4k ultra HD testing www.csimagazine.com Cloud DRMs T-VoD DTH in DTH

New building blocks:

April 2015 Is OTT the future of IPTV?

cover.indd 1 27/03/2015 16:15:34 Take Center Stage with the AMOS Satellites

Spacecom’s AMOS satellite constellation, consisting of AMOS-2 and AMOS-3 co-located at 4°W, AMOS-4 at 65°E and AMOS-5 at 17°E provides high-quality broadcast and communications services across Europe, Africa, Russia, Asia and the Middle East. With the upcoming launch of AMOS-6, Spacecom is expanding its coverage over Europe and Africa. The result: greater capacity, high-throughput Ka multibeam capabilities and affordable end-to-end satellite services. Spacecom. Expect More.

[email protected] • www.amos-spacecom.com

Untitled-3 1 23/03/2015 14:23:56 Contents 4k ultra HD testing www.csimagazine.com Cloud DRMs

T-VoD 20 COVER STORY - IPTV/OTT Editor DTH in Russia DTH Eric Huggers has predicted the death of Goran Nastic traditional IPTV and its replacement by OTT delivery. But IPTV 2.0 can fight back… Commercial director John Woods New building blocks: April 2015 Is OTT the future of IPTV? 23 WiFi cover.indd 1 27/03/2015 16:15:34 Design and production Wireless and WiFi, both indoors and outdoors, Matt Mills (Manager) are now the main priorities for cable operators Jason Tucker 4 CSI Summit Matleena Lilja-Pelling All the latest speakers you can see and hear at 29 DTG column Keem Chung our event The first ultra HD plugfests in the UK show that UHD interoperability still has a long way to go Regular contributors 06 News & analysis Adrian Pennington, Philip Hunter, David Adams, Stephen Cousins, All the latest industry and research news 30 CSI Awards Anna Tobin Find out more about this year’s awards 12 Analyst corner Circulation Strategy Analytics looks at screen mirroring 32 DTH in Russia Joel Whitefoot dongles and the threat they pose for Smart TVs Satellite TV is facing a new set of opportunities and challenges in the country Accounts Marilou Tait, Lynta Kamaray 14 T-VoD Is there still a future for transactional video-on- 35 Cloud DRMs Editorial demand in a world where consumers increasingly To what extent are DRMs migrating to hosted or tel +44(0)20 7562 2401 embrace subscription-based VoD offers? cloud environments and what is the impact of [email protected] this move? 18 Smart home Advertising Selling and packaging smart home solutions 42 Technology corner: 4k testing tel +44(0)20 7562 2421 is not easy but there are a number of options A leading test vendor offers their perspective on fax +44(0)20 7374 2701 [email protected] available to manufacturers and service providers the challenges in this space

Subscriptions tel +44 (0) 20 1635 588 861 [email protected] Editor’s report: Circulation manager: joel. whitefoot@perspectivepublishing. At an IHS conference late last year, Erik Huggers, argued that IPTV has no long term com future. Huggers is not the first to make such a claims but his prediction seemed more prophetic coming from the man who led the iPlayer and orchestrated Intel’s OnCue OTT Subscription rates efforts (now part of Verizon). Huggers said that telcos should instead focus on boosting Per year: Europe £88; UK £68; their broadband pipes in a world moving increasingly towards IP streaming and internet TV Rest of World £98. Cheques delivery. IPTV networks are indeed more restricted by geographic boundaries but a new breed of more payable to Perspective Publishing open systems is emerging that are much more flexible. They embrace software, cloud, virtualisation and Limited and addressed to the multi-screen, taking IPTV into a new, less monolithic era that is more tightly coupled with OTT and Circulation Department thereby promising payTV at Web speeds. This will enable service providers and broadcasters to better compete with more nimble pure-OTT players. Our cover story, on page 20, looks at what the future has Printed by Buxton Press in store for IPTV 2.0. Will this be enough? Goran Nastic, editor Managing Director John Woods

Perspective Publishing Publishing Director 3 London Wall Buildings Mark Evans London 2015 EC2M 5PD www.perspectivepublishing.com ISSN 1467-5935

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 03 Summit 2015 Future of TV Business Models Thursday 21 May 2015 St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel

“The linear TV programming model is ripe for replacement” - Reed Hasting, CEO, ix “Programmers going OTT are playing with  re” - Tom Rutledge, CEO, Charter

Sponsor Media Partners

Key themes under the spotlight will include: • The future of movie release windows • Online piracy • Emerging commercial opportunities for • Advertising evolution content distribution • Cross-platform audience measurement & data • Transactional video (TVoD) vs SVoD • How programmatic is changing the buying • Impact of direct-to-consumer OTT services landscape • A la carte TV • The multi-screen battleground

For the latest updates follow us @CSISummit #CSISummit

CSI-Summitv2.indd 2 27/03/2015 15:24:58 Panel discussions on current and developing trends in the media chain

• Shifting business models - a new digital landscape Can the current advertising and affi liates revenue survive in the digital age? How are windowing strategies evolving in a multi-platform world? Can EST survive in an era of sVoD? Does the death of Blinkbox mean T-VoD is dead? How will the studios handle this?

Panellists:

Paul Maidment, Director, Kite Media Consultancy

Philip Mordecai, Director, Curzon Home Cinema

New Panellist announced: Riccardo Donato, Head of VOD, BBC Worldwide

• Fighting online piracy - a winnable ght? Are we further than ever in combating digital pirates? What impact are OTT devices having on the problem? How has the movie industry evolved with advancements in technology? What options are open to content owners and broadcasters in tackling sports and movie piracy?

Panellists:

Sheila Cassells, Executive Director, Audiovisual Anti-piracy Alliance

Tim Cooper, Operations Manager; Anti-Piracy, MarkMonitor

Sundeep Samra, Product Manager, Data Centre and CDN Services, EMEA, Level 3

New Panellist announced: Kieron Sharp, Director General, FACT

• TV’s multiscreen battleground What is the future relationship for consumers and industry between multiple television screens and devices? How will use of diff erent devices aff ect television content?

Panellists:

David Mercer, VP, Principal Analyst, Strategy Analytics

Tony Henderson, Operating Systems Group, Microsoft PlayReady

New Panellist announced: David Cutts, Director, VuTV

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CSI-Summitv2.indd 3 27/03/2015 15:25:03 News

news in brief Multi-screen rights in the spotlight

Free unveils 4k Android box As content becomes increasingly French telco Free has introduced fragmented and non-linear, Liberty what it claims is the world’s first Global’s Mike Fries wants the way 4k-capable set-top box based on rights deals are done changed. So Android TV. The box combines does Turner, but from a different TV, broadband and fixed-line in a angle. new effort to shake-up the Liberty is spending some country’s telecoms market. The EUR2.5 billion a year on content, new box will be offered as part of much of that increasingly on its standard triple-play service. non-linear digital rights. In the face Free is supplying the of this shift, Liberty and other mini 4k instead of the Freebox cable providers need access to Crystal to new customers in fibre a new set of rights, including and copper unbundled areas. The out-of-home viewing rights two-device system consists of a and VoD. Freebox mini 4k server and a “Content owners need to provide player. The Freebox Mini 4K us with rights we need to keep supports ADSL2+, VDSL2 and consumers happy,” said Liberty FttH connectivity and its Global CEO Mike Fries, talking at Bluetooth-based remote control Cable Congress via Skype. towards monetising customers ensure we get our fair share of can recognise voice commands. “Content owners have to get with instead. “Currently they are resisting whatever incremental revenue is it, that’s the bottom line.” following customers who are on the generated in that space so we can invests in OTT start-up The Horizon Go, for example, cloud, which is a mistake. My advice keep on investing. And that’s a Sky has put a further $5m in app is used by a huge proportion of to content owners is never stand in struggle because either it’s not shared 1Mainstream, an OTT company those who have it. the way of what customers want - or not being generated. Not everyone that provides automation The old strategy of content or many industries have tried.” shares adequately. So it’s clear the technology for content delivery of channel operators to bundle During the first day’s morning usual commercial discussion has linear and on-demand video to a channels is running into challenges, panel, Giorgio Stock, the president to happen.” range of connected devices. such especially in the US and Latin for EMEA at Turner Broadcasting, Stock noted that viewers now as Apple TV, Xbox, Android TV America, and is beginning to which owns channel brands such expect not just the same content and Samsung. It enables content happen in Europe, according to as CNN and Cartoon Network, packaged onto multiple devices companies to launch OTT Fries. “The traditional strategy of agreed that content is not just but also created natively for services across platforms in only channel owners is to say that if you about linear TV consumption different platforms. a matter of weeks and with want this good channel you have to anymore, but he also outlined his On the subject of multi-screen almost no upfront costs. The take five not-so-good channels,” he case for these negotiations. data and analytics, he noted how investment builds on the $2m said. “It is getting harder to invest With cross-border consolidation Google (a fellow panellist) shares already invested by Sky in August expensive amounts in linear taking place in Europe through the data with companies like Turner, 2013. Since its initial investment, channels that are seeing fewer likes of Sky, Telefonica and Liberty, which allows them to better Sky has used the platform to viewers. So it will be more difficult Stock admitted that Turner can now understand audience measurement, broaden distribution of its OTT for content providers to package engage and discuss in different ways successful content and drive services such as Sky News and that as all-or-nothing. People watch with operators. However, he warned business. This is in stark contrast to Now TV to its digital audience. TV in different ways now. We need that multi-screen monetisation who Stock singled out as new rights and content owners to remains a challenge. being notoriously difficult to get New analyst firm on the block recognise that.” “The two things that keep me information from. A new analyst firm has lunched Vodafone Europe CEO Philipp awake at night are innovation and He also added that the industry founded by veteran Screen Digest Humm made a similar statement, monetisation. It’s about surprising will see more consolidation, as well employees Guy Bisson, Richard when he said that for true customer audiences and providing them with as more blurred lines between Broughton, Ben Colbeck, and convergence to happen, rights things they enjoy and love and doing content and distribution as owners Dan Stevenson. Ampere Analysis, holders have to abandon current that on these new platforms, whether go OTT and direct-to-consumer will be a research firm “for the models of monetising distribution it’s OTT, second screen or others,” (D2C). “We will see much more Netflix generation” using new Big channels individually (cable, said Stock. “But it’s clear business competition which is great for Data analytics. mobile, DVB etc) and move models are changing and we need to consumers,” said Stock.

06 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

news-6.indd 1 30/03/2015 10:26:19 News

Akamai to deploy HTTP2 across network; news in brief HDR deployment considerations SES calls for S2X plugfests Satellite operator SES sees the Akamai, the world’s largest CDN Akamai Technologies, speaking at of that friction. I’m excited about need for interoperability tests to provider is moving all its customers the DVB World conference, in a these extensions. They are very push DVB-S2X technology onto HTTP/2 this summer and presentation entitled ‘Will video kill relevant to the future consumption forward but also foresees “good highlighted a range of other solutions, the internet star?’. of content in a browser.” times” ahead for the new including IP multicast and MSE/ There will be some architectural IP multicast is another solution. standard. Thomas Wrede, senior EME extensions, that will be used to changes but not in a fundamental Although there is also no global systems engineer at SES Astra, meet the exponential growth of way, said Law. Rather, it will be a standard IP multicasting - every said there is a need to evaluate internet traffic. number of enhancements that will network deploys it in a slightly 2SX modulators that have Akamai has plans to employ tools enable this transition, including different way, making it hard for a appeared on the market from the and technologies to ease network media extensions, IP multicast, P2P CDN to interface with all networks likes of TeamCast, Newtec and congestion as internet traffic is and MPEG-DASH. - Akamai has “an aggressive Work Microwave, and check if expected to reach a peak of 8.3Pbs in Law mentioned that Google’s programme” to build a multicast the system on chip (SoC) 2025 (the equivalent to 8.3Mps Chrome stands out from the rest solution. “We will do the hard work implementations pose any streams to 1bn people at the same in terms of browser usage across of integrating with different ISPs interoperability issues. “I think time), which compares to 26.7Tbps devices on Akamai’s network. and we will try to push as much we need to organise an S2X today, driven by rising usage of OTT Interestingly, browsers such as commonly viewed content through plugfest, that’s something we video across a greater variety of Chrome increasingly support the IP multicast as we can.” need to do to really get the trust connected devices. new MSE/EME (media source • Also at DVB World, Ericsson that each and every modulator HTTP/2 is one such extensions and encrypted media said it is concerned that the high out there works with each and implementation. HTTP/2 is the extensions) standard from W3C. dynamic range (HDR) ecosystem is every chipset,” said Wrede, evolution of HTTP and marks the Already, around 50% of views are not fully understood and that speaking at the DVB World most significant change in the from browsers that support MSE and current trials don’t take the entire conference in Copenhagen. protocol since HTTP 1.1 was EME, thanks to the dominance of chain into account, which is crucial Already issues have come up introduced back in the late 1990s. Chrome and IE. as the industry sees more benefits between equipment, according to New improvements were released “I can deliver encrypted DRM in HDR than ultra HD Phase 1. Wrede, which is why such recently, allowing for faster delivery content over the flexibility of a Web While Ericsson doesn’t favour initiatives are necessary, among other benefits. page and it’s the same player that will any particular proposal, the irrespective of whether they are From mid-Summer, around June, render with any device,” said Law. company is worried that decisions organised by operators, Akamai plans to deploy HTTP/2 This is important because it are at risk of being reached in manufacturers or the DVB. across its entire network, taking with harmonises the delivery layer. “We isolation to each other. “There is work to do. But nothing it more than 3,5000 customers. “It’s have a tremendous problem of Ericsson’s research found that to worry about, it will happen,” a significant change and we will see creating payers today in order to the choice of single or dual layer said Wrede. One chip is very rapid growth of HTTP/2 going reach the plethora of devices that signals or the use non-constant commercially available and two forward,” said Will Law, chief consumer content. But technology luma creates problems further up or three others will come by the architect, media cloud engineering at like MSE and EME will remove a lot the chain. Questions also haven’t end of 2015 or early 2016, been answered properly on how to according to Wrede, giving people do HDR in OB truck, or what a choice of silicon. S2X is also impact the use of wider colour relevant for DTH for ultra HD gamut or higher frame rates might services, but he again pointed to have on HDR. Ericsson is also due a need to wait for silicon makers to release findings that HDR will to come up with SoC have on the compression space at technologies for UHD set-top NAB, which show cost implications boxes. “We also need to sort out of certain actions and schemes. different phases of UHD and get Mark Horton suggested good it off the ground.” The other area way around these issues to gain a where Wrede sees a lot of better understanding is to do real potential in years to come is in programmes using different HTS. “My view is that the good parameters to that results can be time for S2X is just a few years measured properly. ahead of us.”

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 7

News-7.indd 1 27/03/2015 12:47:53 News

news in brief Google calls for pan-European innovation Image courtesy of Sarah2 / Shutterstock.com Apple moves ahead with The digital single market was online TV service identified at the opening session as Apple is talking to content an opportunity to help Europe take owners s it firms up its plans for advantage of its scale and set new a subscription streaming service. standards to better compete on a The technology giant is in global level. Panellists at Cable advanced talks with programmers Congress pointed to the demise of such as ABC and CBS to offer Nokia as a warning of not keeping a slimmed-down bundle of TV up with changing times. networks this fall. The service The panellists comprising would have about 25 channels Google, Kabel Deutschland, and would be available on Turner, SES and Unitymedia Apple devices such as the disagreed on how much of a Apple TV, said WSJ. Apple potential competitive threat Google innovate more is huge,” said Brittin. because they give the opportunity to has also been talking to Walt and its peers pose, but they all For Google, net neutrality is create value across 500 million Disney and 21st Century Fox agreed on the importance of a about ensuring innovation on the consumers gives scale.” among other media companies. single European digital market. internet can continue and that any On the point there isn’t enough The news follows a recent deal Innovation and the accelerating service can be found in the same cross-border consolidation in Europe, with HBO to bring its on-demand cycle of innovation were repeatedly way as any alternatives. “The other Kabel Deutshcland’s CEO Manuel app to Apple TV next month. mentioned as a top requirement view of net neutrality is about the Cubero agreed that it’s about scale. Talk of an over the top Apple TV going forward because the way investment case, which I also “Scale is more important than ever. service — which avoids traditional content is created, distributed and understand,” he said. We think its mistake in the regulation cable or satellite distribution in delivered is changing dramatically. Lutz Schuler from German cable so far that consolidation at national favour of streaming live video For this reason, they argued operator Unitymedia was happy to level has had problems, look at over the internet for viewing via Europe needs to keep up in order hear Google recognise the need for Germany, and also between iPhone, iPad or TV box — has not to fall further behind the times. both sets of arguments and warned countries. We are seeing changes and been around for years. Apple “One of the challenges for us in that Europe should not fall further regulation is more but has to evolve. is now seen as unlikely to add Europe is it’s more fragmented. behind. We need connectivity in regions that another screen to its family of The internet has reduced some “We tried with companies like aren’t densely populated, this is a devices, but an updated version barriers to entry, the same is true Nokia to build out portals to real problem. Super fast broadband of its set-top box is thought to in content creation. We need to consumers and we failed. We had has to be fibre based or LTE based. I be imminent. make sure Europe is able to invest two winners in the end: Android and look forward to much more to compete with the best in the iOS. You shouldn’t make the same consolidation friendly regulation in Twitter buys video streaming world,” said Matt Brittin, Google mistake twice. Mobile networks for Europe,” said Cubero. firm Europe’s president of EMEA me are not smart pipes, just pipes, According to Google, 40% of the Social media platform has business and operations. and the big value creation sits with world’s population are connected to purchased Periscope, a developer Google Fibre is about trying to the OS. I think as a cable operator the internet today and this will grow of a live-video streaming app. The encourage competition on the US we have a great opportunity not to to 80% within five years, something social-media company paid investment side, he explained. make that mistake again. that will bring opportunity as well slightly less than $100 million, an “Market here is more fragmented “Nokia is dead. They were a as disruption. “We’re partners amount that would make with players consolidating. What market leading company with 50% of not predators of this industry,” Periscope one of Twitter’s more we need to see the investment that GDP in Finland. We failed in Europe added Brittin. expensive purchases, according to brings higher speeds for consumers to come up with a standard. iOS and • Cable Europe, which represents a report in the WSJ, citing in Europe. As a European I worry Android did it better, but maybe now a large part of the region’s cable unnamed sources. The deal about a world where other have 4G in new converged ways there’s maybe industry interests, also called for a closed about a month ago, the wireless connectivity and in Europe room for three or four,” said Schuler. “more level playing field” with new report said. Periscope started we have less of that. It’s about an “We set the standard for many OTT competitors in terms of beta-testing the app among select element to ensure Europe can years. We had Nokia and Ericsson regulation and control. “Same users some four months ago. compete with the world. One of the and were world leaders and it’s a service, same rules,” said Manuel Members of Twitter’s executive things I’m worried about is to make shame we lost that,” agreed Brittin. Kohnstamm, SVP & Chief Policy management team and board of sure we have our heads right. The “That is why discussions around Officer, & President directors joined the private beta. opportunity for this industry to digital single market are important of Cable Europe.

08 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

news_8.indd 1 25/03/2015 16:49:00 News

Europe set for true convergence, says news in brief Vodafone CEO Euro cable worried on net neutrality models of monetising distribution Cable Europe wants a “more channels individually (cable, rational” approach in Europe to mobile, DVB etc) and move this issue than the one introduced towards monetising customers in the US recently. Otherwise instead. “Currently they are innovation might suffer, it resisting following customer who warned. are on the cloud, which is a Discussions on the open mistake. My advice to content internet have been a topic in owners is never stand in the way of Brussels in the last few years and what customers want - many even more so now with the high industries have tried.” profile decision reached by the Somewhat more wishfully, he US FCC to reclassify Internet as also called for a change in the a utility reminiscent of 1930s rights process. “We need access to regulation. Cable Europe, which premium content. We don’t want to represents the interest of a large buy rights but distribute content. part of the industry across the The new wave of converged services “The convergence future is one Soccer clubs are only winners in region, is a little spooked that will be customer driven and enabled we’re committed to at Vodafone. It’s everyone buying exclusive rights. similar regulation might make its by the shift to cloud-based models, but true we launched these services Our industry will pay the bill and way here due to its highly ‘true convergence’ will also require a defensively, but we are now in the be less profitable as a result. political nature. change in attitude on content rights race as a strategic priority and we’re “We need a Commission that “Nobody in our industry is and more ‘intelligent regulation’, says in it for the long run because we allows in-market consolidation and against the open internet. We the CEO of Vodafone Europe. believe it’s the right choice for our facilitates cross-market want openness for everybody, but Vodafone is in the process of customers. True customer centricity consolidation. We also need a we also want this issue done in a transitioning itself from a mobile to a is driving our focus at Vodafone for Commission that allows for way that innovation is still converged player. The company has true future convergence,” he said. differentiation and monetisation of possible,” said Matthias Kurth, 140 million mobile, 12 million According to Humm, true services without discriminating Cable Europe’s executive broadband and ten million TV convergence will happen when all between offers. The US net chairman, at Cable Congress. subscribers in Europe, on the back of software and content moves to the neutrality decision went in the “We see new services coming recent acquisitions such as Kabel cloud. “Customers will learn they can wrong direction but Europe looks up like self driving cars and other Deutschland, Ono and Cable & access personal content wherever more promising.” (IoT) things we can’t envisage yet, Wireless. It is in the middle of a they are and on any device as content The journey going from a mobile and it’s obvious they need special multi-billion Project Sprint network and software move from CPEs to operator to a converged player is treatment otherwise they won’t investment and has plans to launch cloud, as TVs become PCs and video not easy and will take time and function. Also the internet was TV and broadband services in the becomes more HD and interactive, patience, Humm added, but it’s always designed in a way that you UK among other markets. as TV processors become 4k and 8k, worth it. “We will be converged in have different tracks for different Speaking at the Cable Congress in and as 4G becomes ubiquitous. all our markets. The beauty of true kinds of services,” said Kurth. Brussels as the opening keynote on Cloud-based content irreversibly convergence is that it’s super So Cable Europe is looking for day 2, Philipp Humm, the self-styled changes customer behaviour. Once sticky.” – and hopeful on - that Günther ‘convergence guy’, argued that you’re on the cloud you’ll never • Vodafone UK will start Oettinger, the new European convergence in Europe has so far not return to device storage.” offering WiFi calling and voice-over- Commissioner responsible for the been driven by customer needs but In the UK, 3G customers use less LTE (VoLTE) this summer. WiFi Digital Single Market, as well as rather by discounts and the ‘herd than 1GB of data, 4G use 2GB, calling, which will automatically the council, might agree on a effect’. while Netflix and Sky 4G customers become available without the need “more rational deal” of just “The convergence story hasn’t consumer between 3GB and 4GB on to go through an app, is having the principles embedded really started yet as it has mainly average a month and this will rise as particularly geared towards in the regulation but not being been price driven,” said Humm. In services become more mature. subscribers living in poor coverage over prescriptive on the kind of Spain and Portugal, bundles provide For true customer convergence to areas or where getting an indoor services, which it fears some 35% discounts, which is why people happen, Humm argued that rights signal is difficult. The move is part forces in the European take them, he explained. holders have to abandon current of the company’s commitment to Parliament seems set on.

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 9

News-9.indd 1 27/03/2015 15:27:10 IoT news

news in brief IBM claims IoT breakthrough

Swisscom tests low-power IBM Research and Semtech have according to the companies. IoT announced a new technology, called LoRaWAN sensors can is launching trials of a LoRaWAN, which is said to offer communicate over distances of more low-power network specifically significant advantages over cellular than 100 km (62 miles) in aimed towards the Internet of and WiFi for providing M2M ‘favourable environments’, 15 km (9 Things. The low-power network communications. miles) in typical semi-rural connects M2M applications The new technology, Long environments and more than 2 km for which SIM cards are not Range wide-area networks, is based (1.2 miles) in dense urban required. The sensors are on low-power, wide-area networks environments at data rates from 300 connected with each other via (LPWANs) that promises to bit/s up to 100 kbit/s. This makes secondary frequencies in the overcome many of IoT’s hurdles, them well suited for sending small non-licensed ISM 800 band. such as limited battery life, short amounts of data, such as GPS Swisscom will test LPN and communication distances, high coordinates and climate readings, associated applications from costs and a lack of standards. where broadband can’t reach. Most April, initially as part of a pilot Based on a new specification sensors can run for ten years or more project in the regions of Zurich and protocol for low-power, wide- on a single AA battery, while security connecting billions of devices and Geneva. area networks that taps an features AES128 keys. together could be as seamless as unlicensed wireless spectrum, They have also formed the LoRa sending an SMS to your local acquires IoT firm LoRaWAN can connect sensors Alliance, which aims to combine telecom provider,” the group said. Amazon has acquired IoT over long distances, while offering hardware and software based on the • Cable operators dismiss the specialist 2lemetry for an optimal battery life and requiring LoRaWAN standard for telecom impact machine-to-machine (M2M) undisclosed sum. Founded in minimal infrastructure. This allows operators and network operators, comms will have on their network 2011, 2lemetry specialises in a it to deliver such benefits as enabling them to offer IoT services planning and provisioning in software-based approach with improved mobility, security, to both businesses and consumers. the short term, arguing its a an open enablement platform, bi-directionality, and localisation/ “From sensors and machines “higher ” of traffic that will with customers in industries positioning, as well as lower costs, to monitors and wearables, soon be service dependent. including transport, oil and gas, manufacturing, mining and industrial machines. The Panasonic promises M2M acquisitions company said it will retain the same name and branding Panasonic has identified several These moves form part of will help fill gaps in its service as before. targets in the IoT space over the Panasonic’s efforts to expand its offering to become a one-stop shop next two years as it aims to become portfolio, through new growth areas and single point of contact for IoT/M2M potential in German an end-to-end provider of business in the M2M and the B2B sectors. business M2M needs. speaking Europe machine-to-machine solutions and Abadie said Panasonic is likely • Microsoft has confirmed a new Connexion is increasing embed M2M within its products. to make further acquisitions that Azure IoT Suite and IoT-focused its focus on the German-speaking Panasonic is acquiring DHL version of its Windows 10 operating countries in Europe - Germany, Digital Solutions, which builds on system. Austria and Switzerland – with the acquisition of a European With the Azure IoT Suite, which the opening of a new office in cloud-based video surveillance firm will be introduced in preview mode Düsseldorf and adding several 18 months ago. later this year, Microsoft is looking additional IoT experts. The On the back the latest to help companies integrate and increased demand for connected acquisition, the company has also manage all their connected offerings. machines and facilities is formed a new European The new platform will give businesses reflected by the German federal organisation, called Panasonic access to tools such as asset government’s Industry 4.0 Business Software Solutions management, remote monitoring, initiative (the digitalisation of Europe, focused on solutions to and predictive maintenance. Feeding the industry). Experts predict bolster its efforts on this front. into this is Azure Stream Analytics, that by 2020, M2M technology “This will allow us to provide deep which serves up real-time data from will be a key competitive factor expertise in software, hardware and devices and will be made available for Germany, particularly in the system integration,” said Laurent next month as a standalone service, automotive industry. Abadie, CEO of Panasonic Europe. or bundled with Azure IoT.

10 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

news-10.indd 1 27/03/2015 16:18:39 News

Sony to trial DVB-T2 to mobile in Asia news in brief

Despite the scars of DVB-H, Sony is require new towers. DVB-T2 also CI+ 2.0 USBs by 2016 hopeful that things will be different supports fixed and mobile services in The new version of the CI+ this time for getting DVB-T2 receivers one standard, which lowers the module has a new USB form into mobile terminals. barriers to rollout. factor and these could be released Steve Beck, general manager of Beck identified a strong demand into the market before the end of systems engineering at Sony in Asia for TV on handhelds, partly this year. Until now, CI+ modules Semiconductor said at the DVB due to the greater penetration of producing and optimising silicon. have taken the guise of a World conference that he was still mobile phones there than TV. He The company has implemented RF PCMCIA card. The next- “in therapy” over the DVB-H highlighted India, Indonesia and on a digital process, which along generation CI+ 2.0, the next step experience, but that he thinks things Thailand as particularly promising with lowered power consumption up from CI+ 1.4, will be USB- will turn out different this time markets due to a variety of reasons that Sony has developed, makes it based because most TVs now round, not least because the DVB-T2 against a wider backdrop of the much easier for handset makers to support them and equally because rollout has been global. worldwide trend for higher resolution implement this solution (pictured). it is in this way no longer a single “We need to move on. T2 can displays in portable devices. The analogue switch-off also purpose interface on the TV. overcome barriers that affected Sony is engaged in trials in South offers an opportunity in many Alexander Adolf of LGE and DVB-H and FLO,” said Beck. He East Asian countries where it is parts of the world, according to chair of the DVB TM-CI Plus pointed to efficiencies for volume working with the OEM community Beck. He also argued that devices module, said “New USB form production and how DVB-T2 offers (there are understood to be four are becoming more open and factor, the same great product,” at flexibility to match network design to manufacturers involved) to build commoditised (ie Android) so DVB World. There is no official use case. Crucially, it’s the same prototype devices. that adding this kind of TV timeline set as yet for the release network architecture that and Sony is trying to break the functionality could be a way of CI+ 2.0 products but “later this distribution system that doesn’t chicken-and-egg handheld cycle by of differentiation. year” is possible, he said.

NEW

news_11.indd 1 30/03/2015 10:31:11 Analyst corner

streaming dongles provide a The year of the dongle? very effective way of bridging the mobile and TV David Watkins looks at screen mirroring dongles and experience. Consumers get wonders if they are a threat to the Smart TV the best of both worlds by watching content on the best screen in the home while accessing and controlling it via familiar and reliable interfaces on their mobile devices rather than the unfamiliar and often slower user interfaces found on Smart TVs. TV vendors recognise the trend in screen mirroring and Miracast is increasingly being built into Smart TVs while Chromecast will be integrated into the Android TV platform that is set to be adopted by Sony, Sharp and TP Vision for some of their Smart TV models this year. That said, TV vendors still face the challenge of getting consumers to use their own apps and built-in services rather than launching such services from a phone or tablet.

Bridging the broadcast and OTT worlds Dongles are also set to play a role in helping Image courtesy of Sarah2 / Shutterstock.com to bridge the gap between the broadcast and OTT worlds, something that Smart TVs and other ore than half a billion tailored to fit a large screen format. Smart connected TV devices have so far largely failed to connected TV devices are TVs and Blu-ray players often come up achieve. French software provider SoftAtHome now in use around the short on these measures due to their clunky has developed a Universal ‘Cast’ dongle that world ranging from games interfaces and underpowered video processors. enables operators to offer a fully converged consoles and Blu-ray Meanwhile, games consoles have seen high multiscreen service that combines players to digital media levels of online connectivity although usage is live premium broadcast video with OTT content streaming boxes and generally skewed towards gaming applications and supports multiple casting technologies Mdongles as well as of course Smart TVs. Growth in and consoles are not always hooked up to the including Google Cast and Apple Airplay. ownership of these devices is being driven by a main TV set in the home. This has left an Meanwhile, US chip vendor Qualcomm recently number of factors including the rising popularity of opportunity for a device that can provide quick unveiled a 4k streaming stick prototype, an online video streaming services like Netflix and and easy access to the popular online video Android powered HDMI based device with Amazon, the availability of cheap and easy-to-use applications and digital media streaming boxes Snapdragon 800 processor and multiple media streaming boxes and dongles from well- and even cheaper dongles have been doing a connectivity options including WiFi and 4G. known brands and the current wave of TV good job of fulfilling that need. With its built-in LTE broadcast support, replacement which is driving up ownership of The current trend for screen mirroring is Qualcomm’s technology could prove to be Smart TVs. Growing usage and availability of such gaining momentum as technologies such as invaluable to mobile operators looking to develop gateways into the online video world is changing Miracast and Chromecast become more next generation television services. the way that many people watch television today by widespread, providing consumers with a means to offering consumers more choice, flexibility and send content from a computer or mobile device to control over how they view TV. the TV. Google has now sold more than ten Consumers today commonly own more million Chromecast dongles worldwide since than one type of connected TV device and so launching back in mid-2013 while Miracast is often have a choice to make as to which device being integrated into a growing range of media David Watkins is director, to use to access the online content they want to streaming devices such as Amazon’s Fire TV stick Connected Home Devices, view. That decision is often driven by how easy and the 3 and Roku Stick. Such devices Digital Consumer Practice, at the device is to use, speed of access to the have gained popularity thanks to their ease of use, Strategy Analytics content and how well the application has been adequate functionality and low cost. In many ways

12 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

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Untitled-3 1 11/02/2015 11:41:58 T-VoD

demand (SVoD), already In the Blink of an eye deployed successfully by the likes of Netflix and The demise of Tesco’s video streaming service Blinkbox took Amazon Prime (formerly LoveFilm, purchased by many in the industry by surprise, so what went wrong with Amazon in 2011). its business model and is there still a future for transactional According to Ofcom’s 2014 Communications video on demand in a rapidly changing marketplace? Market Report, UK Stephen Cousins looks at the bigger picture revenue for online SVoD rose dramatically to £111.7m in 2013, from multi-million pound TV and service streaming movies and TV shows, Blinkbox £63.5m during the billboard advertising had thrown itself into direct competition with the previous 12 months, and the signs are this trend campaign and the backing market leader iTunes, which accounts for over half will continue into the future. of the UK’s largest retailer of the digital download market in the UK. But “The UK OTT video market is now dominated were not enough to prevent while iTunes has a deeply entrenched user base - by SVoD, which accounts for 72% of all consumer the failure of the film and with most iPhone or iPod owners in possession of spend on OTT video services. That doesn’t leave a TV streaming service an iTunes account - Blinkbox’s strategy for lot of money for a firm like Blinkbox that only ABlinkbox, which was sold in January, by Tesco to attracting customers was based on investment in a wants to ‘play in the transactional end of the TalkTalk, for an undisclosed sum. handful of blockbuster releases and a less-than- pool’. While there are still pounds to be made in The decision to offload the service was, in part, exciting link up with Tesco’s Clubcard loyalty this area, there is fierce competition and multiple a response to Tesco’s financial troubles, having scheme. As such it did little to differentiate itself players in the market, including services backed overstated its profits in the first half of 2014 by and paid the price as a result. by multinational corporations like iTunes and £250m, but it was also the result of Blinkbox’s Google Play, which don’t focus purely on TVoD,” dwindling customer base in the face of fierce Niche activity says Michael Goodman, director of digital media competition from services run by the likes of In a broader sense, Blinkbox had failed to respond at Strategy Analytics. Netflix, Amazon, and Apple’s iTunes. to the dramatic shift in viewing habits in the UK TVoD remains a niche activity in the UK As a transactional video on demand (TVoD) towards subscription-based digital video on compared to other forms of internet video

14 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

TVoD.indd 1 26/03/2015 12:51:19 T-VoD

consumption including catch-up TV, VoD and SVoD. According to Ofcom, just 24% of consumers have a download-to-own collection of TV shows or films purchased through a storefront like iTunes, while just one in ten people download-to-rent (DTR) each month, the majority of these being younger consumers. Although usage of TVoD services remains low among the general population, there has been a recent rise in those who use them each month, according to research by digital media research organisation Decipher. “iTunes unsurprisingly leads the pack accounting for 5% of the UK online population, tied with Google Play, which could well overtake iTunes this year,” notes Matt Walters, senior consultant at Decipher. “Amazon Instant Video is only a percentage point behind, and is a service to watch as it establishes itself following the Lovefilm rebranding.”

A global perspective to at least one service; Netflix is used by 36% of movies, and maybe a couple blockbusters each Getting a worldwide perspective on the TVoD households, ahead of Amazon used by 13% and month. However, HBO is all about screening market is tricky as balance between TVoD, SVoD by 6%. “In the US, consumers are adopting blockbusters, alongside a strong original line up of and other forms of online video consumption SVOD because of its convenience and ease of use, TV shows like , True Detective varies significantly. For example, in France as a result EST and rental numbers are rapidly etc. That will bring something new to the table electronic sell through (EST) and download-to- declining,” says Goodman. and indicates that the SVoD landscape is going to rent command a huge 54% of the market, mainly The American SVOD market is under close become more competitive.” because content rights windows prevent movies scrutiny following the launch of HBO GO in from becoming available on SVoD until 36 February, a subscription streaming service run TVoD 2.0? months after theatrical release. In Germany, by the cable and satellite TV network HBO, When Tesco bought its 80% stake in Blinkbox in where broadband penetration has only reached and similar subscription services are soon to 2011 the VoD landscape was very different and around a third of the population, advertisement- be introduced by networks including Showtime SVoD had yet to gain a strong foothold in the based VoD services dominate the market, with a and . UK. However, as consumer taste shifted towards 28% share. However, a massive rise in the number “It will be very interesting to see how HBO GO the varied content and convenience of of smart TVs sold in Germany and the arrival of competes with Amazon Prime and Netflix subscription services, Blinkbox failed to adapt its Netflix into the market mid-last year is likely to because they are very different animals,” points offering, perhaps because, as a retailer, Tesco was shift the balance. out Goodman. “Existing SVoD services don’t do used to selling products rather than building The US is similar to the UK and dominated by blockbuster movies very well, for example subscribers. the SVoD model: 42% of households have access Amazon’s library has lots of TV shows, older “Blinkbox is a prime example of why TVoD is very hard to make work on its own - it is just not a sustainable business model,” argues Jonathan “In France electronic sell through (EST) Guthrie, CEO of subscriber management and billing solutions provider PayWizard. “Today, it and download-to-rent command a huge can only work as a top-up to an existing and relatively mature subscriber base. If you 54% of the market, mainly because incorporate TVoD too early, you risk slowing the growth of the subscriber base, as viewers start to content rights windows prevent movies think, ‘you’ve got to pay even more for the good stuff’”. from becoming available on SVoD until A similar view is held by Michael Lantz, CEO of TV applications provider Accedo: “A TVoD- 36 months after theatrical release.” only service will be hard pressed to attract enough

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 15

TVoD.indd 2 26/03/2015 12:51:20 T-VoD

in theory, offer TVoD at a discounted rate, essentially up-selling to existing customers. This could give them an edge over iTunes and GooglePlay, which don’t offer a monthly subscription.”

New functionality Services that expand the functionality of TVoD content and the ways it can be viewed might help the business model gain traction. At present, many EST services involve purchasing a piece of content then storing and viewing it on a single device, but forward thinking providers are making EST purchases available on multiple platforms both inside and outside the home. A relatively recent example is the evolution of BT’s Buy-to-Keep EST service available through the BT TV App. Customers that have bought a film through their YouView box can stream it on another mobile device within the home users to create a good business case. The business cable service,” argues Iddo Shai, director of broadband network, as well as download it to model relies on getting enough eyeballs to product marketing at OTT video platform watch offline and outside the home. “BT claims promote content and new releases to consumers. provider Kaltura. “Pay per view has been this can be used on up to four devices. This gives In order to do so, it is vital to have other content popular for many years, the idea being that you TVoD a potentially new utility and scale and we or reasons for visiting the service.” already get all these live channels from a vendor. expect competitor services to follow suit,” thinks As such, many of the most successful TVoD It therefore makes sense to use the same service Decipher’s Walters. services are “service-within-a-service” offerings, to buy TVoD services occasionally.” However, research has shown that people still where consumers are exposed to purchasable As such the business model perhaps comes in most cases prefer to watch television on the big content via search mechanisms or UX into its own as a tool designed to drive ARPU screen and with an increasing choice of services promotional areas. from an existing mature subscriber base, offering available integrated into (payTV) set-top boxes One example in the cable space is the hybrid first run movies, popular TV series or major and TVs themselves, such as Apple TV, Now TV, cable/OTT platform X1, run by Comcast, which sporting events. It is a model Sky has Chromecast, as well as leading VoD and catch-up was recently reported to have handled almost as implemented to impressive effect with its Sky players like Sky+ and iPlayer, the popularity of many TVOD transactions as iTunes. Store service, available to all Sky TV subscribers. viewing on mobile devices could decline in future. “TVoD has great potential as an extension of a Bolting a TVoD element to an internet-based “The living room has caught up with the trend SVoD service could also work in certain for OTT viewing, and with AppleTV, Chromecast, circumstances, Shai adds: “SVoD services already gaming consoles, and all new TVs now running charge the customer a monthly fee, so they could, apps, accessing SVoD and TVoD services on the large screen is easy, so it’s natural to expect people to go back to the largest screen in the house that offers the optimal viewing experience,” says Kaltura’s Shai. “This doesn’t pose a challenge to SVoD and TVoD services, but it does carry some risks for traditional cable and satellite that need to compete with OTT TV on the large screens.”

16 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

TVoD.indd 3 27/03/2015 16:41:41 Opinion

It might be hard for cable The next digital dinosaurs: companies to compete with low cost or broadcast alternatives. The cable industry? And much like Blockbuster consumers The revenue model through ads and affi liates is antiquated were frustrated over and will not survive in the digital age. Cable must respond exorbitant late fees, cable consumers have been now to avoid the mistakes of the past, argues Frank Palermo frustrated at paying for overpriced bundles that include tons of content he landscape is littered continue to rise as new generations of viewers they don’t watch. While this hasn’t yet been with dozens of failures of consume their content on computers and mobile enough for most people to drop cable, it’s clear companies that were once devices. According to Netflix CEO, Reed Hasting, the current business model is not sustainable. The pioneers and leaders in their “the linear TV programming model is ripe for alternatives are already readily available, are more industries that fell prey to replacement.” cost effective and the content becoming more disruptors that were able to But the same business models that have been specialised. Much the same way Netflix used the reinvent the fundamentals of in place for the last 20+ years still remain. While power of a rich content library and no fee Ttheir business model seemingly overnight. From there have been strides to change the competitive structure to lure consumers from Blockbusters, music companies, music retailers, movie rentals, landscape with legislation such as the similar upstarts will eventually do that to the newspapers, magazines, bookstores, cell phone Telecommunications Act of 1996, subsequent cable operators and networks. manufacturers we’ve seen the leaders of these FCC rulings have allowed mergers and ownership industries become the digital dinosaurs of the of multiple media outlets in the same market by a A cascading landscape of disruption modern era. single company. The result is that today, most of Disruption in this industry will occur in waves Perhaps Bill Gates was right: “We always the US’ biggest broadcast and cable networks as creating a cascading landscape of disruption. The overestimate the change that will occur in the next well as movie studios (basically all the major revenue model through ads and affiliates is two years and underestimate the change that will content creators) are owned by just six antiquated and will not survive in the digital age. occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled companies, Comcast, Disney, Viacom, CBS, News But all may not be lost for cable companies. into inaction.” Corp and Time Warner. These big “dinosaurs”, They do have one enduring competitive advantage With this history behind us, it is surprising that while powerful behemoths of their age, are very in that they own the pipe to over 100 million the cable and broadcast industry has not heeded a susceptible to fast moving innovative upstarts. homes. So even as the current pay subscription call to action. With services such as Netflix, For example, over the past year, there have model unfolds, cable companies will still be able Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, Hulu, Amazon been several Napster like disrupters that have to monetise that infrastructure. A lot is still Prime, Simple.TV, Fan TV, etc. you can see the emerged. a NY based start-up was an unknown as net neutrality rules unfold and horizon is rapidly changing. According to innovative technology that allowed users stream consumers establish what they are willing to pay Lifehacker, 90% of the top 250 shows can be and record live, broadcast television to their for these services in the new digital world. already purchased via iTunes or Amazon. If you internet-connected devices, through an antenna Additionally expect to see some partnerships look at the adoption statistics of just Apple TV, it physically located in one of their warehouses. It emerge like the Comcast and Apple talks from nearly doubled to ten million units last year which was shutdown in June of 2014 after losing a legal earlier in the year. Apple realises that to make clearly highlights that the trend is showing battle brought on by the networks. Apple TV as rich as cable it will have to link in movement away from traditional TV. Nielsen Similarly, the introduction of other innovations partners. The question for cable companies is how reports that there are already five million “zero such as Popcorn Time which is a free open long to wait. They have the power of the content TV” households and expects that number to source, multi-platform, BitTorrent client meant to which they should leverage while they can. challenge SVoD services like Netflix, raised some But time is if the essence. Change is inevitable. eyebrows before it too was taken down by its The question is whether it will be a steady bleed original developers in March. for cable providers, or will they start While these modern Napsters may have haemorrhaging customers even more quickly. disappeared for a while, much like Napster gave Eventually even the most loyal cable addicts may birth to a new digital music distribution model, start considering a zero TV existence. the birth of these services are watershed moments and could mark the beginning of the end of the Frank Palermo is senior VP -Technical Solutions traditional cable and TV network business model. Group for Virtusa

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 17

Opinion.indd 2 27/03/2015 15:29:42 Research corner

upgrading. Of households Monetisation opportunities for that indicated a preference for an advanced thermostat, 61% stated the Smart Home and IoT that they would proactively replace their existing, Selling and packaging smart home solutions to consumers functioning thermostat can be tricky. Tom Kerber outlines the various options open with an advanced model. Since many smart home to smart product manufacturers and service providers products have lifetimes of over a decade, understanding what mart features are compelling to percentage of households that found any single bundles drive proactive replacement is critical to consumers and have a growing feature very appealing. market growth. influence on their purchase decisions, but adding Price and volume expansion Product sales and commissions connectivity to a product One approach to offsetting the cost of supporting Selling accessories or complementary products creates new and ongoing costs. connectivity services over the life of the product is through an app is another monetisation scheme. A key step in the business to recover that cost at the point of purchase. Sales can be fulfilled directly from the Sstrategy for smart home solutions is determining Using this model, smart products have to manufacturer, which would capture a 30-40% how to create a return on the investment required command a higher price point in order to retail margin, or through the existing supply when adding this new functionality, including the maintain margins. Unfortunately, many first- chain, which would generate a commission on cloud service, the apps, and the third-party data generation smart products do not include value- the sale. Approximately two-thirds of US services that support them. added services that provide price expansion. broadband households likely to purchase a smart This can be a tricky proposition as consumers Consumer interest in value-added services is home system are also likely to purchase —as a whole unfamiliar with services associated present — 42% of US broadband homes said they accessories from in-app product marketing. with smart products — may not want to sign up were likely to purchase a smart thermostat Allowing this, manufacturers are removing the for recurring fees, at least not initially. Numerous expressed a preference for a thermostat with friction associated with the transaction and alternate monetisation opportunities exist for both advanced value-added services priced at three replacing it with a streamlined process at the click smart product manufacturers and service times the price of a basic smart thermostat with of a button. providers to unlock value and enable participation remote monitoring and control only. The convenience of in-app purchases can also in new revenue streams that are not directly Value-added services not only have the ability extend the potential for product commissions to funded by the consumer. to command price premiums but can also shorten include complementary products. Nearly 20% of product replacement cycles and encourage US broadband households found smart appliances Value-added services Smart home service providers are using aggregated data from many products in the home to create different value-added services, while manufacturers and data analytics companies are developing product-specific applications that leverage the data stream from a single smart product. Consumers may not be willing to pay for an individual value-added service. However, bundling a group of new services together can overcome consumer reluctance to pay. Products must include a group of features that together create value for the consumer. Most products and smart home services do not have a killer app — a single feature or service that can drive revenue. Rather, a bundle of services is required. Parks Associates research shows the percentage of households willing to subscribe to a fee-based service is higher than the

18 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

SmartHome.indd 1 25/03/2015 17:26:06 Research corner

that could order detergent, dryer sheets, or fabric generation is more likely to be perceived by the softener highly appealing. user as a valuable customer service as opposed to an intrusive marketing ploy. Whole product solutions From a contractor perspective, paying a modest Value-added services are most interesting when referral fee lowers overall customer acquisition products are extended beyond their traditional costs. For example, because the of a boundaries. Currently, customers are not willing furnace can be over ten years, HVAC dealers must to pay additional fees for services that replicate constantly seek new customers. However, if a traditional device functions. Adding sensors and consumer receives an alert from a smart home controls that expand the functionality of the application that there is a problem with their product provides new opportunities to sell value- furnace, they can go through the app to find the added services. Additionally, once devices are dealers they would like to contact. The dealers able to communicate with each other, they pay a fee to have their name on the list, and the can act as a system or whole product solution, smart home service provider gets paid either using other devices as sensors and increasing directly for connecting the dealer and consumer market to market, ranging from $50-$80 per home the applications, use cases, and potential for or through a third-party firm specialising in selling per year. Today, the thermostat represents the recurring revenue. lead generation. majority of the demand response capability in the home. Traditional thermostat DR programs install App sales, upgrades Tech support thermostats at a cost of $200-$300 per home. It is Once a product is connected and its data is As smart home device adoption increases, so will impractical for third parties to utilise the utility mined, innumerable features can be added. Whole the need for support services. While a majority of model because the incentives are out of sync with product solutions in the form of app mash-ups issues with smart home devices are resolved using costs. By using the installed base of smart provide a nearly endless array of possibilities. self-service tools, 66% of smart device owners thermostats, aggregators can pay one-tenth as Something as simple as a one-dollar app upgrade would prefer to have the support of a technician much per thermostat to gain access to this base. fee can offset not only the cost of providing the to resolve the issue. service but can also generate a return on the cost However, at this time, it is not likely that Customer loyalty of developing the feature. technical support will be a significant source of One of the biggest long-term opportunities for additional recurring revenue for manufacturers or monetisation of smart products is product Advertising service providers. Most smart home device replacement. Remote diagnostics enable the When using a mobile phone, consumers spend owners expect manufacturers to provide manufacturer to know when a product is much more time in apps than on the web—as complimentary support, including self-service experiencing problems or is nearing the end of its much as five times more. Smart product owners options and telephone support, online chat, and life. Using this information, the manufacturer can are also likely to purchase other smart products remote access services. Among the minority of offer service at the time of need or offer a rebate and services, making ads on mobile apps even smart device owners who are willing to pay for to purchase a new product, customizing a pitch to more valuable. technical support, most expect to pay less than each household’s unique need. Manufacturers, While many smart product manufacturers and $10 per issue resolved. therefore, are in the best position to sell new service providers are hesitant to use advertising However, bundling technical support with other products to the consumer—either directly to the because of concerns about jeopardising their trust services as part of a premium offering is another consumer or using existing distribution channels relationship with the customer, over 40% of likely option. Individually, each service will not quickly for order fulfilment. buyers of smart home systems show interest in a gain significant adoption as a recurring revenue variety of alternative monetisation schemes, generator. But, when these services are bundled, The rise of non-consumer funded options including advertising, if participation reduces or 56% of smart device owners are willing to pay In the future, alternative business models that eliminates a monthly service. $9.99 per month, and 43% are willing to pay up to monetise connectivity indirectly will become more $39.99 per month. prevalent. In the long run, non-consumer funded Lead generation options will win a significant market share. Smart Providing referrals to contractors or retailers Demand response products and systems with no recurring revenue where recommended products or services can be Demand response represents a significant revenue fees appeal to a large segment of consumers. obtained simplifies and streamlines the customer opportunity for thermostats, appliances, lighting, Recurring revenue fees may be able to start experience. Smart home manufacturers and and other devices that consume a large portion of markets, but without strong value propositions, service providers are well positioned to be the the overall residential load. Nearly 50% of likely most will yield to solutions with no fees. provider of information at the most critical time smart home buyers would allow their service in the buying process — when the consumer has provider to adjust their thermostat. Tom Kerber is director, research, Home Controls & decided to take action. At that point, lead The value of demand response varies from Energy, Parks Associates

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 19

SmartHome.indd 2 25/03/2015 17:26:06 IPTV/OTT

in the pipes, but IPTV is dead. Long live IPTV that’s not where the bottleneck will happen—it will Traditional multicast IPTV is blending with OTT delivery. These be at the switches, hybrid approaches together with other network advances and routers, NICs, and servers that enable DevOps models will push IPTV 2.0 to a new future, discovers the internet.’ Anna Tobin If you can’t beat them, join them TT is the future of It doesn’t make sense for telcos or other access As audiences are not turned off by broadband OPTV: true or false? networks to build out private IPTV infrastructure delivered content, despite a sometimes low QoS The answer used to be for linear broadcast content when the internet is and occasional crashing and buffering, IPTV clear cut. OTT was great clearly demonstrating the capability to deliver it, players will continue to open up to OTT. They’ve for providing anytime, says Jason Thibeault, senior director of marketing realised they can’t beat them so they have to join anywhere services, but strategy at Limelight Networks, them somehow. when it came to But, he qualifies, “although OTT as a solution There are already a lot of commonalities delivering quality and quantity, IPTV would for IP-based television can leverage cloud-based between the two delivery mechanisms, points out Oalways have the edge. Not so now. Although still resources, there is no clear-cut way to gauge QoS. Jean-Marc Racine, managing partner at nowhere near IPTV levels of quality, OTT content And, the internet does not have an infinite Farncombe. CPEs, for example, are connected to is improving all the time, as is quality of service amount of resources. When you consider the an IP network, HTML is used to present the (QoS), and increasingly IPTV operators are amount of bandwidth that even an average IPTV content to the viewer, security is based on DRM adopting OTT technology. So will there be a consumer uses and then shift that content to or cardless solutions, user information time in the not so distant future when the two the public internet, it’s clear that capacity will preferences, search etc is performed in a remote technologies are indistinguishable? eventually run out. There’s plenty of capacity server and not on the CPE application itself. The one major difference relates to how live TV is distributed, namely IP multicast for IPTV and HTTP streaming for OTT. Consequently, the savvy IPTV providers are looking for hybrid solutions that are based on the best of what OTT and IPTV have to offer. “OTT has its limitations still, particularly in terms of scale, and I don’t think IPTV will die off completely because of this,” says KA Srinivasan, co-founder of cloud-based technology company, Amagi. “When it comes to major events, such as the NFL games, IPTV still has a big role to play using its live-streaming multicast capability to deliver to millions of viewers simultaneously.” OTT systems will always have problems delivering huge files to individual display devices around a nation, foresees Simen Frostad, chairman of Bridge Technologies. “As long as it is IP-based you have the flexibility of implementing various types of technologies. Let’s say a real-time sports event or newscast, which you need to produce in high quality, then traditional multicast IPTV is the technology of choice. But, for VoD and more individual content, maybe OTT is better. You need the mix.” Some improvements in QoS may ensure that OTT may soon start to own the niche channel

20 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

IPTV-OTT.indd 1 27/03/2015 16:34:49 IPTV/OTT

market, claims Avi Vermus, CEO at PeerTV. IPTV systems are built using the same “The standout advantage OTT enjoys is its architectural patterns as large scale web flexibility in terms of delivery, using as it does platforms, more specifically - micro-services. the public internet infrastructure with its huge “Combined with different development and capacity potential to deliver content. As a result, support methodologies, such as DevOps, these some of our OTT clients have seen an attractive systems can evolve quickly to meet the changing market in monetising the TV viewing habits of needs of today’s consumers. They are also expatriate communities around the world by using functionally different because they need to the internet to reach an audience known to be support devices other than the set-top-box and hungry for on-demand ethnic TV content. The network access off the operator network. technology is adaptable and can make niche “We will see IPTV platforms embrace the best markets viable.” of what OTT platforms have pioneered – ABR delivery over unmanaged networks, cloud-based Evolving legacy systems software deployments and rapid development Not all of the complex monolithic legacy IPTV environments,” says Plunkett. systems, however, can be easily adapted to Software, as opposed to hardware is the key support OTT services, and the investment word here. “Software-based solutions offer a required for the upgrade could prove too much for clear advantage over those that require specific some of the world’s second and third tier telcos. hardware because they can be deployed on “Many first-generation IPTV platforms embarked virtual machines and benefit from the features on the journey of a native-client approach, this provided by SDN and NFV architectures,” would require physical replacement of each explains Nivedita Nouvel, vice president of device with one that supports an HTML/HTML5 marketing at Broadpeak. “But even in virtualised rendering engine,” highlights Frode Hernes, environments, elasticity remains a challenge, vice president of product for TV and devices at because it has a direct impact on the workflow Opera Software. of the system, making it difficult to declare a Consequently, some heavily financed IPTV new streaming entity, de-allocate resources, etc. providers have started from scratch, replacing The solutions that have been developed to their entire legacy systems with flexible platforms run in these environments will have a that support classic IPTV and OTT, as well as strong advantage.” various multi-screen capabilities by leveraging Cloud technologies are pretty much standards like HTML5. synonymous with the anytime anywhere “The IPTV systems that already are on solutions that OTT provides. Those systems that HTML5 and integrating OTT are probably well embrace cloud-based technology will have the off, and others will have to move in that direction, upper hand too. IPTV 2.0 gives operators the if they are to survive,” emphasises Hernes. opportunity to store content on the cloud, rather An HTML5 user interface is certainly key to than at the headend or the set-top-box. “IPTV IPTV version 2 types of architectures and the operators haven’t really started leveraging cloud- integration of common place OTT services that based solutions yet,” says Francois Moreau de enable YouTube, Netflix and Hulu are becoming Saint Martin, CEO of Viaccess-Orca. “But I pretty much standard too. To this end, the You expect them to quickly move in that direction.” View platform offered by BT and Talk Talk in the UK has made a huge investment in new Wanted: A change in thinking technologies including HTML5 and Unicast Not only are IPTV providers meeting customer content delivery. As a result, Alex Green, director demands by offering OTT alongside their TV at BT, says: “YouView can make updates in standard services, they will make their days. We embrace OTT players on our YouView shareholders happier as a result too, claims Iddo platform – for example the Netflix app on Shai, director of product marketing at Kaltura. YouView can be updated as quickly as the Netflix “OTT gives telcos the option to offer business app on any other device.” plans. In the old IPTV model, services were IPTV 2.0 architectures are being designed to be based on access, not so much on usage. With future-proof, stresses Steve Plunkett, chief OTT, there are better ways to track multiple technology officer at Red Bee Media. “Modern devices and households. Operators can offer a

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 21

IPTV-OTT.indd 2 27/03/2015 16:34:58 IPTV/OTT

Ian Trow, senior director of emerging technology and strategy at Harmonic, thinks the industry will increasingly will see a marked difference between the ‘big fish and the little fish’ in the industry and unfortunately the minnows are the ones who are most likely to have to withdraw from the content space. He foresees the big Tier 1 telcos being prepared to make the investment in headend equipment that will allow them to do everything from full live screening to VoD. “This is because they have the content to back it up,” he says, “but when you step out of the realm of tier one where they are prepared to broker that risk there is more hesitancy in the market. It’s chicken and egg.” There is no doubt that those IPTV providers keen to remain in the content business will need to invest in some form of OTT provision. What is key, however, is that the user is unaware of how their content is delivered. They just want it to arrive anywhere, anytime with good QoS. “In the last year what was traditionally considered OTT has become more like IPTV and vice-versa,” states Charles Dawes, senior director product web-only Netflix-like service and limit the number present?’ Only software-defined video can address marketing at Rovi. of devices per household. It can then charge more this challenge.” “Do we define, for example, Magine or for additional devices. The same logic can be To survive in this cut throat market, IPTV TVPlayer from Simplestream as an IPTV or OTT applied to storage in cloud DVR deployments.” players will also need to change their entire belief service? Both provide linear TV over an IP IPTV is rapidly evolving into a multiscreen, systems points out, Michael Lantz, CEO, Accedo. connection, but they don’t manage that multi-device delivery technology working across a “IPTV operators have traditionally wanted connection. Similarly, Netflix is now accessible range of managed and unmanaged networks, and complete control of their services. If they’re via multiple STBs and NowTV from Sky can be there is little to indicate that IPTV delivery itself prepared to relinquish some of the control over accessed through any broadband connection and will soon become redundant. IP delivery has the infrastructure and service offering they will be on multiple devices from a consumer’s managed many advantages over broadcast delivery due to able to gradually close the gap and move faster. box to an Apple TV or smart TV to your phone.” the two-way nature of the transport medium, “IPTV solutions need to embrace fundamental The future is about delivering quality content according to Red Bee’s Plunkett. “Arguably, IP elements of OTT solutions. While they can still to the viewer wherever they are and to whatever delivery of television is the long term future with deliver video in closed-networks, rather than OTT, screen they are watching on. This can be achieved hybrid broadcast models being a long-term it is vital to embrace cloud infrastructure most successfully with a seamless mix of IPTV transitional stage.” strategies to be able to quickly scale up and down and OTT technology. The solutions are out there, But whether they modify legacy infrastructures and roll out new features and functions. They will it’s down to the operators to decide on the ideal or build new ones to keep pace, operators also need to ensure multiscreen compliance to mix of software, hardware and cloud technologies shouldn’t put current revenue streams at risk deliver consumer-friendly services, rather than necessary for their business to survive and thrive to bet on unproven new services, warns Keith STB focused services only.” in the age of the roving multi-screen. Wymbs, chief marketing officer for Elemental. “Services that are built on software-defined video architectures can morph quickly and take advantage of the best innovations of OTT “The IPTV systems that already are on offerings while maintaining the control and HTML5 and integrating OTT are probably manageability present in more traditional IPTV delivery mechanism. The question well off, and others will have to move in facing operators isn’t ‘this or that?’. It is, ‘what is best retained from the past while launching that direction, if they are to survive.” services that meet consumer needs of the

22 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

IPTV-OTT.indd 3 27/03/2015 16:35:01 Focus sponsored by: www.csimagazine.com

Cable WiFi

Arris.indd 1 27/03/2015 17:01:59 Sponsored feature

entertainment.” The new wireless frontier Eulaerts emphasises that WiFi was not a WiFi is now a top priority for cable operators, both indoors and substitute for cellular, but a outdoors, discovers Philip Hunter complement to offer higher capacities in locations where ireless and The outdoor dimension is almost equally people congregate and spend some time. These especially WiFi has pressing, for WiFi has also emerged as the are shopping centres, city centres, bars, become high medium for extending the reach of broadband restaurants and so on. In one Belgian city though, priority for cable services and enabling TV Everywhere for existing Mechelen, has gone further by providing operators both subscribers. Consumers now expect Internet full WiFi coverage in the commercial district, as inside the home access from public places via WiFi almost as part of a five-year €500 million project called ‘De and outdoors, much as they do at home. Recent consumer Grote Netwerf in your street’. Wnumber two only to the latest DOCSIS 3.1 project research by UK digital terrestrial infrastructure Publicly available hotspots also give cable to deliver gigabit broadband services. company Arqiva found that 53% of people now operators the opportunity to exploit their high This was acknowledged at the latest meeting of deem it critical or highly important to have capacity DOCSIS based infrastructures to offload the industry’s standards and technology body Internet access outside the home or office. Over data from hard pressed cellular backhaul CableLabs, at which operators identified the two 30% of people connect to Wi-Fi at least most networks. But to exploit this opportunity both as being inextricably linked, given that consumers times when they are in a pub or airport and 49% parties must ensure that offload works to the now see WiFi as an integral part of their when staying overnight in a hotel. benefit of users as well as the respective operators broadband service, or the new ‘last mile’. Cable operators can tap into this trend to and this means managing the offload process Already WiFi is the predominant medium for make their services more attractive to existing intelligently. Vendors such as Birdstep, based in accessing the Internet from portable connected customers or ‘stickier’, while also creating new Stockholm, Sweden, have emerged as specialists devices such as laptops and tablets, which means revenue opportunities, according to Keith Day, in managing the data offload process and more that this has become the principle determinant of Cisco’s marketing director for Mobility. “Lighting recently combining WiFi and cellular broadband performance. So one issue for up malls, transportation corridors, stadiums, infrastructures to create heterogeneous networks operators is that they are now held responsible by downtown areas with WiFi allows cable operators (HetNets) offering the best of both for users while their customers for issues affecting performance to stay in touch with their customers while they optimising costs for operators. or availability via a wireless network over which are on the go,” says Day. “Adding new until now they have usually had little or no direct personalised location-based services on the HetNets and WiFi/cellular convergence control for configuration or troubleshooting. With WiFi network in these environments is the new The first step in combining WiFi with cellular lies DOCSIS 3.1 set for deployment from 2016 revenue opportunity.” in enabling ‘zero-touch’ user authentication, so onwards delivering even higher speeds, the A key point is that while smartphones may be that no interaction with the client device is pressure on WiFi is only going to increase. used for snacking content on the move, larger required, also with totally transparent and devices, primarily tablets and laptops, tend to be seamless switching between WiFi and cellular. preferred for consuming slightly longer form video “We also ensure that every device has continuous OTT VIEWER TOLERANCE FOR VIDEO PROBLEMS IS DECREASING when people are sitting down in places like real-time knowledge of cellular and WiFi network 12 airports and coffee shops – and these devices are quality and uses this knowledge for intelligent usually still WiFi-only. “Therefore WiFi was the network selection,” says Birdstep CEO Lonnie 11 MINS 10 obvious choice of technology for us to bring Schilling. “Furthermore our Device Policy servers connectivity outside the home,” says Stijn enable the cable operator to create very granular 8 8 MINS Eulaerts, product manager, Wifree, of Belgian policies specifying how the user device will cable operator Telenet. “It is cost effective, has operate, using models combining location, time, 6 more supported devices and is very efficient in network load, QoS, or application based rules. offering connectivity in high density The cable operator can then define how 4 environments. We therefore deploy our hotspots aggressively or conservatively cellular or WiFi is

2 3 MINS in locations where customers have nomadic data to be used.” usage. That means locations where customers sit This, says Schilling, gives cable operators the down or at least spend a few minutes to browse chance to partner or lease wholesale cellular Source Conviva, 2014 the internet, check social media or consume capacity from an MNO and provide their cable

24 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

Arris.indd 2 30/03/2015 10:34:53 Sponsored feature

run over Wi-Fi for no extra cost, such as Virgin TV Anywhere, the most comprehensive mobile TV service in the country, and SmartCall, which means Virgin home phone inclusive minutes can be used on smartphones,” he says. As Mead notes, there is increasing overlap between outdoor and indoor Wi-Fi as the two come together in the development of large scale hot spot infrastructures providing extensive coverage, especially in urban areas. The most obvious overlap is through use of Homespot sharing, whereby a subscriber’s WiFi network is securely partitioned such that perhaps other customers of the operator are allowed free access. This can also help improve coverage within a home by recruiting a neighbour’s WiFi network to VAP3400 - Wireless AC Video Bridge provide redundancy. “Using the customer’s WiFi gateway as an customers with a cellular service, with absolute additional Hotspot or Homespot is something control of the HetNet. “It enables them to that is gaining momentum and offers a friendly maximise the customer experience while also housing estate service with scope to connect saving on cellular wholesale costs.” longer and deeper into the garden, providing or visiting to use the Cable-WiFi SSID and their HetNets will become more important for potential backup in the case of failure of your own Comcast login credentials to access WiFi for cable operators as their mobile reach expands device,” agrees Charles Cheevers, CTO at ARRIS. free,” says Cheevers. This has now been extended because they will enable them to serve locations On a wider note, making the continuity of the to large parts of Europe as well through a deal beyond the reach of WiFi but within range of mobile/wireless handoff seamless – ie, going back between Comcast and Liberty Global, allowing cellular networks. Therefore some cable operators and forth from an LTE network to a WiFi travelers in both regions to access WiFi Hotspots are also considering partnerships with MNOs network – is still something that needs to be using their home log-in credentials. (Mobile Network Operators) to provide near perfected and implemented in the handset, but Meanwhile, the cable industry is finding total coverage through HetNets. But for most there is much work taking place within Cable ingenious ways of filling in such networks to operators this is some way off, in the distant Labs and other bodies in this area. provide denser coverage, so that subscribers are haze of future 5G mobile services that finally more likely to be able to access the Internet standardise close integration between the licensed WiFi roaming wherever they are, at least while in more urban spectrum of cellular services and unlicensed When it comes to nationwide outdoor coverage, areas. ARRIS, for example, has defined what it spectrum of Wi-Fi. many cable operators are restricted by their calls an ‘in between’ device – a DOCSIS and But the move towards some form of HetNet geographical footprint, which often prevents them WiFi Hardened Outdoor unit that fits between the operation makes immediate sense for quad-play matching the overall coverage of former HomespotWiFi and carrier level outdoor WiFi cable operators that already have their own incumbent telco competitors with more extensive gateways. cellular service. In the case of in networks. This is particularly the case in the US “This device can typically co-locate with the the UK, now part of the Liberty Global group, where there are several major cable operators and tap locations in the coax network and cut-in as a the mobile service is virtual, running over EE’s even more minor ones partitioned by geography, dedicated Access Point and backhaul any WiFi network, but this is incidental to most customers so that even the largest, Comcast, only covers a traffic directly into the DOCSIS infrastructure,” who just want the best connection wherever they fairly small proportion of public places where says Cheevers. “This device increases the WiFi air are. “As the UK’s first quad-play provider, people might want access. coverage for an MSO, which can then offer a we consider WiFi from various perspectives, The obvious solution was for the operators to longer WiFi connected experience.” helping our cable customers stay online on the club together and allow all subscribers access to Tap locations are in the downstream coaxial go, and ensuring our mobile customers get the all WiFi hotspots and this is what happened when part of cable HFC (Hybrid Fibre Coax) networks best connection wherever they are,” says Virgin the cable companies created a federated solution where amplifiers are located to compensate for Media’s head of corporate relations, where they enable access using the Cable WiFi attenuation by boosting the RF signals. Gareth Mead. SSID (Service Set Identifier – the public name of So there are a great many use case and “These different considerations are converging a wireless network) tied to each subscription. opportunities for cable MSOs to make a wireless as we and the country move more towards quad- “This allows, for example, a Comcast customer play both inside and outside the home. And now play as standard. We already have services that who is in a area on business is the time for them to engage in these.

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 25

Arris.indd 3 30/03/2015 10:48:52 Sponsored feature

the biggest Overcoming the challenges of in- operational topic by far, ARRIS executives have home WiFi told CSI. Operators can be CSI and ARRIS examine video over WiFi inside home broadly divided into two camps: environments, putting QoS under the spotlight those who swear by it and those who are yet to he Cable Congress increasingly a range of connected IP devices. take the plunge conference is usually a good WiFi is changing the connectivity paradigm because they have to be convinced of the barometer of what is ~in the home to make it a truly connected one. reliability of delivering video in this way. important in the executive Europe has pockets of coax/MoCA and other The most pressing need for most operators lies and engineering echelons of alternative fixed line deployments such as in ensuring that WiFi can deliver the full range of cable MSOs in Europe so it Powerline Communications but wireless has broadband and pay TV services within the home. was encouraging to hear emerged as the real enabler of the connected This is a major challenge, for although on paper much discussion being devoted to wireless and home. Behind the technology, it’s about giving the latest IEEE 802.11ac WiFi standard supports Tmobility over the last two years. the consumers what they want. bit rates plenty high enough for super broadband The shift in emphasis of rhetoric by the service Of course, many challenges exist in home and premium HD services, in practice a number provider community comes amid a wider environments, something that has stopped many of factors, including building construction and converging landscape taking place. As noted in operators from so far fully taking the plunge. congestion, can cause intermittent performance the earlier feature, there is increasing overlap Delivering IPTV television over WiFi in the home and dead zones with no signal at all. Indeed, between outdoor and indoor WiFi as the two is more difficult than OTT streaming video, service providers commonly complain that come together in the development of large scale according to ARRIS. IPTV uses much higher bit anywhere up to 70% of call centre costs are hotspot infrastructures providing extensive rates for the video than is typically used for OTT. associated with solving WiFi problems in the coverage. The most obvious overlap is through use While OTT services use adaptive bit rate home, commonly buffering, choppy online video, of Homespot (hotspots built into the cable streaming IPTV uses constant bitrate streams. slow and upload/download speeds and lost signal modem that can be used for roaming sharing). A They also use different protocols which connections to the router, modem, gateway, set- subscriber’s WiFi network is securely partitioned compounds matters. top box or similar device. such that other customers of the operator are Home wireless services are delivered over two allowed free access. This can also help improve frequency ranges: 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The latter Video prioritisation coverage within a home by recruiting a is a cleaner spectrum but doesn’t propagate as One way of guaranteeing video QoS is through neighbour’s WiFi network to provide redundancy. well in the home, so wireless access points (Aps) service prioritisation techniques. Standards are Telenet, and Liberty are among the that leverage both typically deliver much better now emerging to put mechanisms in place European MSOs deploying millions of throughput than those that cannot. whereby video can take priority over other HomeSpots. For ARRIS service provider customers, WiFi is services. WiFi offers significant opportunities for The simplest approach to bandwidth offloading growing cellular traffic. In the, US reservation is to allocate high priority data, like 60-70% of data is offloaded onto WiFi networks, video, to a separate frequency band than the rest while in Europe the vast majority of TV and video of the Internet traffic. Some APs reserve the 5 usage also takes place over WiFi. VoWiFi is also GHz band for video and push the rest of the an emerging trend, partly driven by its ability to Internet traffic onto the more populated 2.4 GHz. overcome spotty mobile indoor coverage. For APs also support WiFi multimedia (WMM), a these reason, it is general accepted that cable standard that defines how to tag time sensitive MSOs without some form of wireless play by the traffic like video and ensure that it is prioritised 2020s will be doomed to extinction. over other data types. “WMM works well in In the case of this feature, the focus is on wireless networks where there is enough airtime delivering high quality video over WiFi available to transmit all the requested data from connections in order to satisfy growing consumer the clients. Unfortunately, it does not work well demand as more and more video is watched in when there are too many clients requesting too multiple rooms not just on other TV sets but much data,” says Anthony Zuyderhoff, VP CPE

26 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

Arris.indd 4 27/03/2015 17:07:33 Sponsored feature

use mesh technologies to make WiFi into a strain on in-home wireless networks. People are broadcast grade medium. Swisscom, for instance, also talking about 8x8 radios (and even higher) uses mesh for delivery of high quality IPTV by which may well be needed for multi-room UHD. adding an additional mesh node. These are The Internet of Things promises a future world usually larger homes and have a second or third of ubiquitous computing, with WiFi thermostats, TV. The additional mesh node not only solves the self-driving cars, and connected kitchen range problem of a single TV case, but also appliances increasingly permeating every aspect increases the WiFi capacity to include a second of consumer living. Increasing levels of M2M TV. The more TVs that are added, the more communications will clearly have an impact. robust and higher capacity the mesh network Clearly these devices will increase the demands becomes. Swisscom has now shown it is possible on in-home coverage and WIFI, as well as for operators to guarantee QoS for premium video interference and coverage in certain areas of the over WiFi. home. Operators need to prepare for this influx of What remains to be seen is whether this will be devices whether they actively participate/lead in possible in the DOCSIS 3.1 era as fixed the IOT revolution or whether they’re primarily TG2492 - 24 Channel DoCSIS 802.11AC EMTA broadband speeds continue to increase and QoS 3rd party devices. “Either way – home networking becomes even more demanding. “It’s too early issues will increase which could lead to increased Solution Sales EMEA for ARRIS. and while some operators have looked at it, it calls to the operator call center and lower The problem with WMM is that it is not fair to remains only relevant when you have lots of APs,” customer satisfaction,” warns Zuyderhoff. all clients: in marginal situations video can block says ARRIS CTO of Customer Premises Given all of these devices in theory “pass-thru” all other data access, according to Zuyderhoff. Equipment, Charles Cheevers. the operator gateway it creates an opportunity for “WMM only knows about media. It is unable to “Even when we have lots of APs we favour a better management, troubleshooting and control apply any QoS management to the rest of the data microController role for the GW over meshing as of these devices. ARRIS is doing some early work traffic,” he notes. in typical residential environment there will rarely on creating a control point mechanism which While it can solve some of the issues with QoS be more than one hop to a GW,” Cheevers could interpret these various protocols and have protected clients, others without QoS cannot continues. “Meshing is not really as relevant as the control point reside within the home gateway access the wireless network anymore. Multicast SON in a residential environment.” or virtualised via the cloud. The company also has streams can take the entire bandwidth of a According to Cheevers, 802.11s (an 802.11 the ServAssure suite of WiFi solutions that act as wireless system when a wireless STB client is amendment for mesh networking) is also a toolkit to give operators better visibility into the further away from the AP or in high attenuation immature and needs lots of augmentation to make home network. environment. it work properly. The key point is that WiFi already acts as the Zuyderhoff, however, points out that ‘smart dominant technology for distributing TV, video QoS systems’ allow an operator to classify MU-MIMO and other traffic throughout the home. This will many different types of Internet traffic and Multi-User MIMO is another technique available only continue as its performance capabilities grow assign priorities to each. This allows the in IEEE 802.11ac which can improve the and more operators become more comfortable in wireless AP to more equitably manage the bandwidth. MU-MIMO allows an AP to transmit deploying wireless-based services. airtime between clients. up to four clients at the same time. Special Smart QoS systems can detect when airtime is beamforming reduce the inter-client interference. ARRIS at a glance oversubscribed and maintain stability by The AP has more airtime left for other wireless • Headquartered in Suwanee, USA with discarding packets. A smart QoS system clients and the bandwidth in a MU-MIMO group offices in 30 countries around the world guarantees clients equitably receive airtime and can be doubled or tippled. (6,500 employees) that packets are discarded fairly. To do this, the Zuyderhoff notes that MU-MIMO works in • A global reach through its network of system must be able to sort all the packets into short or medium range to the AP only. The AP channel partners in 85 countries multiple queues, ordered by the type of Internet changes automatically to normal MIMO when the • Revenue in 2014: $5.3 billion application, before they go into the WMM queue. attenuation increases. All clients in a MU-MIMO • Delivered the first wireless broadband group must support this feature but MU-MIMO gateway Meshing and non MU-MIMO clients can co-exist in a • Over 2000 patents Some vendors have developed mesh technology to wireless network. • Pioneer of standards and pathways for make WiFi more robust against interference and tomorrow’s personalized, Ultra HD, signal degradation by creating multiple paths, The future: IoT, 4k and beyond multiscreen, and cloud services replacing the traditional star shaped wireless Going forward, more connected devices (today’s structure. average in Western Europe is seven and counting) For more information: www.arris.com Some operators are experimenting with how to and new 4k/ultra HD services will put even more

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 27

Arris.indd 5 27/03/2015 17:07:34 WE ARE WIRELESS VIDEO We are solving the in-home Wi-Fi bottleneck with solutions and strategies that help consumers reliably stream video to every device they want to use – and every corner of the home.

WE ARE ARRIS Meet Anthony Zuyderhoff, VP CPE Solutions out of our European team. He’s been focused on helping service providers deliver video and data within the home for over a decade. He specializes in wireless solutions that provide ubiquitous coverage and predictable service to smartphones, smart televisions, and every device in between. Anthony applies his expertise to help you delight subscribers with video experiences that are untethered and seamless.

THE PEOPLE OF ARRIS DRIVING THE FUTURE OF WIRELESS VIDEO

SEE US AT TV CONNECT 28-30 April, London Excel, ARRIS booth #29

ARRIS_CSI_19MAR15.indd 1 3/19/15 12:10 PM Untitled-5 1 19/03/2015 17:18:14 Industry column

ltra HD sales are on the up while the price-per-inch is UHD interoperability falling, and 4k screens account for more than five per The first ultra HD plugfests in the UK show the cent of the market (figures from GfK). On top of that, in technology still has a long way to go 2014 the average screen size Uselling in British shops jumped from 33.3 inches to supported HEVC at 50/60Hz - the frame rates 36.3in, breaking the 20-year pattern of one-inch/ expected to be used for broadcast services. year growth in screen size established since 1994. Additionally, there were scaling issues, motion Netflix and Amazon Prime are both streaming judder, poor contrast, flat colours and lip sync 4k video to subscribers, while Hollywood studios issues, while support for the HEVC Main 10 and global consumer electronics brands have profile was not universal. followed the example of the DTG UK UHD UHD will not go ahead without copy Forum in the UK by creating a UHD Alliance to protection between the source and the sink (or coordinate their activities. through the switches and other devices en route), But 2015 has also heard bleats of concern over so the next plugfest will look at end-to-end the next generation of broadcast entertainment, support for HDCP 2.2. both from within the industry, and outside it from These results aren’t too surprising - similar an increasingly well-informed public. problems arose in the early days of HD - but Prompted by our members - that’s broadcasters today’s consumers are highly informed and like Sky and manufacturers like Panasonic - the wary of product benefits being over-sold, at format wars hovers over at least two of them, yet DTG UK UHD Forum began a programme of the same time as they’re eager to adopt the all of them must come together in harmony to ‘plugfests’ in late 2014 to find out how well the latest technology. deliver the leap forward which is being promised. ultra HD market is shaping up. The risk is that it’s not the customers who will In the best engineering tradition, we took UHD Five dimensions of UHD fall flat on their faces if they are disappointed, but screens already in the market, combined them When cultivated wisely, these early adopters the brands who will find their reputations bruised, with a variety of content sources including are powerful brand advocates, but consumer and their bottom lines hurt by increased product prototype set-top boxes from silicon vendors, and electronics brands and retailers must tread returns or call centre costs. tried to find out where they succeeded and failed. carefully because they can be fierce and vocal The good news is that the DTG UK UHD Our first plugfest focused on HDMI to find out opponents if they feel their enthusiasm has Forum is enabling CE brands and digital just how the devices fared at connecting up been abused. entertainment platforms to test drive their (interoperability) and showing 4k in a variety of The danger is clear and present: in March products in confidence through the plugfest formats. The good news is that they all showed the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority programme for DTG Members. Through local some 4k content. censured the retailer DSG for a UHD TV and international collaboration we can deliver a The bad news is that many displays could only promotion which claimed “because they’re 4k programme of UHD standards beyond simple 4k show 4k at 25Hz or 30Hz, less than 10% could Ultra HD, you can watch your favourite which are deliverable in a manner which users show all the 4k modes tested, and there was poor Christmas movies in greater detail”. can not only accept, but embrace. support for 10-bit colour or 50/60Hz progressive The advertising watchdogs were not convinced, scan modes. and told the retailer “not to imply that there was Plugfest 2 took on HEVC, the codec family an improvement in the quality of a product unless chosen for the majority of UHD services but they held supporting evidence, and to ensure that which is also seen as a way for standard and their advertising clearly communicated the HD services to save bandwidth as terrestrial standard of quality that would be achieved”. TV increasingly cedes wireless capacity to UHD still has a long way to go, and the DTG, mobile users. Sky, the BBC, DVB and other groups are agreed The HEVC test signals were encoded in main that it’s not just about resolution, but a host of and main 10-profiles at a variety of resolutions, other benefits including higher frame rates, higher frame rates, bit-depths and colour space, into a dynamic range, wider colour gamut and object- George Robertson is the number of retail and prototype TVs, as USB files, oriented three-dimensional sound. Each of these principal IP engineer at the satellite streams, DTT streams and MPEG-DASH is remarkable on its own, and together they will DTG. There is more on this at www.dtg.org.uk and streams. be revolutionary. if you’re interested in getting The 2015 models all supported HEVC at up to Only the question of resolution has been involved, please contact George Robertson 50/60Hz, but the 2014 models fared less well: defined and the screens of 2015 cannot deliver all [email protected] 60% did not support HEVC at all, and only 30% five dimensions of UHD, and the spectre of

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 29

DTGColumn.indd 3 25/03/2015 17:17:20 AWARDS CEREMONY 2015 11 September 2015 Amsterdam

The CSI Awards 2015 – Call for entries Enter our NEW Categories!

Deadline for entries: 13 May 2015

Established in 2003 the awards are among the most prestigious and competitive technology awards in the industry, designed to recognise and reward innovation and excellence in the cable, satellite, broadcast, IPTV, telco, broadband/OTT video, mobile TV and associated sectors.

This year, we are introducing three brand NEW CATEGORIES: Cloud/virtualisation innovation; smart home service or platform; and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The awards are open to any company or organisation supplying relevant products, software or services and embrace the entire ecosystem, from production and playout through to transmission and in-home distribution and end-user devices. The winners will be announced on 11 September 2015 in Amsterdam.

For the latest news and updates about the CSI Awards follow us @CSIAwards #CSIAwards

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 CSI magazine • Awards www.csimagazine.com Awards 2015

Awards2015.indd 2 26/03/2015 11:15:02 AWARDS CEREMONY 11 September 2015 2015 Amsterdam

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 • John Ive, BA, C.Eng MIET, Director of Business Development & Technology, IABM • Terry Marsh, Strategy in Digital Media • David Mercer, VP, Principal Analyst, Strategy Analytics • 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

The CSI Awards 2015 will be taking place on Friday 11 September 2015 at IBC in Amsterdam. Join us at the 13th annual CSI Awards to see this year’s winners exclusively announced. The Awards ceremony will include drinks and canapés and will as always be a wonderful evening.

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page thirty one CSI magazine • Awards Awards 2015 www.cable-satellite.com

Awards2015.indd 3 26/03/2015 11:15:09 DTH in Russia

provider MTS is also Eastern pioneers entering the market, focusing on remote parts Russia has a rich history of satellite fi rsts, and a topography of the country. Its new made for the platform, says David Adams, but where will DTH service is expected to offer 160 channels, future growth come from? including 30 in HD, for a subscription of around R1,200 per year (less than ou could say that Russia really homes, a figure set to reach 17 million households EUR17). MTS already has around 2.7 million ought to be a pioneer in within the next 12 months. These figures reflect a cable and IPTV subscribers. In December, it satellite TV. After all, one of significant recent uplift, with the number of announced it would provide a service for the great triumphs the nation homes equipped to receive DTH signals thought subscribers to the now defunct Raduga TV will always be able to cherish to have increased by 25 per cent between 2011 satellite service, at least until March 2015. is the launch of the first and 2013. This followed Raduga’s closure after an artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, investigation by the Ministry of the Interior into Yin October 1957; an act which, if it achieved Meet the players alleged breaches of licensing regulations: a nothing else, really upset the Americans. A decade Russian DTH operators include Tricolor TV, now reminder that the Russian regulatory environment later, in 1967, Russia launched its first national one of the largest DTH operators in the world, can be complex and unpredictable. In October satellite TV system, Orbita. At least some Russians with around 15 million subscribers. Among its 2014, the government passed an amendment have been able to access satellite TV services ever rivals, Orion Express has around 2.5 million to media law limiting foreign ownership of since. And satellite is in many ways a perfect subscribers, who access its services via three media companies in Russia to 20 per cent, platform for this country, with a large population satellites: Intelsat 15, Horizons 2 and Express down from 50 per cent. Although this did not spread across great distances and sometimes AM5. NTV, which has less than one million directly affect the companies listed above, it challenging physical geography. subscribers, grew rapidly in 2014, in part through is having a significant impact on, for example, Even so, there is still plenty of room for growth a low cost subscription strategy, offering basic the broadcaster CTC, which is owned by a US in this market. Today, the 300 DTH channels digital packages for the equivalent of less than $1 company and which in turn owns TV channels available across the country are watched by per month. that are available on a range of cable and satellite around 40 million viewers in about 13 million The major Russian telecommunications platforms across Russia. In November, the US broadcaster CNN cited “recent changes in Russian media legislation” as the driver behind its decision to pull out of cable and satellite distribution deals in Russia, although CNN’s owner, Turner Broadcasting (part of Time Warner), said it hoped to re-enter the market in future, something that was confirmed this February. And all pay TV broadcasters are affected by another law passed in 2014, which prohibits advertising on pay TV channels in Russia – unless 75 per cent of the channel’s content has been created in Russia. But foreign content, like US

“Our strategic development plan is based on consistent transition to HD and UHD.” - Tricolor TV

32 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

SatelliteTVinRussia.indd 1 25/03/2015 17:59:50 DTH in Russia

movies, is at least as popular in Russia as in many other markets. The other factor likely to inhibit the progress of the DTH market in Russia is the broader economic climate. As Boudimir Serditykh, director of sales, Russia and CIS and head of the Moscow office for Harmonic, explains, operators’ revenue usually arrives in Rubles, which declined in value by over 50 per cent during the course of 2014, while most operators’ expenses need to be met in foreign currency. “Over the last six months revenue has decreased dramatically and that is a problem for all DTH providers, who are now being forced to revise future plans and cut budgets,” he says. Cisco’s senior sales for Russia, Alexander Andrianov, agrees: “The recent rouble devaluation complicates business for Pay TV operators in Russia and neighbouring CIS countries. It causes changes in operators’ business strategy: now extensive growth is not in the high agenda for them, rather they concentrate on efficiency, introduction of high value services like Multiscreen, Ultra HD, etc.” For example Tricolor-TV is now proposing new subscriptions with cheaper tarifs, Raduga-TV subscribers are moving to MTS, who is trying to win customers with rich content as opposed to low prices, and rumours are flying around that NTV+ is going to be purchased by , according to Andrianov. Nonetheless, Jean-Phillippe Gilet, vice- president, EMEA, at Intelsat, is bullish about the prospects for the market. “If you look at the current ARPU of most customers in Russia, it is pretty low,” he concedes. “With the current economic situation in Russia it’s unlikely that customers will be willing to pay a lot more. So the short term strategy is to provide as much content as possible in the most cost-effective way, increasing the number of subscriptions and your profitability. The Russian market is a bit more add to their propositions,” she says, “with good consistent transition to HD and UHD,” she says. competitive than other markets: you have a lot of quality HD content, multi-screen services, on “UHDTV will develop concurrently with satellite offerings at very good prices.” demand and so on. But this is not going to infrastructure. Tricolor TV 4k operations are It is expected that DTH market growth will be happen overnight. The market has to mature already based on HEVC/H.265 and multiplexers, around 12% at least until 2018. [before] subscribers [will] pay more for high which allows a significant transponder capacity Natalia Romanova, Moscow-based business quality services.” saving.” development director at Irdeto, believes ARPUs Harmonic’s Serditykh outlines the key factors can’t really fall much further, particularly with 4k and OTT that he believes will lead to continued adoption of other sources of free to air content to compete Elizaveta Kapralova, chief communications UHD/4k. “First there is the great influence of with – not to mention illegal sources of content. officer at Tricolor TV, is keen to highlight consumer video equipment manufacturers,” he “If satellite operators want subscribers to pay the operator’s launch of a 4k pilot in October. says. “Take Samsung. Their TV sets already more for subscription packages, they will have to “Our strategic development plan is based on possess all of the necessary characteristics to

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 33

SatelliteTVinRussia.indd 2 25/03/2015 18:00:05 DTH in Russia

support all kinds of formats. ARPU, from R629 to R998 over the same period. “Second, OTT offerings are more like a Nor does she believe the advertising ban has complementary service. Right now, monetisation had any significant negative impact: “This act of OTT services is low in Russia. Multiscreen and does not make much difference for operators – in OTT demand different content delivery fact it gives them an opportunity to revise existing possibilities, a different audience and other contracts and get rid of low rated and cost- partners’ involvement. Much effort and ineffective channels.” expenditure is required, yet [does not] result in Gilet is sanguine about the regulatory an increase of subscribers and revenue. But in environment. “We are not seeing any negative the future the market is expected to become impact on our customers [from the advertising more segmented, making a pure OTT offering ban],” he says. “There are probably more to a younger audience viable and monetisable. regulatory impacts in Russia than in other Image courtesy of Tricolor TV So the adoption of UHD/4k is the most natural countries, but we don’t see them as major path of development.” obstacles to growth.” moment you have to have DRM that works on However, substantial practical obstacles PCs – still the biggest way people consume video remain, says Sergey Plotnikov, director for The fight against piracy online in Russia – and also on Android devices, multimedia services at the Russian Satellite But security and piracy issues may represent more which are very popular in Russia.” Communications Company (RSCC). “The major significant problems, suggests Rory O’Connor, Piracy for DTH operators until recently was issue is posed by insufficient traffic-carrying vice-president for managed services at Irdeto. not a big problem, according to Cisco’s capacity of communications channels to meet the Irdeto research published in January showed that Andrianov, as the DTH subscription costs were challenges of 4k content,” he says. “HEVC coding a large majority of Russian consumers (70 per not big enough to stimulate intensive piracy. is an effective way to address optimisation of cent) watch pirated video content at least once “However, due to increasing subscription tariffs network channel use, but the development of 4K per week. The main reasons for doing so cited by it will, definitely, generate a problem for them,” on pay TV has been hampered by a lack of respondents were that legal content is too he says. receiver equipment with a chipset capable of expensive (according to 39 per cent of those who Sports broadcasts are a particular focus in decrypting HEVC. Despite vigorous support for view illegal content) and that they did not want to the fight against piracy (especially with the the 4K standard from the TV and video wait for official releases (33 per cent). When the World Cup due to be held there in 2018), with equipment producers, no mass-scale demand has results are compared against Irdeto research Irdeto working alongside rights holders to identify been in evidence. conducted in other markets they suggest pirated pirate devices, illegal IPTV STBs and illegal “Of course, there is also an impediment to do content is more pervasive in Russia than in the streams. The aim is to ensure that those who try with a great number of HD TV sets already sold. US, UK, Australia or India. Younger age groups to watch a sporting contest illegally won’t get to The manufacturing end of the industry will have seemed particularly willing to seek illegal content. see the end of the game: “It’s better to pay and to get the message across to the users as to why One key reason may be high internet see how the match ended,” as O’Connor puts it. HD is not enough and why one should go out penetration, suggests O’Connor. “Around 50 per Tackling piracy is also a priority for Tricolor, and buy UHDTV.” He sees a similar story of cent of all adults in Russia own a smartphone and says Kapralova. “We take all steps to prevent a lack of demand in the market, rather than there is 87 per cent internet penetration, which our signal relay for illegal purposes,” she says. technical shortcomings, behind the relatively makes it a market where piracy is easy,” he says. “Recently we initiated criminal proceedings slow development of multiscreen services for “I also think piracy is driven quite a lot by the against a cable TV operator suspected of satellite operators. fact that traditionally it was a DTH market and illegal relaying of Tricolor TV signals, with “The business of Russsian providers is built on today it’s turning into an OTT market, very proceedings also including civil claims from staged promotion of new services,” asserts rapidly. We work very closely with the DTH content providers.” Tricolor’s Kapralova. “Aggressive promotion of operators, but also with people looking to extend Still, despite piracy, an unpredictable regulatory HDTV was the growth driver from mid-2012, their reach into OTT. What’s important when environment and economic instability, this while in 2014 multiscreen services took the lead.” you’re looking at legitimately acquiring content is remains a vibrant, growing market, says Gilet. She points to Tricolor’s subsequent increases in that you have a good DRM capability. At the “In 2014, with all that happened, the DTH market still grew by six per cent and penetration is predicted to reach 87 per cent in 2018,” he points out. “The way we look at the Russian “The 300 DTH channels available across market is, this is going to remain a key market for the country are watched by around 40 satellite distribution. As in any other market you may have a few bumps in the road, but ultimately million viewers in about 13 million homes.” things are going to stabilise and this is going to remain a very important market for us.”

34 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

SatelliteTVinRussia.indd 3 25/03/2015 18:00:06 Focus sponsored by: www.csimagazine.com

Cloud-based DRMs

verimatrix.indd 1 26/03/2015 17:23:09 Sponsored feature

Cloud-based Cloudy with a chance of DRMs DRM is an effort to address subscriber interest in viewing Adrian Pennington looks at the migration of DRM in hosted online content that is encrypted in or cloud environments, and weighs up the pros and cons of various DRM this approach formats and is made available through multiple online s the video delivery service Adobe or Widevine for instance) are already video providers. This results in operators needing industry as a whole becomes offered as a cloud service. Cloud DRM is also an to support different content packaging and more software-based, the emerging trend for implementing operator DRM content protection formats like MPEG-DASH implementation of cloud- products, and, in particular for smaller operators, and Common Encryption Scheme (CENC). centric security management suggests Nagra’s senior product marketing As more device functionality is moving to would seem a logical director, Christopher Schouten, as cloud services the cloud (user interfaces, DVR storage, progression. However, the are an efficient way to optimise their own preference management etc) vendors see a Aissue is complex and requires some unpicking. operations while getting a robust level of service. greater share of the core rights management In some ways, the term cloud is a misnomer. Looking further, Schouten sees large operators logic moving upstream. Effectively, DRM delivered as a service from a “starting to run their own cloud infrastructure, “Traditional pay-TV operators have been scalable platform allows content owners and implementing a generic IT infrastructure server limited to supporting a single DRM vendor providers to shift away from the need to build, virtualization approach that brings cost benefits given the operational complexity in rolling out maintain and ultimately upgrade the DRM as well as added elasticity.” Such an approach, he multi-DRM library support into their device platforms that are essential for the majority of informs, “usually relies on a combination of a footprint,” says Sachin Sathaye, VP, product service provision. private cloud environment with some highly strategy and marketing, ActiveVideo. “The “In the past, providers would build their own scalable online services put on a public cloud or compliance rules associated with supporting DRM platforms which would effectively become a using third party cloud services, for functions DRM vendors further inhibit expanding the software platform needing maintenance and such as multi-DRM management.” DRM solutions to existing devices that lack upgrades in line with changes to the underpinning Just as functionality like middleware and user sophisticated cryptographic features.” technologies and business evolution,” explains interface are moving to the cloud from the client, Moreover, according to Cisco’s Sandler, the Giorgio Tornielli, VP product engineering, Piksel. so security functionality is also ready to make that main advantage of adopting cloud DRM is the “The cloud model shifts to a case of integration transition, according to Leonid Sandler, CTO moving of license keys and many security and customisation with the ongoing platform DRM, Cisco. “This is a trend in the beginning functions from the client device to the server. development and expansion taken care of by the stages with growth potential,” he says. This allows easier management, updates, and service provider. This approach benefits from There is a broad reason why migration of DRM support for multiple DRMs, formats, protocols economies of scale, specialisation and the ability in hosted or cloud environments for pay-TV and evolving business models. Content owners to provide more ancillary features that would be operators is occurring: namely, there are core will continue to encrypt and package the same prohibitively expensive to develop for a single benefits shared with other cloud technologies. As way, however, with licenses and metadata in-house installation.” discussed, it is part of a wholesale shift of the information passed to the cloud DRM server for Several consumer DRM products (PlayReady, video prep and delivery infrastructure towards authentication. They will also be able to offer an pure software subsystems, fundamentally extensible service, across regions with availability dependent on IP connectivity, which can then be of servers closer to the end customers. implemented in physical data centres or in cloud CPU resources. Security and business drawbacks In this case, according to Steve Christian, SVP Deploying DRM in the cloud in a manner that is Marketing, Verimatrix, “DRM technology and secure and in agreement with the DRM vendors’ business logic does not change.” Some vendors studio compliance rules, is not a trivial task, and have taken generic implementations of DRM cloud security is still not seen as robust as data technologies (Verimatrix is one) and are offering centre security. Key security functionality such as a SaaS model of key management based on cloud DRM requires a robust, trusted and scalable resources. This, says Christian, “tends to shift the provider that has a history of studio approvals and business model for DRM costs rather than the uncompromised security delivery. underlying technology.” “It is very important that DRM infrastructure

36 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

verimatrix.indd 2 26/03/2015 17:23:11 Sponsored feature

deployed in the cloud is done so in a manner that ensures studio compliance,” stresses Steve Plunkett, CTO, Red Bee Media. “The storage of key material is subject to particular restrictions that must be met to ensure compliance. It also makes more sense to use cloud based DRM when media processing workloads in general are moving due to the maturity of connectivity and virtualised (probably less than 1%) “although growing faster into the cloud. Doing so in isolation, while computing technologies.” than on-premise implementations.” general media processing remains on-premise, can André Roy, head of security practice, “Service providers may reduce costs by slow down the media transit path and increase Farncombe warns that not all cloud-based DRMs outsourcing, but also lose considerable control workflow execution times.” are optimised to handle content preparation. “We of a key functionality like content security The failure to provide a seamless user audit CA systems and can say that there are few authentication and policy enforcement,” warns experience when wanting to transfer viewing mid- cloud-based DRM systems that meet studio Cisco’s Sandler. He adds that cloud security is stream of Netflix’ House of Cards from an iPad to content handling requirements for handling still not as robust as data centre security, which a Samsung smartTV, at best risks alienating the unencrypted content. Primarily, having studio requires cloud components and deployments to subscriber to another service, at worse pushes quality mezzanine files unencrypted in the cloud be designed to minimise the associated risks. them toward pirate sites. would not meet MPAA (Motion Picture Only a partial shift of the DRM infrastructure “The real business challenge for operators who Association of America) requirements. All to the cloud is expected from Telekom Innovation wish to target the broadest number of devices is encryption would need handling in a physical Laboratories, the research wing of Deutsche to eliminate service distribution and consumption facility rather than in the cloud.” Telekom. “This shift implies the adaptation of the silos that serve only to frustrate consumers and Verimatrix suggest that full DRM systems current DRM infrastructure towards more may nudge them towards alternative sources,” says (generally consisting of digital rights to manage, centrally hosted key servers and therefore an Christian. “One aspect of this is the need to encryption, license management, and a DRM- overall reduction in the number of key server enable support for multiple native DRM systems enabled client) can be deployed in the cloud “very APIs for the service operator,” says Dr Oliver on the devices and browsers in use, and to provide easily as a part of an overall video delivery Friedrich. “It also implies the adaptation of the user with a transparent consumption system” but it doesn’t see this as the gold content servers hosting files encrypted by means experience.” standard right now for pay-TV. “Physical data of common encryption scheme, which could also The purpose of security goes far beyond the centre deployment and virtual machine simplify the DRM encryption infrastructure. defensive aspects of addressing piracy and theft of deployments are still quite popular, although “Moreover, support for interoperability is service, says Christian, “to that of ultimately interest in cloud implementations is growing,” currently not being offered by most market- enhancing the subscriber’s quality of experience reports Christian. leading DRM providers.” Therefore, he says, a (QoE) while also underpinning the operator’s Another potential drawback is flexibility. In real move into the cloud is not taking place. The bottom line.” certain cases, cloud based services will only primary DRM innovation for Friedrich, is driven Partly for this reason we’ve not yet seen the support a limited set of DRM technologies. “If a by the browser and multi-device scenarios and wholesale movement of DRM into virtualised particular feature is not available then it is not technologies, such as MPEG DASH with CENC environments. “The cloud aspect of DRM is not a always possible to just build it yourself and add it and HTML5 EME. The most important factor is process that aggregates large amounts of sensitive to the mix,” reports Tornielli. “The cloud can be the de-coupling of the content from the DRM customer information, billing or account defined as a shared multi-tenant environment so system itself. accessibility,” explains Piksel’s Tornielli. “In the timescale of upgrades, features and fixes are For an organisation with no existing investment essence, it is a streamlining of a well-understood dependent on the diligence of the provider.” such as a new OTT, SVoD or TVoD entrant, it’s process that has typically resided in-house and Piksel suggests cloud DRM solutions are a hard not to make the case for cloud-based DRM can now be consumed as an externalised service relatively small percentage of deployments from day one.

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 37

verimatrix.indd 3 27/03/2015 17:13:44 Sponsored feature

driven a Simplifying OTT revenue security standards effort over the past few years to make the By Steve Christian, senior vice president, Verimatrix browser environment itself nternet delivered video services present Firstly, video consumption away from the main more capable of supporting the new video content providers and operators with TV has swung strongly towards mobile devices, formats, which has also driven OTT service promising new revenue opportunities, particularly tablets, but also larger smartphones, quality and ubiquity. Unfortunately, the way this however these can come with increasing which are becoming ever more popular in has balkanised the landscape seems likely to complexity and significant costs in the developed markets. complicate rather than simplify the picture for short-term. These services can also create This trend towards viewing on portable wireless service operators. new security challenges related to service devices is likely to continue in all leading markets In practice, operators will have to support Idelivery, in particular as the range of consumer over the next few years as PC sales further both browser and app interface environments electronics and mobile devices become dominant stagnate and personal devices proliferate. over the next few years during this period of for accessing media content. Secondly, the browser has never gained great fundamental transition towards the Internet and The over-the-top (OTT) video landscape is traction as the center of service delivery on IP delivery for video — whether over mobile or muddied by an overall trend towards apps rather tablets and smartphones and could soon be on fixed access networks. than browsers for accessing content, simply the verge of extinction on these mobile devices as Yet consumers will continue to refine their because tablets and smartphones have clearly apps become totally dominant. criteria for what constitutes a premium quality of been established as the second screen of choice The rapid evolution of toolsets for building experience. They will want transparent access to for long-form and TV viewing. Operators have secure apps continues to enhance the way all service content and many cross device features, embraced the app model for their branded consumers interact with apps on mobile devices, such as favorites and preferences, without services because apps put them fully in the making them more and more attractive as the intrusive username/password roadblocks. In the driving seat of content access, discovery and also consumer-facing endpoint of video services. face of such demands, operators themselves will security. Even as HTML5 matures, the browser These trends together, the swing towards want to focus on innovative solutions and demand interface shows signs of becoming a battlefield of mobile devices and the ascendancy of the app on from their technology partners more operational competing technology interests that will those platforms, means de facto that it will be simplicity — including a single point of integration complicate rather than simplify service profiles. increasingly through apps that most multi-screen for subscription management and service security. As consumers demand support of more devices video is consumed. The landscape for providers of OTT video to access their preferred OTT services, complexity services can appear increasingly complex and seems likely to increase further, with operators The growing challenge of multiple DRMs hard to fathom. There may be just one Internet required to support multiple streaming formats Of course, the desktop browser still has a but a proliferation of the associated video delivery and DRM schemes native to browsers and device historical influence on thinking in this space — technologies and techniques. The breakthrough families. The situation is predicted to get worse and the computer may be the only broadband on video quality for Internet delivered services over the next two to three years. connected device in some households. This has came with use of adaptive bitrate streaming (ABRS) in order to ensure and The rise of the app reasonably consistent quality of experience (QoE) In the early years of Internet video, the browser “A notable over a network of varying bandwidth subject to was the natural place to enable video and audio intermittent delays. service interfaces. This, despite the fact that development in the But several alternative ABRS mechanisms HTML standards were inadequate to provide evolved, again aligned with major Internet players. the necessary support and the landscape became support for DASH Adobe came out with HDS (HTTP Dynamic a minefield of competing proprietary formats Streaming), Apple with HLS (HTTP Live and associated plug-in mechanisms. But the is the definition Streaming) and Microsoft with Smooth computer was never a very friendly environment Streaming. All do the same job but handle the for consumption of long-form video — physical of the Media Source video chunks differently, so are incompatible. And form factor and battery life alone made the PC a Extensions API as it happens are all associated with different less than comfortable marriage with such services. security technologies to protect the revenue Now, two parallel trends threaten to further in the browser streams associated with the premium services marginalise the browser for video access, they enable. despite the momentum gained by HTML5 environment.” MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming on the desktop. over HTTP) evolved as an attempt to provide a

38 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

verimatrix.indd 4 26/03/2015 17:23:13 Sponsored feature

unifying streaming protocol for ABRS video restrictions that they have been services. Now supported by the DASH Industry promised when they signed up for the Forum, DASH is tending to act a focal point of service. But there are a number of extra convergence for streaming, with both Adobe and challenges for multi-device OTT Microsoft supporting it over their own historically services — most critically, a consistency proprietary approaches. A notable development in of behavior between devices. If a the support for DASH is the definition of the consumer bumps up against arbitrary, Media Source Extensions API in the browser implementation dependent restrictions environment. Netflix has been a major driving on rights across devices, the overall force behind this effort and is starting to support effective is corrosive to the UX and to DASH for streaming delivery on some platforms. the overall service value proposition. Apple’s promotion of HLS, the de-facto Consumer unfriendly security industry standard on the web, continues although implementations are of course of the many aspects of HLS have commonality with things that have given DRMs a bad DASH. Nevertheless OTT operators will continue name in early services. Things that having to support HLS as a separate ABRS appear to be logical and transparent to system for the immediate future in order to satisfy those who implement the service may cross device delivery demands by consumers. against whatever DRM is running on the end be frustrating and incomprehensible to the user While some order may seem to be shaping up user’s device. community. This is one issue with security that over streaming formats there is no sign of any The ability to serve any target device and has been bolted on late in the development stage convergence among DRMs, with complexity deliver over any network, fixed or mobile, is rather than being incorporated with the user actually growing as new devices emerge with their becoming essential. An OTT ecosystem interface during specification. own native DRM support. One can see the incorporating robust revenue protection security service delivery market as a whole actually should therefore work across multiple delivery Outsourcing the management of multiple becoming more, rather than less, fragmented. networks, operating system platforms, and client DRMs We’re seeing desktop browser vendors act to device security implementations. Operators want to focus on their core business eliminate choices in protocol and security for The differences between each type of client objectives of acquiring strong content, delivering video services in favor of their own proprietary implementation must be transparent to operators a top quality user experience and developing technology choices. and the harmonisation mechanisms incorporated revenue through both subscriptions and Google is being particularly aggressive in into their head-end architectures. The expression advertising. Outsourcing the management of this respect by advancing their own technology of business rules required by content licenses and multiple DRMs on an OTT service to a “black agenda across Android devices, Chrome browser consumer business propositions must be box provider” will avoid diverting attention from instances and even the YouTube services that consistently applied, and correctly interpreted in these core activities. Working with a security compete with other operators’ offerings. This the technical manner in which rights are actually specialist will also ensure future-proofing by is complicating the task of reaching all target enforced on the end device. staying ahead of emerging security and other platforms for OTT content delivery, at a time OTT security must be demonstrably strong in relevant technologies. Verimatrix offers this black when rate of deployment is accelerating. This order to convince premium rights holders that box service through our MultiRights™ branded has also put budgets under pressure as operators their assets can safely be delivered over the open solution as part of our VCAS security platform, face a choice between stepping up investment Internet to unmanaged devices. It must therefore which arbitrates rights management across device in OTT infrastructures or allowing competitors include the advanced protection technologies types and DRM formats. to come in and usurp their revenues, as well as found in managed IPTV and DVB pay-TV As OTT continues to proliferate over the next their customers, through compelling online systems, but with additional features specific to few years, two key trends are that the app-centric content offers. the OTT domain. These include optimisation for model will become more predominant and that adaptive service delivery, full asset entitlement streaming will converge around MPEG-DASH but What operators need checks before decryption keys are delivered to with multiple DRMs tethered to each platform. With the idea of just one DRM long abandoned, clients, and support for flexible business models This brings a big challenge for operators in operators are now seeking a single rights enabling recycling of licenses. uniting multiple networks, platforms and DRMs management system to simplify OTT service Strong revenue security is essential for within a single harmonized rights management deployment and insulate them against changes in premium OTT services, but it must not stand in system. With Verimatrix MultiRights, operators underlying content security technology. The quest the way of a good user experience (UX). It has can outsource these problems and provide their is for a common way of expressing rights in a always been a challenge for security to be users with a common experience that is standard format that can then be translated for implemented in a manner that is consistent with transparent to the network or device platform, implementation of actual consumption constraints the consumer’s understanding of the rights and without any arbitrary restrictions.

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 39

verimatrix.indd 5 26/03/2015 17:23:15 SECURING THE CONNECTED FUTURE

The world of video is becoming more connected. And next- generation video service providers are delivering new connected services based on software and IP technologies.

Now imagine a globally interconnected revenue security platform. A cloud-based engine that can optimize system performance, proactively detect threats and decrease operational costs.

Discover how Verimatrix is defining the future of pay-TV revenue security. www.verimatrix.com/verspective Case study

quality in-flight broadband IFEC set for Cloud 9 experience need to consider two factors. With consumer demand unrelenting, In-Flight Entertainment Demand for always-on and Connectivity (IFEC) is on its way to new heights, writes connectivity rises in parallel with increasing Nile Suwansiri of Thaicom bandwidth demand. This means it is essential that low-cost capacity is assing through an airport lose interest in the internet, yet, take up of the available in the geographic regions where the nowadays is not so different technology has been relatively slow so far. This majority of flight hours occur. The service must from a shopping centre. has led many to question whether in-flight also be unaffected for the whole of the flight, People, whether sitting at broadband will really take off or if this is just the making a large footprint necessary. Airlines cafés, standing in queues fleeting effects of the latest buzz trend. According already equipped with IFEC services have found or just passing by, look similar to Euroconsult’s 2013 figures, only 59 airlines are that satellite is ideal. It is not only capable of – they’re glued to their phones. providing IFEC services through satellite or air-to- keeping up with demand but, through greater PThe consumer pattern is clear: Free WiFi ground networks. On a regional scale, the pricing flexibility, satellite also enables airlines to maintains a happy status quo, paid WiFi is percentage of equipped aircraft is relatively small, offer a basic connection for free and to charge annoying, and no WiFi is unacceptable because with even IFEC leaders Asia-Pacific having only more for heavier bandwidth usage. it’s 2015. 40% of its commercial craft connected. A look at IFEC trends suggests the consumer Figures will change though. The number of IFC in practice pattern never falters, even when they are at planes with broadband connectivity is expected As the first Asian satellite operator to launch 35,000 feet. For this, there is only one acceptable to more than double over the next five years. IFEC services using KU-band, Thaicom offers solution: Low-cost, if not free, in-flight WiFi. Furthermore, airlines are continually ordering its service through Thailand’s domestic carrier Addressing this problem is not without its new aircraft and IFEC will become cheaper if Nok Air. Capable of delivering 3G-like speeds, challenges. Airlines face considerable costs to WiFi capabilities are included at the time of the in-flight WiFi allows passengers to connect implement the needed technology. They have to building the planes, rather than having to rework for basic activities, like emails and social media. question if this is a feasible solution capable of existing fleets. Therefore, following suite and It also opens up the possibility for live-streaming yielding a return on investment. While some accepting that there is demand for IFEC affords of entertainment and other services including might be tempted to put this problem to the greater access to the huge potential that exists. tracking and nose-to-tail aircraft connectivity. bottom of the pile, they will only be distancing While demand is crucial, it does not In this case, IFEC is implemented as a value themselves from their slice of a lucrative pie. In necessarily make obstacles easier. Thankfully, added service. Nok Air’s ‘free Wi-Fi model’ 2013, IFEC services generated around $440 though, with the right technology, the challenges represents an innovative IFEC value proposition million in revenues from airline passengers. More can be overcome and service providers and which serves as a prerequisite for additional value- than three billion people travel on airplanes airlines alike can reap the benefits of this new added services in the future. The airline, for yearly. This translates into an average of 8.2 market. Airlines that want to offer a reliable, high- example, is considering forming a partnership million people daily. Experts predict that this will with one of the department store brands in double by 2032, taking the potential business Thailand. Here, Nok Air passengers would be able from internet browsers sky high. to order goods through its system at special prices and have those products delivered to their house Overcoming turbulence or hotel within an hour after they land. It is unlikely that consumers will suddenly Partnerships with taxis, hotels and travel package providers are also being explored. With passengers’ expectations for always-on connectivity sky high, there is a need for IFEC services that are reliable, fast and, at least, partly free. Just as cafés and restaurants have had to evolve into internet cafes to retain customers, airlines that don’t offer in-flight connectivity will find themselves lagging behind those that do.

Nile Suwansiri is chief marketing officer at Thaicom

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 41

Thaicom.indd 2 25/03/2015 17:23:27 Technology corner

The challenges of 4k and UHDTV1 Paul Robinson, CTO of the Tektronix Video Product Line, As stated previously, today’s 4k/ UHDTV1 can be accommodated in gives a test vendor’s perspective live production environments with existing 3G infrastructures by using a dual or quad link arrangement he implementation of 4k and HFR 4K/UHD production workflows, rather than (depending on frame rate). However, to deliver the UHDTV1 4k profile as extending the life of SDI with higher data rate 4k/UHD to viewers at acceptable bitrates, ideally defined by SMPTE ST 2036- implementations such as multi-link 12G. requires the adoption of a more efficient codec 1 could be regarded as an All-IP live production workflows are regarded than H.264/AVC. This is leading to the adoption evolutionary process, given by many as a revolutionary change that will of the High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) that the majority of today’s demand entirely new skillsets and infrastructure. otherwise known as H.265 which can offer up to implementations are deployed Such a revolution can also enable fundamental 50% bitrate savings versus H.264 for equivalent using multi-link 3G SDI. However, it must be changes to the production workflow that will in video quality. Tconsidered that the emergence of high frame rate turn support new business models and services. It When it comes to testing and monitoring 4k/ (HFR) 4k/UHD as well as high dynamic range is clear that these changes will impact all aspects UHD infrastructure the first challenge for test (HDR) will at least double data rates, demanding of the broadcast chain including content equipment vendors is to support the new completely new video infrastructure. Many consider production, broadcasting, content providers, video standards, ideally with existing tools where that given this, the adoption of IP infrastructure service providers and equipment (including test possible. Although the availability of 4k sensors will be the logical approach for accommodating and measurement) manufacturers. and display panels has accelerated the drive towards 4k/UHD implementation, 4k has been around, at least in demonstration form, for almost ten years. Indeed when developing the WFM & WVR8000 series waveform monitors the internal architecture was implemented to handle 4k data rates, which allowed us to deliver 4k/UHD support as an existing product upgrade, rather than requiring a completely new product. Likewise encoder, transcoder and decoder developers as well as operators need analysis tools to enable development and evaluation of new products to support HEVC/H.265. The architectures of both our H.264/AVC codec analyser and our picture quality analyser were both designed from the outset to handle future codec and format upgrades as they became standardised. This enabled Tektronix to implement both HEVC/H.265 and 4K support as existing product upgrades, rather than as new dedicated analyser products.

Test challenges with 4k/UHD workflows When deploying 4k/UHD, let us first consider production, post production and broadcast engineering. In these applications, the main test challenges with 4k/UHD workflows today are twofold: the wide variety of formats that need to be supported; and how the timing relationships are maintained between the multiple SDI links.

42 March 2015 www.csimagazine.com

TechnologyCorner.indd 1 25/03/2015 17:50:08 Technology corner

For 3840x2160 or 4096x2160 resolutions at frame rates from 24 to 30Hz these can be carried as Quad link HD or Dual link 3G. However these low frame rates can produce noticeable temporal artefacts. Therefore there is a need to produce content in 48Hz, 50Hz and 60Hz, which require quad-link 3G SDI arrangements. It is anticipated that in the future, 100Hz and 120Hz frames rates will be adopted which will require support for 24 Gbps data rates, thus making the use of existing infrastructure non-viable. At such high data rates, the new infrastructure would need to be implemented as dual link 12G SDI or 40G IP. It is therefore quite possible that with the adoption of high frame rate 4k and UHD, we will see the eventual replacement of uncompressed baseband with light compression techniques that would allow the use of readily available 10G IP infrastructure. This however is in the future and at this time the need is to keep the four SDI signals time aligned. This is critical as each SDI signal flows along a different routing path. Care has to be taken to ensure the timing at each input to a device is within limits and the user has to understand what synchronisation can be accommodated by the device internally to null out timing errors. In addition to validating correct timing it is important to check the Video Payload ID information to validate that the format is correct and that all links are correctly connected to the device. If present, byte 4 shows the multi-link information for the links and allows the user to verify if the links are in the correct order. 4k and UHD also support an extended colour gamut with the use of ITU- BT. 2020. This extends the colour gamut by around 30% when compared to the BT. 709 HD colour space. It is possible to use the data bits in the SMPTE 352 payload ID to automatically detect the colour space or indeed to force the colour space between BT. 709 and BT. 2020. This will slightly change the waveform monitor’s Top: MTS4EAV7 HEVC Analyser – HEVC Motion Vector Display vector and lightning displays and also the Bottom: WFM8300 Waveform Monitor – 4k/UHD Quad Link Timing Display conversion between YPbPr and RGB on the waveform display. been designed to particularly focus on two key choosing and optimising encoder algorithms. issues: increased coding efficiency; and increased Also, when evaluating video encoders and HEVC encoder testing use of parallel processing architectures for comparing different encoders, operators need to If we now look at the distribution of 4k/UHD encoding and decoding. prove that given the same quality of video, each to the viewer, HEVC encoding delivers similar During the video encoder design phase, encoder is producing a compliant bit-stream and visual quality as AVC/H.264 whilst using designers need video elementary stream analysis that there are no buffer violations that can about half the bandwidth. This codec has tools, which assist in making decisions for negatively impact the decoding process.

www.csimagazine.com April 2015 43

TechnologyCorner.indd 2 25/03/2015 17:50:10 Technology corner

Elementary stream analysers verify the compliance of the encoded 4k/UHD video and also provide statistics relating to the coding efficiency. This helps encoder manufactures as well as operators wishing to evaluate HEVC encoders validate different designs. The analyser tests every frame of video against the compliance requirements defined in the standard (HEVC/H.265 in this case). Any non- compliance is listed in an alert log, the objective being to play every frame without encountering any alerts. If the encoded file is not 100% compatible with the decoder standard, it cannot be guaranteed to playout correctly on every compliant decoder. In addition to compliance checking, elementary stream analysers offer many additional display and analysis features to display PQA600B Picture Quality Analyser – HEVC DMOS Analysis Results each of the many choices that were made by the encoder. These are useful in evaluating the coding efficiency and effectiveness (bitrate allocation, personal preferences to determine video quality. to ensure that designs are capable of handling the quantisation etc) of different encoder Occasionally, human viewers may say that two higher data rates and use modular architectures to implementations. video clips are slightly different, when in fact they allow the addition of the necessary new formats When evaluating encoders, it is also necessary are identical. Also, human viewers can perceive to support 4k and UHDTV1. to evaluate the visual differences between the that two clips look identical when in fact they are For test equipment users, in production original (reference) video and the decoded slightly different. applications, it is necessary to ensure that timing HEVC video. Accurate human viewer assessment requires a relationships in multi-link SDI applications are The most basic method is to simply play the rigidly controlled viewing room with a large within tolerance. When evaluating 4k/UHD reference and decoded 4k/UHD video on two population of viewers sampled in order to gain encoders, it is necessary to ensure that the monitors and ask human viewers to rate any valid statistical results. Because of the high cost of encoder is generating encoded content that is visible differences. This method is highly such a test, it is not generally preferred over the both guaranteed to be decodable and delivers the subjective as each viewer will use their own use of mathematical picture quality analysis high image quality that is demanded by viewers of models to determine image quality. The most 4k and UHDTV1 content. common models used today are Peak Signal-to- Looking forward, there is also the drive to take Noise Ratio (PSNR), Differential Mean Opinion advantage of broadly available IP infrastructure Score (DMOS), and Picture Quality Rating for baseband video distribution. When (PQR). Both DMOS and PQR are implemented considering the use of such equipment, it must be using a human vision model. taken into account that all network elements will need to be capable of handling constant high Timing relationships in multi-link SDI bitrate data with minimal latency and jitter, In summary, to support today’s 4k deployments, bringing new testing requirements that must be the major challenge for test equipment vendors is usable by video engineers with limited experience of IP networking. We are at the beginning of a long term “Many consider that given the emergence transition to ever increasing video resolutions at increased frame rates, with high dynamic range of HFR and HDR, the adoption of IP and enhanced colour spaces. This will drive ever increasing data rates, which in turn will accelerate infrastructure will be the logical approach the trend to IT-based production infrastructure. Test equipment manufacturers in that for accommodating HFR 4k/UHD environment will need to address the challenges of the live production environment, as well as the production workflows.” challenges associated with the distribution of video over IP networks.

44 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com

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• Your window to the world of digital TV and media • Targeting top-level industry decision-makers • Independent news, insight and analysis • International coverage • Market trends

For advertising opportunities please contact John Woods: Tel: 020 7562 2421 or email: [email protected] www.csimagazine.com

theworks.indd 1 27/03/2015 16:30:43 Events diary 2015

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

46 April 2015 www.csimagazine.com Business To advertise contact John Woods +44 (0)20 7562 2421 Directory [email protected]

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38 May-June 2014 www.csimagazine.com www.csimagazine.com April 2015 47 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 high-throughput spot beams for content regionalization and targeting, with our wide beam neighborhoods for mass audience coverage – that’s Intelsat EpicNG. Intelligent design developed specifi cally for your growth and your bottom line – you must agree, is an epic experience.

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