TelcoTV 2006 opens it’s annual conference in Dallas today (program, speakers schedule exhibitors).
IP-TV uses H.264 to transport triple play services over phone lines. But only one in eight consumers are interested in switching TV providers, according to a Forrester Research study.
The big money (in the United States) is riding on Verizon and AT&T. Verizon will spend some $18 billion on their FiOS TV system. Verizon says it will have 6 million homes in 16 states ready for fiber optic service by the end of the year.
AT&T’s U-verse will roll out its U-verse broadband video service (FAQ), which includes high-definition television, in 15 to 20 markets before the end of 2006, says Unstrung. Their U-verse service is currently available to 30,000 people in San Antonio with one, limited HDTV trial in Houston.
But the real action might be in small towns. They can move fast with little bureaucratic overhead. Satellite backbones can feed the pipe. MPEG-4 AVC can send DVD-quality video over phone lines (1-3Mbit/s for SD, 6-10Mbit/s for HD).
TVover.Net reviews IPTV news and CED Magazine has a Telco TV roundup.
- AT&T and Fox reached a distribution agreement to carry Fox programming on digital video line-up, the companies said Monday.
- TVN Entertainment announced the launch of the country’s first end-to-end MPEG-4 video on demand (VOD) delivery platform for IPTV. Under the agreement, AT&T U-verse TV customers will have access to TVN on-demand programming, including content from the Academy Award-winning studio, Lionsgate, and TVNow, the TVN-exclusive system that transforms live programming into VOD files and makes them available to consumers within hours of the event.
- SES AMERICOM announced MTV Networks, Scripps Networks, The Weather Channel, Fox News Channel and a host of popular TV and music networks have signed IP-PRIME transport agreements, taking SES AMERICOM’s IPTV lineup to 290 channels.
- Amino will provide its AmiNET130 set top box (right), a standard and high definition, MPEG-2/4 AVC/H.264 capable device, to enable SES AMERICOM’s end-to-end delivery of its IP-PRIME IPTV service to consumer homes.
- Falcon Communications, announced IP/Complete, the first all-in-one IPTV delivery system designed for the country’s smaller telecom providers. The ‘bird to box’ solution is targeted at Tier 2 and Tier 3 telcos who need to stay viable and competitive in today’s marketplace with the triple-play voice, data, and video offering.
- Motorola showcased a portfolio of solutions that work together to enable next-generation, experience based voice, video, and data services across wireless, optical and DSL networks. Motorola’s VIP1200 IPTV set-top boxes are powered by Sigma’s media processors. Their new MIPX product was developed jointly by Motorola and Amedia. A demonstration of a new indoor GPON (gigabit passive optical networking) ONT (optical network terminal) supporting IP video and voice services that is almost 80% smaller that current generation offerings. Wireless broadband platforms that enable service providers to easily extend the reach of their network to the enterprise or home were also demonstrated.
- Ruckus Wireless has joined Orca’s Interactive partner program that developes middleware and applications for IPTV. The combination of Ruckus’ MediaFlex NG smart Wi-Fi system with Orca’s RiGHTv middleware offers a comprehensive solution for wireless connectivity between set-top boxes and the IPTV service, eliminating the cost of wiring the whole house.
- Optibase will demonstrate its IPTV and digital video solutions including a family of IP streaming gateways, like the MGW 230.
- Modulus Video a complete lineup of ready-to- deploy, MPEG-4 AVC encoding solutions. Their ME2000 family of MPEG-4 AVC video encoders — the world’s first compact (1 rack unit) encoding platform that can be easily switched between HD and SD video.
CableCARD is the technology created by the United States cable television industry to allow third-party manufacturers to sell cable devices and allows consumers to purchase their own boxes.
By July 1, 2007, cable set-tops have to be compatible with CableCARDs, which does the security and descrambling functions now done in integrated boxes leased by cable companies. Cable operators are fighting the ruling it since they don’t want to be forced to switch out all the integrated legacy boxes already in homes.
Current generation set-tops and digital TVs, however, do not support interactive services such as video-on-demand. A coming two-way Multistream CableCARD (M-Card) will support VOD, and is incorporated into many Series 3 DVRs.
The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is an all-digital audio/video interface capable of transmitting uncompressed streams.
CED Magazine has more on Cable & wireless convergence, DOCSIS 2.0b, Settop Middleware, The HD Bandwidth Squeeze and Interactive Program Guides.
As the wireline network transforms from circuit switched to a broadband, IP-based architecture, IPTV technology may enable carriers to deploy seamless “anytime, anywhere” services that deliver a triple play.
By 2011, there will be an estimated 140 million online music users, 180 million mobile music users and 200 million mobile TV users, according to Analysys Research. They see this as a great “threat” to fixed and mobile operators who may be at risk of being cut out of the content value chain.
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