Deﬁ ning cable’s role in a 5G world - CSI Magazine · the cable, broadband and satellite...

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Defi ning cable’s role in a 5G world

• OTT, VoD, Cloud TV, Cable, Satellite, IPTV, DTT, IoT • The latest news, views and features

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Embrace the age of Infinite Entertainment. We’re Synamedia.

We’re helping operators, service providers and media companies around the globe to deliver, protect, and monetize compelling video content. We do that by delivering the world’s most complete, secure and advanced end-to-end open video delivery solution.

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Editor’s report:While even the most luddite tech consumers have likely heard of 5G, you’d be forgiven for not being quite as familiar with ‘10G’, a cable-led initiative, including logo and (possibly) pending patent, to reflect its push towards multi-gigabyte, low-latency next-gen networks. Starting on page 11, cable industry expert Daniel Etman outlines the tools available in cable’s technology boxset to get to at least

the 10G promise. Indeed, as Etman notes, already there are deployments in Europe using the coaxial cable for 10 Gbps, full duplex, up to 3.5 Ghz. The drive to 10 Gigabit and beyond forms a large part of ANGA COM’s conference agenda this year, and we will be reporting back from the show on this and other key issues. Back with 5G, it will be all-encompassing for the next few years, affecting also satellite, DTT and other networks. Goran Nastic

Contents

05 News & analysis

06 Data corner: OTT in AsiaThere is a thriving market for local streaming players. India and China in particular are becoming hotbeds of new content development

08 COVER STORY: From 5G...The advent of 5G stands to transform the mobile and wider telecoms and IoT landscape - cable wants a piece of the action

11 ...to 10GAt the same time, the cable industry is emphasising its ability to push to 10 Gigabit and beyond through its ‘10G’ programme

13 M-ABR with BroadpeakTogether with Broadpeak, CSI looks at the state of the Multicast-ABR market

19 Edge networking: a Netflix storyHow Netflix localised content delivery with CDNs at the edge

20 TV in AsiaThis article examines Asian market dynamics with a focus on streaming, Android TV and piracy

24 Opinion DVB’s Peter Siebert identifies a key difference between ATSC 3.0 and DVB-T2

26 Synamedia Q&A Rinat Burdo of Synamedia talks about online video credentials sharing and using behavioural analytics to combat piracy

28 Industry trendsIdentifying the main trends to come out of NAB 2019 and beyond

30 Live sports streaming How to reach its full potential

33 Buyers Guide 2019 Our inaugural listing of key suppliers in the cable, broadband and satellite sectors

2019

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Defi ning cable’s role in a 5G world

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EditorGoran Nastic

CommercialCamilla Capece Daniel Torelli

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news in brief

Joyn launching in JuneProSieben’s new streaming service Joyn, a joint venture with Discovery, will launch in June. ProSiebenSat.1 said its new streaming platform will provide over 50 TV channels in live streams. In addition, it will offer on-demand self-produced series, shows, previews and local content. Netflix was estimated to have just over 5 million customers in Germany as of last October.

Mediaset shifting payTV channels onlineMediaset has closed its terrestrial operations on Italy’s DTT network effective June 1 and decided to go OTT-only. As part of the move, Mediaset Premium channels will migrate to the Infinity streaming service. The move is part of a downsizing of the Mediaset Premium pay-TV unit following the failed sale to Vivendi. Customers fell 80% to 300,000 at the start of 2019.

Record losses for US TVTraditional video providers in the US lost a record 1.4 million subscribers in the last quarter, compared to a loss of 808,000 in Q1 2018, according to MoffettNathanson. Satellite (Dish and DirecTV) was worst hit. Craig Moffett noted that 40% of the subs lost in Q1 were converted to OTT-TV providers, down from 89.4% in the year-ago.

News

First demo of 5G backhaul via LEO as satellite looks to 5G for growthCan satellites participate in the 5G ecosystem? As 5G aims to embrace other access networks including fibre and microwave, so the satellite sector is eager to play a role that will drive new growth, with backhaul seen as a key use case.

5G can become the next driver of growth for satcom and, according to NSR, with 1 out of every 3 new $ in capacity revenues for backhaul in the next 10 years directly attributed to 5G.

Now, a group led by Telesat and including Vodafone and the University of Surrey have demonstrated that Low Earth Orbit satellites can provide low-latency backhaul transport for MNOs.

The world’s first live test of 5G services using a LEO satellite was conducted in April with Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite connected to the University of Surrey’s 5G test bed network. Specialist Vodafone engineers supported the trial and the company arranged licensing.

Test results confirmed a network reaction time (round trip latency) of 18-40 milliseconds, among the lowest ever for a satellite connection, according to the companies. The demo supported video chatting, web browsing and simultaneous streaming of up to 8K video. The team also transferred 4K video to the edge of the 5G network, demonstrating a key 5G future use case.

John Miller, senior manager, satellite demand and customer design for Vodafone Group, said: “The use of LEO satellites provides an additional mobile backhaul option and can be an important part of the delivery system particularly to customers in our markets who live in rural areas.”

Gilat and Newtec supplied the high throughput modems used for the test network.

Overall, a number of use-cases for 5G require close interworking between mobile, terrestrial, fibre, microwave, satellite networks. In Europe, broadcasters are ramping up 5G trials to determine how the technology can complement (or substitute) production and delivery.

Average broadband pricing falls in Q1 globally while bandwidth risesIn Q1 2019, the average monthly charge for fibre connections decreased by 4.8% while the average price of copper accesses dropped by 1.5% and the charge for cable accesses went up by 1.3% compared to the previous quarter.

The average bandwidth provided to residential subscribers increased by nearly 7% compared to Q4 2018. The boost was impacted by the continued increase in bandwidth provided over fibre and cable networks. The average download speeds over fibre and cable increased by 6% and 5% respectively in the

last quarter, according to the latest data from Point Topic.

Asia-Pacific retained its dominant position in terms of bandwidth. In Q1 2019, the average bandwidth in this region was 472Mbps. Western Europe and North America followed with 265Mbps and 253Mbps respectively.

The lowest priced business tariffs were offered in Europe and North America while Asia-Pacific offered the highest average download speeds.

Middle East and Africa, which are focusing on mobile, had the lowest average fixed

broadband download speed at 68Mbps.

In Q1 2019, the combined average cost per Mbps on broadband packages provided over the three technologies dropped from $0.47 in Q4 2018 to $0.43 in Q1 2019.

04 June 2019 www.csimagazine.com

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A panel at SportsPro Live in London debated the future direction of sports streaming.

“If you think of OTT as a mature marketplace for entertainment, sports is not there yet but we see two phases on the horizon for the growth in OTT sports,” said Will Staeger of Endeavour Streaming. “We haven’t seen the big streamers like Netflix and Amazon fully step in. I think that phase is coming. How will that disrupt the market? I also think we will see more DTC services from the leagues.”

“I don’t know if the future of sport is OTT,” said Sam Jones, CEO of NFL Game Pass, the league’s premium streaming product. “I think OTT has a strong role to play but looking at the music industry it moved to be an experience around what the fan is interested in. That’s something that sports leagues are beginning to grasp. The content and experience both start with the fan, not with the technology or rights.

Through technology we are making it easier to access our sport. We use OTT and technology to think about how we can change the formats of the games we put out to suit fans in different time zones on different digital platforms. It’s about how can we use the product to solve the problems our fans have rather than just putting a broadcast stream online,” Jones said, adding the Game Pass is seeing strong growth particularly in markets without broad FTA coverage.

“There’s a place for OTT and DTC”, agreed Jason Kaufman, SVP of research, NBA. “It’s definitely a balance. As you see new players like Amazon and Apple... Netflix said they don’t want to be in sports

but let’s see what happens… There are going to be different players in the mix. For the time being it’s about finding the balance with our current partners where we can do things that are mutually beneficial.”

NBA worked with Twitter and Turner to follow a single player with the camera for the entire game. “There are eyeballs that are on Twitter that might not be on Turner but the belief is that all parties would benefit and it’s in most cases a complimentary tool.

“But from a rights standpoint it will be tricky and we want to do what’s best for our current partners while at the same time growing our fan base and delivering games in a way that young viewers especially now want to see them. We appreciate our partners want to experiment, and learning what works and doesn’t is critically important for everyone going forward.”

news in brief

DT tops 100Gbps over microwave linkAdvanced backhaul solutions will be needed to support high data throughput and enhanced customer experience in the 5G era. Ericsson and Deutsche Telekom have achieved what they say is a landmark data transmission rate by consistently topping 100 Gbps in a trial microwave link over 1.5km. Conducted at the telco’s service centre in Athens, the project achieved more than 10 times greater throughput speeds than current commercial solutions on similar 70/80 GHz millimetre wave spectrum.

Cellular IoT connections pass 1bn Cellular IoT connections reached 1.2 billion worldwide in 2018, driven by “exceptional adoption” in China, which accounted for 63% of the global installed base. Berg Insight projects that there will be 9bn IoT devices connected to cellular networks worldwide in 2023. “The most distinctive characteristic of the Chinese IoT market is the way that the government is systematically using new technology to implement its vision for urban life in the 21st century.”

CSI Awards 2019This is your last chance to enter our awards! See www.csimagazine.com/awards for more details.

Experimentation “critically important”, says NBA, as streaming giants circle live OTT sports arena

News


European viewing reveals meteroic rise of online TV but also FTA TV on mobilesOnline TV is now the second most popular source behind payTV with usage ranging from just under 40% in Germany to more than 50% in the UK and Sweden.

In Sweden, 31% consider online TV to be their primary TV source, the highest of the three countries studied by

nScreenMedia for Gracenote.Nearly half of viewers in

the countries studied are multi-source TV households. In the UK, 17% use all three TV sources available to them, higher than the other two.

In Germany free-to-air TV still rules and accounts for the majority of viewers at

nearly eight in ten. The report also found that FTA TV is gaining traction on mobile. More FTA viewers use broadcast apps to supplement viewing than payTV viewers use operator TV Everywhere apps. Over half of FTA users in each country use broadcast apps.

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Paid-streaming TV is a fast emerging phenomenon in Asia. While most countries in the region show streaming subscription uptake

rates below 30%, usage of paid streaming in Asia has grown from virtually zero just a couple of years back.

One interesting aspect of the region is the unique way in which local players approach the streaming market in terms of business models and content proposition, as well as the thriving market for local streaming players. A result of the growth of streaming TV in Asia as a whole, and China and India in particular, is the boost seen in local content production. Both India and China are becoming hotbeds of new content development, driven in part by the emergence of several local major streaming platforms.

The strongest Asian markets for

SVoD today are Hong Kong, Malaysia and China, with Japan South Korea, and Thailand catching fast. India and China represent two key markets in the region thanks to their sheer size, but offer very different environments for local and international SVoD opportunity. Overall SVoD uptake in China stands at 27%, by contrast, the rate in India is just over 3%.

India and China are becoming hotbeds of new content development As a largely closed market, China lacks international players. By contrast, India is much more international in its streaming TV usage with relatively high usage of social media platforms that host video (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) as well as international SVoD platforms like Netflix.

But what unites both markets is the emergence of a significant number of local streaming majors. China has seen the rapid growth of three local SVoD

giants in the form of iQiYi, Tencent and Youku, (live streaming platform Douyou is also part owned by Tencent). Each shows monthly usage rates among online homes at greater than 50% in Ampere’s local consumer survey, although iQiYi is a clear leader.

The Chinese and Indian local streaming majors all deploy mixed business models which distinguish them strategically from their international peers, and while local content is key, it’s often the mix of access, pricing tiers, bundling and wider content strategy around sport that distinguishes streaming platforms in these two very different markets.

Super aggregation has been one of the keys to success in China, but in contrast to the super aggregation strategy recently detailed by Apple, the Chinese majors do everything themselves. China’s iQiYi, Tencent and Youku have all diversified into other content formats, including books and comics, as well as into ticket sales for live events and retail tie ins and buy through from products featured in the shows they transmit. This internal diversification is both a factor in their success and a situation driven by the closed nature of the Chinese content market and the scale

Data corner

Streaming in Asia — the new local power playersBy Guy Bisson of Ampere Analysis


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opportunity that presents.The second tier of Chinese

streaming services is made up of more specialised players, exploiting niches of scale, like BilliBilli with its gaming focus and content strategy centred on Japanese and Chinese anime. DouYou, the live streaming platform, has also exploited demand for gaming and eSports.

India, with its much lower SVoD uptake, has taken a different approach to mixed services and business models. And sport is a key driver in the Indian streaming market. Leading platform Hotstar mixes both content and business models with free and pay tiers and a powerful sports pack that features key Indian cricket content. It is the only local platform to register over 50% usage by online homes in Ampere’s consumer survey.

Jio Cinema, part of major local mobile group Jio Reliance, bundles its streaming service with mobile contracts, pushing it to second place among the local streaming majors, although Sony Picture’s Sony Liv, driven by access to content from its linear channels and a smattering of key sports is of equal scale.

Smaller, but still important, players like Eros, Altbaliji and Zee rely on access to local content, pushing them to usage rates between 10% and 20% of online homes in India.

Streaming services in the region have been one of the key drivers for new show commissions, helping to drive China and India to the number two and four slots among the top five international (outside USA) markets for the number of new TV shows going into production or development. China and India both have a notable focus on drama commissioning with romantic content being key in both markets (particularly China) with comedy in India and sci-fi in China also important.With streaming TV the driver, international opportunity must be next on the agenda for Asia’s fast growing content sector.

Data corner


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SVOD penetration of homes in Asia

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There was a time when advances in mobile phone technology carried little more professional interest to cable TV operators than did advances in

lawn-mowing. Admittedly, that was a long time ago – mobile services have been part of some cable operators’ service bundles for many years now – but only in recent times have advances in mobile really become very relevant to cable operators’ strategies.

With the launch of 5G the convergence between these two areas of technology enters a new phase. On a technical level, 5G should live up to at least some of its hype, providing faster, more reliable, higher capacity mobile networks, reducing latency in video delivery from 10 milliseconds to a fraction of one. 5G networks should be able to support up to 1 million connections per square kilometre, whereas 4G can only support 100,000.

Of course, that assumes the infrastructure can overcome 5G’s weaknesses, such as the way that use of high frequency millimetre waves limits cell size, or the fact that the waves are blocked by building materials and disrupted by weather conditions, which mean a large number of antennae need to be used within each cell. Anyone trying to build an infrastructure capable of delivering video to a mass audience will need to build/buy and install a lot of equipment.

But let’s assume that the

infrastructure does function as it should and that coverage is eventually fairly comprehensive in markets where consumer demand drives adoption. What does this mean for the cable industry in general, and for cable TV operators in particular?

Telcos have cable in sight with 5G FWASome mobile operators certainly have cable TV companies in their sights.

Verizon’s new fixed wireless access (FWA) offering in the US is an attempt to take on cable: offering consumers high speed connections beamed directly to home receivers capable of delivering high quality video. True, the service will almost certainly not be as reliable as a cable-based service at first, but no cable operator will want to see another potential source of competition appearing in their market, particularly if priced competitively.

Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are all developing and launching 5G services in the US at what might be described as a sensibly cautious pace. But once such services are up and running they could present a potent commercial threat to cable operators. Research conducted by Macquarie suggests 57 per cent of US consumers would consider switching their home broadband services from a cable provider to a telco.

Of course, many cable operators also offer mobile/wireless services, so will be launching 5G services of their own. “In many instances we see it as complementary for cable operators with a rich infrastructure in scale and

capacity,” says Belal Hamzeh, senior vice-president and CTO at CableLabs. ““They will then be able to deliver a 5G service well ahead of that provided by the competition.”

Speaking at the CES cable event, Cox Communications CEO Pat Esser said: “This is not a battle about 5G and 10-Gig. Actually, if you’re trying to roll out a wireless 5G network you need us deploying a 10-Gig network.”

This points up one of the big challenges for cable operators, which concerns how best to use HFC and fibre backbone facilities to support 5G, regardless of whether they offer a retail 5G service 9more on which later).

Cable operators that are not also mobile/wireless providers might comfort themselves with the thought that it may be a long time before reliable small cell-based 5G infrastructures are in place. But as 5G equipment develops and adoption increases over the next five to ten years it will become more economical to manufacture, procure and install that equipment. Further advances And although some demographic groups may be less interested than others in 5G FAW propositions as an alternative to cable subscriptions, we should also expect the best quality phone and tablet screens to improve and to become cheaper over the same period, which might help make 5G services more attractive for a wider range of viewers.

On the other hand, as Hamzeh points out not, even if 5G can deliver Gigabit connectivity and low latency video to the home, many cable operators already provide this. In the US, between 70 and 80 per cent of residential broadband customers already access to 1GB internet via cable.

Hamzeh questions whether 5G services will be able to deliver 1GB connectivity reliably and at scale. “Cable operators today are able to deliver a 1GB service at scale; and with technologies being delivered at

Cover feature

Cable and 5G set to open a new phase of convergenceDavid Adams assesses the role cable operators can play in the 5G ecosystem as the relationship enters its early phase


8-10_5G.indd 2 16/05/2019 15:37:39


CableLabs we have a roadmap to go well beyond 1GB per second,” he says. Nor is connection speed the most important consideration: “You need high speed, low latency, high capacity, and security.”

These are also the attributes that the cable industry has been highlighting when discussing its ‘10G’ programme (more on which on page 11), a planned network upgrade that will bring 10GB per second broadband services into homes within the next few years.

In one sense, the promises attached to 10G can be viewed as aspirational in the same way as those related to 5G, because it will be a long time before cable equipment used in the last mile enables universal 10GB speeds. The fact that the initiative is called 10G also makes it look like a slightly panicked response to the hype surrounding 5G. And 5G infrastructures might also

provide 10GB internet one day, although probably not for a long time. Either way, it’s striking that those who talk up 10G and those hyping 5G have both spoken a great deal about the other purposes to which both infrastructures could be put, enabling greater use of smart home and smart city technologies, driverless cars, augmented reality, healthcare, educational and business applications and so on. It’s important to remember the wider context here – this is not just about providing video to the home.

But if we are just talking about home entertainment and other broadband services, Charles Cheevers, CTO, CPE and technology, at CommScope (now that the acquisition of Arris is complete), suggests that at present economic factors favour cable operators. “The economics still favour cable operators for higher-speed

broadband services, especially where coax or fibre already exist,” he says, pointing out that the 5G New Radio (NR) customer premises equipment that will be needed to terminate 5G NR signals is still very expensive.

“Both the size of the cell and the range of the GBps signal constrain GBps-plus speeds,” Cheevers explains. “5G NR also typically requires an outdoor unit for RF signal termination to baseband in the home. This all adds complexity, CapEx and OpEx costs.”

He expects to see 5G drive more consolidation and new partnerships in wired and licensed wireless provider markets, but also believes cable operators and their customers will gain significant value from the roll-out of Full-Duplex DOCSIS (FDX) solutions, well before 10G becomes a reality. Cisco and Arris (CommScope) are among the vendors developing a way

Cover feature


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of using FDX that increases throughput in both directions. CableLabs and other vendors are also working on other ways to extract maximum value from a DOCSIS 3.1-based infrastructure.

The 5G backhaul opportunityCable operators will also benefit from use of their coax lines to power 5G small cells. Research from CableLabs suggests DOCSIS-based networks will play a big role in 5G backhaul, as they have a total cost of ownership that is lower than more fibre-based networks – although fibre will also have a role to play in core networks for 5G. “5G requires an extensive backhaul network and cable operators are well-equipped to provide that,” says Hamzeh.

But cable operators and others looking to benefit from opportunities to make money out of providing backhaul

for an increasingly complex, evolving 5G infrastructure will need to plan capacity and contractual terms very carefully.

Cheevers outlines some steps cable operators will need to take if they want to exploit this opportunity to the greatest possible extent, including investing in demarcation points such as utility poles for 5G FAW; and use of Dual Sim technology to support in-home use of CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Services) or 5G NR.

“The cost of 5G, for fixed wireless access in particular, must be as economical as (or better than) pulling fibre to the end location,” says Cheevers. “This is particularly pronounced for an operator that already has an expansive HFC [Hybrid Fibre-Coaxial] or FTTH [fibre-to-the-home] network. This has the cost advantage of acquiring customers with an extension of the network and using a cost-effective consumer premises equipment solution.”

The acquisition of Arris and associated brands by CommScope will help the company exploit opportunities related to 5G: it is in part a commercial reaction to the increasing convergence between wired and wireless communications. “As part of CommScope, we’ve got a true end-to-end view of the ecosystem and are already looking at new ways to improve the infrastructure of the cell

ecosystem,” says Cheevers. “It’s opened up a number of new opportunities.”

These include further development and improvement of DOCSIS, HFC and FDX products; of gateway devices and infrastructure equipment; and opportunities related to the addition of CBRS as a 5G band, which will allow cable operators to license spectrum for other uses. “Wireline network providers will also have opportunities to partner or build wireless 5G solutions, because 5G NR and the future wireless world require wired connections to 500ft cell sites, and, potentially to all the utility and light poles erected,” Cheevers continues. “The 5G rollout may foster more collaboration across the ecosystem. We’ll see partnerships between mobile network operators and cable operators, where the former leverages the backhaul of the cable plant.”

For now, all eyes will be on consumer reaction and business strategies used in the markets where 5G will roll out in 2019 and 2020. Ultimately, as with so many other technologies, the hype surrounding 5G may be forgotten as the technology is improved and developed by many different industry participants. But cable operators will still need to consider very carefully how the roll-out of this technology can and will affect them in both the near and the longer term.

Cover feature


According to Cisco’s latest Mobile Visual Networking Index (VNI) forecas (left), by 2022, 5G connections will represent over 3% of total mobile connections (more than 422 million global 5G devices and M2M connections) and will account for nearly 12% of global mobile data traffic.

By 2022, the average 5G connection (22 GB/month) will generate about 3X more traffic than the average 4G connection (8 GB/month).

“5G requires an extensive backhaul network and cable operators are well-equipped to provide that.”

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It has only been a couple of months since the cable industry started the marketing offensive to push back on the mobile industry’s “owned” 5G messaging, introducing and trademarking

“10Gtm”. This was mostly an effort to point out that Cable as an industry is perfectly able to offer symmetrical, low latency bandwidth to its subscribers that go well beyond the 1Gbps.

So what are the tools that the Cable industry have in their toolbox to execute on the 10G claim?

Distributed Access Architectures (DAA) is a good place to start, after all, this is the technology that is driving a lot of the elements required to get where cable needs to go.

Where is the industry with DAA? Of the two flavours, Remote PHY and Remote MACPHY, the first is still gathering the most traction. Nevertheless, the adoption of DAA has been slow, a lot of that has to do with

the fact that this is a transitional architecture.

Dell’Oro Group projects that Remote PHY and Remote MACPHY unit shipments, which include both new nodes and modules, will grow from just under 31,000 units in 2018 to 61.1,000 units in 2020. With an estimated installed optical node base of around 1.1 million nodes and growing, those numbers represent just a fraction of the total addressable market (see chart).

Although the benefits are clear, reduced power, cooling and physical footprint in the hub-sites, cable operators will likely only insert DAA when there is an actual operational drive and opportunity to do so. Next to that, maturity of the products has also been slowing down deployments.Interestingly, only recently a new architecture was introduced by Cablelabs, the Flexible Mac Architecture (FMA), which is all about disaggregating the management, control and data planes, effectively defining the head-end re-architected as a data centre.

The focus is on Remote MACPHY but Remote PHY can also be used in combination with a Remote CCAP core. FMA is not a finalised specification and is still work in progress. Most of

the concerns with R-PHY are latency related, but complexity plays a role as well. However, the Low Latency DOCSIS specification recently announced by Cablelabs does resolve some of those concerns.

Virtualisation of the CCAP is a topic that tends to become a religion, with R-PHY being a key raw material in the drive to virtualisation. Once a CCAP becomes a device without cable-specific hardware on it, it becomes a router with Ethernet interfaces, which is pretty “easy” to virtualise.

There are two ways to achieve this: use the old-fashioned dumping of a monolithic software construct in a virtual machine (VM); or, better in my view, get to a software construct that enables you to take real advantage of virtualisation. By using state-of-the-art software architectures, breaking down the software in multiple micro-services you are, in theory, able to simplify the operation and maintenance of the CCAP in a dramatic fashion. The actual quantifiable advantages are in the use of “bare metal” servers, increases in service velocity and customer experience.

Take custom, expensive-to-develop, hardware out of the equation, add FMA to that and you have the perfect storm likely resulting in a dramatic change in the CCAP vendor landscape. Interestingly, virtualisation also allows for a radical change in the business relation between the vendor and service provider (SP). Why buy a product as an SP if you can buy a service tied into specific KPIs?

Full Duplex DOCSIS (FDX) is a technology enabled by DAA and

Cable tech

Cable`s toolbox to get to 10GThe cable community is trumpeting its ability to offer symmetrical bandwidth far in excess of 1Gbps with its 10G initiative. How can it get to its vision? Industry expert Daniel Etman offers some answers


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probably equally as contentious as well. FDX allows for upstream and downstream to use the same spectrum on the cable network… smart. This basically turns DOCSIS into a 10G technology, but not yet really symmetrical, as that will require HFC networks to be utilising spectrum beyond the 2 Ghz. But FDX is a big step toward 10G, the only issue being that it requires an ‘n+0 HFC’ architecture, which means no more amplifiers. Unfortunately, not a lot of cable operators are planning for n+0 any time soon, this due to the significant CAPEX involved with that upgrade. The good news is that CableLabs is working to enable FDX in a n+x architecture, but likely limited to n+2 or so.

One thing is for sure, it will not make DOCSIS less complex.

Beyond DOCSIS: some recommendations for future network architecturesThis gets us to the really interesting discussion, what is next for cable?

DOCSIS will continue to be important and relevant for cable, but how will it look like in the (near)

future? Will it continue to build on top of the existing, complex, architectures? Or will we see a completely new architecture come to life?

For example, why not use the coaxial cable for ultra-high frequencies using a more common, less complicated, MAC layer? What if we can use that same cable for frequencies up to 5Ghz, or beyond? We would then be able to get well beyond the 10Gbps, full duplex.

Already there are deployments in Europe using the coaxial cable for 10 Gbps, full duplex, up to 3.5 Ghz.

As Moore’s law continues to rule we would be able to put RPD system-on-chip (SoC) technology in a RF TAP (Ed note: that is a passive device in a cable network behind the amplifier where you split the coaxial cable, with something like 4 or 8 outputs per tap) and drive a single home with FDX, no actives and no passives. Now that would get you 10 Gbps full duplex into the home.

What about latency? Double digit microseconds on the Coax network up to the RPD, with a single home on an FDX segment. Latency would be very low. And this all without having to dig fibre, hence the cost savings are significant compared to replacing coax with fibre.

One could also clearly see the synergies with 5G, if you have morphed the coaxial network in a network able to support low latency bandwidth well beyond 10Gbps, why not use this network for mobile back- or front-haul? 5G requires many more cell sites, and in many countries coax is all over the place.

So for those that think DOCSIS is a dead-end road, think again - we have only just begun.

Daniel Etman is a Business Innovator and Strategy Consultant

“Take custom, expensive-to-develop, hardware out of the equation, add FMA to that and you have the perfect storm likely resulting in a dramatic change in the CCAP vendor landscape.”

11-12_CableFocus.indd 4 16/05/2019 15:39:52


Sponsored by:

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Reconciling live TV with OTT distribution

Multicast ABR

Broadpeak_focus_CSI.indd 1 15/05/2019 11:47:13

It is not a secret that the internet was never originally designed to carry video traffic, let alone the volume of IP video traversing global networks today. The last few years have seen a

dramatic change in the way people watch TV, with OTT and VoD services slowly replacing traditional broadcasting.

This shift towards multi-screen viewing on different connected devices is forcing those involved in online video to rethink their approach to delivering streams to customers. One only has to look at the trend away from some of the old legacy IPTV platforms to more agile OTT-centric ones, many of which reside in some form of cloud environment.

There are also efforts ongoing to incrementally ‘re-engineer’ networks for the future video age, with some service providers introducing TV-centric CDNs and considering deep edge caching.

Multicast-ABR (adaptive bit rate) is another technology option. This allows broadcasters to use just one signal to deliver content to millions of viewers. Proponents argue it could revolutionise broadband viewing by reducing bandwidth and capacity bottlenecks.

“For IPTV or classical cable TV operators with a large number of existing customers that predominantly watch linear programming, the technology can add real value,” agrees Johan Bolin, chief product & technology officer, Edgeware. “Multicast ABR provides a great way for these operators to start deploying HTTP-based services, letting them modernise their platform while

increasing cost-efficiencies”.This is because unicast streaming

does not scale to popular live events such as World Cup football matches. M-ABR minimises bandwidth consumption, and therefore the load on routers, by ensuring that bandwidth is only consumed once on a given IP link for each stream and not separately for every user, irrespective of the device they are using to view the content.

Adaptive bit rate video delivery dates back to before 2010, so it is not a new concept, but the growth in online video has led some big video technology companies chasing the M-ABR opportunity. Since it formed, Synamedia has been vocal in identifying M-ABR as a target market, while the newly reformed Velocix also touts its Multicast ABR capability.

The last 12 months has seen multicast ABR gain some significant traction in the broadcast sector. Recent predictions suggest that the global multicast ABR market will be worth $852 million by 2023, initially driven by growth in Europe, before spreading to North America, Latin America and, eventually Asia.

This is according to Rethink TV, which points to multicast ABR riding to the rescue of OTT video as the boom in live sports distributed unicast puts infrastructures and associated costs under intolerable strain.

“The challenge lies not so much in scaling the services themselves to millions of simultaneous users but the associated costs and latency. Operators are finding they are paying far too much to CDN providers transporting all those streams as separate unicast instances,”

the report highlighted.Of course, M-ABR has its

detractors. “Multicast ABR is a managed network game. OTT providers cannot take advantage of M-ABR because they don’t own the delivery networks and they can’t transit multicast traffic over the Internet,” notes Kyle Goodwin, Vice President of Product and

Innovation, Vecima Networks. “Multicast is only viable over managed networks, but managed networks have reliable bandwidth meaning ABR is unnecessary to deal with varying network bandwidth, so while multicast solutions are useful Multicast ABR lacks a viable use case,” he argues.

And, as Edgeware’s Bolin notes: “There are certain live events such as major football matches where multicast would be a good option, but content providers have to consider whether it is worth developing a solution that only applies to a certain number of live events each year.”

But as Anevia CTO Damien Lucas explains, the point is really around traffic peaks and how to cope with those high peaks. Indeed, even the largest operators struggle to cater for the wide variations in capacity with sharp peaks when they are streaming live content at high resolution to several million viewers simultaneously (the company ran a trial with CanalSat in the hotel and hospitality market combining the Anevia CDN and multicast client).

“If you look at most of the operators, they would like to switch 100% of their TV service to OTT,” Lucas said, referring to the likes of Comcast, DirectTV, Canal+, Sky and others.

Broadpeak sees the same trends, and has for several years argued that payTV operators would like to transition from legacy broadcast or classic IPTV to all-ABR delivery.

The French company is acknowledged as the clear market leader, with its nanoCDN technology deployed by service providers of all types (even

Multicast ABR

Transforming live streams with M-ABRGoran Nastic asks if Multicast ABR is set for broader adoption




satellite and DTT, more of which later) across some 100 different devices, such as gateways, set-top boxes, cable modems and WiFi routers. Among them are DSL gateways for Cellcom in Israel, fibre gateways for Beeline in Russia, set-top boxes for Delta in The Netherlands. At Icelandic telco Siminn, the client software is also in its 4K set-top boxes.

Tackling low latency streaming with M-ABR and CMAFThe approach favoured by Broadpeak is live or popular content multicast all the way to in-home device, after which point a process called transcasting takes place, where multiple unicast streams are then pushed to other connected devices. In this case, the end points almost act as a mini-origin server inside the home.

If the multicast reaches right into the home, it brings the added benefit of reducing latency.

Those who have attended industry trade shows or conferences recently will have noticed the attention place on achieving low latency streaming down to broadcast levels.

There are two main causes of streaming latency. One is the segmented nature of the stream, and the second, even bigger one, is the size of the buffer in the player, according to Damien Sterkers, product line manager, Broadpeak. “What we are saying is you need CMAF low latency and you need to do something on the network to make sure the packets arrive on time so you can shrink that buffer,” he

explained.Broadpeak’s proposal, on demo at

this year’s NAB, is to combine CMAF low latency with M-ABR, illustrating that CMAF-LL by itself is not enough. “M-ABR is a way to resolve the problem of the network and make sure your packets are on time. So 200 to 300 milliseconds of buffer is enough, we know that from our past experience in IPTV” Sterkers said.

At the NAB, Broadpeak showed how it manages low latency together with synchronisation of screens. The company uses a trigger, in this case the reception of a new iframe, to synchronise all the screens for all subscribers throughout the network. Sterkers noted that Broadpeak can work with set-top box manufacturers to ensure that the buffering strategy is exactly the same for all STBs to achieve perfect synchronisation.

In terms of use cases, it also demonstrated ad insertion with ABR, emergency alerts/ES insertion and playlist & manifest manipulation, which may not have been possible with traditional broadcast.

“We think that definitely ABR is the format of the future. Once you reach that point where you have no regression against traditional IPTV then you get all the benefit of the ABR”, he said.

“The satellite industry is very interested in this application as well,” Sterkers added, “Because when we are doing multicast to distribute the most important content we can also do it through satellite.”

Moreover, Broadpeak has made its agent available as an Android app, and is working with middleware providers.

“Our core proposal is keep what you have, could be satellite, multicast for IPTV or even terrestrial, but instead of putting MPEG-TS inside you just put streaming format, ABR,” Sterkers said, noting there is an operator in South Africa that wants to use the solution for terrestrial with streaming .

Has the time come for M-ABR?Standard connected devices like smartphones and tablets don’t support multicast, meaning support for the protocols has to be implemented in the residential gateway. However, these protocols are not yet standardised, requiring proprietary software to be integrated into a wide range of content providers. This, from what CSI understands talking to various vendors based on feedback from operators, can very quickly become complicated from an operational and maintenance perspective.

“Shifting to OTT, to an ABR format has been very complex for the whole industry. People were more focused on getting their system up and running. They haven’t taken so much time in optimising and that’s coming now,” reckons Sterkers.

So while Sterkers acknowledges that implementing M-ABR has its challenges, he thinks the time is now right for more operators to dip their feet in the water.

Cable Labs started standardisation work in 2014 but CSI understands there has been no update since 2016 and that has actually passed on to SCTE. However, the DVB should have an M-ABR spec in the next 12-18 months and Broadpeak is actively participating in this process.

In the meantime, the company is confident it will continue to deploy M-ABR commercially with operators of all types, building up momentum on a long-term vision before any significant competition emerges.

Multicast ABR




Can you briefly explain to our readers what multicast-ABR actually is and does.The principle of multicast ABR (MABR) is to distribute video content over multicast IP, just like traditional IPTV, but embedding an adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming format such as DASH or HLS rather than the usual MPEG-TS.

Technically, a multicast ABR implementation relies on two components: • A transcaster server in the headend retrieves its sources from any ABR origin server and wraps them into multicast.• At the other end, a lightweight agent in the home CPE, typically an IP gateway or a set-top box, receives and unwraps the multicast to make the content available to all devices in the home in unicast.

What problem is M–ABR trying to solve?MABR is a solution that fits between traditional IPTV (MPEG-TS over multicast) and typical OTT (ABR format over unicast). Perhaps counter-intuitively, operators today are mostly interested in MABR for resolving traditional IPTV problems rather than OTT.

Basically, they want to capitalise on all of the advantages of ABR for their IPTV service, in particular the ability to address mobile devices and to personalise the content (for example, enabling targeted advertisements on the main TV screen).

Another significant advantage of MABR is that it allows operators to deploy 100 percent ABR receivers rather than complex hybrid systems mixing legacy broadcast for live with

newer streaming formats for time-shift and VOD.

What is the business case for M-ABR? The main benefit of MABR is really to reconcile live TV on the big screen with the rest of the video applications. Today, most TV operators are still using traditional broadcast for delivery to the TV screen, mostly because OTT unicast distribution is not deemed safe enough to deliver high-revenue programs in good quality, and they have to make it co-exist with their OTT distribution workflow in the adaptive bitrate format.

Using MABR enables operators to preserve the quality and safety of content at the level of a traditional system while taking advantage of the benefits of the ABR format. Targeted advertising is only one of the advantages. Other obvious advantages include the ability to distribute video on mobile devices, or to handle cross-screen cloud PVR and time-shifting services.

Are there common deployment scenarios or design goals at a high level that operators – cable, satellite, telco, OTT - can/should keep in mind?There are indeed a few important principles to follow during the design phase to avoid dead ends. For example, when the video is intended to serve the main screen, the audience expects latency for live events comparable to broadcast, not a stream that is delayed by tens of seconds as is usually the case with OTT. Multicast ABR creates the network conditions to solve this issue.

It’s also important to make sure that the system supports https, which is every day becoming more of a requirement for browsers and players.

This implies that it’s no longer possible, like initially imagined at the beginning of MABR, that the MABR agent acts as a man-in-the-middle and intercepts the content requests sent by the player. The system shall instead implement a discovery mechanism so that the player can find the agent and addresses its requests directly. These are only examples. There are things to keep in mind to make sure the system complies with real-life and full-scale commercial deployments but pitfalls are generally simple to avoid with a little bit of experience.

Some people talk about the operational complexity of deploying M-ABR. To what extent is this true and how can Broadpeak help minimise these challenges?Deploying MABR is not particularly complicated. Generally it needs to be integrated into a multi-vendor environment, and resolving all interoperability topics can be more or less complex, but that’s not something new.

The most sensitive point of interoperability is probably to integrate the MABR agent into a third-party CPE, but the embedded systems nowadays mostly rely on standard Linux versions, a well-known environment. We’ve now integrated our agent in over 80 devices, giving us the opportunity to industrialise the process, making it very fast and safe today. It’s also important to note that Android TV OS is getting more and more popular for set-top boxes, making the integration even simpler as the agent in that case takes the format of a standard app.

What key recommendations would you give to those thinking about going down the M-ABR route?

Q&AM-ABR

With Damien Sterkers, Product Manager at Broadpeak




Our main recommendation is to take advantage of the experience from the various MABR systems already deployed. Talk to the operators that already use it in production and are successfully phasing out their broadcast distribution, consider the various architecture options with those that have experience using these kinds of systems, and go through a thorough proof-of-concept to validate and refine the architecture details.

CSI understands there is a big industry debate taking place at the moment between the merits of deep network caching. Can you elaborate on this? Is there a relationship with M-ABR? We don’t see deep network caching and MABR as competitors but rather as two different and nonexclusive ways of achieving the same goal, which is optimising video traffic on the network. Today, for popular events, there are often thousands of physical copies of the exact same content going through the network at the same time, provoking an unnecessary load on the network and cost on the infrastructure. This is obviously something that needs to be improved in the short term. Both technologies rely on the same principle, bringing CDN caches closer to users,

with MABR being an extreme case where a CDN element (i.e., the agent) is actually placed in the home. Bringing caches closer also means having more of them, and MABR logically adds the notion of populating numerous edge caches at the same time, with a more efficient point-to-multipoint protocol (i.e., IP multicast vs. point-to-point unicast).

How does M-ABR achieve or guarantee low latency, which is a hot topic at the moment?There are two main reasons for the extra latency typically associated with OTT streaming, in order of impact:

1- The very large buffer that is generally implemented on ABR players, typically between 10 and 30s. The buffer is not there by accident, it is meant to compensate for the fact that video packet delivery is variable on an http network. It is possible to reduce that buffer, but only if there’s something done on the network to secure a steady delivery. Using multicast on a managed network is definitely a solution. This is how traditional IPTV is implemented, and IPTV players work fine with buffers not exceeding a few 100s of ms.

2- The segmented nature of ABR. An ABR stream is composed of segments, typically 2 to 10s. The issue is that each point in the delivery chain, by default, has to wait for the segment to be fully downloaded, often in real time, before it can be passed to the next point downstream. The longer the segment, the more latency is added. CMAF can subdivide these segments into much smaller chunks, minimising this segmentation effect down to a point it becomes negligible in comparison to other factors, such as video encoding.

In summary, the solution to erase the latency on the delivery network is to combine both managed delivery of packets, which MABR offers, and CMAF segments. It is important to note, CMAF by itself is not sufficient as it doesn’t fix the first issue.

How do you see M-ABR evolving, what is on the horizon?We definitely perceive a momentum for MABR, and we foresee that its adoption will increase significantly. This is likely to be driven by two important issues, which still need to be fixed:

• There’s a need to make IPTV and broadcast evolve toward ABR, but traditional OTT streaming over unicast is still not perceived as a good candidate today, particularly because of its limitations in terms of scalability and quality of experience.

• There’s a need to optimise video delivery on IP networks.

We also anticipate that, with its popularity increasing, there will be more effort toward standardisation.

M-ABR


Broadpeak can be found at ANGA Com 2019 in Hall 7 stand B52



http://www.broadpeak.tv

Kevin Deierling is VP, Marketing, Mellanox

Netflix copied the plot of one of its own dramas and cooked up a powerful Content Delivery Network (CDN) system that

gives millions of concurrent subscribers a unique product. But it needed some muscle from the Network Edge.

Netflix’s off screen conflict is worthy of dramatisation. This story has ramifications for everyone in this industry. How does Netflix cater for the ramp up in subscriber numbers that it needs without blowing its cash on expensive network services to reach its customers? To add to the challenge, its product is more complicated than traditional broadcasting, where consumers take what they are given at a fixed time. Netflix is much more chatty and interactive with each customer, customising its communications for every single individual.

Netflix needs to build a scalable model that achieves what Don Draper says in the Mad Men series: “if you want respect, go out and get it yourself.” Well the Netflix data centre architects did exactly that: they went out and built the most scalable, highest performance, and most cost effective CDN system on the planet.

Traditional CDN infrastructure was built for a previous generation of material, which was static. However, Facebook, Netflix and others have created user experiences based on content discovery and recommendation engines. Netflix’s Movie Recommendations, for example, provide instant interaction available to 60 million subscribers. Facebook Live allows millions of users to watch a live

stream without any interruptions. That means radically changing the

production process and taking out the imperfections. Netflix cooks up media and delivers it to the masses in a pure and powerful form by upgrading the CDN system and seamlessly streaming media to millions of customers without so much as a hiccup.

In IT terms it’s using a network computer ‘at the edge’. IT architects have their secret sauce to deliver these CDN edge devices - such as the SmartNIC, which is easier to ingest than the proper scientific name, such as BlueField and ConnectX 100 Gigabit Ethernet Adapters with RiverMax media streaming technology.

The upshot is Netflix can operate at hyperscale and flood whole neighbourhoods with addictive HD video with stunning clarity.

Streaming infrastructures are built out like giant power grids today. Their capacity to service tens of millions of people at once with individualised content takes them well beyond traditional broadcast TV networks, who only send the same content, at the same time, to all of their customers all at once. This change in delivery was made possible by IP. It is a practical response to a change in the way we access entertainment.

In 1997, when commercial audio and video streaming platforms were first

introduced, media servers could deliver about 100-500 concurrent streams. Today a single server can manage as many

100,000 concurrent consumer of video streams by cutting out the ‘muddle man’ - the clunky old fashioned centralised data centre server.

Netflix localised its content delivery by placing powerful CDN machines in co-location facilities right next to the consumers “last mile” internet connections. These CDN boxes have a massive need for bandwidth and the only way to feed these monsters is to create very intelligent agents to deal with them - the SmartNIC. The name makes it sound like they are 25 and 100 Gig Ethernet network adapter cards (NICs) but in truth they are powerful network computers.

They’ve improved on previous network adapter features to precisely stream content at exactly the right quality and exactly the right rate to thousands of consumers each of whom have slightly different requirements. Netflix made its streaming more responsive by placing the SmartNICS exactly where demand is highest.

In the CDN designed for Facebook Live, 98% of user requests are handled by the edge servers, drastically reducing the load on the origin servers.

Traditional CDNs can’t handle dynamic workloads. The demands of modern consumer applications are beyond them, because their architectures are outdated and their software-caching platforms bloated and expensive. Streaming, for the modern metropolitan area network (MAN) needs to move fast. Content distribution is a young MAN’s game and needs the new generation of high performance and efficient networks.

How Netflix localised content delivery with CDNs at the edgeBy Kevin Deierling

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Outside the partially walled garden that is China, the key territories of Singapore, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Indonesia and

Thailand are some of the fastest growing and competitive markets in the world for streaming media.

Younger generations of consumers have created a new content landscape; many of them have grown up in markets where pay-TV penetration has been below 20%, with mobile phones or laptops their first point of access to media. For the bulk of these audiences, their primary screen is mobile and they can’t get enough video content on it. These markets also often cover vast

geographical areas and a multitude of languages, which makes them particularly challenging for the big global players to crack and gives local content providers the upper hand (see page 6 for an analysis of some of the local streaming platforms emerging out of Asia, especially China and India).

“In the context of the Asian pay-TV industry, it’s clear that new priorities are emerging,” says Simon Trudelle, senior director product marketing, Nagra. “From shifting consumer behaviour to the rapidly evolving threat of piracy, pay-TV operators across Asia have been forced into a radical top-down rethink of their business models. And with the rise of OTT platforms, pay-TV providers have an opportunity to reach new customers outside of the

managed network or who don’t own the provider’s set-top box.”

The demand for mobile streaming combined with the availability of cheap smartphones is what is driving Asia’s streaming market, agrees Greg Armshaw, head of media, Asia, at Brightcove.

“Android-based smartphones are the streaming devices with the most users in Asia,” he explains. “Mobile device manufacturers are able to produce good enough smartphones for well under $100 [£76.43]. The current market with low-cost device availability, along with a competitive mobile telco market, delivers a wonderful sweet spot for internet TV adoption.”

This doesn’t mean, however, that it’s all plain sailing for OTT providers in Asia, to be successful requires planning and strategy, adds Armshaw. “Creating a strong value proposition equates to designing and implementing smart customer acquisition and retention strategies that strike a balance between a robust content library, the pricing sweet spots, multi-platform multiscreen accessibility and exceptional user experience. Free trials and promotions are a strong initial driver for consumers to sign up for OTT TV; however, price is also the top barrier to adoption.

“For SVOD OTT TV offerings, customer retention is by far the biggest challenge. Free OTT TV service trials and promotion drives acquisition, but it is the content that drives retention.”

As many Asian content providers are delivering content to large, densely-populated audiences, they also experience huge disparities in quality. “The biggest challenges for the region’s OTT services are associated with delivering content to all those consumers at once without glitches or delays,” claims Richard Brandon, Edgeware’s chief marketing officer.

“What we’ve found is that delivering to a baseline of audiences is one thing, but the real challenge for any OTT

Asia market

Streaming ahead in AsiaAnna Tobin reports on streaming media dynamics in the Asian markets, many of which are mobile-fi rst and offer untapped opportunities, but also unique characteristics


Source: Shutterstock.com

20-23_AsiaTV.indd 2 16/05/2019 15:58:02


distributor is meeting a huge increase in demand that’s bought about by a major event – like a World Cup or Olympic Games. To meet this challenge, operators need a delivery infrastructure that can be easily scaled up or down to meet the changing nature of online traffic.”

The language and cultural differences across Asia and the ability to adapt to these local delivery needs, all combine to make it easier for local content providers to penetrate the different Asian markets than for the big global streaming players to.

“I just came back from India,” says Gilboa at Kaltura, “over there broadcasters have highly popular streaming services that are more popular than Netflix and Amazon Prime combined. If you take India, for example, it’s a matter of the content that they have and the languages within which they produce their content and the strength of the brand of the broadcasters themselves.”

When to take ownership of a network?Content providers in Asia often rent space on a public content delivery network (CDN), but there comes a point when it makes economic sense to build their own, says Brandon at Edgeware. “A lot of countries in the APAC region have audiences that meet the criteria of a self-built delivery network – providing that there are enough users in a distinct area, and they watch online content for at least one hour a day,” he explains.

This means that for the broadcaster, a tipping point is reached where it makes more economic sense to build their own delivery network. With their own infrastructure in place, content owners have much better control over their programming so that they can dial up and down services as needed. A TV CDN can also offload peak capacity to public CDN services, so operators can address different regions, areas or audiences in different ways.

Owning the network should also give content providers greater control over the lucrative advertising revenue stream and gives them more opportunities to target audiences with personalised advertising.

Whether or not they own their networks, Asian content providers are increasingly creative when it comes to delivering their content, highlights Gideon Gilboa, SVP of product and marketing at Kaltura’s media and telecom group. He uses a South Korean case study as an example of this.

“The Korea Content Platform (KCP), a joint venture of the three largest broadcasters in South Korea [KBS (Korean Broadcasting System), MBC (Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation) and SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System)] – is one of our clients. KCP is the direct-to-consumer arm of the three broadcasters and it distributes content digitally not only in South Korea, but also to places around the world.

“The interesting thing is that not only

Asia market


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20-23_AsiaTV.indd 3 16/05/2019 15:58:02


Asia market


do they have a direct-to-consumer platform, they also use our platform to do OTT syndication. So they deliver the same content and the same experience into other OTT applications that are highly popular and so dramatically increase their traffic,” Gilboa argues.

All sides benefit from increased cooperation between OTT service providers and pay-TV operators, says Sascha Prüter, chief product officer at Vewd. “While adaptive bitrate streaming allows for a relatively flexible approach to varying access and bandwidth, it still might mean finding unique solutions for specific markets or regions,” he says. “Here a partnership with payTV operators could make sense to tackle this problem with better QoS, traffic prioritisation, etc.”

And not only do content providers in Asia have to be flexible with their delivery methods, they also need to be flexible with their payment plan, adds Prüter. “I think the ‘one offer for all markets’ is, for example, one of the reasons that limits Netflix’s growth in markets like India. For a lot of OTT services, a combination of SVOD for the higher ARPU targets and AVOD for entry level is a sensible combination, in addition to finding interesting bundling opportunities, for example, with mobile operators.”

In economically challenged markets price is often the top barrier to

adoption and as credit card use is not widespread across Asia, operators also have to be creative with payment options, adds Armshaw at Brightcove.

“For SVOD in mobile-centric Asia, the credit card is not a default set-and-forget type of payment behaviour. In a market where there is high prepaid mobile use and users watch their spending, SVOD subscriptions tend to be transactional in a sense that a decision to subscribe is a regular, recurring decision making process. Subscribers, who are not buying a telco bundle, are actually more like sequential TVOD purchasers, with one-off subscriptions as low as $0.30. This makes communications with users all the more important.”

To keep users coming back for more, most OTT TV services have a free/AVOD layer of content. “What we are seeing as less and less of a problem in Asia, is affordability of the mobile data required to view the content. Also, delivery technologies like context-aware encoding and offline playback have helped ensure even the most basic

mobile devices on the poorest 3G connections are able to view video without buffering,” Armshaw says.

Taking on the piratesAsia has always been a playground for content pirates and connected TVs, set-top-boxes and smartphones have only made the potential for piracy greater. “As viewer behaviours evolve, so does the piracy ecosystem,” notes Nagra’s Trudelle. There’s a growing multi-national pirate ecosystem that needs to be fought against that requires a more dedicated and collaborative effort in terms of legal enforcement, PR, and consumer education, according to Trudelle. Nagra is very active in this area and more recently has ramped up efforts in the fight against piracy in Singapore by enabling DNS blocking of pirate servers that stream copyrighted content. Nagra Anti-Piracy Services provide real-time monitoring and forensic analysis of illicit streaming devices (ISDs) and applications delivering the evidence submitted to High Courts to obtain

Android TV in AsiaAnother significant development is the rise of Android TV. There are several large operators using Android TV in Asia, including Japan’s KDDI, Bharti Airtel and Hathway in India, Taiwan’s Kbro, and SK Broadband in South Korea. ”We feel that India is fertile ground for something that is powerful, 4K, cheap and offers voice control,” noted Rethink TV Research in its report on Android TV globally last year. The analyst firm forecasts that by 2022 India will ship Android TV to 24 million hybrid DTH homes, out of a total by then of 92.8 million.

Along with Japan, Rethink sees Indonesia also embracing the platform. “Well known love of all things video among Indonesians, could see many more Android TV

devices shipped from retail during that period, though not Operator Tier,” it said.

Some operators are choosing to deploy hybrid Android OTT services, like PT LinkNet in Indonesia, enabling them to seamlessly deliver new hybrid broadcast/Android-TV based OTT services to their subscribers. PT LinkNet deployed Nagra’s cardless content protection solution to secure the service.

This is because, as Nagra’s Simon Trudelle points out, operators using Android TV still need to ensure any service built on the platform is secure, protecting both the content owners and consumers’ data.

“For many, its arrival has already proven a watershed moment,” Trudelle says.

“The economic aspect of tackling different wealth groups is interesting and the solutions are different market by market.”

20-23_AsiaTV.indd 4 16/05/2019 15:58:02


Asia market


a DNS blocking order and effectively prevent popular pirate ISDs and applications from accessing pirated content. The evidence submitted in court can result in permanent interruption - or black screens - across infringing ISDs. Nagra supports such anti-piracy efforts in Singapore (as well as

Portugal) where the company enables DNS blocking of illegal transmissions of international and national football championship games over the Internet. “App stores and browsers on TVs, have become an additional entry point and gateway to piracy,” points out Prüter at Vewd. “Since content providers and pay-TV operators are our

close partners we take this very seriously and work closely with them to provide counter measures on our platform. This can be anything from blacklisting illegal apps or actively identifying illegal activities that might be harmful to either the provider or sometimes even the user – bear in mind they are not always aware what is illegal and what isn’t.”

Content marking and tracking is the way forward, adds Brandon at Edgeware, which has deployed a forensic watermarking solution that lets content owners add a unique visual code to each stream as it goes out to audiences.

One thing is for sure, the pirates are not dissuading content providers from entering these burgeoning and dynamic Asian markets. Those that go in aware of the need to protect against criminal activity, to tailor their delivery networks, their content and their pricing structures to the very specific nature of each market has every chance of success.

Country 2018

China 26.60

Hong Kong 46.42

India 3.25

Indonesia 10.44

Japan 21.99

Malaysia 30.28

Philippines 7.51

South Korea 18.02

Thailand 15.48

Source: Ampere Analysis

Asian subscription OTT penetration (% households)

20-23_AsiaTV.indd 5 16/05/2019 15:58:04


There has been, for more than two decades, a kind of friendly rivalry between the DVB Project and our US-based counterpart (for terrestrial standards at

least), the ATSC. When the first wave of digital terrestrial television swept the globe, countries weighed the strengths of DVB-T, ATSC and the Japanese ISDB-T system, adopting a given system based on criteria that were not always only technical.

When the DVB-T2 standard was published in 2009, it was the first, and for some time the only, second-generation DTT standard. With superior spectral efficiency and operational flexibility, DVB-T2 has become very successful and is the technology of choice in more than 100 countries.

Our ATSC colleagues have now delivered ATSC 3.0, which is a marked advance on its predecessor. And so it should be: they brought together considerable expertise to create an advanced DTT specification that certainly gives DVB-T2 a run for its money. But what are the differences between these two second-generation DTT systems? Are there any that could be seen as a deal-breaker?

On the physical layer, the differences are minimal. The systems use essentially the same technologies. Any marginal performance improvement that ATSC 3.0 offers comes at the cost of higher complexity (and thus cost). Equally, on the higher layers, both systems specify the formats and services expected of modern television services: immersive

video and audio, hybrid broadcast/broadband applications like targeted advertising, video-on-demand, etc.

Security implications of ATSC’s IP-based transport layerI see only one fundamental difference between ATSC 3.0 and DVB-T2: the introduction in the former of an IP-based transport layer. Since the inception of digital TV, all broadcast transmission systems have been based on the MPEG-2 Transport Stream (TS), which offered a tailor-made solution for the delivery of video, audio and data over a uni-directional broadcast infrastructure. TS has been the workhorse of the industry, and all studio as well as transmission network infrastructures have evolved around this format. ATSC 3.0 breaks with the TS paradigm and uses an IP-based transport layer. If I was asked to summarise the two approaches, I would say that ATSC has defined a broadband protocol stack — which can also be used for broadcast — whereas DVB is using a broadcast stack that can also be used for broadband.

Now, this may seem like “six of one, half dozen of another,” but ATSC’s IP-based transport layer has serious consequences for one fundamental aspect of the television industry: content protection.

In document A360 “Security and Service Protection,” ATSC provides the specifications required for DRM based on the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, in combination with the MPEG Common Encryption (MPEG-CENC) scheme. This is certainly a good

solution for any device that has access to the broadband network for the acquisition of DRM licenses and the keys that enable content decryption for DRM-protected services. However, this approach does not work for a broadcast-only system without a permanent return channel. For this use case the necessary elements have not been specified yet by ATSC.

Knowing how important pay TV would be for the rollout of digital broadcasting, DVB focused on Conditional Access (CA) over broadcast-only networks right from the outset. The DVB Simulcrypt specification allows two or more CA systems to be used by the same receiver population, particularly important when a pay-TV provider wants to switch to another CA system. The Simulcrypt approach is based on DVB’s toolbox of Common Scrambling Algorithms (CSA) combined with the necessary signalling.

In addition, DVB also specified the Multicrypt system, where all CA system-specific elements are separated from the TV or set-top box and concentrated in a Conditional Access Module (CAM). For this purpose, DVB specified the Common Interface (CI) between the host and the module. The Multicrypt approach allows pay-TV operators to integrate all CA-related functions in one module, making STBs obsolete.

There is an impressive ecosystem of CA solutions providers whose products are based on DVB specifications. About 50% of all DVB receivers worldwide have DVB CA solutions integrated. It is fair to say that DVB technology has enabled the pay-TV broadcast market.

It’s something to keep in mind when assessing the real-world differences between the two second-generation DTT systems.

Is pay-TV a potential blind spot for ATSC 3.0?DVB’s Peter Siebert highlights one crucial difference between the world’s two most advanced DTT systems

Opinion


Peter Siebert is head of technology at DVB

24_DVB.indd 1 16/05/2019 16:00:05


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Streaming piracy is becoming much more prominent as viewing habits change and technology advances. Is the problem becoming harder to tackle?It is correct that streaming piracy is becoming harder to tackle. From a technology perspective, setting up a pirate streaming service is rather easy - there are online platforms that allow pirates to easily create their own branded online services, which can sometimes provide the end user with a service that doesn’t fall much behind the original service. Viewing habits are changing and users can get almost any content at any time. Starting with millennials, video piracy is becoming a social norm/cultural trend, which is likely to persist because it relies on social attitudes towards video

piracy. It is a fact now that streaming piracy is prevalent among the younger generation, but it is not just that age group as more than 50% (of US and UK consumers) watch video illegally! And nearly half of video consumers watch on illegal platforms in addition to their legal subscription. And let’s not forget credentials sharing, which is another type of piracy, resulting in revenue loss to service providers (more on this later). Rapidly changing technology, pirate operations and the individual user intentions, makes this a complicated problem. This is why we need a solution that can combine both technology and intelligence. One of the assets that service providers can harness to tackle this problem is data, applying behavioural analytics to detect the suspicious behaviour of subscribers who abuse the service, including sharing and leaking content for re-distribution.

What evidence are you seeing that piracy levels are starting to impact how the way rights are agreed, managed and distributed?We see that piracy is having a major impact on how rights are agreed and is becoming part of the service providers’ negotiation with the rights owner. Recently, beIN Sports decided to opt-out of F1 rights renewal in an effort to combat industrial-scale theft of its content. Also, service providers are negotiating sports rights down, claiming that since content can find its way to potential subscribers in their region, they can’t

cover higher licence costs. In the context of credentials sharing, we hear more and more OTT providers saying that subscriber concurrency limits and device limits imposed by content owners are more restrictive than they would like. Rights owner, with justification, are imposing constraints to make it harder for the content to leak to unpaid viewers. We also see OTT providers increasing prices, to reflect the increase in usage.

To what extent is the content security business as a whole being disrupted?Piracy can be found along the chain of distribution. From the rights owner distribution path to streaming piracy and credentials sharing. If in the past, piracy was about hacking the CA or DRM, now, there are other easy ways to extract clear video content with other means, such as end-point devices via HDMI port, and redistribute this content. Credentials sharing, abuse and fraud are also disrupting the Pay TV business, since more and more users are comfortable sharing their credentials with their family and friends. Billions of breached credentials are also posing a threat to operators as well as potentially jeopardising the security of their subscribers’ personal details. Piracy is not just a disruption to the pay TV business, with pirate networks providing stable services, including warranties and great user-experience, service providers should consider piracy as a competition, affecting their marketing funnel. Despite providers‘ increased marketing

Q&AQ&A

CSI caught up with Rinat Burdo, Video Security Product Manager, Synamedia, who highlights the problem of credentials sharing and how behavioural analytics can help

Rin

at

Bu

rdo

of

Syn

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edia


synamedia_QandA.indd 1 17/05/2019 12:47:36


spend to acquire subscribers, viewers are not staying loyal, and churn rates are on the rise. Piracy turns content into a commodity, making it even harder to monetise it.

What role does analytics play in this space?Machine learning and behavioural analytics are now a part of the game as well. Behavioural analytics, an area of data analytics, gleans insights about people’s behaviour. The advantage in using analytics as part of the toolbox for fighting piracy, is that first, the data is out there, available for service providers to leverage, and second, it allows a scalable and robust detection of different abusive behaviours. One may come up with a set of rules, for determining what classifies as ‘abusive’, but this is not sustainable over time. Since the nature of human behaviour is to change over time (for example, at different times of the year), using learning models and analytics to derive patterns from the latest relevant data can assist in tackling as it evolves and in changing attitudes, by considering multiple data points in a way that a human mind may not.

With live OTT sports in mind, should more follow the Premier League’s proactive lead in site/CDN take downs?Take-down notices are a good tool for combatting streaming piracy, but they are not enough by themsleves. Especially for sports events, where the content is most valuable when it is aired live, fighting piracy requires fast responses. Synamedia is in favour of having real-time take-downs, similar to what the Premier League were able to do, but we see this as one of the tools in the anti-

piracy toolbox. Take-downs are a band-aid: quick and useful, but only for a limited time. Pirates can recover from take-downs, and they can do it rather quickly. Take-downs are not shutting down the source of piracy, and even when the site is off, the streams may still exist. Also, it’s easy for pirates to recover by moving to a different host. Moreover, legislation is regionally focused, and pirates are well aware of that, so they encourage their audience to hide behind VPNs or proxies in order to evade detection. The best approach is to combine take-downs with watermarking and anti-piracy automation tools and human intelligence to rapidly detect and locate pirate streams, identify the pirate source among subscribers, and disrupt it in real time.

Compared to piracy, OTT service password sharing is less well understood as an issue. How significant a problem is it and how can Synamedia help those service providers that want to tackle it?Password sharing used to be perceived by media executives as a way to attract a larger audience, and grow their subscribers base. The assumption was that millennials and gen-Z would become paying subscribers over time. But the industry is realising that credentials sharing among these groups

is not disappearing, and it has actually become a social norm, which is also increasingly prevalent in older age groups. According to Magid research, about a quarter of US consumers are using someone else’s credentials in order to watch online video (and these are just the ones who admitted to doing so!) and Parks Associates predicts that by 2021 credentials sharing will cost the pay-TV industry nearly $10B. At Synamedia, we understand the potential risks involved in taking extreme measures against password sharing, and the need to handle this sensitively. Credentials Sharing Insight is a new solution that lets operators turn password sharing into a marketing opportunity. Take the case of a kid leaving home for university, and still using the family’s credentials for his video subscription – with our technology, operators can identify this issue and choose to offer the account owner an upgrade to a family account, that allows a controlled level of sharing with a family member based outside the owner’s household. On the other hand, when customers use our tools to detect fraudulent, for-profit credentials sharing activity, they can move to shut down the account immediately.

What will you be showing at ANGA this year?At ANGA COM 2019, we will showcase Credentials Sharing Insight, as well as the VideoGuard Streaming Piracy Disruption managed service, which locates, detects, identifies and disrupt leaks from broadcast and OTT distribution.

Synamedia can be found at ANGA COM in Hall 7, Stand E11

Q&A


“We need a solution that can combine both technology and intelligence.”

synamedia_QandA.indd 2 17/05/2019 12:47:36


The overarching theme of this year’s NAB show centred upon the importance of storytelling. Arguably, there has been no better time

to be a content creator/producer. There are so many channels to distribute content with consumers spoilt for choice. All providers are looking to reduce dependency on third party licensed content in an effort to create the next biggest blockbuster. It is apparent that not all SVOD providers will survive and there is a role for a content aggregator.

ATSC 3.0For sure, next gen TV ATSC 3.0 was a prominent theme as it continues to make strong progress. ATSC 3.0 will now be deployed in 40 markets across the US by the end of the year. This will be very much welcomed by the US broadcasters who are struggling to compete for eyeballs in light of the rapid rise of SVOD services. It allows providers to take advantage of broadcast and broadband to deliver services to consumers seamlessly as well as open up new use cases and commercial opportunities.

Leading proponents for this next gen TV standard should be applauded for getting ATSC 3.0 to this point. However, success is not guaranteed. One of the principal obstacles remains the lack of support among mobile

handset providers. This standard was conceived with the intention to distribute services across numerous devices. Unfortunately, no handset provider has come forward in supporting the standard in their devices. This is something that NAB president and CEO Gordon Smith underlined during his opening keynote ahead of the official show opening, “To date, manufacturers, Apple being one, refuse to enable broadcast chips [that would allow for next-gen TV] in their devices. It is unclear if any might support ATSC 3.0 in the near future but it might represent an opportunity for smaller providers to gain from early mover advantage. The harsh reality is that mobile handset providers are firmly focussed on other areas including 5G which offer greater revenue opportunities. Despite this, expect to see support for ATSC 3.0-enabled TV sets and devices at next year’s CES in Las Vegas.

5GAnother hotly debated topic was 5G. More so in light of Verizon’s announcement to be the first operator in the world to launch its 5G network with a smartphone. Specifically looking at the US, ATSC 3.0 could be competing directly with 5G. The promise of 5G means that billions of devices will be connected to a 5G network, which is not going to be the case with ATSC 3.0. Furthermore, with more precious spectrum being allocated to mobile operators, then local US

broadcasters need to strongly consider the roadmap for ATSC 3.0.

Though 5G did not feature prominently on the show floor, the merits of this new cellular technology were widely discussed for the broadcast and media industries. In particular, for remote production and video contribution with the promise of low latency and much faster, robust connections. This combined with the cloud will allow content and media owners to produce, upload streams to the cloud via 5G in real time and readily available for editors.

Though the business model for 5G in the consumer segment remains unproven, there are still opportunities in the US such as fixed wireless home broadband connections. The 5G signal is sent to a house and then broadcast over a Wi-Fi network. Unlike mobile 5G, the antenna-receiver connection is fixed and requires relatively clear lines of sight. This can be seen as a replacement for costly cable broadband services. Also there will always be a demand from early adopters for new technology. Interestingly, post NAB, Verizon announced a tie-up with Google for its YouTube TV service. This is a fascinating tie-up for both companies and one that could be a blockbuster. Verizon is in the process of rebuilding its content strategy and needs services to sell 5G connections. While, YouTube seems to now replicating a successful reseller strategy adopted by Amazon and Netflix in seeking to gain new audiences.

Codecs A significant battle is looming in this area with several video codecs competing to be the default next-generation standard in the online video landscape. To a certain extent this is very much welcomed to ensure low latency and ideally with no buffering. Though networks with big pipes like 5G provide faster connections, data traffic will continue to grow significantly. Therefore, data

Industry trends

Key trends at NAB 2019 - and beyondIndependent analyst Paolo Pescatore shares his thoughts on some of the key themes of this year’s NAB show and what they mean for the industry going forward


28-29_IndustryTrends.indd 2 16/05/2019 16:02:41


needs to be transmitted more efficiently, especially given the demands of delivering high quality video

For now it seems that AV1 appears to be winning the race as momentum for this codec continues to grow. Prior to the show Samsung announced its intention to join the AV1 board, Alliance for Open Media (AOM). Therefore, expect Samsung to embed the codec across its consumer devices portfolio. Also, Intel and Netflix released SVT-AV1 codec as open source at the show.

However, some advocates such as Sisvel International argue that the complexity of implementing AV1 means that its compute cost is higher than HEVC and many times higher than VP9. Sisvel, questions whether these codecs should be free. Then there are other codecs as well which all leads to fragmentation and greater complexity. Naturally all of this points to holding back an industry which is already struggling to come to terms with a rapidly changing consumer environment and has been slow to adopt new ways of collaborating.

The industry cannot ignore the growing popularity behind AV1 which is fast becoming the default future codec with Apple, Amazon, Netflix, NVIDIA, ARM, Facebook, Microsoft and Google who are already AOMedia members. Expect more support and clarity at IBC later in the year.

AI everywhereIn line with other trade shows such as CES and MWC, the use of AI on the show floor was noticeable. It has become an overused hype term. However, there were growing signs of the benefits and use of AI across the entire value chain in the media industry. The benefits are largely geared towards automating the production process to increase efficiencies. Content can now be ingested and tagged automatically. Numerous companies were showcasing solutions around this area. This will help fuel the growing momentum

behind remote production allowing more live events to be managed remotely.

IT companies Changes in the way content is produced, created and distributed are opening up opportunities for new parties to move into video and TV. With this in mind there continues to be a considerable and noticeable presence of IT companies in the exhibition space at NAB, including Amazon Web Services, IBM and Microsoft. Google’s presence is steadily increasing and is aggressively positioning its cloud capabilities. This represents another battleground as Microsoft is seeking to be the partner of choice with media companies to enable new experiences. Also, Intel announced an open source project termed ‘Open Visual Cloud’ with reference pipelines for CDN transcoding and video ad-insertion at the show.

They reflected the growing opportunity for such firms as the TV industry transitions to virtualised operations. And most of the post production process can be automated which provides significant benefits. This includes tagging of shows by numerous parameters allowing for more searches and personalisation of the content.

ConclusionThere were no surprises at this year’s NAB Show. The industry is still struggling to embrace technological change. On this basis it is somewhat disappointing that providers have yet to make further strides in moving towards an all IP cloud based workflows.

Another hot area that was not widely

discussed is edge computing. Expect this to feature more prominently at next year’s show given the growing presence of IT companies. Edge computing redefines the way content is cached and distributed, closer to the edge of the network and thus the user. Ultimately this will drive the emergence of new applications and services. This will become more important with the arrival of 5G networks which will become more pervasive in the US. Future workflows will effectively be one big super compute network powered by AI and the cloud and delivered by fibre and 5G.

All eyes are now on IBC which hopefully will provide more clarity on the codecs battle. Solution providers will address latency which remains a significant challenge especially with delivering live OTT services. Though this is not new, it represents one of the few areas of innovation for the technology providers. Ultimately, the aim is to bring live OTT services closer to linear broadcasts through optimisation in encoding, transcoding, and through the delivery chain to end users.

Paolo Pescatore, PP Foresight, can be reached at [email protected]

Industry trends


28-29_IndustryTrends.indd 3 16/05/2019 16:03:03


In the next five years, it is predicted (by eMarketer) that worldwide revenues from sports digital media rights will grow by 11.5%, whereas traditional TV rights will only grow 3.2%. As OTT platforms

like DAZN and Hulu increasingly compete for and win the rights to stream live sports, it’s not hard to see why there’s so much potential.

But delivering the quality entertainment experience that today’s connected consumers expect brings with it a number of challenges that content providers must address when streaming live sports video, regardless of the device it’s being streamed to.

Content providers must ensure that live streams of sports are not compromised by startup failures, buffering, poor video quality or latency issues. The negative effects of latency are well documented, and at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, which attracted a huge online audience, consumers, the challenges content providers face were laid bare.

Today, broadcast feeds arrive tens of seconds before online feeds, which risks derailing some OTT content providers before they’re out of the starting gates. Many viewers were streaming games from the BBC website or iPlayer OTT platform, but found themselves experiencing delays of up to 60 seconds. Just imagine watching a major game at an outdoor party, only to hear cheers for a goal coming from nearby venues utilising broadcast feeds to show the game, several seconds before you see the play yourself?

This kind of latency is bad enough, but for some, the situation was worse. Using our World Cup example,

international media rating measurement service Conviva recorded 75.8 million attempts to stream the quarterfinals, but over 15% of these attempts failed.

In the first instance, content providers must increase production value to the standard that is typical of live event broadcasts. But to really differentiate their offering they must strive for greater interactivity, allowing viewers to shape their own viewing experiences by choosing from additional streaming content and varying camera angles. Get all these elements right, and you’ve got compelling live streaming sports events that will capture the viewing public’s imagination, but there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes technical and operational work that needs to be done first for live sports streaming to live up to its potential.

Streaming content must be presented quickly and at a high quality, even in the face of rapid and immense fluctuations in audience. But even when the technology supporting live streaming can scale to handle massive numbers of concurrent requests, challenges remain.

Sending out production crews, setting up signal acquisition, overseeing logistics and allocating resources to deliver a live program with high production value can be both expensive and difficult. The unpredictable nature of streaming live events can diminish the viewing experience, if not handled appropriately.

The team on the ground has just one chance to get it right. They must be ready to capture a conventional primary feed and the interesting angles and behind-the-scenes views that add value and foster one-on-one engagement. At the same time, the team must have the

tools to seamlessly and unobtrusively insert alternate feeds or promotional material into live action.

Given these challenges, some of the world’s largest sports networks rely on partners to manage both the on-site production environment and their live streams, particularly when producing numerous events simultaneously. Because it eliminates the need to invest in additional infrastructure and to cart equipment from site to site, this approach offers both convenience and — for content producers that are still new to live event streaming — a low-risk way to get into the game.

To build an audience and monetise contracts and live streaming content effectively, content producers must do more than stream live events. A compelling TV-like viewing experience can only be created by a team that enjoys robust and flexible technology, strong operational capabilities and powerful monetisation tools.

Very soon – possibly as you are reading this – the 2019 Women’s World Cup takes place in France, and like the Men’s last year, will be broadcast in 4K. It remains to be seen if content producers have implemented enough of the necessary fixes required to improve the live streaming experience over last year’s event, particularly at higher resolutions.

No live stream has drawn as many viewers as a network broadcast – yet. Nevertheless, audiences for live streaming content continue to grow. And, when content producers use the latest technology and tools for smooth delivery of live streaming content that’s unavailable on broadcast television, they have the opportunity to meet the demand for content and create a valuable connection with a new community of viewers.

Living up to the hype: reaching the full potential of live streamed sportsBy Mary Kay Evans, Chief Marketing Officer, Verizon Digital Media Services

Sports streaming


30_VDMS_sports.indd 1 16/05/2019 12:25:06


The world’s most influential media, entertainment & technology showJoin over 1,700 exhibitors showcasing the latest technological innovations, 300+ speakers sharing industry insights and over 55,000 attendees providing unlimited networking opportunities at the world’s most influential media, entertainment & technology show.

Book before 16 August to secure your free exhibition passshow.ibc.org

CONFERENCE | 13-17 SEPTEMBER 2019 EXHIBITION | 13-17 SEPTEMBER 2019RAI AMSTERDAM

IBC_flattened.indd 1 16/05/2019 16:52:33

http://www.show.ibc.org

Date Name Location Website

12-14 March CabSat Dubai www.cabsat.com

12-14 March FTTH Council Europe Amsterdam www.ftthconference.eu

6-7 March Cable Congress Dublin cablecongress.com

11-13 March DVB World Dublin dvbworld.org

26-27 March EBU’s Broadthinking Geneva tech.ebu.ch/events/broadthinking2019

27-28 March Connected TV Summit London connectedtvsummit.com

6-11 April NAB Las Vegas nabshow.com

8-11 April MIPTV Cannes www.miptv.com

30 April - 1 May SportsPro Live London live.sportspromedia.com

6-9 May Satellite 2019 Washington DC http://2019.satshow.com

9-10 May TV Connect London Olympia https://tmt.knect365.com/tv-connect

8 May DTG Summit London dtg.org.uk/dtg/summit.html

4-6 June ANGA Com Cologne angacom.de/en

10-13 June NEM Dubrovnik neweumarket.com

18-20 June Broadcast Asia Singapore broadcast-asia.com

6-11 September IFA Berlin https://b2b.ifa-berlin.com

13-17 September IBC Amsterdam ibc.org

30 September-3 October Cable-Tec Expo New Orleans expo.scte.org

9-10 October AI World Summit Amsterdam worldsummit.ai

14-17 October MipCom Cannes mipcom.com

13-14 November Cable Congress Berlin https://tmt.knect365.com/cable-congress

26-27 November 2018 OTT TV World Summit London ottworldsummit.com

26-27 November 2018 CDN World Summit London cdnworldsummit.com

November 2019 SportsPro OTT Summit Madrid www.sportspro-ott.com

For a full list of events taking place in 2019 please go to http://www.csimagazine.com/csi/events.php


Events diary 2019

32-EventsDiary2019_new.indd 2 15/05/2019 15:21:37


http://www.cabsat.com

http://www.ftthconference.eu

cablecongress.com

dvbworld.org

tech.ebu.ch/events/broadthinking2019

http://connectedtvsummit.com

http://nabshow.com

http://www.miptv.com

live.sportspromedia.com

http://2019.satshow.com

https://tmt.kneet365.com/tv-connect

dtg.org.uk/dtg/summit.html

angacom.de/en

neweumarket.com

breadcast-asia.com

https://b2b.ifa.berlin.com

ibc.org

expo.scte.org

worldsummit.ai

mipcom.com

https://tmt.knect365.com/cable-congress

ottworldsummit.com

cdnworldsummit.com

http://www.sportspro-off.com

http://www.csimagazine.com/csi/events.php


Media in the cloud

Buyers Guide 2019

The essential listing of cable, broadband, telco and satellite suppliers

BuyersGuide_Cover.indd 1 15/05/2019 15:24:36

Buyers Guide 2019page thirty fourwww.csimagazine.com CSI magazine • Buyers Guide



Buyers Guide 2019 Buyers Guide 2019A

ACCESS GermanyT: +492088271010E: [email protected]/Satellite, Cable & Broadband

B

Agama TechnologiesSwedenT: +4613240330E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

AJA Video SystemsUnited StatesT: +13108043489E: [email protected]

Alticast United StatesT: +17208871700E: [email protected]

Anevia FranceT: +33181945095E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd.Hong KongT: +85225000888E: [email protected]

AXINOM GMBH GermanyT: +3726661399E: [email protected]

Axinom OTT SolutionsEstoniaE: [email protected]

BBrightFranceT: +33299121765E: [email protected] & Cable

BeamrUnited StatesT: +16509613098E: [email protected]

BitmovinAustriaT: +043463203014E: [email protected]

Boulder Creek InternationalUnited KingdomT: +442032035173E: matt@bouldercreekinternational.comwww.bouldercreekinternational.comCable

Bridge Technologies NorwayT: +4722385100E: [email protected] www.bridgetech.tv Satellite, Cable & Broadband

CSI-BuyersGuide-V2.indd 2 16/05/2019 14:22:17


eu.access-company.com

http://www.agama.tv

http://www.aja.com

http://www.alticast.com

http://www.anevia.com

http://www.asiasat.com

http://www.axinom.com

http://www.axinom.com

http://www.bbright.com

http://www.beamr.com

http://www.bitmovin.com

http://www.bouldercreekinternational.com

http://www.bridgetech.tv

page thirty fivewww.csimagazine.comBuyers Guide 2019CSI magazine • Buyers Guide



Buyers Guide 2019 Buyers Guide 2019C

Broadpeak

France

T: +33222740350

E: [email protected]

www.broadpeak.tvSatellite, Cable & Broadband

Broadpeak designs and manufactures

video delivery components for Content

Providers and Network Service

Providers deploying IPTV, Cable, OTT

and Mobile services. Its portfolio of

solutions and technologies powers

the delivery of movies, television

programming and other video content

over managed networks and the

internet for viewing on any type of

device. The company’s systems and

services help operators increase

market share and improve subscriber

loyalty with superior quality of

experience. Broadpeak supports all of

its customers worldwide, from simple

installations to large delivery systems

reaching capacities of several million

of simultaneous streams.

Broadpeak is headquartered in

Cesson-Sevigne, France

CASTLABS GMBHGermanyT: +00493060984870E: [email protected]

CBCGermanyT: +4922145643020E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

COMET ENTERTAINMENT INCCanadaT: +16472902117E: raquelb@cometentertain ment.comwww.castlabs.comSatellite, Cable & Broadband

COVATICT: +442030967431E: [email protected]

CRYPTOGUARDSwedenT: +4697110735E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

CTU SERVICES LTDUnited KingdomT: +441257477060E: [email protected]



http://www.broadpeak.tv

http://www.castlabs.com

http://www.castlabs.com

http://www.covatic.com

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mailto:raquelb%40cometentertainment.com?subject=

mailto:info%40covatic.com?subject=

mailto:sales%40cryptoguard.com?subject=

mailto:info%40ctuservices.com?subject=

Buyers Guide 2019page thirty sixwww.csimagazine.com CSI magazine • Buyers Guide



Buyers Guide 2019 Buyers Guide 2019

Jet-StreamNetherlandsT: +31508003300E: [email protected]

J

JUMP Data-Driven VideoEspañaT: +34605938091E: [email protected]

D

DVEO

United States

T: +18586131818


www.dveo.comBroadband

DVEO® is now your end-to-end provider for OTT and IPTV. We provide cloud or premises-based encoders, decoders, transcoders, ad insertion solutions, live media servers, stream delays, analyzers, and packet recovery technology… with CMAF compliant HLS fragmented fMP4, plus optional H.265/HEVC.VIDEO PLATFORM II™: IPTV and VIDEO PLATFORM II™: OTT are comprehensive "Cloud" or "On Premises" platforms. They provide multiscreen video content delivery, operator-managed uploads, transcoding/ad insertion, geofencing, delivery, and player support.All solutions feature DVEO-developed software for customizability and upgradability. These ultra-reliable Linux®-based products are matched by outstanding post-sales service-support and affordability.

E

EKIOH LTDUnited KingdomT: +447799765095E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

ENCODING.COMUnited StatesT: +18005131740E: [email protected]

H

HAIVISIONCanadaT: +0015143345445E: [email protected]

IHSE USAUnited StatesT: +17327388780E: [email protected]

I

INTELSATUnited StatesT: +14043812318E: [email protected]

INTELSATUnited KingdomT: +442030366700E: [email protected]



http://www.dveo.com

http://www.ekioh.com

http://www.haivision.com

http://www.ihseusa.com

http://www.intelsat.com

http://www.intelsat.com

http://www.jet-stream.com

http://www.jumptvs.com

mailto:info%40ekioh.com?subject=

mailto:founders%40encoding.com?subject=

mailto:videosolutions%40haivision.com?subject=

mailto:info%40ihseusa.com?subject=

mailto:tim%40timcornett.com?subject=

mailto:sales.europe%40intelsat.com?subject=

mailto:sales%40jet-stream.com?subject=

mailto:jero%40jumptvs.com?subject=

page thirty sevenwww.csimagazine.comBuyers Guide 2019CSI magazine • Buyers Guide



Buyers Guide 2019 Buyers Guide 2019K

Kinow

France

T: +33972464710


www.kinow.comBroadband

Kinow offers clever video platforms

to deploy live and on-demand OTT

services instantly and engage

their audience. As the most

advanced back-end and back-

offi ce cloud video solution, Kinow

brings together all the required

technologies: video encoding and

distribution, catalog management,

monetization and subscription, video

analytics, business intelligence,

EPG... Propel an entire video

platform or plug our solution to

your existing infrastructure and

applications (set top box, smart TV,

mobile, ...) to improve your workfl ow

and your ROI. With more than 200

video platforms deployed, Kinow

is perfect for broadcasters, media

companies and telecom operators

who own and broadcast video

content.

L

LaunchSquadUnited StatesT: +12125643665E: [email protected]

Lindsay Broadband Inc.CanadaT: +17057421350E: [email protected]

M

M2A MediaUnited KingdomT: +4402038138582E: [email protected]: [email protected]

Make.TV United StatesE: [email protected]

MEDIAGENIXBelgiumT: +447340696944E: [email protected] & Broadband

MediaPowerItalyT: +393356269422E: [email protected]

MediaPower SrlItalyT: +390105530177E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

N

Norigin MediaNorwayT: +4791522108E: [email protected]

P

PatchAmp, Inc.United StatesT: +12014571504E: [email protected]



mailto:contact%40kinow.com?subject=

http://www.kinow.com

http://www.lindsaybroadbankinc.com

http://www.m2amedia.tv

http://www.make.tv

http://www.mediagenix.tv

http://www.media-power.it

http://www.media-power.it

http://www.NoriginMedia.com

http://www.patchamp.com

mailto:ibm%40launchsquad.com?subject=

mailto:datman%40lindsaybroadbandinc.com?subject=

mailto:sales%40m2amedia.tv?subject=

mailto:lizzie.lawrence%40m2amedia.tv?subject=

mailto:info%40make.tv?subject=

mailto:stathis.paraskevopoulos%40mediagenix.tv?subject=

mailto:mdellep%40media-power.it?subject=

mailto:info%40media-power.it?subject=

mailto:alexander.ramberg%40norigin-media.com?subject=

mailto:jimtpatchamp.com?subject=

Buyers Guide 2019page thirty eightwww.csimagazine.com CSI magazine • Buyers Guide



Buyers Guide 2019 Buyers Guide 2019

TiVo

United Kingdom


business.tivo.comSatellite, Cable & Broadband

TiVo Corporation (NASDAQ: TIVO)

is a global leader in entertainment

technology and audience insights.

From the interactive program

guide to the DVR, TiVo delivers

innovative products and licensable

technologies that revolutionize

how people fi nd content across a

changing media landscape. TiVo

enables the world’s leading media

and entertainment providers to

deliver the ultimate entertainment

experience. Explore the next

generation of entertainment at

business.tivo.com or follow us on

Twitter @tivoforbusiness.

Q

QligentUnited StatesT: +13219563454E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

R

RAM Business GroupCanadaT: +16047795309E: [email protected]

Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KGGermanyT: +4989412913818E: [email protected]

Rycote Microphone Windshields LtdUnited KingdomT: +441453759338E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

S

Scala AdvisorsUnited StatesT: +15105790173E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

SEO Ranker AgencyUnited StatesT: +14808092275E: [email protected]

SimplestreamUnited KingdomT: +442079307809E: dan.fi [email protected]

Skyline Communications NVBelgiumT: +491728699846E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

T

TAG V.S.IsraelT: +33186269400E: [email protected] & Cable

Technetix Group LtdT: +31318585978E: [email protected]



mailto:ted.korte%40qligent.com?subject=

http://www.qligent.com

mailto:rabinram00%40gmail.com?subject=

mailto:press%40rohde-schwarz.com?subject=

http://www.rohde-schwarz.com

mailto:richard%40rycote.com?subject=

http://www.rycote.com

mailto:david%40scala-advisors.com?subject=

http://www.scala-advisors.com

mailto:info%40seorankeragency.com?subject=

http://www.seorankeragency.com

mailto:dan.finch%40simplestream.com?subject=

www.simplestream.com

mailto:thomas.gunkel%40skyline.be?subject=

http://www.skyline.be

mailto:info%40tagvs.com?subject=

http://www.tagvs.com

mailto:francois.giraud-sauveur%40technetix.com?subject=

http://www.technetix.com

business.tivo.com

mailto:getconnected.emea%40tivo.com?subject=

page thirty ninewww.csimagazine.comBuyers Guide 2019CSI magazine • Buyers Guide



Buyers Guide 2019 Buyers Guide 2019V

VerimatrixUnited StatesT: +0016192241261E: [email protected] & Broadband

Viaccess-OrcaFranceT: +33144456460E: [email protected]

VerimatrixUnited StatesT: +16196777800E: [email protected] & Broadband

Video ClarityUnited StatesT: +14083791381E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

W

WiztiviArgentinaT: +541166207182T: 5491168475141E: [email protected], Cable & Broadband

Contact usTo be included in the 2020 Buyers Guide, please contact the team:

Camilla Capece +44 20 7562 [email protected]

Daniel Torelli +44 20 7562 [email protected]



mailto:kfoster%40verimatrix.com?subject=

http://www.verimatrix.com

mailto:lbolden%40verimatrix.com?subject=

http://www.verimatrix.com

mailto:press-relations%40viaccess-orca.com?subject=

http://www.viaccess-orca.com

mailto:adams%40videoclarity.com?subject=

http://www.videoclarity.com

mailto:alice.jouclas%40wiztivi.com?subject=

http://www.wiztivi.com

mailto:camilla.capece%40csimagazine.com?subject=

mailto:daniel.torelli%40csimagazine.com?subject=

TV-AS-A-SERVICEFOR IPTV, TV EVERYWHERE, HYBRID TV & OTT

The Multiscreen TV Service of 1&1 – one of Germany’s largest internet service providers

No.1UNICAST IPTV PLATFORMIN EUROPE

For more information, go to zattoo.com/solutions

Your benefits:

✓ TV Service is easy to implement, short time to market✓ No investment in hardware/ software as TV Service is fully hosted & managed✓ Vast experience since 2005 with several million unique users per month ✓ Guarantee of maximum operating stability of ZATTOO platform

Thrill your customers with your individually branded and customized TV Entertainment Service across all devices!We provide you with a TV Service including Live TV, Time Shift and Catch-up TV, network PVR and Video on Demand. Our end-to-end platform covers applications for Big Screen devices such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Android TV operator tier, Smart TVs and mobile devices (iOS / Android / Windows 10).

zattoo.com/solutions

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