As
There
suchisubiquitous
“As such
fast IP
ubiquitous
through fast
fibreIPcable
through
to fibre cable
at the head-end at
asthe
parthead-end
of its OpenStack-based
as part of its OpenStack-based
likely to be a need
likely
fortospecialised
be a needmulticastfor specialised multicastthe home and multicast
the homewould
and multicast
seem to provide
would seem
a to provide
cloud service platform,
cloud service
CloudXtream.
platform,RGB
CloudXtream. RGB
enabled CPE orenabled
client devices,
CPE oradding
client devices,
costs andadding timely
costs and
solution,”timely
he concludes.
solution,” he concludes.
www.csimagazine.com
www.csimagazine.com
February 2015February
29
2015
29
2015
11 September 2015
Amsterdam
The CSI Awards 2015 – Now open for entries!
Deadline for entries: 13 May 2015
Awards Ceremony, Friday 11 September 2015, IBC, Amsterdam
CSI is delighted to launch our annual awards, now in their 13th year. We look forward to once again receiving many strong
entries that reflect an extremely vibrant marketplace. This year, we are introducing three brand NEW CATEGORIES:
Cloud/virtualisation innovation; smart home service or platform and the Internet of Things (IoT), seen as one of the most
lucrative technology sectors going forward. Choose your categories today!
The CSI Awards categories
1. Best digital video processing technology
11. Best Web TV technology or service
2. Best cable or fibre contribution/distribution/transmission solution 12. Best Ultra HD TV Technology or project
3. Best satellite contribution/distribution/transmission solution
13. Best TV Everywhere/multi-screen video
4. Best customer premise technology
14. Best Social TV technology, service or application
5. Best monitoring or network management solution
15. Best Contribution to TV Accessibility
6. Best content protection technology
16. Best HbbTV technology or service
7. Best content-on-demand solution
17. Best data & analytics innovation
8. Best interactive TV technology or application
18. Best Cloud/virtualisation innovation - NEW
9. Best IPTV technology or service
19. Best Smart home product, technology or service - NEW
10. Best mobile TV technology or service
20. Best IoT product, technology or application - NEW
page thirty
www.csimagazine.com
Awards 2015
CSI magazine • Awards
11 September 2015
Amsterdam
2015
The 2015 judging panel includes
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Dr. Roger Blakeway, President, SCTE (Society for Broadband Professionals)
William Cooper, Founder and Chief Executive, Interactive Media and Convergent Communications Consultancy, informitv
Andrew Glasspool, Founder, Managing Partner, Farncombe
Jeff Heynen, Principal Analyst, Broadband Access and Pay TV, Infonetics Research
Philip Hunter, Independent Writing and Editing Professional
Dr. Klaus Illgner-Fehns, Managing Director, IRT
Peter White, CEO, Rethink Technology Research
Best Contribution to TV Accessibility judges
•
•
•
Professor Jonathan Freeman, Managing Director, i2 Media Research
Guido Gybels, ICT Expert
Steve Tyler, Head of Solutions, Strategy and Planning, RNIB
Best of luck with your entries! For the latest news and updates about the CSI Awards
follow us @CSIAwards #CSIAwards
ENTER NOW: www.csimagazine.com/awards
For awards or entry enquiries:
For sponsorship enquiries:
For marketing enquiries:
Michala Hood, Deputy Head of Events
+44 (0)207 562 4381
[email protected]
John Woods, Managing Director
+44 (0)207 562 2421
[email protected]
Sarah Whittington, Marketing Manager
+44 (0)207 562 2426
[email protected]
CSI magazine • Awards
Awards 2015
page thirty one
www.cable-satellite.com
Technology corner
Renewing the value of copper
for ultrafast broadband
as specified
by ITU-T. Taking the
best aspects
of ADSL and VDSL, this
new generation technology
promises to deliver
bandwidth intensive
consumer applications
such as 4k ultra HighDefinition (4k UHD) and
cloud-based consumer
applications, cost
effectively to homes across Europe and beyond. It
is designed to help operators meet broadband
targets by expanding the footprint of existing fibre
networks and providing gigabit broadband speeds
to consumers with greater penetration.
G.fast dramatically increases the performance
of digital transmission over copper telephone
wires. Designed to support Fibre to the
Distribution Point (FTTdp) deployments, which
brings fibre within as little as 50-200m from the
customer’s premises, G.fast operates over the final
copper drop wires between the fibre termination
at the Distribution Point Unit (DPU) and the
user – enabling users to receive bitrates of up
to 1Gbps.
As a Fibre to the Home (FTTH) alternative,
many operators are already looking to deploy
FTTdp networks using G.fast technology, to
enable ultrafast broadband through existing
copper access. FTTH was seen for a long time as
the ‘future-proofed’ solution, providing rapid
connection speeds and increased bandwidth over
long distances. In reality the installation and
operation costs of FTTH remain far too expensive
for a lot of service providers and network
operators struggle to implement viable FTTH
business models, especially in long-established
networks. The practical and economical
difficulties of FTTH deployment has given rise to
copper extending technologies such as G.fast,
which can provide ultrafast ‘fibre-like’ broadband
at a fraction of the price – giving operators the
very best of both worlds.
G.fast developments have been encouraged by
the success of VDSL2 vectoring, which has
proven that operators still want to retain copper
cabling to prolong the migration to FTTH
networks. G.fast has been designed to co-exist
with VDSL and allow operators to employ both
technologies in different scenarios and allow
customers to switch between the solutions, in line
Robin Mersh offers a look inside the new G.fast standard
and explores how the technology capitalises on existing
investments
T
he global
telecommunications
landscape is constantly
changing and with the
rapid emergence of the
Internet of Things (IoT),
the rise in the number of
connected devices and the growing popularity of
data-hungry applications, the market is seeing a
massive surge in the need for ultrafast broadband.
As this demand for greater bandwidth and
connection speeds grows, the ability of broadband
technologies to evolve to meet this “new age”
of broadband is being constantly challenged.
Service providers – both mobile and fixed –
are being bombarded from all sides. While
shareholders look for maximum profits (many
of them also bandwidth-hungry customers
themselves) from their investment, the operators
have to maintain and modernise their networks
as never before. The range of technologies have
never been wider either and they stretch from
the new world of software defined networking
(SDN) and network function virtualisation
(NFV) to legacy equipment designed in the
days when these operators provided voice
services only.
Yet set against this incessant demand – while
operators are also fighting off the revenue
“leakage” of the OTT services – an unsung hero
has emerged once again to help these carriers to
survive the latest threat to their operations and
their profitability.
That hero is one of the oldest elements of
any telephone network going back 100 years.
Against all odds, copper would appear to be
king once more. Copper in the shape of a
solution called G.fast.
The power of G.fast
G.fast is the latest generation of ‘DSL’ technology
32
February 2015
“The cost of
deploying FTTdp
networks with G.fast
are considerably
lower than deploying
FTTH networks and
provide a better ROI.”
www.csimagazine.com
Technology corner
“One of the big
applications for
FTTdp with G.fast
is in MDUs.”
with enterprising business models.
With approximately 400 million lines of DSL
already installed, network operators are keen to
maximise the speed and bandwidth of their
existing copper networks to remain competitive
against 100% fibre FTTH network providers.
The cost of deploying FTTdp networks with G.
fast are considerably lower than deploying
FTTH networks and provide a better return on
investment, allowing operators to both market
and deliver ultrafast broadband without the
substantial investment of deploying their own,
totally new-build, FTTH networks.
What’s unique about G.fast?
One of the key things that sets G.fast apart from
previous technologies is its ability to support
reverse power. Unlike ADSL2 and VDSL2, G.fast
uses Time Division Duplexing (TDD) which
allows the ratio of upstream to downstream data
rates to be easily changed as application
requirements evolve. This will become
increasingly significant as cloud networks
increase in popularity and low upstream
bandwidths begin to cause a bottleneck for
users sharing large files. This flexibility
enables operators to provide new services for
the connected home such as remote video
surveillance, and consumers can tailor their
upstream to downstream ratio to best suit
their usage. TDD also provides power saving
functions for G.fast since many functions of
the transceivers can be turned off when there
is no data to send.
G.fast uses the copper drop wires to feed
power backwards from the customer premises to
the DPU and is designed to be able to operate
with any number of subscribers. However, G.fast
does not always have to use reverse power, it can
also be operated by commercial power. One of
the big applications for FTTdp with G.fast is in
Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs). In MDUs the
serving node might be located in an equipment
room in a basement of the building where you
have power readily available, and in this case it
makes more sense to use commercial power.
G.fast is complementary
The technology is also designed to work well in a
customer self-install environment, allowing service
providers to avoid the cost of sending a technician
to the home, therefore cutting the inefficiency of
scheduling a technician to be there at the same
time as the customer to let them into the home,
as well as and the inconvenience to the customer.
G.fast enables services providers to receive the
savings of the self-install, the savings of the power
feeding and the savings of running fibre to the
home for those last 100-200m. If you look at the
circuitry involved for G.fast it’s very simple and so
the equipment cost itself is very reasonable, all of
these savings add up to a very exciting proposition
for service providers.
G.fast also supports vectoring and VDSL2
technologies to reduce far-end self-crosstalk and
interference in order to boost performance. As a
consequence G.fast is able to utilise 100 MHz of
spectrum over the copper pair wiring from
existing telephone lines – this is particularly
impressive when you consider a traditional DSL
line uses less than a MHz of spectrum. G.fast also
utilises an optimised modulation technique, based
on that used in VDSL2, and is backwards
compatible to future-proof the technology.
G.fast therefore unleashes the true potential of
existing copper networks and enables operators to
deploy ultrafast broadband networks cost
effectively. This extends the life of an operator’s
existing network infrastructure economically and
boosts broadband speeds.
For today, G.fast can work with voice services
but it is best suited for the future where traditional
telephone networks have been retired and instead
everything is done with Voice over IP (VoIP). G.
fast will work perfectly in that environment, where
there is no need for traditional and analogue
telephony any more.
The Broadband Forum has many programmes
designed to speed up the release of G.fast-based
services including an enhanced FTTdp
architecture, a series of G.fast plugfests to ensure
chip interoperability, a G.fast Certification
Program launching this year and a series of
standards to define management of G.fast related
equipment.
All these measures are necessary to not only
smooth the way for easy integration of G.fast into
already complex network architectures but to
maximise interoperability across the world.
Interoperability will boost service provider
confidence in making the G.fast move and will
ensure competitive pricing as they look to deliver
sustained profitability while meeting the
challenges of the market.
The other benefit of interoperability is that it
will prolong the life of G.fast in the network.
Copper has been with us now for more than a 100
years as a core component of the network.
Through G.fast could it still be supporting us in
another 100?
Robin Mersh is CEO of the Broadband Forum
www.csimagazine.com
February 2015
33
4k security
The UHD security jigsaw
improvements to the
user experience,
including use of High
Dynamic Range and
more frames per second
among others.
The UHD advocates
got a boost at CES 2015,
with the launch of the
UHD Alliance, a partnership between Hollywood
studios, content distributors, various technology
manufacturers and service providers. Its members
have pledged to work towards establishing new
standards to support further innovation in 4k and
related technologies. They include DirecTV, LG,
Netflix, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony,
Disney, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros.
Whatever you want to call them, some 4k/
UHD services are already available, mainly from
OTT providers offering viewers the chance to view
UHD/4k services on HEVC-compatible TVs.
They include Netflix, which began streaming
House of Cards at 4k in 2014; and Sony, which
streams 4k content to specialised consumer
devices.
Companies are working to put the security pieces in place to
support the wide scale launch of 4k ultra HD services over the
next couple of years, discovers David Adams
E
veryone in this industry knows all
too well that just because a new
service exists doesn’t mean
consumers will want to use it. In
recent years, for example, 3D
TV has proved something of a
disappointment. But that hasn’t
stopped a lot of people starting to get excited by the
potential of 4k or ultra HD (UHD) TV. Yet before
the industry gets a chance to find out whether or
not consumers are really excited by 4k/UHD
themselves, content owners and operators need to
address the question of how content will be
secured.
The terms 4k and UHD are currently
synonymous but this is misleading - nor is either
yet fully defined. The Digital Cinema Initiatives
(DCI) version of 4k offers a range of resolution
options up to 4096 x 2160; while online both
YouTube and Vimeo offer a maximum upload
ratio of 4096 x 3072. At present online is where
most people are most likely to see any kind of 4k
content, as HEVC compression allows streaming
34
February 2015
of 4k content on a bandwidth of 20 to 30 Mbps.
Some in the industry find the term 4k limiting
and are happier discussing UHD. The US
Consumer Electronics Association definition of
UHD says the term should apply to displays with
an aspect ratio of at least 16:9 and at least one
digital input capable of carrying and presenting
native video at a resolution of at least 3840 x
2160. But UHD may also include other
“It’s a bit like the
Wild West out there,
with everyone using
different standards
and security
controls.”
www.csimagazine.com
The chicken-and-egg dilemma
As a content creator and a manufacturer of 4k/
UHD technology Sony is a special case, but most
content owners and platform operators are
moving ahead more cautiously, unwilling to
commit to the production and/or distribution
infrastructure investments required to serve a
mass audience until they can be sure they will
make much money out of 4k/UHD.
“If the average consumer cannot see a dramatic
improvement in their experience they are not
going to pay more money for the service,” says
Petr Peterka, CTO at Verimatrix.
There’s another problem too, particularly for a
broadcaster/operator that does not offer a great
deal of sports content. “There isn’t a huge amount
of content out there at the moment and it’s going
to cost a lot of money to produce UHD content,”
says Simon Gauntlett, CTO at digital TV industry
association DTG. At present some movies are
shot using 4k cameras, but the movie is then cut
back to 2K, because of the much higher costs
associated with editing 4k content – currently up
to 50 per cent higher.
Even so, it is likely that 2015 and 2016 will see
more deployments of 4k/UHD by more OTT and
broadcast operators, in connection with premium
4k security
4k security
VoD content orVoD
evencontent
in limited
or even
casesinlive
limited
sports.
cases live sports.
Indian satellite Indian
pay TVsatellite
operatorpay
Tata
TVSky
operator
has Tata Sky has
already launched
already
a UHD
launched
service a(as
UHD
has Dish
service
in (as has Dish in
the US) and STB,
thein
US)
January
and STB,
2015.
in The
January
20152015. The 2015
Cricket World Cup
Cricket
willWorld
be telecast
Cup will
live in
be 4k
telecast
to live in 4k to
consumers whoconsumers
own the boxes.
who own
Meanwhile,
the boxes. Meanwhile,
Futuresource Consulting
Futuresource
estimates
Consulting
that 4k
estimates
TVs that 4k TVs
already accountalready
for fiveaccount
per centfor
of five
the per
global
cent of the global
market and suggests
market
this
and
figure
suggests
will rise
this to
figure
19 per
will rise to 19 per
cent by the endcent
of 2016
by the
andend
could
of 2016
top 40
and
per
could
centtop 40 per cent
by 2018.
by 2018.
No security panacea
No security panacea
But if 4k/UHD But
is toiffind
4k/UHD
a massis audience
to find a the
mass audience the
industry will need
industry
to findwill
a way
needtotosecure
find acontent
way to secure content
effectively. In late
effectively.
2013, MovieLabs
In late 2013,
published
MovieLabs
a
published a
specification forspecification
Enhanced Content
for Enhanced
Protection,
Content Protection,
NAGRA’s Gravity
NAGRA’s
Ultra user
Gravity
interface
Ultra user
for 4K
interface
UltraHDfor
television
4K UltraHD televis
outlining best practice
outlining
guidelines
best practice
on securing
guidelines on securing
UHD/4k content.
UHD/4k
Technology
content.
companies
Technology
havecompanies
used
have
to identifyused
and shut
to identify
down and
illegitimate
shut down illegitimate
marketing, at Irdeto,
marketing,
also stresses
at Irdeto,
thealso
importance
stresses the importan
responded, enhancing
responded,
products
enhancing
to meet
products
these to meetredistribution
these
ofredistribution
content.
of content.
of looking beyond
of looking
the technology
beyond the
elements
technology
withinelements wit
requirements where
requirements
necessary.
where
The requirements
necessary. The requirements
In January 2015,
In Civolution
January 2015,
was Civolution
able to
was ableantoeffective 4k UHD
an effective
security
4kstrategy.
UHD security
“Therestrategy.
has
“There h
in the specification,
in thesuch
specification,
as output protection,
such as output
a protection,
announce
a that its
announce
NexGuard
thatforensic
its NexGuard forensic to be a holistic to
approach
be a holistic
that [includes]
approach that
forensics,
[includes] forens
secure computing
secure
environment
computing
and
environment
the encryption
and thewatermarking
encryption technology
watermarking
hadtechnology
been included
hadin
been included
investigation
in
and
investigation
collaboration
andwith
collaboration
law
with law
requirements, are
requirements,
supportableare
in technologies
supportable in technologies
new Sigma Smart
newTV
Sigma
chipsets,
Smart
supporting
TV chipsets, supporting
enforcement agencies,”
enforcement
he says.
agencies,” he says.
available today available
and already
today
incorporated
and alreadyinincorporated
many
resolutions
in many up to
resolutions
4k UHD in
upHEVC
to 4k UHD
and VP9
in HEVC and VP9
But how quicklyBut
arehow
we likely
quickly
to are
see we
such
likely to see such
devices. Chipsetdevices.
manufacturers
Chipset are
manufacturers
producing are producing
codecs and High
codecs
Dynamic
and High
RangeDynamic
solutions.Range
“The solutions.
strategies
“Thein action?
strategies
In 2014,
in action?
satellite
Inservices
2014, satellite services
4k-capable chipsets.
4k-capable
Security
chipsets.
providers
Security
like Irdeto
providers technology
like Irdeto is mature
technology
and can
is mature
be integrated
and caninto
be integrated
provider
intoIntelsatprovider
surveyed
Intelsat
77 of its
surveyed
customers
77 ofinits customers i
and Nagra can and
already
Nagra
point
cantoalready
solutions
point
thatto solutions
anythat
workflow for
anylive,
workflow
broadcast,
for live,
or OTT
broadcast, or OTT
24 different countries
24 different
aboutcountries
the prospects
aboutfor
the prospects for
could be used ascould
part be
of used
a comprehensive
as part of a comprehensive
4k
delivery,”
4k
says Mathieu
delivery,”Bonenfant,
says Mathieu
vice-president
Bonenfant, vice-president
UHD/4k. Of these,
UHD/4k.
63 perOfcent
these,
said63they
perbelieved
cent said they believ
security solution,
security
such as
solution,
Nagra’ssuch
on-chip
as Nagra’s
security,on-chip
products
security,
and solutions,
productsatand
Civolution.
solutions, at Civolution. 4k/UHD services
4k/UHD
would be
services
mainstream
would be
within
mainstream within
encryption and encryption
scramblingand
capabilities.
scrambling capabilities. However, neither
However,
operators
neither
nor technologists
operators nor technologists
five to seven years.
five Forty-two
to seven years.
per cent
Forty-two
said their
per cent said thei
But the uncertainty
But the
overuncertainty
what exactly
over
4k/UHD
what exactlyshould
4k/UHD
view watermarking
should viewaswatermarking
a panacea, says
as aIan
panacea,companies
says Ian had companies
already decided
had already
to launch
decided
a 4k to launch a 4k
is doesn’t help. is“It’s
doesn’t
a bit help.
like the
“It’s
Wild
a bitWest
like out
the Wild Trow,
West out
senior director,
Trow, senior
emerging
director,
technology
emerging
andtechnology
UHDand
service and
UHD
hadservice
a timeframe
and had
in place
a timeframe
for
in place for
there, with everyone
there,using
with everyone
different standards
using different
and standards
strategyand
at Harmonic.
strategy“Technology
at Harmonic.
will
“Technology
only take willlaunch,
only take
with almost
launch,
a quarter
with almost
(23 per
a quarter
cent) (23 per cent)
security controls,”
security
says Michael
controls,”Goodman,
says Michael Goodman,
you so far,” he says.
you so
“The
far,”poor
he says.
souls“The
who’ve
poor
been
souls who’ve
planning
beento launch
planning
withintofour
launch
years.
within four years.
director, digital director,
media strategies,
digital media
at US-based
strategies, at US-based
involved in administering
involved incease
administering
and desistcease
orders
and desistHowever,
orders Intelsat’s
However,
surveyIntelsat’s
also highlighted
survey also
the highlighted t
consultancy Strategy
consultancy
Analytics.
Strategy Analytics.
have been fighting
havea been
losingfighting
battle: as
a losing
soon as
battle:
you as soon
factors
as you
that are factors
slowingthat
progress.
are slowing
Askedprogress.
to cite Asked to cite
The major change
Theinmajor
the content
changesecurity
in the content
world security
shut something
world
shut
downsomething
it pops updown
againitas
pops
another
up again as
concerns
anotherrelatedconcerns
to 4k/UHD
related
a large
to 4k/UHD
majorityaoflarge majority o
that may be driven
that by
may
4k/UHD
be driven
is an
by increase
4k/UHDinis an increase
entity. Technology
in
entity.
needs
Technology
to be used
needs
hand-in-hand
to be used hand-in-hand
respondents cited
respondents
ability to achieve
cited ability
a return
to achieve
on
a return on
the use of watermarking
the use oftechnologies
watermarking
as technologies
an antiaswith
an antian aggressive
withstance
an aggressive
to avoid stance
the asset
to being
avoid the asset
investment
being (71 investment
per cent). And
(71 per
despite
cent). And despite
piracy measure,piracy
with session-based
measure, withwatermarking
session-based watermarking
compromised incompromised
its release life.”
in its release life.”
announcementsannouncements
such as the launch
suchofasthe
theUHD
launch of the UHD
Christopher Schouten,
Christopher
senior
Schouten,
director, senior
product
director,
Alliance
product
there isAlliance
little progress
there isoflittle
coordinated,
progress of coordinated,
marketing for pay
marketing
TV technology
for pay TV
at Nagra,
technology
pointsat Nagra,
industry-wide
points progress.
industry-wide
Instead,
progress.
most services
Instead,will
most services w
to the work his to
company
the work
is his
doing
company
in combination
is doing in combination
be the product of
be bilateral
the product
discussions
of bilateral
between
discussions between
with watermarking
withspecialists.
watermarking
“Onspecialists.
a Nagra STB
“On a Nagra
individual
STB operators
individual
and content
operators
owners.
and content
With owners. With
we can supportwe
multiple
can support
different
multiple
watermarking
different watermarking
most operators most
in theoperators
broadcastinworld
the broadcast
still unable
world still una
technologies,” he
technologies,”
says. “But what
he says.
do you
“But
dowhat
whendo you
to do
justify
when
the costs
to justify
of a mass
the costs
4k/UHD
of a offering,
mass 4k/UHD offering
the content escapes
the content
into theescapes
world? into
You the
haveworld?
to YouOTT
haveplayers,
to
able
OTT
to players,
adapt and
able
update
to adapt
theirand update their
find an individual
findSTB
an individual
distributingSTB
content
distributing
and content
infrastructures
and
so
infrastructures
much more quickly
so muchand
more
easily,
quickly and easil
remove entitlements
remove
from
entitlements
that smartfrom
card.that
Yousmart card.
will You
continue towill
be able
continue
to steal
to be
a march
able toonsteal
them.
a march on the
have to work with
have
third
to work
partywith
ad networks
third party
to ad
get networksFor
to get
example, the
For
streaming
example,service
the streaming
Wuaki (part
service Wuaki (p
them to removethem
the pirates’
to remove
source
the of
pirates’
funding.”
source of funding.”
of the Rakuten of
Group),
the Rakuten
startedGroup),
streaming
started
movies
streaming mov
Richard Scott, senior
Richard
vice-president,
Scott, senior sales
vice-president,
and
in
sales
4k UHD
and to subscribers
in 4k UHDusing
to subscribers
compatible
using
LG compatible LG
www.csimagazine.com
www.csimagazine.com
February 2015February
35
2015
35
4k security
Source: QuickPlay
Media survey
TVs in Germany and France at the start of
December 2014 and is planning similar services
in the UK and Spain. Wuaki is using Civolution’s
NexGuard content protection solution to provide
session-based watermarking.
But Civolution’s Bonenfant says more
traditional operators with STB-based
infrastructures are also considering using the
technology to protect 4k/UHD. “Forensic
watermarking can be server side or device side, if
you are an operator that owns a device,” he says.
“The operators are very secretive, but most are
working on UHD.” He believes more of this
activity is happening in the US and Europe than
in Asia.
The decision as to how best to deploy
technology to secure content will also be based on
pragmatic factors and on the attitudes to risk
within individual operator and content creator
companies. For example, session-based
watermarking will need to be used quickly if it is
to be of any use to an operator or OTT provider
seeking to prevent or close down illegitimate
redistribution of premium live sports content. As
Irdeto’s Scott puts it: “The value in live content
36
February 2015
diminishes dramatically over time – the ability to
detect and take down unauthorised redistribution
of live content is really critical. We are working
with the English Premier League to ensure that
when they are in a position to distribute live
content in 4k they would be able to disrupt and
take down live streams more or less instantly.
Being able to take action two hours later is no
good.”
Beyond the MovieLabs spec
For movie studios the security question will be
examined from a slightly different angle. And in
addition to securing UHD content made available
on VoD or for linear broadcast or streaming,
studios will also want to ensure that DVD and
Blu-Ray formats can be adequately secured, as
this gives studios the opportunity to make some
more money out of investments in 4k technology.
www.csimagazine.com
Ultimately, the sheer amount of interest in 4k/
UHD will surely force operators’ and content
owners’ hands. “Eventually all of these pieces will
come together,” says Peterka. “By the time the
mass market is ready for UHD all of the security
pieces will be in place to protect these
commercial services.”
“We have customers planning to launch 4k
services,” says David Leporini, vice-president,
marketing, at Viaccess-Orca. “You will see new
services in 2015, but it will be 2016 before we see
a mass market.”
“For the early stages of adoption, which is what
we are in, we’re progressing quite nicely,” says
Goodman at Strategy Analytics . “But the really
big issue is a revenue model for the studios. If 4k
is always going to be a money loser then in the
long run they won’t support it.
“The second issue is that you have to have
standards, because your security is produced in
accordance with those standards. In the near term
we will see a lot of different security solutions
based on what the standards might be.”
The MovieLabs specification is definitely a
useful first step, says André Roy, security practice
leader at Farncombe. “You’re unlikely to get a
more comprehensive view of what can be done to
secure 4k. MovieLabs has done a good job in
capturing both technical and governance
requirements. How much of it will be applied by
each of the content owners remains a big
question.”
For the major operators everything rests on
how quickly they can develop a service that
excites consumers enough for them to pay more
for it, says DTG’s Gauntlett. “It is a commercial
decision as to when you believe the step change
is significant enough that people will pay more
for it,” he says. “If Netflix and Amazon get a
huge traction with their 4k content, I suspect that
will push the broadcasters to move more quickly.
If it progresses more slowly, broadcasters can
afford to wait. It’s not a technology problem. I’m
not ruling out platform launches this year, but [an
operator] has to be sure they can make a return
and have enough content to make it worthwhile.”
The good news for operators and content
owners is that more delay will surely help refine
the security technologies already under
development in this space. The bad news,
of course, is that those who seek to steal
4k/UHD content will be refining their technology
strategies too.
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25231
In-flight connectivity
Inflight connectivity goes global
shifted TV that ensures
no passenger ever has to
miss the end of their
movie or show because
their journey is over,
presents an interesting
opportunity for engaging
and capturing consumers
and monetising. But it
also provides new technical challenges with more
content protection when the passengers are
‘taking the content’ out of the aircraft.
“On-demand TV reflects how people
increasingly watch TV shows and films but there
is the question of which channels to show, in
which language, along with the associated
licensing rights,” states OnAir. “This is less of an
issue when flying only over one country (such as
the US) however it is very complex when flying
international routes.”
“The licensing of compelling live TV content
is key and likely a bigger challenge in developing
a robust and compelling line-up of live content
rather than the technology used to deliver IPTV,”
agrees Global Eagle CTO and senior VP of
Airlines are increasingly using high speed broadband to
differentiate their service and keep pace with passenger
demand at 40,000 feet. Adrian Pennington reports
I
n response to intensifying consumer
demand for the content they want when
they want it, airlines are increasingly
employing wireless streaming and portable
devices as a value service to enhance
passenger experiences. These new services
present an opportunity for airlines to
increase consumer bases, create new revenues and
reduce cost. It also presents new business for
satellite bandwidth and broadband systems
providers as the demand for global inflight
connectivity expands outside the US.
“The aeronautical mobility sector is a key target
market for SES and is poised for strong growth in
the coming years,” said SES chief commercial
officer Ferdinand Kayser, in tying up a deal last
September to supply satellite bandwidth to aero
communications supplier Global Eagle.
The demand is clear. With 81% of passengers
carrying a smartphone, and nearly 20% carrying a
smartphone, a tablet and a laptop, people want to
view content over their own devices, as they do on
the ground. Inmarsat quotes figures that show
passenger demand for inflight connectivity has
increased in the past 12 months, with 52% of
consumers believing it an important area of
investment, and 54% saying they would use their
mobile device to stay in touch with the ground.
“Many people dread being out of mobile phone
contact,” states OnAir Aero, a provider of in-flight
connectivity services. “There is no reason why
that should change just because they are flying.”
on any device is changing the cost-benefit
equation for airlines and high-quality, scalable,
flexible video streaming solutions will play a
significant role in this transition,” says Lionel
Bringuier, senior product manager, delivery
products for Elemental Technologies.
“Infrastructures based on legacy hardware will not
be able to keep pace. Airlines and IFE vendors
need to be able to easily prepare their technology
infrastructures for live linear streaming at the
lowest possible total cost of ownership.”
Increasingly, consumers expect their video
anywhere, on any device and want to view that
content with DVR controls like time delay, pause
or repeat. They will come to expect this onboard
airplanes, too. Live streaming TV, as well as time-
“The OpenSkies iPad system cost about
$250,000 to install per plane in contrast
to the $3m per airplane that typical in-flight
entertainment systems cost to wire in.”
Competing for eyeballs in mid-air
The global in-flight entertainment (IFE) segment
is estimated to total more than $3 billion
annually. The industry has been growing at nearly
double-digit rates and is expected to expand more
rapidly over the next few years. Certainly, with the
number of commercial aircraft with high-speed,
broadband communication links projected to
quadruple to more than 13,000 by 2023,
competition for eyeballs in mid-air will intensify.
“Consumer demand for any content at any time
38
February 2015
www.csimagazine.com
In-flightIn-flight
connectivity
connectivity
engineering Aditya
engineering
Chatterjee.
Aditya
“This
Chatterjee.
is more “This is more
challenging outside
challenging
of the US
outside
whereofinternational
the US where international
licensing can belicensing
complexcan
as aircraft
be complex
moveasacross
aircraft move across
country borders.country
Additionally,
borders.
airlines
Additionally,
have airlines have
to consider whether
to consider
to deliver
whether
live TV
to deliver live TV
to passengers’ devices
to passengers’
and/or seatback
devices and/or seatback
screens as passenger
screens
behaviour
as passenger
evolves
behaviour evolves
with more and more
with more
bringing
andtheir
more bringing their
own devices.” own devices.”
business modelsbusiness
in ordermodels
to attract
in order
more to attract more
Different business
Different
models
business models
passengers to use
passengers
the service.”
to use the service.”
Pay per view, pay
Payper
perMByte,
view, pay
pay per
by MByte, pay by
Video heads theVideo
list ofheads
potential
the list
connectivity
of potential connectivi
duration and sponsorship
duration and
aresponsorship
some of theare some of the
apps but is far from
apps the
butonly
is farone.
fromFor
theexample,
only one. For exampl
different business
different
modelsbusiness
in play although
models in play although
in the cabin it not
in the
onlycabin
includes
it notpassenger
only includes passenger
these pay models
these
are pay
based
models
around
arebroadly
based around broadly
connectivity butconnectivity
also crew communications
but also crew communications
and
an
two deploymenttwo
modes.
deployment modes.
inventory management,
inventorycrew
management,
rostering, credit
crew rostering, credit
In one, airlines In
preload
one, airlines
contentpreload
and content and
card payments and
cardtelemedicine.
payments andIntelemedicine.
the cockpit, In the cockp
specialised in-flight
specialised
apps onto
in-flight
tablets
apps
thatonto
are tablets that are
applications include
applications
connected
include
electronic
connected
flightelectronic flig
distributed in cabins.
distributed
In another
in cabins.
model
In being
another modelsimply
being connectssimply
to the connects
WiFi hotspot
to theusing
WiFi hotspot using
bags and route information
bags and route
as well
information
as aircraft
as well as aircraft
deployed by IFEdeployed
vendors,byairlines
IFE vendors,
install aairlines
plane- install
their
a planeown personal
theirelectronic
own personal
deviceelectronic
to accessdevice tohealth
accessmonitoring.
health
Some
monitoring.
service suppliers
Some service suppliers
wide content streaming
wide content
system
streaming
with a wide
system
variety
with a wide
all the
variety
content. all
Thethe
content
content.
is also
The available
content is also available
(Inmarsat is one)
(Inmarsat
can provide
is one)
a service
can provide
to cover
a service to cove
of content alongofwith
content
broader
along
internet
with broader
access. internet through
access. the embedded
throughseat-back
the embedded
screens
seat-back
and
screens
alland
of these applications
all of these
from
applications
cockpit tofrom
cabin.cockpit to cabin.
Airlines can stream
Airlines
content
can stream
to passengers’
contentdevices
to passengers’
overhead
devices
screens.
overhead screens.
and to wireless and
screens
to wireless
they distribute
screens or
they
build
distribute or As
build
well as pre-loaded
As wellcontent,
as pre-loaded
OnAir content,
Play LiveOnAirBandwidth
Play Live provision
Bandwidth provision
into seats.
into seats.
is able to push content,
is able tofor
push
example
content,
news
forand
example news
Air and
to ground (ATG)
Air to WiFi
ground
is best
(ATG)
suited
WiFi
tois best suited to
For example, when
For upgrading
example, when
entertainment
upgrading entertainment
sport, to the aircraft
sport,during
to the the
aircraft
flight,
during
givingthe flight, giving
domestic coverage,
domestic
certainly
coverage,
over large
certainly over large
options on the fleet
options
of 757s
on the
it flies
fleet between
of 757s itParis
flies between
passengers
Paris access
passengers
to the latest
access
developments.
to the latestThe
developments.
continental
The landscape
continental
markets
landscape
like themarkets
US andlike the US and
and New York in
and
2012,
NewFrench
York inairline
2012,OpenSkies
French airline content
OpenSkies
is tailored
content
for each
is tailored
airline.for
Foreach
example,
airline. ForChina.
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share in 2017 and
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to work togethertotowork
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from communications.
mobile cellular communications.
Similar to
Similar
www.csimagazine.com
www.csimagazine.com
February 2015February
39
2015
39
In-flight connectivity
the way a cell phone roams between 3G and 4G
or LTE, satellite network-switching can benefit
customers in the same way, as higher
performance satellite coverage areas are
introduced to new regions. The airborne
broadband terminal integrated a ViaSat Ku/
Ka-band antenna with ViaSat mobile and
broadband modems, and a third-party modem.
Gogo meanwhile, arguably the world’s largest
IFE brand, has satellite agreements in place with
SES (for coverage over the US, Atlantic Ocean
and Europe) and Intelsat for coverage over
portions of the Atlantic and northern Pacific
oceans, as well as routes over South America,
Asia, Africa and Australia). In the US it uses a
Ku-band antenna for downlink to the plane and
terrestrial ATG uplinks from the plane. Its latest
technology, 2Ku, expands its reach globally, and
deploys two Ku-band antennas for speeds of 70
Mbps. All Delta Air Lines international fleet and
all of Virgin Atlantic’s craft are being fitted with
the solution.
Whether ATG or satellite delivered to the craft,
one of the most important aspects of inflight
connectivity is that it is available consistently.
International airlines in particular need to be able
to provide their passengers with a consistent
service throughout every flight, whether they are
flying over land or water, regardless of territory.
“The provision of consistent global
connectivity is particularly important for
international airlines,” says Leo Mondale,
president, Inmarsat Aviation. “SwiftBroadband
(Inmarsat’s IP-based, high-speed data service) is
the only global L-band network, and GX Aviation
will be the only global Ka-band network.”
The introduction of Inmarsat’s global Ka-band
network, Global Xpress (GX), early in the second
half of 2015, will be a game-changer says
Mondale. For the aviation market, it will provide
speeds of up to 50Mbps to the aircraft, “enabling
airlines to satisfy what has now become a basic
need for people, keeping them connected
throughout the entire journey.”
Inmarsat is working on a European Aviation
Network, operating over S-band, to cover
countries within the EU, along with a
complementary ground network. It will be
integrated with its L- and Ka-band networks.
Most of OnAir’s 21 airline customers currently
use Inmarsat SwiftBroadband, which it says
provides cost-effective and consistent global
coverage. It is, though, agnostic about the radio
40
February 2015
link provided the technology is available for use
on aircraft.
Inflight connectivity is subject to two areas of
regulation. The first is that the airborne hardware
needs certification from international and
national aviation regulators. The key criteria are
that it is robust enough to withstand the pressures
of flying and that it does not interfere with the
plane’s avionics. The second is telecoms
regulatory approval for the use of the spectrum.
The key objective is to ensure inflight connectivity
does not interfere with ground networks. (OnAir
currently has authorizations from over 100
countries, with the list growing each month).
Since different providers use different
infrastructures (and even the same provider is not
able to use the same network in different regions
due to the limitation of ATG or satellite coverage)
quality of service is due for development.
“Many passengers complain that QoS is not
equal over oceans as over continents,” says
Euroconsult’s Li. “QoS is expected to be
harmonised in the coming years as more global
and multi-regional mobile satellite networks
deploy. Moreover, satellite operators have started
to work closer with inflight connectivity providers
prior to the launch of satellites and thus more
inflight purpose-made satellite beams are expected
in the future.”
Outside of the US, the TV service is primarily
VoD but the introduction of HTS provides more
bandwidth at low per MB price to the market,
making satellite more affordable to travellers and
making live broadcasting an option.
“The satellite industry is still trying to find a
www.csimagazine.com
Ryanair trials free in-flight movies
streamed to mobiles
Budget airline Ryanair has begun testing an
in-flight movie streaming service that will
send films direct to users tablets and
smartphones during their journey.
The onboard movie and TV show service
will probably be free to passengers, and will
be paid for by advertising, according to
reports. Passengers will need to use their own
devices to watch the films or television shows,
and Ryanair won’t be installing seat-back
screens on its aircraft.
The streaming service is likely to be trialled
on a few holiday routes during the summer. If
it is well received by customers, it could be
rolled out across its fleet of more than 300
aircraft.
The airline will also start trialling a WiFi
service later this year, in large part an effort
to gain more business passengers.
balance between the HTS spot beam and the
regular larger beam for the investment of future
satellites,” says Li. “It is difficult to tell what will
be the usage mix between broadcast type services
and data intensive point-to-point services in the
next 15 years (typical life time of a satellite). In
addition, the ATG is becoming increasingly
competitive, especially over continents.”
In addition to IPTV, airlines can enable real
time, inflight activities ranging from curated
shopping experiences to destination deals with
social media elements. “Combine those scenarios
with data and advertisers, and inflight
connectivity becomes a rich, relevant and high
personalised experience for passengers,” says
Global Eagle’s Chatterjee.
T
he mainstream arrival of
4G networks able to carry
large volumes of video traffic
represents a step change in
the mobile video value chain:
for the first time the capacity
to provide reliable, quality
video exists in a cellular network.
Overall global IP traffic is increasing, with
mobile rising three times faster than wired. Cisco
predicts that IP video traffic will be 79% of all
consumer Internet traffic in 2018, up from 66%
in 2013. The internet is becoming a video
distribution network and the evolution of mobile
video will continue at speed, bringing
opportunities and challenges for all involved.
Consider the rise of the smart phone and the
tablet, and the targeting of these devices by OTT
video applications coupled with the desire of the
public to watch mobile video. One can readily see
that mobile networks will be over-subscribed, and
quality of experience when watching video will
vary. I think we are all familiar with buffering and,
once the video has got going again, a drop in
quality. These temporary drops in quality are
actually an intentional means of preventing
buffering known as Adaptive Streaming, employed
in codecs such as MPEG-DASH.
However, the era of “I can’t show you the
video, I don’t have WiFi” is coming to an end.
The advent of 3.5G technologies (HSPA and
HSPA+ theoretically allowing connections in the
range 7 to 80Mbits/s) means that, much more
often than not, we will be able to view that video
clip when not tethered to WiFi. It also now makes
sense to view streaming services such as Netflix,
iPlayer, etc on a smartphone, and these apps need
not be restricted to the use of WiFi only. If you
find yourself in need of a Breaking Bad or House
of Cards fix, you can get it. Well, until your data
allowance is used up that is!
The Mobile Video Alliance (MVA) has now
come under the DTG umbrella, with players from
Industry column
Guiding the change
from mobile phone
to mobile screen
George Robertson introduces the DTG’s Mobile
Video Alliance and the evolution of mobile
networks into video distribution networks
right across the mobile video industry coming
together to collaborate with the DTG’s more
traditional members, such as the broadcasters.
The MVA is chaired by Rory Murphy (Equinix)
and Matt Stagg (EE), and the last quarter of
2014 saw many new faces and new companies
at the meetings.
In a sense, the mobile video industry does not
yet exist as a cohesive unit: many of the parts are
there, and many content service providers are
active or interested but the ecosystem is not fully
formed. At the DTG we intend to bring together
that ecosystem, and together we aim to tackle the
issues affecting of Quality of Experience.
As the first step, the DTG is currently
looking at how to quantify and measure Quality
of Experience, along with technologies that
can improve or even guarantee the level of
performance. OTT, on demand, catch-up and
LTE Broadcast scenarios are all in scope.
Introducing LTE-Broadcast
LTE broadcast, or evolved Multimedia Broadcast/
Multicast Service, flips the conventional model of
sending content on its head, moving from a ‘oneto-one’ model to a ‘one-to-many’, once a certain
number of users are consuming content from the
same cell. This means it can account for spikes in
demand among users during live events such
Premiership Football and Wimbledon.
LTE-Broadcast not only provides a high quality
cost effective way to deliver ‘sport on the go’ but
also supplies a platform to deliver a much more
feature-rich experience:
• Multiple camera angles and replays: the
efficient use of bandwidth removes the usual
barriers to content;
• Interaction with the fans: a dedicated channel
means new apps will be built that involve the
fans in the content that they’re watching; and
• Advertising and sponsorship: this enhanced
experience opens up new opportunities for
brands to engage.
Not all 4G smartphones and tablets are
currently capable of receiving LTE-Broadcast
video content - they are dependent upon having
the right chips inside. Penetration of this
hardware needs to increase for the technology
to take off, but the industry is working hard
towards that goal. This is one of the reasons
that so many operators are publicly announcing
their support for the technology.
It’s important to make clear that we are not
saying that mobile telephone networks (even 4G
with eMBMS and all the bells and whistles) are a
viable replacement for current broadcast TV.
Mobile video is a new market, with new devices,
new services, and new routes to the existing wellloved content. We predict a future where mobile
video and DTT can co-exist and perhaps even
complement each other.
George Robertson is the
principal IP engineer at the
DTG. There is more on this
at www.dtg.org.uk/mva and
if you’re interested in getting
involved, please contact George Robertson
[email protected]
www.csimagazine.com
February 2015
41
Events diary 2015
42
Date
Name
Location
Website
24-26 February
BVE
London
bvexpo.com
2-5 March
Mobile World Congress
Barcelona
mobileworldcongress.com
3 March
CASBAA OTT Summit
Singapore
casbaa.com
10-12 March
CabSat
Dubai
cabsat.com
11-13 March
Cable Congress
Brussels
cablecongress.com
16-19 March
Satellite 2015
Washington DC
satshow.com
22 March
India Satellite Industry Forum
New Delhi
casbaa.com
23-25 March
DVB World
Copenhagen
dvbworld.org
26-28 March
CCBN
Beijing
ccbn.tv/en
11-16 April
NAB
Las Vegas
nabshow.com
13-16 April
MIPTV
Cannes
miptv.com
28-30 April
TV Connect
London
tvconnectevent.com
5-7 May
INTX
Chicago
intx15.ncta.com
7 May
Future Digital Media Distribution
London
ihs.com
21 May
CSI Summit
London
csimagazine.com/summit
2-5 June
Broadcast Asia
Singapore
broadcast-asia.com
9-11 June
ANGA Com
Cologne
angacom.de/en
23-24 June
Digital Home World Summit
London
digitalhomeworldsummit.com
24-25 June
Connected TV Summit
London
connectedtvsummit.com
27-28 August
CTAM Europe
Amsterdam
ctameurope.com
10-15 September
IBC
Amsterdam
ibc.org
6-7 October
CDN World Summit
London
cdnworldsummit.com
13-16 October
Cable-Tec Expo
New Orleans
expo.scte.org
26-28 October
CASBAA Convention
Hong Kong
casbaa.com
10-11 November
Connections Europe
Amsterdam
connectionseurope.com
16-19 November
OTT TV World Summit
London
ottworldsummit.com
2-3 December
Future TV Advertising
London
futuretvads.com
February 2015
www.csimagazine.com
BUSINESS
DIRECTORY
To advertise contact John Woods
+44 (0)20 7562 2421
[email protected]
ATX Networks designs, manufactures, markets and delivers a broad range of products to
the global cable television industry. Other market verticals served include healthcare,
enterprise, government, broadcast, hospitality, education, stadiums/arenas/casinos, retail,
worship, and telcos.
Corneliusstrasse 22, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Tel: +49 171 998 3676
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.atxnetworks.com
ATX Networks is a global manufacturer of digital video solutions including transcoding,
multichannel encoding, content streaming solutions, bulk video transition/gateways, RF
management, RF filters, transmitters/receivers, headend and MDU amplifiers, node
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digital voice switches, & connectors.
Cisco is the longstanding market-leading supplier of video entertainment. With more than, 7500
video professionals , Cisco is unique in having the scale, resources and breadth of vision to
deliver differentiated solutions to Service Providers.
See what Videoscape Unity can offer, visit www.cisco.com/go/videoscape.
Cisco, One London Road, Staines, Middlesex TW18 4EX
Tel +44 (0)178 484 8500 Fax +44 (0)178 484 8600
Web: cisco.com/go/videoscape
EchoStar Europe is dedicated to enabling digital entertainment providers to optimise revenues
by delivering added-value connected device solutions, services and applications. Through a
comprehensive product range, including STBs, DVRs, home networking and TV anywhere
technology, our solutions enable the provision of state-of-the-art and cost effective
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Beckside Design Centre, Millennium Business Park, Station Road,
Steeton, Keighley BD20 6QW, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 1535 659000 Fax: +44 1535 659100
Web: www.echostar.com
3400 International Drive, NW, Washington D.C. 20008 USA
Tel: +1 202 944 6800 Fax: +1 202 944 7898
Web: www.intelsat.com
6059 Cornerstone Court West, San Diego, CA 92121-3713, US
Tel: +1-858-677-7800 Fax: +1-858-677-7804
Web: www.verimatrix.com
Headquartered in the UK, EchoStar Europe comprises a number of business units and is
affiliated with EchoStar Technologies, a subsidiary of the publicly traded EchoStar Corporation
(NASDAQ: SATS).
Intelsat is the leading provider of fixed satellite services worldwide. Intelsat supplies video, data
and voice connectivity for leading media and communications companies, Internet Service
Providers and government organizations. Intelsat’s valuable regional video neighborhoods
deliver more television channels than any other system. Intelsat’s terrestrial network of eight
strategically-located teleports and over 36,000 miles of leased fiber complements a global
satellite fleet of more than 50 satellites, covering 99% of the world’s population. Intelsat utilizes
a fully integrated satellite operations model, enabling global delivery from a single platform.
With Intelsat, communications with your customers are closer, by far.
Verimatrix specializes in securing and enhancing revenue for multi-screen digital TV services
for more than 500 operators around the globe. The award-winning and independently audited
Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS™) and ViewRight® solutions offer an
innovative approach for cable, satellite, terrestrial and IPTV operators to cost-effectively extend
their networks and enable new business models. As the recognized leader in software-based
security solutions for premier service providers, Verimatrix has pioneered the 3-Dimensional
Security approach that offers flexible layers of protection techniques to address evolving
business needs and revenue threats. Maintaining close relationships with major studios,
broadcasters, industry organizations, and its unmatched partner ecosystem enables Verimatrix
to provide a unique perspective on digital TV business issues beyond content security as
operators seek to deliver compelling new services. www.verimatrix.com
www.csimagazine.com
February 2015
43
We Deliver the Best Experience in the Industry
Intelsat connects your content to the largest number of viewers.
Intelsat’s exclusive Video Neighborhoods place your content on the most in-demand satellites
among top media and telecom providers. And, our next generation satellite platform will combine
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