News
House subcommittee moves telecommunications bill to full committee
Apr 11, 2006 4:08 PM
A House of Representatives subcommittee approved a bill last week that would remove local video franchising requirements and in place establish a national system for telecommunication companies to begin offering IPTV service.
After the mark up process, the telecommunications subcommittee approved the measure to pass onto the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The bill is expected to make it through the committee and win approval from the full House.
The bill would grant new video service providers, such as telecommunications companies, a 10-year national license without requiring them to build out their systems. Cable companies were also granted a way to move from local to national franchising.
Broadband Everywhere, an advocacy group made up various cable industry and public interest groups, expressed its disappointment that the legislative markup did not include amendments that would have strengthened language to prevent discrimination in where telecommunications companies rollout IPTV services.
The National Cable Telecommunications Association president and CEO Kyle McSlarrow looked favorably on the markup, saying it made “significant progress towards a framework for true competition in voice services.”
The approved draft expands the focus of the bill from competition in the video marketplace to “the broader telecommunications landscape and the need to promote facilities-based wireline voice competition,” McSlarrow said.
SMPTE releases VC-1 standard
Apr 11, 2006 4:23 PM
SMPTE last week released its Standard for Compressed Video Bitstreams.
Release of the VC-1 document with supporting Recommended Practices is intended to guide companies in building interoperable solutions using advanced compression technology.
VC-1 standardization took more than two years of work by more than 120 individuals representing over 75 media and entertainment companies, according to Ingo Höntsch, chair of SMPTE’s Video Compression Technology Committee, which oversaw its development.
Standardization provides stability and allows for a high degree of confidence that users can interchange bitstreams between products from different manufacturers, according to SMPTE Engineering vice president Peter Symes.
Formal standardization was proposed by Microsoft, which contributed decoder source code and other resources towards development of the process.
SMPTE’s Compression Technology Committee has also formed a new Working Group dedicated to providing maintenance of the test materials and documents, as well as the administration of a bitstream exchange program. Microsoft has contributed source code for an example encoder that is available to committee members participating in this program.
The VC-1 documents include:
- SMPTE 421M-2006, “VC-1 Compressed Video Bitstream Format and Decoding Process.”
- Recommended Practices, SMPTE RP227-2006 “VC-1 Bitstream Transport Encodings.”
- SMPTE RP228-2006, “VC-1 Decoder and Bitstream Conformance.”
The documents are available for a fee at www.smpte.org.
Hempstead, NY, board grants video franchise to Verizon
Apr 12, 2006 10:25 AM
The Hempstead, NY, Town Board last week awarded a video franchise to Verizon for its FiOS service.
The video franchise agreement is subject to the approval by the New York State Public Service Commission.
Hempstead TV viewers will join those in other New York communities, including The Long Island community of Massapequa Park and the Rockland County Villages of Nyack, South Nyack and Upper Nyack.
Cablevision Systems, a cable television competitor, issued a statement following the announcement of the FiOS video franchise in Hempstead in which it said that “this approval demonstrates that it is not hard for the phone company to get a local franchise if it participates in the process.”
Telecommunications companies are seeking both state and federal legislation to remove the need to win local franchises to deliver IPTV services that compete with cable operators.
Separately, Verizon announced last week that it would expand its FiOS service to homes communities surrounding Portland, OR.
Two-day seminar to focus on IPTV success
Apr 11, 2006 4:27 PM
IQPC will hold a two-day seminar in San Diego, CA, later this month focusing on how to implement an IPTV system, identify its potential and develop a content strategy.
"IPTV and Beyond: The Future of Broadcast Technology," takes place April 18-20 at the Marriott Del Mar in San Diego, and will provide a forum for organizations that already have implemented IPTV to discuss their experiences.
Participants will include: Accord Media Group; ACN; Advanced Media Strategies; Alcatel; Alliance Systems; Bell Canada; Canquest Communications; CC Communications; Cisco Systems; Coaxsys; Comporium Communications; Consolidated Communications; Digeo; ENCIRQ; Entone Technologies; Everstream; Ewan; GCI; Hargray; Harmonic; HBO Latin America Group; Motorola; MTV Networks; Santa Barbara City College; Siemens; Sony Pictures Television; Telephony Magazine; The Diffusion Group; Tut Systems; TVN Entertainment; UIEvolution; Verimatrix; and Wind River.
For more information, visit www.iqpc.com/cgi-bin/templates/genevent.html?topic=586&event=9550&.
Studies & Stats
JupiterResearch finds consumer interest in video on mobile phones
Apr 11, 2006 4:30 PM
JupiterResearch has found that 41 percent of mobile phone users are interested in some form of video service on their mobile phone.
In its report, "U.S. Wireless Forecast, 2005 to 2010," JupiterResearch projects that the growing demand for video will generate $501 million in revenue by 2010, up from $62 million in 2005.
Adoption of mobile video on phones has been somewhat low to date with only 2 percent of mobile phone users claiming a subscription. However, among mobile subscribers 17 percent were interested in watching live TV on their cell phones while 11 percent indicated interest in short video clips.
For more information, visit www.jupiterresearch.com.
Advocacy group claims Bell companies renege on promises
Apr 11, 2006 4:34 PM
A report from Broadband Everywhere details specific instances in which Bell telephone companies “made promises” about new investments to get legislation passed and then “quickly abandoned those promises.”
The report, “Frayed at the Edges” targets promises from Bell companies regarding investments in new fiber infrastructure to secure favorable legislation or regulation. Broadband Everywhere is an advocacy group supported by the American Cable Association, the NCTA, several small cable operators and other groups.
Among the report’s findings:
- In New Jersey, Verizon (and its predecessor companies) has been promising a fiber network since 1991 under a plan called “Opportunity New Jersey.” The plan called for ending regulations on its rates and monopoly profits. Although the company received the legislation it sought, New Jersey is still without its statewide fiber optic network.
- In Oklahoma, AT&T (then SBC) had promised in 2002 to bring 500 jobs to the city of Enid as part of a $30 million pledge to bring broadband and other advanced services to the state’s rural areas in exchange for a bill exempting DSL services from regulation. After it won its legislation, the company cut 350 jobs.
The latest happenings from around the world of IPTV
Apr 11, 2006 4:38 PM
ITVN launches IPTV Karaoke Channel
Interactive Television Networks has launched The Karaoke Channel, the first IPTV karaoke channel.
The Karaoke Channel is the product of a three-year agreement between ITVN and U.S. karaoke music producer Sound Choice. The 24-hour channel will feature thousands of individual song titles from Sound Choice, with titles spanning more than 100 years of music. Additional titles will be added every month.
For more information, visit www.itvn.com and www.soundchoice.com.
Gaydon to assume Pace Micro CEO slot
Pace Micro Technology has named current board member and director of worldwide sales and marketing Neil Gaydon as its new Chief Executive Officer.
Gaydon will assume the role April 14 upon the retirement of current CEO John Dyson.
For more information, visit www.pacemicro.com.
Modulus Video IPTV orders exceed $10 million
Orders for Modulus Video's MPEG-4 AVC SD and HD video encoding systems have exceeded $10 million.
It was driven in part by an order for more than 100 Modulus Video ME6000 high definition AVC encoders for a major U.S. telecommunications IPTV deployment.
For more information, visit www.modulusvideo.com.
India telecom selects Optibase for IPTV headend
India's state-owned telecom Mahanagar Telephone Nigam will deploy Optibase's IPTV MGW 5100 platforms for its digital headend to enable triple play services in the Delhi and Mumbai areas.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam is deploying these services targeted at their 3.9 million subscribers along with Time Broadband Services as the company’s video tier partner.
For more information, visit www.optibase.com.
EGT appoints Day senior vice president of sales
EGT has appointed Bob Day to senior vice president of sales. A broadband industry veteran, Day will be responsible for leading the company’s sales organization and initiatives.
For more information, visit www.egtinc.com.
Spain’s Jazztel purchase Orca Interactive IPTV middleware
Orca Interactive is providing its RiGHTv IPTV middleware to Spanish telecom and broadband provider Jazztel as part of a multimillion Euro deal to allow Jazztel to penetrate the residential broadband market.
Jazztel has purchased RiGHTv licenses to support its TV subscribers with IPTV services initially offering live television over IP using MPEG-4, implemented at the end of 2005, with the addition of other services for 2006.
For more information, visit www.orcainteractive.com and www.jazztel.com.
TANDBERG Television complete acquisition of SkyStream Networks
TANDBERG Television has completed the acquisition of SkyStream Networks.
The combination strengthens TANDBERG Television's position in the IPTV market by enhancing its ability to provide content owners, programmers and operators with a combination of integrated compression, interactive and on-demand content solutions.
For more information, visit www.tandbergtv.com.
Sound Off
NeuLion bets on public Internet, H.264 to provide IPTV success
Apr 11, 2006 5:01 PM
Some IPTV pundits say that one day there will be as many IPTV channels as there are Web sites.
Such bold predictions may seem wildly optimistic, but the sentiment is understandable. Why wouldn’t someone with a message to communicate want to use the power of video to make their point? Video’s ability to educate, motivate and inspire are well established, and the Web’s ability to attract visitors with common interests to a specific site confers on it an innate ability to build an audience.
But much remains to be done if omnipresent IPTV service is ever to become a reality. In the meantime, NeuLion in Plainview, NY, is attempting to build a stable of content providers who wish to use the public Internet, NeuLion’s proprietary spin of AVC H.264 and the company’s encoding, distribution and metrics tools to build special-interest IPTV channels.
IPTV Update spoke with NeuLion co-founder and executive vice president Chris Wagner to learn more about his company’s service.
IPTV Update: Describe NeuLion’s IPTV service.
Chris Wagner: IPTV has a whole a lot of different meanings. For us, we deliver high-quality streaming broadcast TV or video on demand at DVD quality or higher right to a consumer’s television, and we use the public internet to do that.
We patented a propriety implementation of AVC H.264 to deliver at 700kb/s of bandwidth a high-quality experience. We only need about a half of a DSL modem to do that.
Consumers receive a set-top box and connect it to a broadband service and their television. We have been actively looking for content partners.
IPTVU: One of your content partners is KyLinTV, which is using your service to distribute its content from Asia to customers here. Could you provide some details?
CW: KyLinTV is a content partner of NeuLion. Their focus is on the Chinese households in North America — about 3 million households. They have brought together about 25,000 hours of video in addition to multiple linear broadcast television channels, which we manage and deliver for them. So they, as a partner of ours, provide the content, sales and marketing to their market. We do everything else. We take content from DVDs, FTP, satellite and other formats for movies, linear TV, or TV dramas. Soon, we will be broadcasting 12 linear channels for them — all streaming over the public Internet. KyLinTV feeds us their signal right from the satellite. In real time, we take it and encode it and put it out over the Internet.
We also have video on demand for DVD MPEG-2 files or other formats, so we can get it electronically and run it through our VOD encoder and put it into our H.264 format. We use our IPTV platform to manage everything.
KyLinTV sells a subscription and pay-per-view service. Customers can buy directly from their Web site. We run a call center and have a bunch of resellers. They do print advertising to promote their service, which they sell for $15 per month with no contract or risk. If a customer doesn’t like it, they can cancel.
With an IPTV implementation, there are no territorial or geographic limitations as there are with satellite or cable.
IPTVU: How do customers interact with your service? Is there a delay when they flip through the channels you provide?
CW: It’s exactly the same behavior they use with conventional television. They can click through the channels with their remote control. Everything runs on the server side for NeuLion, and the set-top box is Linux-based with a browser.
The user brings up a menu, uses their remote control to select broadcast television, and clicks a list of channels or clicks broadcast. Our service streams right over the public Internet within seconds. It is a streaming service.
Then home viewers could also go to video on demand and access to a library of over 25,000 hours of movies and TV dramas. We provide KyLinTV and our other customers with viewing analytics about the consumer’s TV usage, who are their subscribers, who’s watching what show, did they watch certain shows more than once? The amount of information we can provide is phenomenal and far cheaper than fees paid to Nelson.
For VOD, consumers have a second menu item where they can access TV dramas, and movies. The top 10 dramas from China are in the service. They sell these TV dramas in an interesting way. The first episode is free, and the second episode is 50 cents. There’s also cool bookmark feature that let’s you pick up past viewing exactly where you left off. So if you were watching a movie and then jumped over to the news and back to the movie you don’t miss anything.
KyLinTV also has a growing number of radio stations from China.
IPTVU: What is the background of NeuLion?
CW: NeuLion was started by four executives from Computer Associates with strategic investment from Charles Dolan of Cablevision and Charles Wang of Computer Associates. The move joins the interests of two of Long Island's most prominent businessmen, Computer Associates founder Charles Wang and Cablevision founder Charles Dolan in our start-up technology-media venture that delivers viewer-targeted broadcast TV and video to home subscribers over the Internet. NeuLion opened in early 2004 with offices in New York and China. We are actively commercializing an IPTV platform set-top box.
KyLinTV is our first content partner. They launched in 2005 and have about 4000 subscribers.
What NeuLion does is look for other companies, producers of content, networks or aggregators of content, advertisers and other companies that want to roll out a branded IPTV service. We basically white label this box, brand the box and service and make it exclusive.
For more information, visit www.neulion.com.
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New Products & Technology
Continental Vista launches WhiteBlox
Apr 11, 2006 5:04 PM
Continental Vista Broadcasting Group has launched WhiteBlox, which delivers dynamic building blocks to help companies launch their own private-label broadband networks.
The WhiteBlox system makes it possible for organizations to assemble broadband television networks or enhance existing channels. WhiteBlox provides an end-to-end solution from video streaming to digital rights management and ad tracking. It is fully customizable to meet specific needs.
The WhiteBlox system's integrated ToolBlox is composed of technology components and management tools, including an Encoder, PlayBlox, AdBlox, ControlBlox and Distributor, that enable customers to start with any video, audio, text, graphics and other assets, and end up with a fully interactive broadband network.
For more information, visit www.whiteblox.com.
Tut System unveils XLP-6800 power-over-broadband line
Apr 11, 2006 5:08 PM
Tut Systems has introduced its new XLP-6800 power-over-broadband product line, which eliminates the 300ft distance limitation of such systems by delivering both power and broadband IP connectivity across distances up to 8000ft.
XLP also eliminates the cost of pulling new Ethernet or fiber cable because the product line is designed to operate over ordinary telephone-grade wires. In many cases, this will enable security zones to be deployed across 3mi wide areas by simply using existing telephone connections.
By delivering both power and IP connectivity over a single network connection, XLP reduces the cost and hassle of getting power feeds and high-speed backhaul to remote cameras, sensors, or access points. The XLP system can power up to four IP cameras and can provide up to 70Mb/s of broadband IP over ordinary telephone wires across distances up to 8000ft from a power source.
For more information, visit www.tutsys.com.
Companies demonstrate satellite system for IPTV headends
Apr 11, 2006 5:10 PM
The Kudelski Group's Nagravision, PanAmSat and SkyWay Connect demonstrated a satellite-based secure MPEG-4 IPTV solution for cable operators and emerging network distributors at the NCTA National Show in Las Vegas.
SkyWay Connect's IPTV system leverages PanAmSat's Galaxy satellites and Nagravision's Nagra IP conditional access system, to create solution for operators wishing to deploy a secure IPTV platform.
The system provides operators with access to programming content, including standard and high-definition channels and VOD services, in a secure MPEG-4/AVC format.
For more information, visit www.nagra.com, www.nagravision.com, www.panamsat.com and www.skywayconnect.com.
Tatung launches new digital STB2000 set-top box series
Apr 12, 2006 10:21 AM
Tatung has launched its new high-definition, digital set-top boxes, which deliver full high-definition video, up to 1080i resolution, while simultaneously supporting streams encoded under MPEG-2, VC-1 and H.264 compression.
The Tatung STB2000 STB series are based on Sigma Designs' SMP8634 media processor. In addition to component and composite output, Tatung's new STBs also provide an HDMI interface.
The STB2000 hybrid functions not only as an interactive IPTV set-top box but also provides a digital TV tuner capability. The tuner will be supported under DVB-T standards in the first quarter of 2006, and later provide ATSC, DVB-C and DVB-S2. The STB2000 home networking feature can support mainstream products, such as Home PNA 3.0 and Home Plug.
For more information, visit www.tatung.tv and www.sigmadesigns.com.
EGT DPI RateLock ensures pre-set bit rate for ads
Apr 11, 2006 5:17 PM
EGT has unveiled the DPI RateLock, a video encoding feature that allows cable systems to define and lock in the bandwidth rate for their commercial spots to ensure the highest quality video performance.
The feature preserves the efficiency of the closed-loop multiplex and protects the quality of digitally inserted ads. Available now in the ENCORE product line, DPI RateLock offers operators a previously unavailable method to guarantee an available bit rate for their digital advertising and ensure premium video quality across all programs and advertisements.
EGT has developed a feature that supports downstream ad-insertion without affecting the video quality performance of the closed-loop encoding system. DPI RateLock ensures that whenever downstream ad-insertion is planned for one or more of the program streams in a multiplex, the system reserves a pre-set bit rate for the ads and accounts for that pre-set bit rate in the overall closed-loop encoding process.
For more information, visit www.egtinc.com.
