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Web and mobile delivery

Jul 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Dom Robinson

Today’s technologies enable affordable Internet video.

YouTube gave Internet video the profile it had so long deserved. No longer was the commentary about how Internet video was slow to start, small or jittery, but it was about accessibility, affordability and functionality. Most importantly, the YouTube explosion highlighted how pervasive and ubiquitous the reach of new video distribution technologies has become in a relatively short space of time. As technology becomes refined, network standards are adopted, and interoperability helps buyers opt for a wider range of equipment and technologies for their workflows and production requirements.

IP video distribution

Three areas in which the Internet and video are coming together with broadcast include Internet video, mobile video and IPTV. The distinction between them does not lie in the appliances or individual components, but in their application and the management of the IP networks over which they are all now run.

With Internet video, the video provider uses the public Internet for delivery. There are ways to lower problems of delivery over the many varied internetworked private networks that form the Internet, but quality of service (QoS) over the Internet cannot be guaranteed. The end-user devices are PCs and media centers, with a growing support on set-top boxes.

Number of IPTV subscribers
Click to enlarge

When it comes to mobile video, there are numerous hybrid, over-the-air delivery proposals for live signals to be received on mobiles, such as DVB-H and DMB. However, I am going to focus on video delivered by IP alone. Mobile networks are gradually upgrading to enable the bandwidth demands that video creates. Commercial Wi-Fi hotspots are increasingly provided by mobile phone networks. More and more, handsets will roam onto Wi-Fi for their IP. Mobile video service providers are delivering the picture to handsets using Wi-Fi and cellular phone networks. Content can be delivered in two ways: from servers within the mobile operator's Internet service provider (ISP) infrastructure, usually where the content is only available for that operator's subscribers, or from servers hosted elsewhere on the Internet.

IPTV is the cable or satellite network model updated, using IP for its delivery rather than asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) or other similar telecom technologies. Just as with mobile, there are DTV, cable and satellite hybrid IPTV services that combine Internet-based set-top box technologies with traditional broadcast technologies to increase the functionality and introduce catch-up and on-demand video services in a TV-focused broadcast-type model. In these hybrids, the video is delivered to a device over IP in addition to the broadcast signals being delivered using traditional means.

One step beyond this is “true” IPTV, which delivers all the signals, both on-demand and linear/live, over a single IP network link. To ensure a good user experience, it requires that live TV signals are delivered, ideally using IP multicast, over a network with a guaranteed QoS. This needs a single, controlled, private network, albeit using IP as the network protocol. Given the way that telecoms' network operators have developed, IPTV operators don't need to create their own physical infrastructure. They can lease the required networks from telcos. This architecture usually requires specific headend equipment and local loop equipment, which will often lead to proprietary systems being deployed. Even these proprietary systems are often (although not always) built on the same Internet video technologies as Internet video and mobile video.

Vendors and technologies

Web technologies deliver content to PC devices where the operating system (OS) runs an application that, in set-top-box terms, acts as the middleware for access and stream control. XML-driven applications or Web browsers create the electronic program guide (EPG) and user interface (UI) interactivity.

One successful technology is Windows Media, with a near 100 percent reach on all PC devices. It features SMTPE standardized compression (VC-1), standards-based network transport such as Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), and containers like Advanced Systems Format (ASF). With a wealth of easy-to-use applications and programming environments, it is a powerful IP broadcast technology.

Another popular technology is Adobe Flash. Many elements of it are widely adopted and easy-to-use. Recently adding MPEG-4 decode and encode to its suites, the technology is, in part, moving to a standards-based workflow and system. Indeed, Flash is pervasive enough (with a 92 percent penetration of Linux, Mac and Windows OSes) that even without standards compliance, Web designers like to work with it.

RealPlayer has strategically withdrawn from the broadband space and is now focused on mobile delivery. This move happened shortly after a $740 million out-of-court settlement with Microsoft regarding the antitrust case where Real attempted to force Microsoft to unbundle its media player from the standard Windows OS. Real's technologies were widely regarded as the most standards-based of the successful media delivery platforms, with extremely early adoption of multicast, RTSP, MPEG-4 and mobile formats such as 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The most common new installations, ironically given the antitrust case, are bundled with OS for mobile phones.

As mentioned above, Real has a big share of the mobile market because its server platform (Helix) was, for a long time, the easiest server platform both to get a hold of and to use to deliver 3GPP content to mobiles. Because Windows Media VC-1 was standardized, more devices can now play Windows Media. For example, Nokia just announced that the N96 will play Windows Media video. Flash also has a place on mobiles. Hardly a single device arrives on the market without a link to YouTube, and Adobe is regularly releasing players that users can download to their devices and update to enable access to Flash video.

Some mobile video services rely on specific applications built into the mobile phones to facilitate video calls. These use, in effect, a switched circuit, much like that set up for a voice call, to deliver content. This has advantages and disadvantages. Because the call is two-way, only half the available bandwidth is used to deliver the stream to the user, leading to a quality loss. The upside is that because of the way the call is set up, the service provider can easily bill the end user for access on a per-minute basis. Also, to an extent, it can control the content delivery quality because it operates the network from video server to client.

Adoption

As with all statistics, there are many views on the uptake of technologies and services in the Internet video space. Flash regularly claims that it is the most ubiquitous player technology. This is clearly not possible because every Windows PC is shipped ready to play Windows Media, yet Flash is an optional download, which may or may not be opted for by the user, or allowed by the network administrators. Despite this, if you opt to deliver content in either of these formats, you will largely be able to reach your audience, whether that includes Internet PC users, mobile Internet users or IPTV subscribers. Due to Real's change in strategy, the technology is no longer a commonly chosen Internet video platform. As far as Internet video goes, Real's shoes have largely been filled by Flash.