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september/october 2012

At tipping point: Are CDNs the future

of broadcast?

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Discover our broadcast systems

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IBC HALL 1, STAND 1.D71

To book a meeting call:

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IBC@kitd.com www.kitd.com

12 Analyst cornerIHS Screen Digest’s Guy Bisson provides an analysis of news channels fighting it out in EMEA

14 Ultra HDTVA look at the latest developments behind the emerging Super Hi-Vision scheme, as well as the upcoming HEVC compression standard

18 COVER STORY - CDNs and OTTIs unicast IP the future of television and, if so, how do payTV providers approach CDN technology?

22 T-commerce & micropaymentsAs major broadcasters and PayPal embark on new ini-tiatives, can the market finally succeed?

26 Integrated playoutDespite its benefits for TV operators, integrated play-out is not yet for everyone

30 OPINIONShazam CEO Andrew Fisher argues that companion apps are heralding the biggest change in viewer behav-iour in the history of TV

35 Roundtable: TV accessibilityA panel of experts discuss how access services can be extended to new VoD and connected platforms

45 Roundtable: Social TVLooking at the opportunities - and where the money is

52 Cloud broadcastOver-hype may be distracting from the real benefits of cloud computing for media production

56 ArchivingThe need for better metadata and asset management

EditorGoran Nastic

Commercial managerTiro Bestonso

Design and productionMatt Mills (Manager)Jason TuckerMatleena Lilja-PellingKeem Chung

Regular contributorsAdrian Pennington, Philip Hunter, David Adams, Stephen Cousins, Joe O’Halloran

CirculationJoel Whitefoot (Manager) AccountsMarilou Tait, Lynta Kamaray

Editorialtel +44(0)20 7562 2401fax +44(0)20 7374 2701goran.nastic@csimagazine.com

Advertisingtel +44(0)20 7562 2427fax +44(0)20 7374 2701tiro.bestonso@csimagazine.com

Subscriptionstel +44 (0)20 7562 2420fax +44 (0)20 7374 2701joel.whitefoot@perspectivepublishing.comWebsite www.csimagazine.com

Subscription ratesPer year: Europe £88; UK £68; Rest of World £98. Cheques payable to Perspective Publishing Limited and addressed to the Circulation Department Printed by Buxton Press

Managing DirectorJohn WoodsPublishing DirectorMark EvansISSN 1467-5935

Perspective Publishing3 London Wall BuildingsLondonEC2M 5PDwww.perspectivepublishing.com

Editor’s report:As the industry convenes in Amsterdam for on one of its largest gatherings at IBC it is a good time to ask where things are heading. More and more insiders are beginning to point to an over-the-top future, arguing that unicast IP is the logical end-point of all TV broadcast. Moreover, they argue that a tipping point has been reached where it is cheaper to deliver video over CDNs than via satellite. It is interesting to note that the debate has permeated

wider circles; the UK’s House of Lords Communications Committee recently called for TV services to be delivered via the internet in order to free up spectrum for wireless broadband. How feasible or likely is such a switch? Our main feature examines this fascinating discussion, including what business models are open to OTA and payTV operators looking to get into the CDN space. Elsewhere, we put the underlooked topic of archiving and media tagging under the spotlight. A preview of IBC can be found on p54. GN

Contents

CSI is audited by ABC

www.csimagazine.com

For advertising opportunities please contact Tiro Bestonso:Tel: 020 7562 2427 or email: tiro.bestonso@csimagazine.com

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

• International coverage • Market trends

Your window to the world of digital TV and media Targeting top-level

Your window to the world of cable, satellite, IPTV, mobile TV

and home networking technologies

CSI magazine is now available as a digital-edition across all tablet and smart-phone devices

csi_magazine_advert2012_204x271.indd 1 15/08/2012 15:31:47

news in brief

OTT comes to Norway DTT

Norwegian terrestrial broadcaster

RiksTV plans to distribute

on-demand content to audiences

over the internet as a supplement

to regular DTT transmissions. It

marks the first time a DTT

operator will deliver over-the-top

content in the country, allowing it

offer similar services to cable and

satellite TV providers. RiksTV,

which transmits encrypted payTV

channels, will launch a hybrid

DTT and OTT set-top box to

support the launch. The

broadcaster will use equipment

from Vimond Media Solutions,

including the vendor’s Media

Platform and associated

professional services, which will

manage the workflows for the live

and on-demand content.

The London Olympics, billed as the

first truly Digital Games, have helped

host broadcaster the BBC set a new

record of 106m requests for related

video content across all online

platforms, more than double seen for

any previous events.

Video proved hugely popular, with

those requests broken down to 62m

for live streams, 8m for on-demand

streams and 35m for clips, eclipsing

the previous highs of 32m for the

Beijing Games and 38m for the 2010

World Cup.

New features such as chapter

markings received an average 1.5

million clicks per day, with people

using them to navigate instantly to

key moments.

The Red Button, which gave users

access to every event live, saw 23.7

million viewers to the 24 SD, HD

and Freeview streams throughout the

Games, and every single stream

attracted at least 100,000 viewers.

Audiences viewed specialist sports

such as judo and weightlifting in

considerable numbers, according to

the broadcaster.

The BBC attracted a record-

breaking 55m global browsers to its

BBC Sport online portal throughout

the course of the Games. This has

mirrored the corporation’s record

Olympic TV reach across both linear

TV channels and Red Button, with

over 51.9m viewers in the UK - the

largest TV audience reach for a

major event for at least ten years.

At the busiest day, the BBC

delivered 2.8 petabytes of traffic,

with the peak traffic moment

occurring when Bradley Wiggins

won Gold with over 700 Gbps. The

BBC claims streaming quality was

the highest it has delivered online,

averaging over 1Mbps.

• The European Broadcasting

Union has used the London

Olympics for its first large-scale

multi-vendor trial of MPEG-DASH

streaming to personal devices.

Belgian public broadcaster VRT

demonstrated a live video stream

encoded with the DASH ISO Base

Media File Format Live Profile,

delivered through the CDN run by

Belgian telco Belgacom to devices

including tablets and smartphones.

BBC breaks records with Digital Games

News

news in brief

Cisco-NDS a done deal

Just over a week after the The

European Commission cleared

Cisco’s proposed $5 billion

acquisition of NDS, the deal has

officially closed. First announced

in March, Cisco will now

integrate some NDS products

and employees into its Service

Provider Video Technology

Group (SPVTG). Ex-NDS

chairman and CEO Dr Abe Peled

becomes SVP and chief strategist

for Cisco’s Video and

Collaboration Group, part of the

SPVTG unit.

Sky acquires Parthenon Media

Sky has completed the acquisition

of Parthenon Media Group in

order to establish a new

distribution arm to market the

international rights to its original

content. Sky is putting more

focus on its own content and has

this year already invested more

than £450 million in British

commissioning and production, a

figure set to increase to £600

million a year by 2014, with most

of the growth set to come in

genres such as drama, comedy,

entertainment, arts and factual.

Channel 4’s personal touch

Channel 4 has confirmed that

over five million people will have

registered with the broadcaster by

the end of August as it aims to

give a more personalised

experience. C4 is the first UK

broadcaster to embrace using

registered viewer data to inform

its strategy about what users want

to watch, including exclusive

content such as online premieres

of brand new episodes before

they arrive on TV. C4 has now

also confirmed a series of trials

with major UK media agencies to

test new advertising solutions

using its data platform live.

06 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

News

Trial HbbTV spec for UKIntellect, a trade association for the

UK’s technology sector, has thrown

the cat among the pigeons by

outlining its preferred way for

aligning the UK with the European

HbbTV standard.

HbbTV is the dominant hybrid

TV standard in Europe, but usually

seen as a ‘lightweight’ standard in

UK circles and Intellect is raising

its proposal for consultation with

broadcasters so that it could work

seamlessly alongside the UK’s

Freeview HD platform for example,

though no mention was made of

the recently announced YouView

platform.

To this end, the trade body is

releasing a specification enabling

deployed HbbTV capability on

devices within the UK DTT system,

with the announcement of test

stream made available and hosted

by Intellect. The publication will

also be followed by a ‘roadshow’ of

currently deployed HbbTV

capability in markets such as

Germany, for example.

“Harmonisation with the EU

offers more choice to UK consumers.

It brings the ability to connect and

stream additional channels and

applications from across Europe,

whether Eurovision or local news

from a potential holiday destination.

Moving towards TV without borders

also gives huge scale advantages to

UK content-makers and technology

companies, in short the UK’s vital

creative industries,” said William

Higham, director at Intellect.

“Today is part of a discussion with

UK stakeholders about how the UK

can be a leading part of the

European television market again.

There will soon be millions of

devices in the UK’s home that could

activate their HbbTV capability,

broadcasters across Europe such as

the major French and German ones

who could use it, and a huge

reciprocal opportunity for the UK.

And we will only achieve critical

mass for UK content makers and

technology companies if we lead in

such a way that the rest of Europe

can follow,” he added.

HbbTV promoter ANT Software

welcomed Intellect’s consultation.

“This specification takes a pragmatic

approach to reducing market

fragmentation by enabling device

manufacturers to rapidly launch

HbbTV-compliant products and

services. At the same time, it

provides a stepping stone to the full

D-Book 7, the UK technical

specification for gigital terrestrial

television. By offering a baseline for

enhanced TV services, we see this as

both a vote of confidence in HbbTV

and an acknowledgement of the need

for cost-effective solutions across a

range of markets across Europe and

beyond,” said Steve Morris, a systems

architect with the company.

The Digital TV Group (DTG), the

industry association for digital

television in the UK and an active

HbbTV member, has also welcomed

the news since then.

Connected TV user experience index set upFarncombe is starting to use its

testing lab in London to benchmark

the usability of connected TV

devices, in an effort to improve the

overall user experience.

Provisionally called The

Connected TV Usability Index, the

aim is to develop a standardised set

of quantifiable tests to compare the

user experience across devices.

Farncombe believes that manufac-

turers and operators will find the

index a valuable tool to help them

understand how to enhance the TV

viewing user experience.

The consultancy has worked out

a “standardised” battery of tests

that assesses the most common

‘user journeys’ on connected TV

devices, the types of feature that

improve usability, and bad UX design

practices best avoided.

Over the coming months

Farncombe will be testing an initial

batch of connected TV devices, and

publishing some of the early results

as a new industry monitor, with win-

ners across a number of categories

announced in due course.

The company is welcoming sub-

missions from manufacturers who

offer devices that support connected

TV. Those wishing to have their

device evaluated are invited to apply,

at no cost.

Fragmented user interfaces (UIs)

are one manifestation of a connected

TV market that is fragmented overall

and it is to be hoped that these

efforts will help at least this particu-

lar subset. The BBC, along with

numerous payTV service providers,

have gone on record to say that dis-

parate user experienecs pose a seri-

ous threat to future smart TV growth.

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NDS_Expand_Campaign_AW_Cisco_CSI.indd 1 16/08/2012 10:24

news in brief

Sky invests in Roku

BSkyB and News Corp have

taken part in the latest investment

round of internet TV platform

Roku, which saw $45 million

raised. The company will launch

the Roku Streaming Stick this

autumn, a wireless, dongle-sized

streaming device that integrates

with smart TVs and other

connected CE devices. Menlo

Ventures and Globespan Capital

Partners also took part.

Star Plus HD comes to UK

Arqiva will support South Asian

broadcaster Star in its launch of

the UK’s first South Asian HD

channel. Star Plus HD Hindi

entertainment channel, uplinked

on capacity on the Eurobird 1

satellite, will be broadcast to

BSkyB subscribers.

News

Canal Digital to launch hybrid offerCisco-owned NDS is helping Canal

Digital launch a hybrid next-

generation TV platform as a hosted,

managed service.

NDS will deliver, host and

manage an end-to-end hybrid

infrastructure for the Nordic DTH

pay-TV provider, enabling a scalable

and flexible service. Such deals are

common in the telecoms space and

are now increasingly making their way

into broadcast too.

Enabling satellite and over-the-top

service delivery, the new platform will

allow Canal Digital subscribers to

access personal content anytime,

anywhere and on multiple devices in

and out of the home. Features include

viewer profiles or contextual

applications on the main screen and

secondary devices.

The Snowflake user experience

framework provides the basis for a uni-

fied UI to be implemented across all

devices. The NDS Unified Headend

and MediaHighway middleware also

form part of the system package.

US cord cutting gathers pace? US pay-TV operators have seen the

largest subscriber drop in history, as

they lost 350,000 customers in Q2

as a result of weakening economic

conditions and strengthening

competition from over-the-top,

according to IHS Screen Digest.

The second-quarter results were

slightly worse than the 340,000

decline during the same period in

2011 as OTT players like Netflix

continue to work against cable and sat-

ellite segments. There are now just

over 100 million basic payTV subscrib-

ers in the US.

Cable lost about 600,000 video

subs in the quarter, continuing a trend

that has seen its subscribers decrease

in number during each of the last con-

secutive 21 quarters. Satellite also fell

during the first quarter, down by

62,000, its first contraction since the

second quarter of 2011.

IHS did note that while OTT

presents a challenge to pay-TV, the

magnitude of the threat is largely

overblown as losses were largely due to

seasonality, and also the economy. It

believes that the number of pay-TV

video subscribers generally will remain

flat to slightly negative through the

remainder of 2012, lasting through

2016 and beyond.

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news in brief

First Sat-IP converter

SES has certified the industry’s

first Sat-IP converter, a piece of

IP-based satellite reception

technology the company

introduced in late April. The first

converter to gain certification is

the Multibox Sat-IP from

Luxembourg-based developer

Inverto Digital Labs. According

to Inverto, it enables viewing of

TV content on other client

devices and eliminates the need

for tuner-based set-top boxes. SES

created Sat-IP specifically for

satellite IP distribution in the

home, opening up multi-screen

opportunities for satellite

operators worldwide.

MobiTV opens up nDVR

MobiTV has said its network

DVR solution will be released as

a standalone licensable product

to service providers worldwide.

Previously available only as an

element of MobiTV’s end-to-end

multi-screen platform, the

solution navigates rights

management across countries by

configuring for any of the

governing international rules.

MobiTV has implemented several

modes for recording and storage

to accommodate user and content

rights for geographies around the

world, including master copies

and personal copies.

Connected TV gaming

Worldwide consumer spending

on video games on connected

TVs will grow to $1.6b in 2016,

from $88m this year, according to

IHS Screen Digest. In 2016, more

than 800m actively connected TV

devices will have exposure to

monetised games content. The

dismantling of market hurdles

involving hardware capability, UI

and middleware fragmentation

will drive growth.

10 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

News

Avanti offers pay-as-you-go Ka-bandLondon-based Avanti

Communications has launched a

subscription-free satellite internet

service in Europe.

The company believes the new

Ka-band service development

opens new market opportunities for

Avanti partners across Europe,

specifically for the holiday and

second home owners, events-based

services and hospitality services.

Traditional fixed term contracts for

broadband internet services are

typically 12-24 months.

It uses the Hylas-1 satellite, which

was launched into orbit in November

2010, with a second satellite due for

launch on August 2, extending

coverage to Africa, the Caucasus and

Middle East.

The new service package delivers

download speeds of up to 4Mbps and

upload speeds of 1Mbps with data

top ups available from 1 Gigabyte.

French DTT gets Restart featureFrench public broadcaster France

Télévisions is using HbbTV

technology to enable a Restart

facility over terrestrial allowing

viewers to begin watching

programmes on air from the

beginning.

The DTT functionality is free of

charge across all five channels of

France Télévisions, starting this

evening, with users accessing the

service through the blue button on

the remote control.

“We are convinced that Restart

will meet a real need felt by DTTV

viewers. Backed by our staff’s

development work we can now

provide an end-to-end service for

our channels from content uptake

through to provision of the app for

viewers with a DT connected TV,”

said Franck Langrand, director of

the TV division of TDF.

TDF has worked with TV

channels on the HbbTV standard for

the last few years, which forms the

basis of interactive applications and

services for connected TV sets. TDF

carries out the live uptake of content

from France Télévisions, extracts the

programmes to be offered in Restart,

codes them in formats compatible

with HbbTV 1.1 and HbbTV 1.5,

archives them on its Content

Delivery Network, signals the service

through DTT, and delivers the

programmes on demand through

the CDN.

Other new HbbTV-based services

to launch shortly will include video-

on-demand, catch-up TV, event

channels and others to enrich the

DTTV platform.

The news follows the recent

announcement by the BBC that it

was launching similar Restart

capability, enabling viewers of the

iPlayer service to rewind and restart

live TV without waiting for the

programme to end.

D-Smart goes OTTTurkish payTV provider D-Smart will

become the latest operator to launch

a multi-screen over-the-top service.

The D-Smart OTT service will be

implemented using KIT digital’s

Cosmos video platform and will

support the delivery of live and

on-demand programs to audiences in

Turkey and around the world across

multiple connected devices,

including PC/Mac, tablets and

smartphones.

KIT digital will design and

configure the software solution and

will partner with a local systems

integrator to complete the

implementation.

Although penetration of

traditional digital TV is expected to

nearly double by 2016, multi-screen

viewing habits in Turkey are expected

to grow five times as quickly in the

same period, according to data by

research group Screen Digest.

“This OTT project will provide

our customers with an unparalleled

user experience across their

preferred devices,” said Ali Gueven,

CEO at D-Smart.

D-Smart is Turkey’s second largest

DTH platform, servicing 1.8 million

users with 29 HD definition and 183

SD channels.

In the UK, another satellite

provider, BSkyB, made headlines by

launching its own OTT service this

month, catering to those wanting

more flexible programming packages

via IP devices.

news in brief

DOCSIS 3 drives cable

modem growth

Cable modem revenues rose 10%

in Q1 2012 mainly as a result of

accelerating deployments of

Docsis 3.0 equipment by North

American operators, according to

Infonetics Research. Wideband

shipments rose by more than 50%

versus Q1 2011. “The cable

companies are making a

consistent effort to move

subscribers to DOCSIS 3.0

service tiers. This is something

we haven’t seen until now,”

Infonetics said. Huawei ended the

quarter as the world’s top

broadband CPE vendor, followed

by ZTE, Motorola, Technicolor

and Arris.

TVs to surpass console

connectivity rates

Over half of all TV sets in North

America and Western Europe will

be connected by 2017, according

to ABI Research, up from 10% in

2011, meaning that game

consoles will be de-throned as the

most connected CE device.

Console penetration rates by

2017 are expected to pass 61%

and 46% in North America and

Western Europe respectively, with

penetration rates significantly

lower in other regions.

Satellite backhaul to triple

New research from NSR predicts

a long term shift from legacy

SCPC and TDMA systems to

High Throughput Satellites

(HTS) and O3b as the global

satellite backhaul market is

expected to reach $2.3bn in 2021,

from $800m in annual revenue.

OpEx considerations, which have

hampered market adoption of

satellite solutions due to high

bandwidth costs, will see a big

drop, which will lead to higher

penetration levels in key markets.

News

The end of STB domination loomsIHS Screen Digest is predicting 2016

as the year that OTT devices supplant

set-top boxes as the leading pay-TV

access platforms among the largest

payTV providers that are engaged with

multi-screen deployments.

In 2015, 49% of all devices

obtaining television services from 43

of the largest global cable, satellite

and IPTV operators that have

commenced deployment of multi-

screen services will be PCs,

smartphones and tablets, up from

just 18% in 2011, according to IHS.

Meanwhile, STBs will decline to

just 51% of pay-TV operator devices

in 2015, down from 82% in 2011.

Having said that, IHS still forecasts

the STB installed base of multi-

screen operators to increase from

274.5 million in 2011 to 321.7

million in 2015. At the same time,

multi-screen devices actively

receiving pay-TV services will rise to

310.1 million, up more than 400%

from 60.1 million in 2011.

It is also worth noting that the

total installed base of STBs is

actually much larger, when

incorporating pay-TV providers

that aren’t engaging in the

deployment of multi-screen

services. Multi-screen operators

accounted for only about one half

of the global total of 538.8 million

installed STBs in 2011, and will

represent only about one third of

the 849 million in 2015.

Nevertheless, change is most

definitely afoot. Bell Canada, which

will be supporting almost eight

times as many phones and tablets

in 2015 than STBs. Overall,

operators will be supporting

approximately 1.5 devices per STB

installed in 2015.

PCs were the most common

devices associated with multi-

screen pay-TV deployments in

2011, but the second wave will see

Android and iOS tablets and

smartphones dominate. By 2015,

the number of iOS devices

accessing pay-TV services will rise

by nearly 800%, while Android will

grow by more than 1,200%

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 11

Forecast of Installed Base of Set-Top Boxes and Active Multiscreen Devices Accessing Pay-TV Services for 43 of the Largest Operators (Thousands of Units)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

STB Installed Base of Multiscreen Operators Active Multiscreen Devices

Broadcasters at opposite ends over social TV strategyTelevision broadcasters around the

world are deeply divided over their

strategy for social TV, according to

new research from Futurescape.

It is generally accepted that social

networks and viewer interaction

around TV are transforming the TV

industry and consumption patterns.

A key trend identified by

Futurescape in the first half of 2012

is that some broadcasters are moving

to counteract Facebook’s and

Twitter’s power over TV audiences.

These broadcasters are investing in

social TV companies and launching

their own social TV platforms for

greater control.

They claim that curating

conversations about their shows gives

fans more focused and enjoyable

discussions than on Twitter or

Facebook, and it also enables them to

counteract the social networks’

dominance in social TV. To this end,

broadcasters are increasingly

integrating social TV within their

own digital platforms, web sites and

second screen apps.

Others, however, are partnering

with the social networks to facilitate

viewer interaction. This is most

evident for the kinds of major news

and sports programming that viewers

discuss on second screen devices

during the live broadcast. They have

extensively integrated Twitter into

their social TV activity, typically by

showing hashtags as part of a show’s

transmission to encourage viewer

participation.

CNN and the BBC both recently

announced major deals with

Facebook, which has developed a

new and more aggressive strategy of

moving into the social TV space,

which will enable users to view,

discuss and share the video entirely

from within Facebook.

NBC has a dual strategy. It is

developing its own platform, with

Chatline, and working with Shazam

to give viewers second screen

information for its Olympics

coverage. Yet it also has a

Facebook deal for the Olympics:

broadcasting a Facebook Talk

Meter of users’ reactions.

Sou

rce:

IHS

Scr

een

Dig

est

July

20

12

International news channels were not

spawned by war, but war has certainly

nurtured them. CNN International rose to

prominence across Europe during the first

Gulf war. Al Jazeera, began to spread

rapidly across the region during the

second. International conflict is one area

where the ‘cable’ news channels’ fast-moving and

cost-effective business model has excelled. Today

there are 30 different news channel brands

operating across EMEA, reaching between them

378 million homes.

CNN International, the undisputed old man of

the international news channel scene, has the

widest reach in EMEA with 161 million

households, but several others are now not far

behind, and while CNN dominates in both

Western and Central & Eastern Europe, the

crown in the Middle East goes to BBC News.

The single biggest surprise is the meteoric rise

of Al Jazeera in Europe. From fairly limited reach

less than a decade ago, the channel has risen to

become the second most widely distributed news

channel in Western Europe and the second in the

Middle East. It fares a little less well in Eastern

Europe, where it lies in sixth place behind

CNN, Russia Today, Euronews, CNBC and BBC

World News.

But it is the European story that serves as a

case study for maximising distribution in an

efficient manner. Efficient because it achieves

80% of the distribution of CNN International

from less than half the number of carriage deals.

It has done this through focusing on carriage on

larger free DTT platforms and free satellite,

gaining distribution scale with the minimum

number of deals.

Economies like this are only possible because

of the international nature of news channel

brands. Most of the successful large-scale brands

work well across borders with minimal

customisation and localisation. Language-wise,

that means that the biggest international brands

are all English-language. But there have been

some moves towards the creation of region-

specific news brands with Turkey, Eastern Europe

and Arabic-language markets targeted with

channels such as CNN Turk, CNBC Arabic, BBC

Arabic and CNBC Biznes (Poland).

Fulfilling a similar role in targeting specific

language or ethnic groups are the international

feeds of national news channels, the Chinese

CCTV and Russia Today being

key examples.

Different strategies

Strategically, the choice to focus on basic-tier pay

platforms or free-to-air platforms has been

important to the way in which channels grow. For

maximum reach, the strategic approach also

needs to be adjusted to the region, without

devaluing the brand itself. In Western Europe, a

focus on basic tier pay has served news channels

well. A similar strategy has generally been taken

in Eastern Europe. But in the Middle East and, to

a lesser degree, Turkey, a focus on free platforms

has been the preferred strategic approach.

Even in Western Europe, thanks largely to the

rise of digital terrestrial television platforms, it is

free multichannel that has been growing most

strongly in recent years. Al Jazeera, which has

focused heavily on free platforms as part of its

rapid growth strategy, has benefitted from this.

And other channels have clearly taken notice:

CNBC went free-to-air in the UK recently.

For most channel majors it seems that one

international news channel is enough. Within

other genres it is common to expand sideways,

with minor variations on a theme making most

efficient use of programming archives and current

production. But the same scale economies clearly

do not apply to content that is created on the fly

and had limited re-use potential. Only the BBC

and NBC Universal have developed families of

news channels.

The value of news to a portfolio is, nonetheless,

indisputable: news channels are key to a number

of channel groups in terms of brand awareness

and in spearheading entry into new markets and

onto new platforms.

The value of newsRead all about it: an analysis of news channels battling it out in EMEA

Guy Bisson is research director, television, at IHS Screen Digest. In this regular column, he gives CSI readers exclusive insight from the

company’s new channel strategies service

Analyst corner

12 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

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400 EMEA: News channel cumulative household reach by platform 2011

Harmonic_ChannelPort_CSI_080212.pdf 1 8/2/12 3:08 PM

Many broadcasters

have barely settled

their investments in

HD infrastructure

let alone

contemplated

transmission at

full HD 1080p, yet the next leap in

broadcasting is headed this way.

The Joint Collaborative Team on

Video Coding (a body comprised of

MPEG and ITU teams) has finalised a

draft for the H.265 codec, aka high efficiency

video coding or HEVC, as the successor to H.264

MPEG4 AVC.

The aim is to improve coding efficiency by at

least twice that of AVC. On the one hand this will

benefit streaming technologies, notably to boost

the quality and efficiency of online video services.

On the other it will pave the way for two

UltraHDTV systems: at 4K (3840 pixels wide by

2160 high) and 8K (7680×4320).

“UHDTV promises to bring about one of the

greatest changes to audiovisual communications

and broadcasting in recent decades,” states

Christoph Dosch, chairman of the Broadcasting

Study Group. “Technology is truly on the cusp of

transforming how people experience audio-visual

communications.”

Matt Smith, VP, internet TV strategy &

solutions at Envivio, thinks the industry is about

to advance another level. “Compression will play

a huge role in delivering optimal quality with

optimised throughput and bandwidth – basically

the best ‘bang for bit’. Looking at the success and

broad adoption of H.264, we are very excited

about the future and what HEVC/H.265 will

bring.”

According to David Wood, chair of the ITU

working party in the Broadcasting Service Study

Group and deputy director of the EBU’s

Technology and Development team, “Greater

compression efficiency means that broadband

networks and mobiles that use them can deliver

higher quality video before congestion problems

set in, or before measures like MPEG-DASH must

be taken to stream at lower quality because of

congestion. Essentially ‘bits are bucks’ and the bit

rate gain is what will make HEVC

attractive.”

The draft parameters for a

UHDTV signal format

accommodates 8Mpixel images

at 4K and roughly 32 Mpixel

images for an 8K system. The

quality steps (HD-4K, 4K-8K) are of about the

same order as the quality step from SD to HD.

“However the colour gamut for both UHDTV

systems is larger than for HDTV, and there are

two options for creating YUV signals from RGB

signals,” explains EBU’s Wood. “One is the way

we use today for HDTV, called ‘non-constant

luminance coding’, and the other, which will have

benefits in some circumstances such as

compression, is ‘constant luminance coding’.

We’ve gone every which way we can to move the

quality forward.”

Super Hi-Vision advances

The most advanced iteration

of UltraHD is the NHK

scheme Super Hi-Vision. The

Japanese broadcaster is

pursuing R&D covering all

aspects of SHV broadcasts,

from programme production

to broadcasting facilities, as well as SHV TV sets

for the home.

“We are steadily reducing the size of cameras

and have also developed larger capacity terrestrial

transmission which has enabled us to carry out

the first-ever field experience of terrestrial SHV

transmission,” explains Dr Keiichi Kubota,

director-general of NHK’s science and technology

research labs. “We have devised image sensors for

SHV cameras to capture fast-moving objects more

clearly at 120 frames per second (fps) with the

ultimate objective of perfecting a 120Hz frame

rate. And we have developed (with JVC) a high

frame-rate SHV projector.”

Part of its mission is to build up the supply of

SHV displays for the home with 4K screens

rolling into the market from 2013. Following

Sharp’s lead of an 85-inch 8K prototype LCD at

CES2012, NHK partnered with Panasonic to

develop a 145-inch 8K (7860x4320) plasma.

NHK has developed a screen that down-

converts from SHV to HD (though the display

itself only has a resolution of 4K). The smallest

SHV display is an 85-inch LCD, which Kubota

says may be a feasible size for household use in

the future.

“We are pressing forward with our R&D on

lighter displays with less energy consumption and

studying the appropriate display sizes for viewing

in the home,” says Kubota. “Our ultimate goal for

SHV is to achieve its full potential standard-wise

with a 120Hz frame rate and a wide-gamut

system,” he explains. “The standard was

tentatively adopted at the ITU-R, SG6 in April,

and we are in the process of getting it approved.”

Where first for HEVC?

The initial version of the HEVC standard includes

a 16x9 aspect ratio, progressive only and for

frame rates up to 120Hz. It will be 8 bits/sample,

4:2:0, single layer only with an extension planned

for January 2014, which will include 10 bits/

Higher and higherIf bits are bucks then HEVC promises a gold mine but how far are we from practical use of the next-gen compression scheme and do we even need a super high resolution future, wonders Adrian Pennington

Ultra HDTV

14 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

“In the short term one needs to cool down expectations. As we progress further, the industry will realise the full magnitude of the production challenge.”

Ultra HDTV

sample, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4.

The support for a higher frame rate option may

be necessary for accurate portrayal of motion at

extreme resolutions on large wall-sized displays.

PayTV operators and vendors are already thinking

along such lines. NDS, for example, demonstrated

how HD to 4K video on a giant living room

screen could be expanded and contracted in

accordance with content and usage over its proof

of concept Surfaces platform at IBC2011.

If a plug-in can be developed for download then

the first applications of HEVC can be used almost

immediately for HD carriage over the internet.

Encoding specialist ATEME believes there could

be commercial deployment of 4K compressed in

MPEG4 using its EAVC4 encoder which is

claimed to deliver 20% efficiencies over existing

technologies.

With only a few countries to date using DVB-

T2 it is likely that those countries yet to deploy a

DVB-T2 system might use a HEVC DVB-T2

scheme. France is one such country already with

HEVC on its radar for a DTT 2.0 launch in

2015/16.

“Provided there is enough volume there to

make the set top box affordable then HEVC

would surely allow more HD broadcasting,” notes

Wood. “HD bit rates will probably be down to

4-5Mbps with HEVC (incidentally similar bit

rates at which SDTV began).”

Using HEVC for satellite broadcasting outside

of NHK’s system, which has a 2020 target for

domestic TX, will be limited to cases where it is

practical to ask viewers to change their set-top

boxes or receivers.

“I am not sure it will be easy with satellite

broadcasting to change the STB to HEVC, unless

the change also brings some significant picture

quality such as UHDTV, which persuades the

viewer that it is necessary,” suggests Wood.

A three-year program under the French

consortium 4EVER aims to demonstrate a first

complete Ultra HD production and transmission

chain by mid-2013, based on HEVC.

Members include ATEME, Orange Labs,

GlobeCast, TeamCast, Technicolor and Doremi.

On the production side, the lead partner will be

France Télévisions which is already experimenting

with 4K content.

Big challenges to a 4K future

Challenges include overcoming a lack of

standards for transport of 4K uncompressed

video around a production environment and the

lack of a standard means of getting 4K onto a TV

set itself.

“The 4K consumer sets demoed at CES2012

all used different ways of getting 4K to the TV by,

for example, aggregating several HDMI ports,”

explains Jérôme Vieron, who leads advanced

research at ATEME. “In the short term one needs

to cool down expectations. Without a standard

uncompressed 4K format that is accepted in a

production environment, and a common way of

getting 4K video from STB to TV set,

development will be impeded.”

He adds: “As we progress further, the industry

will realise the full magnitude of the production

challenge. Just now the level of noise we get from

4K content and the amount of light that needs to

be cast on a scene makes capture very restrictive.”

However, ATEME is also wise to the possibility

that consumers may perceive no benefit to a 4K

viewing experience. Could their viewing be

enhanced by concentrating on spatial

performance rather than pixel count? High Frame

Rates have become a hot topic in digital cinema

where it is argued 48-60-120fps erase visual

artefacts to create a hyper-realism.

“4EVER is focussed on assessing the perceived

benefit of the video experience,” says Benoit

Fouchard, chief strategy officer, ATEME. “We are

not making a final statement about whether this

will be achieved by high frame rate or by freeing

up bandwidth but if you take the average screen

size in homes as 50-inch (and current high-end

TVs can interpolate that at 120Hz) it is obvious

that compared to current HDTV 1080-i you are

much more likely to create a ‘wow!’ effect by

increasing the frame rate than by an increase in

resolution. The industry needs to make sure that

the end-user experience is there.

“At 4K we are talking about a more real

immersive experience that is closer to reality,” he

continues. “This can be addressed by resolution

and frame rate but with the frame rate all of the

challenges we discussed go away. There is already

a chain of production and already STBs that

can decode 60fp full 1080 so it would seem that

the technical challenges are much less than for a

4K image.”

Bob Hannent at Humax, agrees: “All of the

testing that I have witnessed has the concept of a

public display in mind, which is made clear when

the resolution of the format is so high that even

those with good quality vision find it difficult to

perceive. The EBU’s own analysis on HD has

previously acknowledged that, at standard viewing

distances, most people couldn’t perceive much

better than 720 lines on an typical display”

Dr Keiichi Kubota, DG of NHK’s science and technology research labs. Left: NHK’s new SHV camera

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 15

The BBC is thinking along similar lines and

will get a chance to assess audience reaction to

SHV over 15ft screens and 3D to conventional

TV sets during the Olympics where both are being

trialled. The BBC is playing an active role as

R&D partner with NHK in SHV.

“You can argue that the jury is still out on 3D

and ask whether the long-term coverage (of sport)

may be more like Super

Hi-Vision,” says BBC

executive sport producer

Paul Davies.

Tim Plyming, project

executive, digital & editor

live sites, BBC London

2012 added: “I am finding

that some audiences feel

SHV is a totally immersive

experience in the way that

3D is not.”

The Olympics SHV trials

featured largely static shots

with viewers expected to let

their eyes roam (edit)

around the vast amount of

pictorial information. A

visual grammar for editing,

pans and effects such as

wipes is a long way from

being developed and it may

be that SHV is only suitable for select experiences

or live events.

While higher resolution and higher dynamic

range native content can deliver greater flexibility

in post production (given the right amount of

grunt processing power), there is debate as to

what point humans can no longer resolve the

higher resolutions thrown at them.

“There is certainly interest around the world

for UHDTV and HEVC,” states Fouchard. “As for

HEVC, in the short term, there could be more

traction for the use of the new compression

standard in highly constrained networks for

resolutions at or below HD than for UHDTV.

“As a premium service and for a limited

number of channels, there will be no difficulty to

find satellite, cable or even terrestrial bandwidth

for UHDTV, even using just MPEG-4 as a

compression standard. Just as for 3D, the most

immediate challenges are the production of

UHDTV content, and the delivery of an

affordable and compelling [ie significantly

enhanced over HD] viewing experience to the end

user. From this perspective, UHDTV is still in

its infancy.”

“It has previously been demonstrated by BBC

R&D that frame rates above 120fps even on

normal HD dramatically improves motion

perception and given that 300fps is a multiple of

both the Japan/US-lead 60fps and the European

50fps, it is an achievable long term goal which

could be planned for,” adds Hannett at Humax.

While some broadcasters and operators will

be unwilling to make the leap given the amount of

legacy MPEG-2 around, some argue that HEVC

and UHDTV make the perfect case for leaping

over MPEG-4 and going directly to these systems.

A single global DTT system?

The Future of Broadcast TV project, which

includes the EBU, DVB, IEEE, ETRI, ATSC and

China’s national TV research centre is examining

whether there could be a single worldwide system

for broadcasting terrestrial television in a future

technical generation. At the moment, the group is

assembling ‘use cases’ for a future terrestrial

broadcasting system. The future system will

certainly use HEVC or the next generation of

compression after that.

“Don’t forget that the compression technology

cycle is usually six-to-ten years, so our DVB T’n’ -

whatever it is, may arrive in the post HEVC era,”

says Wood. “The capability to deliver at least the

4K UHDTV system will certainly be a

requirement for the new system - and maybe even

the 8K system too, if the new transmission system

uses a technique like MIMO, which dramatically

increases channel carrying capacity.”

In 2005 NHK predicted that UHDTV was for

deployment from 2020 and that still looks

realistic, though to what extent is open to

question.

“I am not sure it will be easy with satellite broadcasting to change the STB to HEVC, unless the change also brings some significant picture quality such as UHDTV.”

16 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

Ultra HDTV

145inch SHV PDP

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The expanding market for over-

the-top (OTT) video services

is increasing interest in

Content Delivery Networks

(CDNs) designed to overcome

the bandwidth constraints of

existing network

infrastructure by serving content closer to end-users

with high availability and high performance.

CDNs are proving increasingly popular with

the TV industry’s big players including the BBC,

which uses a combination of its own CDNs and

those of third party providers, the film and TV

streaming service Netflix, which is planning to

move all its video traffic onto its own new Open

Connect CDN, and Sky whose Now TV service

for connected devices will also use CDN

infrastructure.

Such is the impact of the technology that,

earlier this year, digital media technology provider

Nagra argued that the industry will soon reach

tipping point at which CDN will become cheap

enough to migrate broadcast content into an OTT

environment, arguing that even satellite would be

cheaper to go all-OTT within a decade.

Whether that prediction proves true, and the

impact the technology will have on the wider

payTV/OTT provider space, is open to debate. As

operators make plans for premium services like

multi-screen and IP-based Video on Demand

(VoD), CDNs offer an efficient means of

streaming high definition jitter-free video and

television programming that can also increase

their network backbone capacity. However, the

CDN concept also poses a threat to pay-TV

operators’ well-estsblished business models and

requires significant upfront investment, either in

third party CDN capacity, or in new server

infrastructure, if operators plan to manage and

run their own CDN.

“Third party CDNs are already providing many

pay-TV operators with scalability or sailover

capacity,” says Matthew Huntington, vice

president of product marketing at Nagra. “As

operators increase their VoD offerings and their

existing video server infrastructure gets to the end

of its life, there will be an increasing shift towards

adaptive streaming CDN-based technology.”

Multi-screen video is becoming a key part of

service providers’ overall video strategy.

Interestingly, more than a quarter of video

consumers have paid to watch videos on their

tablets, according to Mark Hyland, VP of sale and

marketing at QuickPlay Media, whose customers

use the company’s managed service to deliver HD

video OTT during large sporting events like NHL

and the Olympics. While TV continues to

maintain a strong grip, OTT video is gaining in

strength and Hyland in the next 18 months we are

likely to see momentum of adoption shift in

favour of OTT.

How it works

CDNs are an internet-based distribution system

designed to increase the speed and reliability of

content delivery to end users by replicating the

content files in servers, called

caching servers, or edge

servers, located in

geographically dispersed data-

centres.

The graphics content of

web pages is often delivered via CDN, but the

technology is especially well suited to bandwidth-

hungry applications such as streaming audio,

video, and IPTV programming, as it minimises

problems with excessive latency, as well as large

variations in latency from moment to moment,

which can cause annoying ‘jitter’ or buffering in

streaming audio and video.

Most CDNs are capable of handling popular

streaming methods such as Flash, Windows

Media, Silverlight and progressive download and a

large CDN can include thousands of servers,

making it possible to provide identical content to

many users efficiently and reliably even at times

of maximum internet traffic or during sudden

spikes in demand.

Another advantage is content redundancy

which provides a fail-safe in the event of damage

to, or malfunction of, a part of the internet. Even

during a large-scale outage that disables many

servers, content on a CDN will remain available

to at least some users.

Akamai Technologies was one of the first third

party CDN services and is now the market leader,

working with many of the world’s largest content

providers, closely followed by Limelight Networks

and CDNetworks. More recently, telcos and

content providers have started investing in their

own CDN server infrastructure.

Adding the costs up

Nagra’s research into falling CDN costs looked at

the cost of satellite delivery per home versus OTT

TV via a CDN. Its calculations were based on a

250 channel offering delivered at an average of

4Mbps per channel and 25.5 hours of viewing per

user a week. Transponder costs were estimated at

$3 million a year and CDN costs at $0.044 per

GB.

Speaking at the Connected TV World Summit

in London in May Thomas Decieux, head of

product marketing for multiscreen solutions at

Nagra said that for networks with over one

million users it is already cheaper to deliver a full

At tipping point?Content Delivery Networks are underpinning the OTT ex-plosion, but how should payTV operators make use of the technology and how long until most video goes over-the-top? Stephen Cousins reports

CDNs

18 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

CDNs

channel offering via CDN than broadcast it via

satellite and that while the economics did not yet

work for two million subscriber networks, they

soon would. Nagra calculated that a pay-TV

service similar to CanalSat, with over five million

subscribers, would reach its theoretical tipping

point in 2018 and that a 10 million subscriber

service such as BSkyB would reach the same level

in 2021.

“While these figures don’t necessarily mean

satellite operators are likely to switch entirely over

to CDNs very soon, it indicates that the

economics are there to support some large scale

pay-TV operators who want to run off a CDN,

which changes the market dynamic,” says Nagra’s

Huntington.

However, others are more cautious about the

technology’s impact on the market. “Although the

trend it definitely towards delivering content

through IP networks and CDNs in order to

address different home networked devices and

new forms of consumption, it is a bit premature to

say that existing networks are going to be

surpassed by CDNs any time soon,” says Dr. Paul

Stallard, head of systems management at

Ericsson. “If even a quarter of content being

consumed today over traditional broadcast

platforms suddenly went over the internet there

would be an enormous requirement for extra

capacity.”

Of course, the switch to CDNs is also

dependent on when existing cable and satellite

infrastructure reaches the end of its life and is no

longer able to offer the speed and definition users

demand. Most cable operators currently deliver

VoD over traditional QAM video server

infrastructure, but as they scale up their VoD

offerings this will lead to a shift to adaptive

streaming and CDN-based technology.

The pressure of bandwidth bottlenecking was

made apparent at UK cable operator Virgin

Media, which has one of the largest VoD services

in Europe based on traditional cable video server

technology. Due to broadband constraints in

existing units, the company has moved BBC

iPlayer content over to IP DOCSIS 3.0 delivery in

its TiVo deployments.

Home or Away?

If delivery via CDN is set to become a feature of

any successful pay-TV operator’s network then a

key question is whether to buy capacity from a

third party international or national vendor, or

purchase your own CDN equipment.

The inherent global nature of the internet has

made it impractical for most content providers to

maintain duplicate servers strategically positioned

around the world so they rent capacity from large

international CDNs, such as Akamai, who have

the infrastructure in place.

However, since most pay-TV provider only

operate nationally or in certain regions, a more

practical solution is perhaps simply to rent out

local CDN infrastructure or invest in their own,

especially as large third party CDNs can also have

high setup fees and other hidden costs, creating a

barrier to smaller clients.

“We have seen a strong move from operators

wanting to build their own CDNs,” says Dr Paul

Stallard, head of systems management at

Ericsson. “That’s partly because they want to be

able to cut out the cost of having to pay to

distribute content every single time it enters their

network. A CDN ensures popular content only

comes into the network once as it is pushed out

to the edge.”

Investing in a CDN could help operators better

manage bandwidth across their core network - if

you can serve popular content from the edge of

the network direct to the customer, you don’t have

to traverse your core network every time a user

requests content. Investing in dedicated CDN

infrastructure also gives pay-TV providers the

opportunity to enter into that value chain and

potentially charge other broadcasters and content

providers for CDN services.

“Every major project that we see going on with

operators has some form of discussion, planning

or specific requirement around an ability to offer

wholesale services,” says Duncan Potter, vice

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 19

Sou

rce:

Hea

vy R

eadi

ng, 2

010

Operators Wanto CDNs to Protect Their Place in Video Distribution Value Chain

Video ProductionIndie producers, Endemoletc

Broadcaster, studios,cable netsUniversal, Paramount, SKY

Video ProductionIndie producers, Endemoletc

Broadcaster, studios,cable netsUniversal, Paramount, SKY

Online DistributorNetflix, iPlayer, Hulu,YouTube, Amazon

Online DistributorNetflix, iPlayer, Hulu,YouTube, Amazon

Content Delivery NetworkAkamai, Limelight

Service ProviderBT, Orange, AT&T, Telefonica,Verizon

Service ProviderBT, Orange, AT&T, Telefonica,Verizon

DevicePC, mobile phone, STB, tablet

DevicePC, mobile phone, STB, tablet

Exhibit 1: Video Dominates Global Internet TrafficSource: Cisco Visual Networking Index, 2012

71.1EB

35.5EB

Video

Web and Other Data

Voice Communications

File Sharing

Video Communications

Online Gaming

0 2011 2012 2014 2015 2015

UK proposes move to internet TV deliveryA report from the UK’s House of Lords Communications Committee has called for an examination as to the possible switching off of over-the-air broadcasts to the delivery of TV over the internet. The parliamentary body argues that this will free spectrum for wireless broadband.

The report, ‘Broadband for All - An Alternative Vision’, says: “It is likely that IPTV services will become ever more widespread, and eventually the case for transferring the carriage of broadcast content, including public service broadcasting, from spectrum to the internet altogether will become overwhelming.

“We recommend that the Government, Ofcom and the industry begin to consider the desirability of the transfer of terrestrial broadcast content, and in particular what the consequences of this might be and how we ought to begin to prepare.”

If nothing else, it seems that this will push the debate from simply industry to political circles, both in the UK and beyond.

president of operations at distributed video

delivery network platforms expert Edgeware.

“This is especially prevalent in any project

involving multi-screen deployment. A CDN/

wholesale service integration with traditional

CDNs, content providers or aggregators is seen as

critical to accelerating the return on investment of

the project.”

A dedicated CDN is likely to require a high

level of capital expenditure on equipment and

related systems management, which perhaps only

the largest operators could justify.

“If your network covers half the population of

your country, the necessary investment in servers

would be too great,” says Jacques Le Mancq,

president and CEO of CDN equipment provider

Broadpeak. “And if, for example, you have a

million subscribers wanting to watch a live TV

event on an iPad then Akamai’s CDN technology

is still going to be inadequate and cause

bottlenecks.”

To address this gap, Broadpeak has developed

the new technology NanoCDN (due to launch at

IBC 2012) which leverages the computing power

of the home network (the STB or home gateway)

as an actual component of the CDN.

“Figures from market research firm Infonetics

show that pay-TV operators will spend $8 billion

in 2014 for IPTV and cable STBs and $4 billion

for home broadband gateways, which is a huge

investment, so why not also use these devices for

distribution?” says Le Mancq. “That CPU

capacity can be exploited to perform certain

CDN functions, dramatically improving the

scalability of the service and therefore reducing

the cost of investment.”

Broadpeak’s solution uses a combination of

local CDN servers and the operator’s home

network boxes to create a faster streaming service

ideally suited to live content, claims Lemanq.

Making it happen

If CDNs are to bed in successfully then pay-TV

operators must overcome a few technical and

financial barriers. Preparing content for

transmission via CDN means understanding the

needs of the multiple devices receiving data at the

other end, including netbooks, iPhones,

connected TVs etc. These have different aspect

ratios, screen resolutions etc and there are also a

range of different adaptive streaming formats

including Apple, Adobe, Microsoft etc. If it’s

successful, the recently announced Dynamic

Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH)

multimedia technology standard for MPEG could

reduce some of this complexity.

Companies like Ericsson can help with this

through their content management systems

designed to handle any transcoding, package

content into different formats and address rights

issues related to content.

CDN success is also reliant on broadband

penetration, a key figure being 5Mbs, above which

an HD TV or catch up TV service really becomes

feasible. Forward thinking operators could think

about having the flexibility to move channels over

to an OTT offering when they have the necessary

broadband penetration.

“This is where managed service providers can

help companies wrestle all the complexities of

delivering OTT video. Managed service providers

are able to stitch together the best systems in the

cloud to ensure acceptable QoS and UX for end-

users,” says QuickPlay’s Hyland.

Above all, a successful CDN strategy is reliant

upon a wider understanding of the changes taking

place within the industry. “Over the last five years

the multi-screen revolution has happened so fast

that parts of the industry and even some

responsible managers have not had time to react.

Therefore, the main barrier is management’s

ability to plan and react to this new industry

situation,” says Tomas Petru, president of CDN

provider Visual Unity.

“They need to catch up soon. CDN is

definitely the key logistic underlying all content

distribution for the immediate future. In the

digital world it will influence the quality of TV in

the same way that transmitters influenced the

quality of analogue television,” he concludes.

20 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

CDNs

Exhibit 1: Video Dominates Global Internet TrafficSource: Cisco Visual Networking Index, 2012

71.1EB

35.5EB

Video

Web and Other Data

Voice Communications

File Sharing

Video Communications

Online Gaming

0 2011 2012 2014 2015 2015

• Future Zoneshowcasing the latest developmentsin broadcast technology

• IBC Connected Worldincluding demonstration areain Hall 14

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• Future Zoneshowcasing the latest developmentsin broadcast technology

• IBC Connected Worldincluding demonstration areain Hall 14

• IBC Big Screenproviding the perfect platformfor manufacturer demonstrationsand the Saturday Night Movie

• IBC Production Villagepresenting the latest cameratechnology in a purpose builtenvironment

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IBC2012Discover More

RAI Amsterdam

Conference 6-11 September : Exhibition 7-11 September

IBC is at the cutting-edge of new technology in therapidly evolving electronic media industry. It couplesa comprehensive exhibition covering all facets oftoday’s industry with a highly respected peer reviewedconference that helps shape the way the industrywill develop in the future.

Take advantage of a variety of extra special features including:

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Scan for moreinformation

IBC Production Village presenting the latest camera technology in a purpose built environment in Hall 11Workfl ow Solutions Village houses a presentation theatre for casestudies as well as ‘look and learn’ presentations in Hall 9. It is also the home to IBC TV NewsIBC Awards Ceremony acknowledges those who have made a real contribution to the industry hosted on Sunday 9 September in the Auditorium

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CSI_IBCdiscovermore.indd 1 6/8/12 20:18:58

To most TV viewers the idea of

actually buying consumer

goods through the TV still

seems very odd. Yet

consumers in many countries

already buy pay-per-view

content from broadcasters in

what might be termed a form of T-commerce. And

in the UK viewers are arguably more used to

interacting with the TV than anywhere else, after

years of using the remote control to access Ceefax/

Teletext and now Red Button services. With more

smart TVs and many viewers also using a second

CE device, whether a laptop, smartphone or tablet,

as they watch the main TV screen, it might even be

thought surprising that T-commerce hasn’t yet

taken off, so could this be about to change?

The idea is not new. We’re all probably familiar

with the ‘Jennifer Aniston’s sweater’ concept:

you’re watching an episode of Friends, you like

Jennifer’s sweater, so you access an interactive

service that lets you buy it. There are various

reasons why this has never taken off. Some TV

operators tried to develop interactive commerce

back in the 1990s, but didn’t get very far, partly

because consumers didn’t care for the restrictive

walled garden approach, but also because it wasn’t

much fun to use.

“I’ve always been highly sceptical regarding

T-commerce,” says Michael Lantz, CEO at smart/

IPTV app specialist Accedo. “It’s cumbersome to

navigate images or text on TV. Fundamentally, TV

is a lean back medium, quite unlike the

interactions consumers are used to initiating

online.”

Consumers are perfectly happy buying from

shopping TV channels. But they turn to a

shopping channel to shop, or at least to browse,

just as with a retail website. They tend to be less

happy when the decision to make the shopping

and entertainment overlap is taken out of their

hands. It will be interesting to see how PayPal’s

latest attempts in this area fare. In June, PayPal

vice-president Scott Dunlap told Bloomberg the

company hoped to launch new T-commerce

services in the US later this year, in conjunction

with TiVO and Comcast.

Maybe if more consumers get used to making

micropayments through the TV to buy content

that will help get them used to T-commerce. In

March, BBC Director General Mark Thompson

announced Project Barcelona, the development of

a new service that would allow viewers to

download favourite shows from the BBC archive

for a small fee. Meanwhile, the UK’s other major

terrestrial broadcaster, ITV, is preparing to launch

its own micropayments system for online video,

including archive and preview content.

Payment will be powered by MGt’s PayWizard

platform. “I can’t share too much more detail at

this stage,” says Jamie Mackinlay, commercial

director at MGt. “What’s been well-publicised is

that ITV want to balance their revenues; to find a

way of making more direct monetisation revenue

to equalise their dependence on advertising.”

It will surely be a long time

before this type of service

changes the revenue model at

ITV in a significant way.

Consultancy informitv believes

ITV would need to convert all

its online viewing to a paid-for model if online

revenues were to account for 10% of ITV’s total

revenue. But PayWizard does offer a useful way

for ITV to experiment with alternative business

models.

“We’ve provided a platform where they can

manage pay and non-pay customers in the same

environments,” says Mackinlay. “We can help

them provide new offers or discounts. We can

help provide complex business patterns for

subscriptions. And we help with the functionality

for single sign on and provide interoperability

with content management systems, DRM, CA,

analytics and finance systems.” The system will be

operational later this year, with the service likely

to be launched to consumers sometime in 2013.

This type of technology, which enables secure,

one click payment once a consumer has set up an

account, could also be used to buy content or

other goods related to particular shows or brands,

Mackinlay suggests, such as access to the Green

Room on entertainment shows like the X Factor,

previews of new shows, or DVD box sets.

For any of these services, he suggests, two

things are all-important: excellent management of

the necessary data used to drive the service; and a

very good user experience to help consumers

through the registration process. But if

micropayments for content are to become more

widespread there are some business issues to

settle too. Some content owners may want to use

broadcaster or connected TV platforms to bypass

the cut Apple takes for content passing through

its ecosystem, but there are likely to be differences

of opinion over how and where the parties

involved make money out of these arrangements.

“TV manufacturers are trying to charge people

for a position on their portal,” says Fearghal

Kelly, senior vice-president, global partner

solutions at digital video specialist KIT Digital.

“We can see a potential for CE manufacturers to

Show me the money – and user interestWith new initiatives from PayPal, and broadcasters BBC and ITV emerging from the works, can T-commerce and TV micro-payments finally succeed, asks David Adams

T-commerce

“ITV would need to convert all its online viewing to a paid-for model if online revenues were to account for 10% of its total revenue.”

22 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

T-commerce

charge a percentage per transaction carried out

on those platforms, like Apple. But if they push

into that too much they will get pushed back.”

At the same time, he notes, if payment goes

through the major card payment providers they

will also want a cut. That might not matter too

much when a broadcaster is selling its own long

tail content, but might make the whole exercise

unviable for content purchased from elsewhere.

Companion devices may drive growth

There have been some interesting advances in

T-commerce through connected TVs. Capablue’s

Connected Commerce app solution enables

creation of TV apps for interactive promotions

and is used by M&S TV, a retail app launched by

UK retailer Marks & Spencer for connected TVs.

But even Capablue CEO Tom Cape is uncertain

about selling physical goods this way. “It’s easy for

digital goods,” he says. “But a whole ecommerce

transaction, including what size, what colour, do

you want it left with your neighbour if you’re out

when it’s delivered – I think that’s too much to do

through the TV.”

Kelly agrees. “Once you have people typing in

credit card details it’s a hassle,” he says. The

solution to this problem used by KIT’s clients is

to set up an account on a PC or laptop first, with

an activation code used to synchronise the

account with your TV interaction.

But one key reason why it is just possible such

services really could prosper over the next few

years is the growing use of a companion device, or

second screen: a tablet, laptop, phone, or similar.

Even with activation codes, or PIN-protected one

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 23

Top: RES-PS3. Left and above: Rovi TotalGuide

click payment, it’s still easy to see why the second

screen looks a better option for payment: it

doesn’t interfere with TV viewing and – although

this may not be entirely rational – feels more

secure.

This is of great interest to a technology

provider like Rovi, which provides services based

around metadata used in EPGs, but can also

embed detailed metadata about products and

brands into programme content, making it easier

for a consumer with a second screen to access

information about what they see on screen.

Richard Bullwinkle, chief evangelist at Rovi, gives

the example of an episode of US show Entourage

which featured a lot of Aston Martin cars, for

which it provided metadata for viewers who

wanted to find out more about them. But, he

adds, few clients have identified enough of a

profit opportunity to ask for this sort of service.

Another initiative being watched closely by

industry observers is the Zeebox, an app-based

platform designed to turn a second device into a

kind of social network/commercial-displaying

remote control. Zeebox launched in the UK in

2011 and will launch in the US and Australia

soon. It has attracted investment from BSkyB,

which sells sponsorship and product placement

opportunities around the tags Zeebox allows Sky+

subscribers in the UK to see around actors,

objects or topics under discussion on screen.

But if you see something on TV in which you

are interested, don’t you just Google it anyway?

Particularly if you’ve got a tablet on your lap?

“The companion device service needs to offer

more,” says Lucy Gill, user experience consultant

at Serco ExperienceLab. “If you’re just getting an

app to be sold to, people don’t tend to take too

kindly to that. But if it gives you extra information

and there’s a link with social networking, then

maybe being sold to at the same time is

acceptable. Maybe even wanted.”

So who could make money out of such

interactions? Cape says Capablue is engaging with

brands, retailers, media agencies and broadcasters.

“They will all try to make money out of it,” he says.

“With transactional interactions off brand

promotions, who owns that environment? The

broadcaster owns the content, but the media

agency is operating the interaction.”

“I think the power will need to move to the

ecommerce company, because they are the only

ones who will engage with the consumers,” says

Accedo’s Lantz. “I hope broadcasters would be

willing to experiment without too much of a

revenue share. They are the winners in the long

run if this takes off. In the short term they need to

subsidise development.”

But boardroom negotiations won’t matter if

consumers don’t want to shop this way. William

Cooper, founder and chief executive at informitv,

fears some consumers will be repelled by services

too overtly advertising-led. “In some of the models

it seems prompts are going to pop up all the time

and I’m not sure there’s much consumer appetite

for that,” he says.

“I think what research has told us is that a lot

of online shopping seems to be quite goal-driven,

not spur of the moment. But if they can come up

with special offers people will go for... I think the

jury’s still out on that.”

But Rovi’s Bullwinkle thinks there is evidence

that consumers can be engaged more effectively

when using the EPG. “We have some evidence that

is a good time to reach out to people,” he says.

“Maybe they’re looking for a funny show and you

should them another show or movie they could see

on demand or buy on DVD. That also requires a

lot less work: I don’t have to embed metadata into

the show: people can just lean forward and say I’m

interested in this or that product.”

KIT Digital is thinking along similar lines, says

Kelly. “We see that interactive EPG as being the

biggest game changer right now,” he says. And

tablets and similar devices are getting cheaper all

the time, he adds.

When are we likely to see more of these sorts

of services? “I think that paying for things

through your TV is still pretty unreal to most

consumers, so I would imagine it will take some

years to really catch on,” says Gill at

ExperienceLabs. “But as apps emerge that may

change. It’s not a market that’s really been tested

yet. We certainly see interest in it: when there are

shows on TV with a lot of hype around them, or a

movie with hype around it there are people who

want to spend money on something to do with

the content. So I think acceptance will come at

first from small niches.”

David Springall, founder and CTO at

personalised ad insertion company yospace,

agrees. “If you’re trying to monetise Coronation

Street you’re probably going to struggle, but if

you’re talking about a cookery or DIY show that

better lends itself to interactivity it could work,”

he says. “Certain shows will lend themselves

nicely to commerce.”

Cooper thinks we probably shouldn’t be using

the term T-commerce at all. “The idea that it’s

something discrete is probably a mistake,” he says.

“We’ve all read a newspaper while watching TV

and been exposed at advertising. We’re not seeing

different behaviours, they’re just reflected on

different technologies.”

But, according to Lantz, T-commerce could still

become quite significant for broadcasters. “This is

definitely an area of innovation over the next

three to four years,” he says. “The number of

transactions compared to the ecommerce market

in general will be tiny; it will be more of a

complement, to make people more excited about

certain brands. But I do believe that the long term

potential is for a big market. Everyone I talk to in

the advertising and broadcasting worlds is pretty

excited about it.”

“A lot of online shopping seems to be quite goal-driv-en, not spur of the moment.”

24 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

T-commerce

The M&S TV retail app for connected TVs

viaccess_pg25.indd 1 13/08/2012 12:15:13

The idea of integrated playout

or Channel-In-a-Box (CIB)

dates back at least 15 years,

and is now used to describe

single systems that combine

at least all the basic functions

of playout in a single device.

This includes automated scheduling, graphics

insertion, master control switching to convert a

channel to a desired target output format, and the

video server itself.

The first integrated playout systems were built

using dedicated hardware with proprietary inter-

faces, lacked scalability, and were incapable of

handling more than a few channels. Although

they incorporated the playout functions them-

selves in a single box, there was still a lot of inte-

gration work required to tie up with the surround-

ing workflow and automation. This tended to

wipe out savings made from having a single box.

These earlier first generation CIB systems were

adopted in relatively small numbers by some

broadcasters in the hope this would

reduce the cost of adding new channels or

whole programme streams by having just one box

to deal with. Then more recently over the last two

years the field has at last taken off

with the arrival of second generation CIBs

based on commodity hardware and standard

interfaces, making them more scalable and

easier to integrate with existing workflow

automation. These CIBs still leave room for

improvement and are not suitable for all situations

- it may not be the right solution for playout of

complex channels, and will only deliver the

promised benefits if content preparation and

validation are also improved. But now it seems

clear that over time all broadcast operations will

adopt some form of integrated playout, as part of

an overall migration towards IT and file based

workflows.

These systems are not necessarily going to

comprise just a single box in the physical sense,

but more a common platform for adding channels

and integrating function such as graphics

insertion for each one, linking with multiple

servers on which video is stored. However, the

objective is to reduce the amount of hardware

needed to playout a given number of channels, to

save both on space and power

consumption.

One of the best on these

counts is Harmonic’s

ChannelPort CIB, which

consumes just 100 watts per

channel, and can handle four channels in a 1RU

(rack unit) box 1.75 inches (45mms) high. More

typical values for CIBs are 400 watts per channel,

and two channels per RU.

The cost savings associated with reduced rack

space and power consumption are essential in the

current era of content proliferation, where

broadcasters and operators are delivering ever

more channels to a growing number of target

platforms with diminishing returns for each one.

Increasingly CIB vendors are under pressure to

achieve further cost savings by incorporating

additional broadcast functions and reducing the

device count needed by a broadcast facility, with

the ability to handle a large number of channels

becoming a minimum requirement.

“The best integrated systems are already

running hundreds of channels on a daily basis,”

says Scott Rose, senior product manager for iTX,

the automated IT-based playout system from

Miranda. “They are now moving on to solve wider

problems within a broadcast facility, such as

integrating monitoring and control, and taking a

fresh look at graphics and other vital but less-

than-efficient workflows.”

Integrated playout is also taking on more

complex and popular channels than before, while

earlier first generation CIB was largely confined

to niche or thematic channels delivering mostly

recorded content. “Leading integrated playout

technologies have the capabilities to handle live

content, and are now far from being limited to

thematic channels,” says James Gilbert, joint

managing director of Pixel Power, whose

ChannelMaster CIB integrates storage, graphics,

DVE (digital video effects), audio, subtitling,

master control, live feed and long-form video

playout. But Gilbert points out there is still some

way to go before CIB becomes widely accepted

for premium channels.

Thinking inside the boxIntegrated playout can reduce costs and improve scalability for TV operators and broadcasters of all sizes, but it is not, at least yet, a universal panacea, argues Philip Hunter

Integrated playout

“It seems clear that over time all broadcast operations will adopt some form of integrated playout, as part of an overall migration towards IT and file based workflows, but it is not ready for complex or premium channels.”

26 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

Harmonic’s ChannelMaster

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 27

Integrated playout

“The requirements of some premium channels

in terms of playout formats, such as analogue, SD,

HD, terrestrial, satellite, perhaps 4:3 and 16:9,

international reach and regionalisation, can be

quite complex,” notes Gilbert. “For a fairly simple

channel, integrated playout can handle the

requirements - and even in some more complex

scenarios the technology can handle 70% of the

requirements - with only minimal additional

outlay to complete the chain. But in the case

of the most complex channels that figure can

be reversed: CIB technology may realistically

be providing 30% of the solution, with

additional spend to cover the other requirements,

and this clearly doesn’t make so much

economic sense.”

Such channels may also require additional

quite specific functions that cannot cost

effectively be accommodated within a CIB. “For

example, there may be a special audio device of

some sort that a broadcaster wants to use between

the video server and the graphics insertion,” says

Gilbert. “Without an audio effects send/return,

users won’t be able to do that. Broadcasters may

also, for example, need to do this if they are using

some form of proprietary VBI (vertical blanking

interval) inserter – a situation where demand is

likely to be so limited that no CIB provider will

bear the cost of integrating that technology.”

VBI is a hangover from the days of CRT

displays, being essentially the time gap between

display of successive frames, and is now used for

other functions, such as graphics synchronisation

and sending text data.

This leads onto a potential flaw common to

any system that integrates

multiple functions that

previously ran in standalone

systems, which is that it can be

a lowest common denominator

failing to excel at any of the

tasks. Gilbert admits that for

complex channels especially,

broadcasters still have a best-

of-breed mentality, where the

advantage of having optimum

components for each function

is deemed more important

than any cost savings that can be achieved by

integrated playout.

There is also a danger that existing functions

have to be given up, according to Andrew

Warman, senior product marketing manager at

Harris Broadcast Communications, which is

about to enter the integrated playout arena with a

product launch at IBC 2012.

“Today the typical benefits of reduced cost per

channel, less space, less power consumption and

easier overall integration for control, often mean

Special o�ersat IBC 2012Hall 5 A.21

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CBC in Toronto uses Miranda’s iTX platform to streamline its national tv and radio broadcast

Integrated playout

28 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

that some things are given up, such as automation

flexibility, system and device redundancy, play list

redundancy approaches, media storage flexibility,

choice of video codecs, and complexity of

graphics,” says Warman. Harris has been aiming

to avoid the need for such sacrifices in its new

product, he adds.

So far this lack of flexibility in particular has

almost entirely kept CIB out of newsrooms with

their specific and often complex integration

requirements for live content, according to Mark

Errington, CEO of Oasys, whose CIB product

called Player is aimed at medium-sized

broadcasters and operators. “Channel-in-a-box is

least applicable in the newsroom, especially where

there is a high degree of interaction with multiple

live sources, and controls over studio equipment

are required,” said Errington.

Choosing the CIB

Apart from the qualities of the CIB system itself,

an important consideration in choice of vendor

will be the approach to migration from legacy

playout chains comprising multiple components.

The challenge lies in continuing to work with

existing automation technology without imposing

constraints on the new integrated playout. Some

automation vendors have developed hybrid

solutions combining CIB with their existing

products, but most vendors of integrated playout

dismiss this approach as being too inflexible.

“These implementations are often constrained

by an automation system that was designed to

control many third party external devices often

via legacy drivers,” says Miranda’s Rose. “A

hybrid solution can lack the ability to truly exploit

the powerful graphics, effects and replay

capabilities of the integrated device.”

It also restricts choice of CIB, points out Pixel

Power’s Gilbert. “Using the hybrid model forces

the customer to choose the CIB solution made by

the customer’s automation provider and that may

be compromised in other key areas, or areas that

are of specific importance to that customer like

graphics, live capabilities and so on,” he says.

“More recent CIB solutions are automation-

agnostic so customers can choose their preferred

integrated playout technology independently of

their preferred automation system. It’s generally a

major upheaval to change an automation system.”

But although the automation system may not

be changed, the move to CIB should be

accompanied by a complete reappraisal of the

overall workflow and the associated quality

control processes to ensure that this does not

impose an additional burden on staff as the

playout functions are integrated. Unless this is

done, CIB will bring little benefit. Deployment of

CIB will inevitably involve some changes in the

process of content preparation and validation,

and at this stage action should be taken to avoid

need for additional checking by playout staff.

It is therefore what happens outside the box as

much as inside it that will determine its success.

While integrated playout will continue to expand

and embrace more workflow functions, it can

never replace the need for continuous

improvement in the surrounding processes of

content preparation and scheduling.

CBC in Toronto using Miranda’s iTX platform

Miranda iTX playout

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The birth of TV over 50 years

ago forever transformed the

way people view the world.

Now, another sea change is

occurring - the transition

from passive to interactive

viewing behaviour. The

technologies behind the internet, mobile devices

and television are converging to form a new and

more engaging viewing experience, and consumer

electronics manufacturers, technology providers,

advertisers and broadcasters alike are fighting for

their piece of the pie in the new digital landscape.

Key to this vision of the future of TV is handing

control of the viewing experience back to the

consumer and allowing them to engage with

content on their own terms. What was once

considered a passive activity has evolved to

become an interactive experience, with mobile

devices driving this trend and acting as a

companion to our television viewing.

A new world of media engagement

Mobile usage is rapidly taking over as a standard

way of life as the number of mobile connections

worldwide rises to an all-time high – in fact, within

the next three years, mobile access to the internet

will surpass that of computers. Additionally, the

claim that mobile devices are increasingly serving

as a second-screen is supported by a recent study

conducted by media research company Nielsen,

which surveyed smartphone and tablet users in the

US. The research found that 88% of respondents

use their mobile device while watching TV. Of

these, 45% used their mobile devices to access

social networking services during television

adverts, 27% looked up product information for

ads they saw, and 22% looked up coupons or deals

related to the ads.

When you look at these findings together, you

have more than a trend – you have a tidal wave

that points to mobile devices both phone and

tablet - as the ideal candidate to revolutionise a

new category called “media engagement”. More

and more people everyday are using their mobiles

to consume content and interact with what they

are watching on television, whether it’s to get more

information about the shows they love or order

products they want to buy in the moment.

At Shazam, we have proven that content drives

media engagement, creating a rich offering that

includes access to exclusive information and

offers, as well as social features. We’ve seen

firsthand the power of interactive adverts at this

year’s Super Bowl, when we partnered with a third

of the brands that advertised during the event,

including Toyota, Pepsi, Disney and US electronics

retailer, Best Buy, to make

their Super Bowl television

adverts Shazam-enabled.

Viewers were able to use their

mobile phones to enter draws

to win prizes, see exclusive

content and receive special offers. This

dramatically increased brand awareness, with

engagement numbers in the millions. More

recently, we launched our first interactive ad

campaigns in the UK with Pepsi Max and

Cadbury during ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent final and

received 50,000 tags in just one minute of airtime.

On average, 65% of people who tag ads and shows

go on to interact further.

As the digital revolution continues unabated, it

is imperative that advertisers and broadcasters

consider a second-screen strategy. We believe the

second-screen enables them to extend engagement

time, which both builds brand affinity and turns

fans into super-fans. Companion apps offering

this added content also provide an exclusive

experience that keeps viewers engaged in a show

from episode to episode. Increased viewership, of

course, is why networks are so attracted to second

screen capabilities which bridge the gap from one

episode to the next, ultimately turning a casual

viewer into a fan.

With the content revolution in full swing, the

way TV is watched is fundamentally changing in

today’s multi-screen environment, becoming more

personal, interactive and engaging. The TV

industry is on the verge of an incredible

transformation and using innovative technology

such as the second-screen allows brands to get

closer to consumers and, crucially, to extend their

engagement beyond the 30-second adverts to a

deeper, more interactive brand experience.

Get set for the second-screen revolutionAndrew Fisher, CEO of Shazam, argues that companion apps are heralding the biggest change in viewer behaviour in the history of TV

Opinion

30 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

“On average, 65% of people who tag ads and shows go on to interact further.”

Android and OTT

Focus sponsored by:

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32 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

Sponsored feature

Technology push versus market

pull is one of those

conundrums that every

industry battles with from

time to time. In any business

it’s about finding that sweet

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consequence, history is littered with technology that

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new solutions have been extremely successful. One

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consume media and entertainment since the

invention of television in the 1920s.

It could be said that some early Internet-based

television innovations were pushed too early and

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many, has been supplemented by one to one

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combination of IP delivered

services including the Blockbuster@HOME™

movie streaming service, TV Everywhere™

technology which enables viewing on a mobile

device through the DISH Remote Access app and

DISH Online which allows viewing on a computer.

When push comes to pullEchostar’s Gary Stephenson and Ian Walker discuss Android and other innovative converged technologies

Why are we hearing so much about Internet technologies such as Android™?

Gary Stephenson, Product

Manager IP at EchoStar: “The

delivery of television and video

is moving across to mobile

devices – it is no longer only

about the bigger screen as

we’ve seen an explosion in the

roll out of mobile devices in the

last two years. Traditional

computer companies are looking

to exploit their position and ability to distribute media across

multiple platforms. For example, Google is making a very big

drive to push video content, apps and books across its mobile

and TV platform using Android as the common force to

achieve this goal”.

Ian Walker, Director of Sales &

Marketing – EMEA Pay TV at

EchoStar: “The industry has spent the

last few years moving television onto

mobile devices and now it’s coming

‘home’ to TV but it’s been enhanced

by increased interactivity and easy

navigation to additional services.

From the manufacturing perspective, the major CE companies

are building Android into their TV sets. All major silicon

vendors are offering Android as part of their integrations and

the biggest service providers are using Android as an open

and scalable platform to deliver services. The big picture is

that OTT is being integrated within managed service

environments and Android already has massive penetration”.

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 33

Sponsored feature

What is the key to the proliferation of

the Android™ platform?

Ian Walker: “The market is

consolidating and Android is

proving to be somewhat of a

unifying force – it can be seen as a self

perpetuating standard offering a common

denominator across mobile devices. It’s

only natural for Android to expand to the

TV. It is rapidly becoming the de facto

standard for the delivery of multimedia.

The key is that it is open and freely

available to developers and platform

operators although proprietary

implementations are still possible –

offering the best of both worlds”.

For broadcasters, content owners and

programming providers, its no longer just being

about a channel on a Pay TV guide; content

extends much further than that with the

aforementioned companies appearing as a tile/app

on a tablet, smartphone or Smart TV screen –

BBC iPlayer and SkyGo are perfect examples of

content providers catering for the big screen and

small screen environments, the ‘at home’ and the

‘on-the-go’ customer. The next stage – as recently

suggested by the UK’s DTG in its D-book 7

release - is how such apps, in this case catch-up

TV and other pieces of IP delivered content,

become fully integrated into the guide, allowing a

single point of reference for the consumer. TV

platform operators are now looking to exploit

their investments in the Internet to make their

services more attractive or sticky, or even to

create new revenues.

Why are operators interested

in Android™?

Ian Walker: “Mobile telephony

operators are particularly

interested in Android for

delivering over-the-top entertainment

services since they see it as a natural

extension of what they are doing in the

mobile space – as such Android is

considered the prime candidate”.

Gary Stephenson: “For

operators who wish to offer

walled-garden Internet delivered

services Android fits the bill and is the

logical next stage”.

So along with the shift in delivery technology

has come about a shift in the devices upon which

we consume entertainment. The IT domain has

been thrust together with the broadcast space like

giant tectonic plates; the result has been a string of

devices that support both IT/lifestyle and enter-

tainment applications and one of the biggest inno-

vations is the tablet – a walking, talking portable

TV. Internet technologies and brands are moving

and gaining traction in the TV space and the

boundaries between IT, entertainment and the TV

are less easily defined. It’s true to say that it is not

only innovation in the broadcasting world that has

driven broadcasters and their technology suppliers

to evolve, but also changes in markets with cus-

tomers demanding entertainment anytime, any-

where. On the big screen there are a handful of

platforms for delivering content over IP to the set-

top box or secondary, companion devices; HbbTV,

DLNA® and YouView to name but a few but take

for example the mobile device industry where key,

game changing products such as smart phones and

tablets, and universal operating systems such as

Android™ have resulted in the ubiquitous pres-

ence of portable screens and the demand for video

entertainment based services.

What barriers exist to the roll-out of

Android in the pay TV space?

Ian Walker: “There will always

be some hesitation and

uncertainty where there is

dependency on any large corporation with

the size and power of Google. However, it

seems highly unlikely that Google would

switch their open software model

overnight – the current model has

acquired universal support and I believe

that reluctance to adopt Android will be

relatively short-lived when weighed

against the benefits accruing from an

open and scalable model which enables

the operator to profitably develop existing

assets and fully embrace a multi device,

over-the-top strategy”.

What’s fair to say is that the broadcaster

can no longer afford to focus on the main TV

alone as the on-the-go generation uses new

technology to pull media consumption outside the

home and to multiple devices. EchoStar’s

investment – for example – in Sling Media

and in platforms such as Android™ has ensured

that it can deliver entertainment anytime,

anywhere and on any device at an optimal

level of quality. Like the broadcasters, EchoStar

has had to evolve into something that is wholly

capable of serving TV operators and service

providers with the technology required to deliver

a multitude of IP services that support the

broadcast offering. Technology push or market

pull? The key task is making it all work in

harmony.

EchoStar’s Android™-based set-top

solutions will be showcased at IBC Hall 1

stand F76.

go beyond the box.

www.echostar-europe.com/ibcadvanced connected device solutions

truly inspirational products.

Adobe and Flash are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Android is a trademark of Google Inc. HDMI, the HDMI Logo and High-Defi nition Multimedia Interface are trademarks or registered trademarks of HDMI Licensing LLC. All other brand and product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.

See what we’re showing at IBC. Scan with your smartphone using a QR Code Reader app.

HDX-210: Android™ - powered IP STB.

At Echostar Europe, we believe in developing truly inspirational products.

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Join us at IBC (stand #1.F76) and supply the very best connected device solutions to your cable, satellite or IP customers.

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Accessibility roundtable

36 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

Chairman: Richard Lindsay-Davies, director general, Digital Television Group (DTG)

Richard is responsible for the organisation’s overall growth and development.

With over 20 years of television industry experience, Richard drives the DTG’s collaborative

culture. Richard joined the Group as director of public affairs in 2004 working with

government and stakeholders to establish the UK digital switchover body, Digital UK. He was

appointed director general in 2006. Prior to DTG, he worked at Sony, Toshiba and Pace.

Ian Mecklenburgh, director of consumer

platforms, Virgin Media

Ian played an integral part in launching

TiVo, the company’s first next-generation

digital entertainment platform. Ian has

over 20 years experience in the

communications, IT and media sectors,

including the BBC and most recently consulting to the likes of DTG,

where he worked on the launch of Freesat.

Martin Stott , head of corporate and

regulatory affairs, Channel 5

Martin is responsible for policy, regulation

and public affairs. He joined Channel 5

eight years ago from Channel 4, where he

had been deputy head of corporate

relations. His first role in television was as

a press officer for Channel 4, specialising in press and publicity for

current affairs programmes.

Chris Higgs, managing director, itfc

Chris joined itfc in 1990 and has overseen

its growth to become a major supplier of

services to broadcasters, content owners

and distributors, as well as the transition

into a digital media services business.

Chris was responsible for the introduction

of major new business areas to the company, including subtitling,

audio description and signing.

David Padmore, executive team member,

Red Bee

David is responsible for Red Bee’s access

and metadata services operations. David

has worked in the access services industry

since joining the BBC as a subtitler in

1993, as well as pioneering the use of

speech recognition. He also expanded Red Bee activity to meet the

growing demands for accessibility across Europe and beyond.

Leen Petré, principal manager, media and

culture, RNIB

Leen is responsible for the charity’s policy

and campaigning to ensure access for

blind and partially sighted people to TV

and related new technologies. Leen was

chair and is now member of the

Consumer Expert Group on Digital Switchover. She joined RNIB as

European Campaigns Manager in 2000.

Terry Riley, CEO, BSLBT

Terry worked for 23 years on the BBC’s

See Hear programme, becoming its first

deaf editor in 2000. After leaving the BBC

he became the CEO of the newly founded

British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust

in 2008. He is currently the Chair of the

British Deaf Association and a board member of the World

Federation of the Deaf.

Panellists:

Accessibility roundtable

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 37

TV accessibilityWith millions of people affected by some form of visual or hearing impairment access service (AS) are a strategic priority for broadcasters. Extending current services to new VoD and connected platforms is a key challenge going forward, one that this roundtable sought to address

Chair: The UK has led the rest of the world

in AS for linear TV, but how do we transfer that

across into the connected TV world and how do we

even out the disparity between the online world and

broadcast world? How should we define access

services going forward?

Ian Mecklenburgh (IM): One of the challenges we

are having with the development of our TiVo

service is that the product has moved from being

a simple EPG proposition to something that

integrates OTT and movie content. We’re trying

to find a way to make that accessible to our entire

customer base outside the EPG grid content - 35%

of the content viewed on the TiVo platform

already doesn’t come via an EPG. What we’re

wrestling with now is how in that world of time

shifted television and internet delivered TV we

deliver accessibility across all types of media.

David Padmore (DP): I would say from the

viewers’ point of view, they don’t care about the

source of the programme they are watching on

their TV set. They will distinguish less and less on

any connected TV platform where that video has

come from. We shouldn’t restrict the definition of

AS to the broadcast world; it is about all video, on

whatever platform.

Leen Petre (LP): From the users’ point of view,

the AS are in essence the services that make the

content accessible. So for blind and partially

sighted people that would be audio description

(AD) and that service is proven to work for

content that is delivered to cinemas, DVD

and linear TV. They don’t care whether the

content is on-demand, but they expect a

certain amount of that to be made accessible

through AD.

Terry Riley (TR): You need to look at what

provisions you have at the moment, because

there’s no point in transmitting if the original

service does not match the end-user. I’m speaking

as a consumer myself, not as BSLBT chair. I

watch subtitles every day, I can’t manage without

them or in-vision signing, and I’m not happy with

the service I receive. Subtitles are sometimes quite

poorly done and confuse the consumer even

more. We need to look at what we provide now

and make sure the mistakes are not transferred to

other mediums of TV.

Chris Higgs (CH): Believe me, the quality

of AS in the UK are probably the best in the

world. I think the challenge we face is the

delivery of these services because everybody

has different mechanism for watching video

these days. The challenge compared to trying to

get AD to DTT is there are now a multitude of

products in the UK with AS produced on them.

How do you get these into the different platforms?

The audience expects if they’ve seen a programme

with subtitles and AD on broadcast TV that it will

carry automatically onto whatever platform they

watch it on later.

Martin Stott (MS): I agree. I think the immediate

challenge as more on-demand (OD) viewing takes

place is to expect the same sort of provision.

What we have to remember is that most of the

OD viewing is of programmes that were actually a

linear service, although I acknowledge that a large

portion of content available on platforms like

TiVo isn’t linear.

IM: Which is the problem we have: the assets that

we receive for VoD are not necessarily delivered

with AD the same as they were when originally

broadcast. One of the other challenges from the

consumer side we have to make sure is that when

things get time shifted that the different variants

are made available to people. One of the things we

have inside our TiVo UI is a signing zone, collec-

tions of content that are graphically accessed. And

one of the things we noticed was that a lot of the

signed programming was at strange times of the

morning so we’ve started having our editors

looking through the schedules for the signed

versions of programmes because it’s all well and

good having the content there but actually

surfacing that through the platforms is important.

AS quality and search & discovery

Chair: Going back to Terry’s point of quality, David

is there a serious QoS problem that we can try to

improve?

DP: I think it’s something that is a core

Accessibility roundtable

requirement of the service providers, not only in

terms of the level of regulation, but the UK has a

set of content owners and broadcasters who are

also very committed to the QoS of the AS they

produce. It’s part of our lives to improve the

quality and continually invest in technology to

improve the level of textual accuracy in live

subtitling. I would agree however that the

exponential growth in video and the proliferation

of platforms to watch video is eroding some of

that quality due to a lack of standards or best

practices on these other platforms compared to

linear. I also know a frustration of the audience is

where there are live subtitles on what are

obviously pre-recorded programmes. But it’s a fact

of the service provider’s life that sometimes you

don’t get the video delivered to you before the

point of transmission.

LP: On the quality point, we have to recognise

that AD is an art not a science and there will

always be a difference of opinion and

interpretation, and we as an organisation

recognise that, as do most of the audience. The

gap around that quality of AD is there is no

central point or easy way for people to log

complaints or comments about AS. It’s an issue

we’ve raised with Ofcom and we hope they will

play a more central role in the future.

As for content & discovery, the key point here

is that indeed a lot of the content that is audio

described for linear TV can also be found on

catch-up and OD. We have to maximise

opportunities to make sure content travels across

media, from cinema and DVD into that OTT

world, and that’s where providers tell us they face

technical barriers, such as the procurement

process of media players for example, some of

which aren’t written or produced in the UK.

Chair: Martin, from a YouView perspective, this is a

great opportunity to embrace the new technology

coming in and I understand from Richard Halton

that they have spent a lot of time addressing AS.

MS: This is a positional issue, which is that as we

move more and more towards OD content there is

a lag in terms of AS that people associate with

linear are not immediately available OD. With

YouView it’s down to the individual players.

IM: Some people are using YouTube as a

distribution mechanism, which again begs the

question how AD and subtitles will be carried

through what traditionally are called OTT players

into TV platforms.

DP: There are a large number of complaints

which are to do with the reception and the ability

of the STB to decode the subtitles. That’s not to

say there aren’t inaccuracies but the broadcasters

are putting more pressure contractually to

increase the quality and textual accuracy of live

subtitling. We are subtitling more challenging

content. It would be useful for there to be better

open dialogue about what those audience

expectations should be.

We are trying to invest in technology,

particularly speech recognition, to increase the

text accuracy of live subtitling. The quality of

speech recognition is improving through the

investment that Google and Apple are making.

There’s genuine cause for optimism that the

access industry will benefit from that investment

and that live subtitling will continue to improve

over time.

Chair: Martin, as a channel provider on all these

platforms, who do people call, is it you?

MS: That’s part of the fragmentation we talk

about. If you’re a Sky customer, you might call

Sky.

DP: More and more that’s done on Facebook

and Twitter, that’s where a lot of the activity is on

access complaints.

TR: In the old days, we had an organisation

called DBC, who used to accept complaints

about subtitles and signed programming. A lot of

complaints now go directly to us but who do we

pass them on to deal with? How can we ensure

deaf people with legitimate complaints can pass

it on to the right people, in their first language,

which would predominantly be BSL?

MS: Like most broadcasters we have teams

who are there to handle complaints from

viewers. I understand they might not be able

to handle complaints in BSL directly but they

have friends or relatives who can complain

on their behalf. We are open for business on the

complaints front!

CH: We never got those issues a few years ago.

The BBC, ITV, Channel 5 and others are getting

closer to having most of their programmes

subtitled so you’re now subtitling things on the

38 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

Accessibility roundtable

edges of the quality barrier almost, including

programmes that are totally unscripted with fast

dialogue that have to be edited otherwise you will

see nothing on the screen apart from text. As

David said, we’re ahead of the technology: it’s still

somebody re-speaking or retyping the spoken

word, you will get errors, and there will be

complaints.

CH: We have to remember that subtitling is a

costly service to broadcasters. Companies such as

red Bee and ITFC have done an enormous

amount to bring those costs down by new working

methods and efficiencies. You have to bear these

costs in mind. Broadcasters see no financial

benefit out of subtitling and AS in the face of

declining revenues and profits. I think there are

more important things to discuss than the quality

of live subtitling, which I think is pretty good.

LP: I wanted to talk about programme discovery,

particularly for AD, which there isn’t that much

of. It’s important there are mechanisms in place

that help people find which programmes carry

AD. This is a problem for OD and catch-up

services, which don’t have some of the features in

place as for linear EPGs. You View won’t resolve

this problem. They are committed to providing AS

on linear but in terms of catch up or OD they are

be dependent on the media players.

Technology and standards

Chair: Coming onto technology, we have digital

broadcast, which in many ways isn’t any easier to

synchronise than analogue, but in the future as we

move away from broadcast to IP it will be easier to

add components and synchronise them. What do we

think are the horses we should be backing to help

discovery of AS?

LP: The solution for linear broadcasting was flags

in the EPG, indicating there is AD or subtitle that

goes with that file, and that was mandated by

Ofcom. There needs to be some technical work

done here that this things work across all

platforms. We as an organisation don’t expect OD

catch-up services to deliver receiver-mixed AD, go

with whatever is easier.

CH: If the content is not there then the discovery

is almost a side issue. I think what’s worth having

a discussion of here is the flow of AS through the

chain. We describe many films for cinema release

and there is no set chain for AD or subtitling from

that onto DVDs and other platforms. There is no

set mechanism where that AD or subtitles will

travel though the life of that content. And if you

have problems getting it from cinema to DVD

think of the problems you will have getting it to all

these new platforms. There are so many

components in the chain and it’s about unravelling

these. So you will continue to see massive gaps

unless that’s resolved.

MS: It’s not that straightforward from the point of

view of a broadcaster. Take a movie that comes

audio described from the cinema: we need to

insert commercial breaks in it, we may need to

edit it, make it comply with the broadcast code…

therefore what you end up with is a piece of linear

content that’s not the same, so you need to do the

AD again because the content changes.

DP: There’s another way of looking at this, which

may be idealistic, and that’s as the core value of

the access files to the content owner. What you get

when you create a subtitle or AD file is a set of

metadata about that piece of content. That

metadata is of great value to the whole content

discovery equation and increasingly we are finding

examples where content owners are beginning to

recognise the value of having a timed transcript of

the subtitled file of all their content. AD gives a

completely different spin on that metadata that we

can educate the broadcasters on. There’s lots of

value in those access files to things like archiving,

search & discovery, recommendations and even

targeted advertising, and I think the accessibility

agenda can really benefit from that.

Chair: Are there gaps in the standard?

DP: There are definitely gaps. Particularly with

AD we have a real problem with workflows, there

is a need with AD to standardise workflows.

IM: We launched TiVo 18 months ago and built in

basic accessibility functions like simple audio cues.

Of the one billion VoD views we did last year an

incredibly small volume came with audio

described VoD. BBC iPlayer used to run from our

VoD service, where it was our responsibility to

carry the subtitles and AD, but what happens now

is it deep links and fires up an iPlayer app in the

same way it does on YV at which point we pass

over control of that to the broadcaster. If we

launch to a player type world, which many of the

broadcasters are pushing for, we have to pass that

Accessibility roundtable

www.csimagazine.com September-Octover 2012 39

responsibility to someone else. I’m not sure

standards and regulations have caught up to this

new world we have created.

LP: If you have a service where there are no

additional breaks or editorial requirements, then

why can I get a film that has been audio described

by a studio on Netflix without that description? I

have a suspicion that it is a question of different

file formats and that’s a technical issue that needs

resolving. The model we should be looking at is

what the BBC Trust has chosen to implement.

They have chosen in their OD syndication that it

is their responsibility to take that content with

them no matter what iteration of the iPlayer you

are looking at.

TR: I meet a lot of deaf people and the UK is the

envy of the world for subtitling. We have 85-90%

legislated subtitling and signing is strong too.

BSLBT was set up because in-vision signed

programmes weren’t working as well as they could

do. Are we spending money on access services

when really the actual BSL community isn’t

getting the full value out of the money invested?

For me, the choice of programming and the time

in-vision signed programming is transmitted is a

waste of money, especially if I don’t have the

facility to record.

MS: We have to provide signing for 5% of our

programmes, but we don’t have the technology to

provide signing on a closed basis. Subtitling and

AD you can turn on and off, whereas it’s there all

the time with signing. So like most broadcasters,

we push it in the middle of the night because for

the vast majority of our viewers it is of no benefit

at all. This is something we have to look, how we

can best serve the BSL community.

TR: The difference between in-vision signed

programming and BSLBT made programming is

that ours are originally made for BSL audience.

It’s a different language, a different culture and

different pacing of the programme. Many deaf

production companies are now being set up and

they have a greater connection to the deaf

community. I think we need to be talking to

Ofcom about where we can include other

broadcasters. Internationally, we also have a

wonderful opportunity.

DP: Speaking on behalf of the broadcasters who

make the decision which content does get signed,

I think it’s right that a representative sample of

the programmes, the high profile ones, do get

interpretation. Hollyoaks and children’s channels

are good examples where signing is more high

profile within the schedule.

Regulation

Chair: I always think we should try and avoid

regulation at all cost and get the market to deliver it

initially. Do you have a view on this Martin?

MS: We have a good reputation in the UK

because the legislation that requires broadcasters

to provide AS. There is a requirement through

ATVOD that access services are carried OD and

this may turn into a regulatory obligation.

IM: If there is regulation it needs to be applied to

everyone and create a level playing field that also

includes pure OTT IP players.

LP: We’re not an organisation that will ask for

regulation if there are other means to do it but the

market system isn’t delivering on the OD front.

We have to be clever however in terms of

segmenting between some of those OD and catch

up services.

MS: It is much better if there is a collaborative

view about how we can provide AS on new

platforms, thereby how we can avoid regulation

but we shouldn’t forget it was regulation that

brought us to where we are now.

TR: It’s about compromise and negotiation.

LP: As a country, we have very strong anti

discrimination legislation around disability which

others don’t in Europe. To some extent that also

explains where we are in the UK.

CH: How many people that use AS are using the

new platforms and which platforms they are using

is what we need to understand. Maybe those

platforms should be targeted rather than

everything being blanketed.

IM: IIf we’re over-regulated that might stifle some

of that innovation.

DP: For me the biggest challenge at the moment

probably sits with the technology side of the

debate, the workflows and standardisation of file

formats. The outcome of those processes will be

crucial to making sure as online video proliferates

that the levels of accessibility we’ve seen on linear

TV translate into the new world.

Accessibility roundtable

40 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

This roundtable took place at the DTG’s

headquarters in London. Situated on the banks

of the Thames with views of Parliament and the

London Eye, the DTG’s modern conference

centre, meeting facilities and state-of-the-art

digital TV demonstration room are available free

of charge to DTG members and can be hired by

non-members for corporate events.

Multi-network security

Focus sponsored by:

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42 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

Sponsored feature

Cable and satellite operators

around the globe are

increasingly adopting hybrid

networks with various

combinations of DVB, IP and

over-the-top (OTT)

components as a fast and

efficient route for adding compelling new services to

previously broadcast-only, or one-way, pay-TV

networks. Therefore much attention is now being

placed on how operators can efficiently and cost-

effectively secure these new hybrid network

configurations.

While the addition of IP connectivity does pro-

vide a mechanism to broaden the operator’s ser-

vice offering, and can be undertaken as a stand-

alone project, it also presents a valuable opportu-

nity to re-evaluate the merits of an integrated

approach to revenue security for the pay-TV ser-

vice as a whole – including traditional broadcast

only delivery.

Broadcasters have historically entrusted the

security of their delivery service to conditional

access systems (CAS) with the foundation being a

removable smart card device with specialised

microprocessors and many layers of protection to

prevent internal logic from being compromised. In

a system architecture with limited or no return

path mechanisms, the smart card served as a

receiver identifier, a physical root of trust and a

defensible storage area for entitlement tokens,

local usage information, and the like.

The use of smart cards has long been a chal-

lenge from a cost and logistics perspective, but

the new reality of multi-network service delivery

also highlights the central role of protecting ser-

vice revenue in a rapidly evolving market land-

scape and how to achieve this goal. The market

dynamics, especially when combined with innova-

tion that has taken place over recent years,

demands that operators take a closer look at alter-

native approaches.

New market dynamics

Fast-paced technological advances in the software

and hardware underpinnings of security have dra-

matically changed the options available to service

providers as they contemplate new video service

and application strategies. Some old assumptions

as to the fundamentals of revenue security are no

longer valid. Consider the following:

The security architecture of the modern set top

box (STB) is increasingly becoming a function of

the sophisticated system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices

at the heart of their design. It is the enhanced

ability to embed custom secrets into these devices

that starts to blur the line between the protection

regime of a smart card and that of the STB itself.

From a high level, generic perspective (since

details of these techniques are highly proprietary),

even low cost SoC devices can now offer at least

the capability to be individualised with:

• Fixed unique identifiers;

• Hardware verified bootstrap mechanisms; and

• Embedded secret encryption keys.

The individualised subsystems of the SoC

solution are intrinsic to addressing the rampant

“control word sharing” piracy problem. This

type of piracy is most prevalent in environments

where content is available through the internet,

necessitating the revision of the entire security

strategy. In legacy systems, the control word (the

lowest level content scrambling key) appears “in

the clear” at some point between the smart card

and the SoC video/audio descrambler. Content

pirates have frequently found ways to intercept

these keys and share them in real time with other

(non-paying) subscribers over the internet. Thus

one compromised broadcast receiver can be used

as a “server” for many others to steal pay-TV

services. In the new individualised SoC

architectures, a common key is never exposed in

the control flow, and hence defeats the control

word sharing threat.

As this type of security breach has become the

predominant threat to broadcast pay-TV revenue,

use of these individualised SoC mechanisms at the

core of the implementation is being an

increasingly relevant and popular way to defeat

this type of attack and eclipse the system

contribution of the smart card. In fact, eliminating

the link between the card and the STB reduces the

potential exposure of any critical information and

removes an external interface that can be used to

enable information sharing techniques.

The most sophisticated examples of SoC

security solutions leverage highly engineered

security cores that are fully integrated into the

device, providing a hardware foundation that is

designed to defeat power, electromagnetic or other

signature analysis techniques. For instance,

Cryptography Research offers the CryptoFirewall

self-contained ASIC security core technology to

help build advanced solutions that integrate

completely with the software components of the

conditional access logic.

The full significance of these SoC advances is,

however, the extent to which they complement and

ruggedise the now highly developed

implementations of software security subsystems.

The newest techniques of software hardening -

often essential to meet content owners’ robus-tness

guidelines which attempt to ensure the adherence

of each device to specific licensing restrictions and

Securing hybrid deploymentsSteve Christian, VP of marketing at Verimatrix, explores a comprehensive approach to cardless multi-network security

“The full significance of SoC advances is the extent to which they complement and ruggedise the now highly developed implementations of software security subsystems.”

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 43

Sponsored feature

resilience to various forms of illegitimate usage -

include:

• Code obfuscation;

• Code integrity checking;

• White-box cryptography;

• Execution monitoring;

• Software authentication/verification;

• Binary encryption; and

• Clone detection.

These well honed techniques are at their most

effective when they leverage the hardware

subsystems of the underlying SoC. This takes us a

step beyond the benefits of software only-based

security, into the realm of integrated hardware

and software systems which achieve in a cardless

architecture the same or better levels of revenue

protection as a legacy smartcard approach. This

level of implementation is likely to become the

new gold standard as the momentum of

new security architecture adoption is seen

to accelerate.

The growing deployment of hybrid service

architectures creates an increasing proportion of

broadcast STB populations with a continuously

connected IP back channel. There is a highly

developed set of techniques that can use this

return channel for key management, integrity and

usage monitoring that extends beyond anything

supportable on a broadcast only STB. Some of the

more interesting techniques that illustrate the

power of a combined broadcast IP security

solution are out-of-band key delivery, explicit

confirmation of device entitlement changes and

bandwidth efficient software updates.

And, last but not least, we address renewability.

Renewability of security subsystems, for example,

is a distinct advantage in a landscape of fast

changing threats and business opportunities.

Content security is an arms race against pirates

and fraudsters, so the security must be renewable.

Software security, in combination with state-of-the-

art secure SoC technology, offers flexible

renewability options allowing service providers to

be proactive in their countermeasures approach

without the high costs of hardware update.

Counter to the flexibility created by the

mobility of GSM smart cards between client

devices, the portability of the pay-TV smart card

has proven to be a burden rather than an asset to

the industry. The logistics associated with separate

manufacture, programming, tracking and

consumer delivery at initial service purchase are

very considerable. After authentication, the smart

cards are frequently tied to specific STB hardware

and consumer level portability is highly restricted.

When considered alongside the logistics issues

of swapping smart card populations, including

STB incompatibility and call centre support, the

overheads of the separable hardware can hardly be

exaggerated. These costs, as well as the physical

costs of cards and the support logic to provide

reliable interfaces within STBs, lead

many new digital TV system operators in these

regions to demand a cardless security solution

from the outset.

Multi-network cardless solutions

in the real world

Software-centric security mechanisms are an

accepted fact of life for services that are streamed

across the internet and form the basis for this new

and exciting industry – after all, who wants to

suggest pushing a smart card into the back of a

PC or iPad to enable information and

entertainment services? Software-based security

solutions have also been propelling the global

telco-TV market to global prominence over the last

decade – the global footprint of Verimatrix is

testament to how effective these solutions have

been in deployment, and the extent to which they

have gained the confidence of the content

licensing community. Now seems like the right

time to evaluate the use of similar technologies in

hybrid and DVB deployments and reap the

benefits of ten+ years of product innovation

with a truly comprehensive single revenue

security architecture.

Consider, for example the recent selection

by YOU SCOD18 in Mumbai as an

example of an operator collective with

hard deadlines as a result of the

digitalisation initiative in India.

Rather than rolling out a traditional

DVB broadcast solution on their

cable infrastructure and a separate

broadband service for connected

devices, they opted for a

complete security

upgrade to a cardless

security solution. YOU

SCOD18 has taken on the

challenge of multi-network

content availability that optimises revenue sources

through a single security head-end. As stated by

the operator:

“We evaluated several CAS vendors and

ultimately chose to partner with Verimatrix

because of its ability to provide us with a true,

integrated multi-screen platform,” states N K

Rouse, director, YOU SCOD 18. “Choosing the

right security technology is a critical competitive

differentiator, especially with so many operators

participating in India’s digitalisation initiative. We

believe that partnering with Verimatrix will result

in many unique benefits, including enhanced

revenue security and the flexibility to easily

develop and deploy new multi-screen services

business models.”

A new market transition?

The acceleration of digital TV distribution in all

its forms, and the challenges of new service

deployments in the developing world speak to the

nature of the transitions underway in the pay-TV

world globally. Standing back from some of the

old philosophical fights about old and new

approaches to protecting the revenue of pay-TV

services, the nature of the new hybrid marketplace

and the shifts of technology and threat suggest a

significant change of dynamic. Integrated cardless

security solutions seem poised to delivery a highly

effective option to both IP-centric and traditional

broadcast service operators.

Beyond Content Protection to Revenue Security™

Join us for

Real World Solutionsfor Multi-network Revenue Security

erimatrix

Sept. 8 • 8:30 - 10:00 amIBC 2012 • Amsterdam

RAI Convention Centre • Room G102-103

Visit us at IBC - Booth #4.B54

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Social TV roundtable

46 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

Social TV roundtableThe onset of the internet and companion devices is bringing about new levels of interactivity, which in turn is fuelling new forms of social TV. But where are the biggest opportunities, who will benefit and where is the mon-ey to be found? This roundtable answered these questions and more.

Social TV roundtable

Future roundtables: CSI will be staging roundtable discussions on Shifting viewing habits; Satellite broadband, Cable CCAP and CDNs among others. For speaker/sponsorship opportunities contact Tiro Bestonso at tiro.bestonso@csimagazine.com or +44 20 7562 2427

Chairman: Simon Gauntlett,

technology director, DTG

Simon is responsible for setting the

organisation’s strategic technical vision,

directing the group’s technical programme

and managing the DTG’s technology team.

Since joining the DTG in 2006, Simon has

edited and published three updated versions of the D-Book - the

technical specification for DTT in the UK. Prior to working for the

DTG, Simon spent seven years at the BBC’s R&D department.

Paul Robinson, president of international

for A Squared Elxsi (A2E2)

A2E2 is a creator, producer and

distributor of media entertainment for

children, and prior to joining the company

this year, Paul founded kids TV channel

KidsCo in 2005. He has also worked for

BBC Radio One and Walt Disney Company, where he still acts as a

media consultant.

Katy Howell, managing director,

immediate future

Katy helps brands like Sony, BBC and

HSBC adopt, integrate, and deploy social

media. With over eight years’ social media

experience and 25 years in marketing, she

advises companies: creating robust and

measureable strategies, working with a team of consultants.

Mark Christie, CTO, KIT digital

Mark has over 15 years experience in

engineering and technology roles, and

currently spearheads innovative and

highly customised solutions for customer

deployments. Prior to joining KIT, Mark

was the CEO of Ioko and co-founded the

business in 1996, before it was acquired by KIT in April 2011.

Andy Hooper, director, converged

experiences, home business, Motorola

Mobility EMEA

In his role, Andy is involved with his team

in many leading edge discussions with

cable, satellite and IPTV service

providers, and is advising clients how to

win in the multi-screen world. Andy has worked at Motorola for six

years, and has a 16 year career in consulting and software sales, pre-

sales and product management.

Andy Eardley, co-founder, TV App Agency

Andy’s involvement in TV App Agency

follows 25 years experience building

businesses in the technology and software

sectors. He worked with firms including

Apple, HP, IBM and then moved into the

software sector. The TV AA was launched

in 2011 to provide TV app development and app store submission,

enabling companies to get onto connected TV.

Pa

nel

lists

:

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 47

Chairman: I guess we should start in trying to

understand what is social TV? Can we put a box

around it? Is it about changing the way we watch

and interact with TV?

Andy Eardley (AE): You’ve got two types of social:

you’ve got the private social TV (STV) and the

public social TV. Private STV has always been in

our living rooms where we share with our families

and people within those walls. And then you have

public STV which goes potentially across the

globe. It could be commenting about a show

together. It could also be a difference between

social and anti-social TV. You can see Twitter and

Facebook (FB) apps on TV but do you want to

see someone else’s Twitter feed on your TV?

Katie Howell (KH): I’d say it’s even broader than

that. We had the same debate six years ago about

social media, asking what it is. From a marketeers’

perspective it’s about being social. It’s any

interaction between a community that is

connected and talking abut TV programmes or

broadcasters. That would be my definition. It’s

about connected communities as opposed to the

device, which is just a facilitator.

AE: But there is a most appropriate device for

what’s going on. Sharing it with a friend on

Twitter or Facebook shouldn’t appear on your TV.

It can appear on smartphones or tablets which is

the appropriate place for it.

KH: Audiences will wonder on and off devices

they are using, they will happily jump form one to

another, expecting a seamless experience but

blending the standards of Facebook and Twitter

with unique propositions quite happily.

Chair: Is there an interest in what Joe Bloggs is

talking about or more about the trends associated

with a particular programme?

KH: I think it’s a bit of everything. You get a

mixture of arguments and opinion and expression.

You get more consolidated social conversation

usually a few days after the show is broadcast.

Understanding that flow is part of every

programmes definition of social analytics.

Chair: Are the content makers and producers

starting to use STV more?

Paul Robinson (PR): I think the answer is yes.

Before digital came along we had very little supply

of channels and audiences were large as a result

of that, watching the same thing, they didn’t need

other means of engagement with those shows. As

we’ve got more supply, there’s been more

fragmentation of viewing and technology has

enabled us to re-engage people back and continue

to keep TV as a talking point. So I think as a TV

content creator that’s a great thing because the

big risk for us is that TV would not play the same

role in peoples lives. We want people to talk about

TV and I see social media as being about keeping

TV salient and a topic of conversation. But it’s

also a means of discovery; in a world with more

choice it becomes more difficult to find new

things, it becomes harder to break down silos and

find out about things you don’t know. Even

recommendation engines only tell you about

programmes they know you like.

To answer your question, we are now thinking

very careful about how to construct storylines and

alternative end games that will enable people to

talk about your product versus someone else’s. If

you can build brand awareness through a Twitter

stream that’s good business. Do we know all the

tricks yet? Absolutely not. It’s still early days.

Chair: Is it all about live, or is it about the long tail

too?

AE: Look at the numbers from Netflix. They just

streamed over one billion hours of VoD in June,

which is bigger than a lot of cable operators.

Andy Hooper (AH): One of the ways they drive

that amount of take up is through their Facebook

integration. The amount of people who are

connecting their FB accounts to these apps for

OD content periodically do help them find

content to watch. It is about OD and live but it’s a

different type of engagement.

KH: It’s wider than just that live programme. It’s

about extending the conversation to provide more

opportunities for more monetisation of the

content. So how can I take that programme and

episode it across the week or broaden it using

social interaction? You see programmes like Mad

Men grab the social consciousness and people are

creating their bits around it, almost co-create with

the programme. It’s that kind of broader thinking

that will come into play with social and connected

audiences.

AE: The second screen has allowed TV to be a

broadcast medium in the house but your

personalised experiences are kept there, doing

your social interactions while watching the TV

with other people.

PR: That’s exactly what happens now. Everyone is

watching the TV but have their own individual

second device doing their own thing. What is

interesting is that research I’ve seen suggests

that most of that activity is not directly related

to what’s happening on TV. It’s actually people

checking their FB accounts, emailing etc.

Maybe 20% might be related to television. That’s

why there is no real money at the moment

because you can’t engage that audience, there’s

not enough of them.

Mark Christie (MC): So it’s a multi-tasking

model. There is an argument to say that having

lots of interactivity when watching a programme

takes the value off it because you’re not

concentrating. That’s different depending on

genre, eg live shows like X-Factor and movies.

PR: A great example of a programme that did try

to design itself that you could have a second

Social TV roundtable

screen experience is Channel 4’s Million Pound

Drop, where the engagement was around 25% of

the total viewing audience which I think is the

highest percentage of any programme in the UK.

They actually built in pauses so you had time to

answer questions on the second screen without

missing what was happening on the main screen.

They even took feedback from online players to

determine the order. That’s an example where live

allows you to really add value and integrate the

social experience.

MC: That’s a great innovative example of what

you can do with the medium. I think the tablet

has created this idea about this ability to create an

app which has social features but opens up this

second screen space to additional or enhanced

content about what you are watching or

monetisation opportunities with interactive

adverts. It’s about that call to action you can do

on a personalised basis within the broadcast

medium. I’m seeing people commissioning things

on a one off basis to see what works. We’re still in

the learning phase. But even now production

companies are looking for that interactive

experience. From our side we are interested in the

technology you need to build that ecosystem. For

example what kind of metadata can we help

create to drive the interactive elements of the

second screen to make it a more compelling

viewing experience?

AE: That is the reality today. All of these are

disconnected islands of technology connected by

the consumer and they are in their infancy.

Million Pound Drop is not without its hiccups.

AH: One of the things that we are seeing is the

infancy is definitely there in terms of programme

data it gets delivered to service providers, it

doesn’t have the richness of connective

information the hyperlinks if you like between the

programme metadata and the actual apps that

exist on the devices. What it will facilitate when it

matures is a much more immersive experience

and one which doesn’t have that cliff you almost

have to climb over as a consumer. That points to

the direction in which we will go. At some point

as we resolve the platforms, there is enough scale

to make it easy to use and frictionless. It becomes

quite incredible from an advertising

perspective too.

Chair: You need to give people a compelling reason

to connect their products, which will then create a

mass market for advertisers to monetise.

KH: It’s quite complex still just to try make your

devices hooked up.

AH: Ultimately today, what’s the aggregation

point? You generally need to install an app per

TV programme. You can get app fatigue quite

quickly. So is it at the level of the service provider

or national set of standards? That’s a level of

infancy too we are nowhere near to

underst5anding how that plays out. Though there

will be vast and varied commercial interests that

will drive that.

KH: It will be driven by commercial intention as

well. The other thing that is missing that will

come in the next year or two, on the social side

you see brands saying we have to build social in

from the ground up. I wonder whether or not

content wise there is an appetite for that.

PR: We are doing a new show with the creator of

Spiderman, Stan Lee, his first animated feature.

He’s set up a YouTube site to build his brand

around that hub. He believes that will differentiate

him from other content creators.

MC: There’s also an extension to that in being

able to have apps that add another dimension on

how you interact with those movies. It creates a

new medium in some ways, where users drive the

story through feedback.

PR: I think going forward genuine alternative

endings is exactly where we will go.

KH: It plays on something else, which is the

marketing and brand industry has moved on in

social to the point where you can’t but miss that

brands will try be broadcasters and media is

playing large part in way they work in social. One

issue that worries me from a marketing point of

view about STV and monetisation point of view is

that it just relies on advertising with a little

interactive thing in the middle. I think you will

see marketers and the monetisation of this

coming from brands wanting to create content

that’s episodal and plays out in the social space,

that continues what’s been on TV, almost brand

owned content layed on top of this. That might

create some friction.

As broadcasters look to monetise STV they will

find themselves against a wall when it comes to

social because there is only so much they can play

the advertising sponsorship card. Righst issues

come into play here.

AE: The broadcaster has been the gatekeeper, as

has been the set-top box manufactures. They’ve

bee the gatekeeper in getting to the living room.

When actually the content owner really wants to

get out to the world, you own the rights. And

make them as simple as possible. But you have to

48 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

Social TV roundtable

go through artificial silos of country based

broadcasters that is expensive for content owners.

This will change with the internet, which is a huge

disruptor.

PR: You’re totally right about gatekeepers and

right that the whole gatekeeper model will change.

FTA broadcasters and payTV providers are

challenges by OTT players like Netlfix. I think the

other side of that coin is to what extend will

consumers want somebody to help them guide

them through all this as a trusted destination. Will

there be gatekeepers of a different sort? Will it be

Google maybe? Zero gatekeepers is not realistic

abut there will be a different relationship,

economics and new players coming in.

Chair: Is that where the social media community

would then come in?

KH: Curated communities; you can see around

various programmes or content channels and I

suspect Google will make a massive play for it.

AE: IPTV will fundamentally change how we

interact with our TV and how we do that socially.

TV has been social from day 1 but it will change

how we connect devices.

AH: One of the things that concerns me as a user

of these services, when you think about the layers,

whosever app you are using, it comes down to

identity too. Who are am I trusting with my

identity, the permissions I’m granting to that

entity or organisation I’m allowing to make use of

my data? Will I allow it to know anything

personal about me before it suggests and

recommends to me? Who are the big

organisations you trust with your identity? Is it

Facebook and Google? The owners we trust to

curate our identity for us, potentially they are the

ones who win longer term here.

PR: I think you’re right but I would cite examples

of connections to FB that have had a dramatic

impact of the volumes of use to a particular

application. Spotify’s usage almost doubled when

they linked to FB. We have to understand that is

the reality. We have to accept that TV is not the

only route to market and TV is not the panacea

now. It’s not the only way to build a brand.

KH: If you can tap into the passions and interests

of your community that you create something that

will resonate with the community. I think the

biggest killer of social is the fickleness of the

consumer and the privacy issues. Things like

having to ‘Like’ something become barriers to

entry just like filling in forms.

PR: Communications have become a lot less

formal and FB, Twitter and text are all acceptable

ways of talking business as well as personal, so

you’re right.

Chair: If part of the social is about getting more

engagement in content, how do people monetise

that?

AE: There’s a whole lot of ways of monetising.

The world of mobile has taught us that you can

offer apps for free to get people engaged and then

give them a premium version with no disruptions.

You can deliver apps to TV with no pre roll, mid

roll and post roll ads for example. Or you can

deliver first part of content for free and expect

them to pay for subsequent programmes. This is a

lot more than just advertising but it is a huge

bucket, especially for TV. You then also think of

all the retail opportunities, in-app purchases, and

the monetisation is incredible.

MC: It seems to me that content owners like the

fragmented market of rights based geographies

because they are selling the same thing over and

over again with different rights and there must be

a tipping point. Take the Simpsons, when would it

make commercial sense to go direct to consumer

as opposed to the rights negotiations they do at

the moment? Or would this just be another

opportunity for content distribution alongside

existing models?

PR: Multiple organisations selling content is great

for us because it drives up prices but it also

creates different economic windows which you

want to try take your content through, including

Netlfix and YouTube which is incidentally

fantastic for building a brand. You now have all

these different platforms which is a positive

attribute but the complexity is the rights issues

and there is a lot of legacy here.

AE: The whole new world of social TV is about

going direct to consumer.

PR: Communities is a fantastic model but the

challenge is there is an expectation on the web

that people won’t pay for stuff, which you have to

manage because at the end of the day good

content takes money.

AH: I would argue against that. The FB games

market is growing and there is money in that.

PR: You are giving away a huge amount of that

pie to FB though for that scale.

MC: You can almost imagine a single app which

Social TV roundtable

www.csimagazine.com September-Octover 2012 49

is a social EPG and any interactivity on the

broadcast is delivered to the single app and then

shown and loaded on the app. Zeebox have gone

over the top of any value chains in terms of the

broadcast to monetise the second screen by doing

that and that’s an interesting business model.

Broadcasters are stuck with a limited inventory in

terms of a number of ads they can show within an

hour of TV and the only way they can increase

their revenues is by doing that interactive app and

taking it to the advertisers to push up the price

and volumes. Zeebox is a great service but will

ad-funded broadcasters see them encroaching on

their territory?

AH: Zeebox have other distribution and

partnership deals launching in other countries. In

terms of their route to market for their social

experience is to launch as an app first, get some

traction and usage. Almost to show the TV

companies and ad agencies and aggregators they

have an audience of their own OTT and then go

back to broadcasters and say “You should partner

with us and bring our own social audience.” It’s

amazing the amount of small cable and telcos

we’ve talked to who didn’t think they could

launch a social experience into the marketplace

and Zeebox has changed this perception.

AE: it’s hard to call with technologies like Zeebox

and Shazam. Technologies get successful often

because there are solving a particular pain point.

FB and Twitter got a groundswell of being really

cool and caught on. It’s very hard to build a

successful business case from the start. There’s a

whole load of other companies that haven’t made

it to ride the tide.

PR: Let’s not forget also that sometimes Twitter

and other social media can damage reputations

and ruin programmes, companies and so on.

What worries me about that will a new gatekeeper

come along that can moderate that discussion?

We will see.

Chair: To round up, what’s the future going to be

and where would you put your money?

KH: This is a young and immature market,

however I think the big opportunity for everyone

in the TV industry is that social has already

accelerated the monetisation of brands. Brands

will be much more receptive to the idea of

funding content because the volumes are already

out there. STV is here and the future is bright.

MC: Is it really about STV or about technologies

like tablets that improve the viewing experience

and social is just a sub-component of that? Is it

just an element of an enhanced viewing

experience and are the gatekeepers of the future

those that get that right in terms of taking

Zeebox, social EPGs, FB and Twitter functions

with great content and packaging that?

AE: TV has kind of disappeared off the map as

new devices have appeared and we have gotten

distracted by other things. Now the opportunity is

there for TV to be social again because you can

stream content to it. Broadcasters as gatekeepers

have stopped it from advancing as much as it

could have. The internet has disrupted many

industries and it’s now simple to connect TVs. It’s

bringing all this content to where it’s best shown.

This whole fragmentation will exist for some time

because it’s not in everyone’s interest to

consolidate on one platform and where we bet

our money is on solving the issue of getting

content across multiple devices.

PR: STV is an opportunity to keep video

entertainment salient. Eventually I think all video

will be consumed by the internet and broadcast

will cease to exist – that’s the end game I think.

What it does do is change relatively positions of

different people in the value chain. While I do

think the gatekeepers will break down there will

still be gatekeepers, but ultimately there will be

more power moving to content owners.

AH: What’s been quite telling for me is that we

have spent a lot of time talking about what might

not be directly related to what we might put in the

box of STV because it’s one facet of a very fast

evolving area of entertainment and

communications industry, which goes back to the

original topic of discussion. Every brand is a

media channel now which is the key to what STV

is enabling; it’s enabling people to reach

consumers in new ways. Privacy will be hugely

telling in how things evolve and where the power

shift and balance of power will lie.

Social TV roundtable

50 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

This roundtable took place at the DTG’s

headquarters in London. Situated on the banks

of the Thames with views of Parliament and the

London Eye, the DTG’s modern conference

centre, meeting facilities and state-of-the-art

digital TV demonstration room are available free

of charge to DTG members and can be hired by

non-members for corporate events.

The need for set-top-boxes has

been called into question by

some commentators as more

and more over-the-top

streaming and on-demand

content is made available

direct on connected TVs.

There is little doubt the TV landscape will change

with the adoption of very high speed broadband

infrastructure. However, the global average broad-

band speed is still only 2.7 Mbps so this is only

starting to have an impact in the most developed

markets, this means the move to a pure Cloud

approach is a much longer term prospect.

Pure Cloud TV services place huge demands

on bandwidth and won’t be practical in most

countries for some time; being pragmatic this

could range from anything between five to 20

years depending on the particular market.

Although the vision for a pure Cloud infrastruc-

ture is sound, it will be too

limited by technological and

cost constraints to become a

mass market reality in the

short term.

The client-centric alterna-

tive reduces the total cost of operations for opera-

tors because it requires less upfront investment in

data centres and maintenance and no reinvest-

ment in broadcast infrastructure. However, it is

the ongoing OpEx savings for provisioning multi-

screen services that makes the case for this model

most convincing and highlights why the set top

box has a place at the centre of the connected

home for the foreseeable future. The costs of run-

ning a multi-screen headend are significant in

themselves and grow dramatically when you factor

in re-distribution costs for multiple streams over

the broadband infrastructure. For these reasons it

is much more cost-effective to use an intelligent

STB as a mini “server” within the home to con-

nect to all the user’s devices.

Using a media hub STB to serve the content

and standard user interface as HTML5 pages to a

client browser app on any connected device works

to the same principle as the Cloud - but in the

home. This approach uses less WAN bandwidth

since distribution is provisioned through the

user’s own wired or wireless home network, a cost

saving that is particularly attractive to operator

customers in developing markets.

LAN-based distribution also offers clear bene-

fits to the end user; local storage reduces the

latency issues that are often associated with net-

work PVR systems to offer the simplicity of a

Cloud type environment with a faster and smooth-

er multi-screen performance. It also greatly

improves security, consumers can access their

own stored content across devices without having

to upload it to the wider Cloud to reduce the

threat of it being compromised in external data

breaches.

A key consideration for payTV operators is

being able to offer their customers a fully branded

user experience that is compelling enough to mini-

mise churn. A true next generation payTV experi-

ence must offer consistency of look and usability

by offering a standard UI across devices, regard-

less of manufacturer. From this, perspective a

major factor holding back the STB-free future is

the limitations of the current generation of con-

nected TVs and other CE technologies.

Despite the moniker connected TVs simply

aren’t particularly “smart” and operators are wak-

ing up to the fact that it’s incredibly inefficient to

have to provision for each and every TV platform.

Equally the siloed approach to connected services

offered by most CE vendors makes for a fragment-

ed and ultimately unsatisfying user experience.

This will improve over subsequent iterations but

to date there has been little incentive for consum-

ers to upgrade to expensive new flat-screens so

soon after the HD upgrade cycle.

The ways in which users consume TV content

is evolving rapidly and operators need to keep up

with user demands for next generation TV servic-

es. However, very few are able to afford the huge

investment needed to move their services to the

Cloud. This means that for most operators, partic-

ularly those in developing markets, this will be an

incremental process that will take place over

many years. Although the market for basic “zap-

per” boxes will contract over the next decade,

Netgem believes its established media hub model

will ensure the set-top-box will continue to have a

place within next generation TV experience.

Yann Courqueux is VP of marketing &

business development at Netgem

The future of the set-top-box The STB is not quite dead and will have its uses for some time yet, argues Yann Courqueux

Cloud special

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 51

Amsterdam in early

autumn will be cloudy -

but these clouds will be

inside the RAI and adorn

many of the exhibition

stands at this year’s IBC.

The use of cloud comput-

ing in broadcast and video production is slowly gain-

ing momentum – certainly on the supply side – but

is there real value to the broadcast and media indus-

tries in the cloud, or is it just vapour up there?

The Cloud or cloud computing means different

things to different people and is largely dependent

on perspective – technologist or user. Broadly,

cloud computing is the provision of computing as a

service rather than as a product and is usually

accessed directly through an internet browser or

internet-enabled applications through web services.

The cloud is commonly subdivided into three vari-

ants: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as

a Service (PaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS)

but in broad terms it allows for ad-hoc access to

computing and software services provisioned by a

specialist service provider.

Cloud computing has allowed a pay-per-use/ pay-

as-you-go model to be employed for many comput-

ing functions and has acted as an enabler – particu-

larly in these difficult economic times – for many

businesses to tightly control budgets and incremen-

tally scale computing resources based on business

activity. Using the example of a technology imple-

mentation project, such as the build of a broadcast

facility, cloud-provisioned software and systems can

be particularly helpful. Software and services such

as document management, and technical and finan-

cial approval workflows are provisioned from web-

based providers on a per user basis and are ‘stood-

up’ only for the duration of the project.

The cloud, by its nature, is omnipresent, mean-

ing that disparate teams, perhaps working in dif-

ferent countries, can easily collaborate. When a

project is complete, the relevant final project doc-

uments are archived, interme-

diaries or work in progress

documents purged, and access

to services closed down.

Software and hardware cost

savings are significant if com-

pared to purchasing these systems outright and

deploying them at the project office(s). All ser-

vice costs are also directly attributable to a specif-

ic project, thereby allowing for accurate recharg-

ing if appropriate. The cloud model works very

well in this context by simplifying daily work func-

tions and speeding up tasks - particularly the shar-

ing of material. The necessary ‘up front’ capital

investment in equipment and software is greatly

reduced and when the project is complete, demo-

bilisation is low cost, tidy and rapid.

A technology implementation project is a piece of

work with a defined set of deliverable outcomes over

a finite period. A comparison between a technology

project and television production may be loose but

there are similarities. Productions are temporary

pieces of work, requiring many contributors at differ-

ent times during the process. These contributors

may be disparately located but require shared and

possibly simultaneous access to material such as

scripts or rushes. There is an inherent requirement

for the ability to review and approve material as it

makes its way through the workflow. When the fin-

ished program is ready, unimportant material is

purged, the useful rushes or intermediary content

archived, and the project is wound up. The cloud is

almost a natural place for production to ‘live’, partic-

ularly in respect of the collaborative working require-

ments of geographically separate contributors.

Is it all just ‘Cloud-Wash’?Is the activity in cloud broadcast over-hyped, which may be occluding the real benefits to be had by exploiting cloud computing for media production, asks Julian Wright

“It is a brave producer indeed who will cross the chasm to an entirely (or partially) cloud-based production workflow.”

52 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

Cloud special

Cloud special

Why the slow adoption in broadcast?

The utilisation of cloud-based computing services

in the broadcast and video production industries

has failed to take off in the same way that it has in

other sectors such as print media. The reasons

behind this are many, but of particular significance

is that research has shown that producers fail to see

the benefits right now. The term ‘cloud’ is simply

too nebulous to sufficiently describe its benefits.

Clearly, the proponents are failing to make a

compelling case.

Content is extremely valuable and production

schedules are usually tight. That being the case it is

a brave producer indeed who will cross the chasm

to an entirely (or partially) cloud-based production

workflow with the option of a more predictable, if

inefficient and expensive, alternative already in

place. This is particularly the case if a producer has

been wrestling with a poorly implemented tapeless

workflow that promised a more streamlined

operation yet delivered the all-too-frequent shock of

‘Media Offline’ or frozen interface followed by a

panicked rush to a (soon-to-be-decommissioned)

linear suite.

Broadcast systems manufacturers must take

some responsibility for the overly cautious nature

of their customers and position cloud-based

offerings on the basis the business and operational

needs of the producer/broadcaster or content

owner. In design and implementation, the overall

offering should also focus on the business and

operational benefits rather than the

implementation fashionable technology or else

cloud is in danger of being characterised as an IT

(supplier side) driven fad.

To date there have been relatively few cloud pro-

visioned production platforms brought to market

and, as we have already discussed, user take up has

been extremely cautious. We are certainly still in

the ‘innovators phase’ of the adoption lifecycle.

Some very early offerings were over-engineered (by

engineers, for engineers of course) which in turn

made them inflexible. It also made adaptations

required to ‘fix’ the situation prohibitively expen-

sive. Some of these offerings have already been,

rather unceremoniously, retired.

Cloud provisioning can transform

video production

The cloud has the potential to be a truly transform-

ative innovation in video production, but there are

barriers. Most obvious is the bandwidth require-

ment and related costs. Transporting video content

from a production office or location to the cloud

for processing (eg, editing or transcoding), or stor-

age and back again, is cost prohibitive even with

UDP based accelerators. The bandwidth require-

ment, particularly for HD content, is so large that

the cloud model begins to become unattractive in

internet connection costs alone.

Another likely benefit of the cloud is

on-demand, pay-per-use storage but, again, what

works well for storing a large number of

documents/drawing doesn’t really work for a

production in which the content that needs storing

is long form video. A fairly modest 100 hours of

DVCPRO HD content is close to 5TB. Within a

few months the cost of storage would become

prohibitive for a single production budget and

would be near parity with purchasing the storage

outright and deploying at the facility. Certainly for

long-term archive storage the cloud model makes

little sense for large amounts of content when

compared to an in-house storage solution with an

LTO or disk-based deep archive.

The answer probably resides in hybrid imple-

mentations in which light-weight functions such as

asset management and browse editing are provi-

sioned in the cloud, with the more cumbersome

tasks such as long term storage and rendering per-

formed on the ground at the production facility.

My advice is that when considering cloud

provisioned services for your next production,

take an approach as you would with any other

cloud service. Upfront set-up costs should be low;

there shouldn’t be an unreasonable minimum

term or early termination fees; and all costs

should be based on usage. Any software deployed

at a facility as part of the provision should follow

a similar pay-per-use or lease licence basis as the

access to the cloud. Value-add services should be

incrementally priced and not bundled. In terms of

video technologies, these should be entirely non-

proprietary. At the end of a production it should

be possible to archive and transport projects so

that they can be used in other systems, be they

cloud-based or deployed.

As broadcast systems manufacturers race to con-

quer the cloud, users (finally) have the advantage.

It is a low risk venture to trial a given cloud offer-

ing, and the focus is now very much on needs of

the user rather than the underlying technology.

As the production industry inexorably (if

slowly) moves to service provision of whatever

flavour, the providers to watch are likely to be

those who have experience of working at the

sharp end of television production (not in a

technology development lab). These offerings will

use open technology standards and be

operationally focused in the broadest sense. The

implementation of technology is no longer a

barrier to broadcast video processing or control

and as such the industry is (at last) seeing

technology as the supplier to the business needs

rather than the other way around.

The real value in the cloud is for the content

producers. At the end of the day, it is the

suppliers’ responsibility to convincingly

demonstrate its capability to an increasingly

discerning, savvy customer.

Julian Wright is the co-founder and CEO of

Blue Lucy Media

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 53

Proprietary clouds at IBC?I expect that IBC 2012 will see a significant increase in the use of ‘cloud’ in presentations and marketing. It may even be one of the key themes. In my view, this is a supply side focus rather than one derived from the genuine needs of production companies and broadcasters.

I also suspect that many will be ‘cloud-wash’, ie, cloud in name (and possibly architecture) only that do not deliver the economic benefits seen in other industries. An even more sceptical view may be that the cloud is simply a convenient buzzword that provides cover for the sale of more proprietary hardware at the back end. Vendor lock-in remains a very big issue in the industry, and established manufacturers will do all they can to hold onto their corner market for as long as possible. Proprietary clouds? Don’t bet against them in broadcast and media tech. This will occlude the genuine advantages of cloud-based production and stymie adoption in the same way the integration issues have plagued IT-based workflows since the early 2000s.

As I write this, the big

countdown clock at the

top of IBC’s home page

says 20 days 20 hours

and 20 minutes until the

start of this year’s show,

Europe’s largest – and

most fun – broadcast trade fair. Over 50,000

visitors and 1,300+ exhibitors will descend on

Amsterdam between 6 - 11 September to see

and be seen.

As usual, some heavy hitters from the likes of

BSkyB, the newly launched YouView platform,

BBC, NBC and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting

Union will assemble to share their thoughts on

key trends impacting the television space.

But most refreshing perhaps is a surprise

keynote from pop star and entrepreneur will.i.am.

In this respect, IBC lags behind more consumer

facing shows such as Mobile World Congress

(MWC) which has for years now been attracting

big showbiz names from film and music to add a

touch of glamour to proceedings. IBC has never

needed this side to it, but it will nevertheless be

interesting to hear the thoughts of a trend-setter

outside the broadcast space. Even at MWC,

celebs usually had a good story to tell and a

technology viewpoint that is different from the

usual industry mindset.

will, best know for Black Eyed Peas fame, will

use the IBC conference to examine the role of

technology in the creative process. “Illustrated

with personal stories and illustrations from their

careers, it will show how the application of new

technology can be a catalyst for new thinking and

positive change and be key to surmounting

barriers,” according to the marketing blurb.

It is co-hosted by Intel’s Johan Jervøe, and the

chip giant, in fact, appointed will as director of

creative innovation in January 2011, to innovate

and promote inspiring content, technology and

hardware strategies.

For those looking for something a little more

mainstream, The IBC Leaders’ Summit is an

invitation-only day-long event that will investigate

how connected TV is shifting value, changing

business models and creating new opportunities.

C-Level delegates from a number of the leading

broadcasters and content owners will be in

attendance.

At IBC overall, conference

themes range from the more

glamorous – second screen,

connected TV, OTT, voice

interaction etc - to the less glitzy but essential

topics of workflows, archiving and metadata.

On the exhibition front, expect the new HEVC

compression scheme (set to be standardised early

next year) to feature highly among some of the

demos, especially as ultra HDTV begins to loom

on the horizon. Early press material also suggests

social EPGs, companion app synchronisation and

other multi-screen advancements to sit prominent-

ly on the show floor of numerous booths.

Future Zone

Concepts and prototypes from R&D labs

demonstrated this year include project FINE (led

by Spain’s Mediapro and co-funded by the EC)

with the aim of speeding up all the algorithms

and fine-tuning all workflow items.

LSO 3D VIVANT (advances in the 3D holo-

scopic imaging technology) and a ‘Throwable

Panoramic Ball Camera’, which takes a full spher-

ical panorama when thrown into the air by 36

mobile phone camera modules, are among some

of the proof-of-concepts at the stands in this area.

There are also more Super Hi-Vision advances

from NHK, which is exhibiting a new

33-megapixel CMOS image sensor operating at

double the frame frequency of the current system,

and an experimental colour camera system using

the sensors.

Visitors are encouraged to see the other stands

in the zone as well, offering as they do a thought

provoking glimpse into the future.

Let’s get it started*Goran Nastic looks forward to another IBC, which this time features celebrities from outside the industry

IBC preview

54 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

(* W

ith a

polo

gies

to t

he B

lack

Eye

d Pe

as fo

r pl

agia

risi

ng o

ne o

f th

eir

bigg

est

hits

.)

Prometheus on the Big ScreenA regular venue for hosting presentations, the Big Screen has traditionally also shown big budget blockbusters, such as Avatar. This year, it is the turn of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic Prometheus. Although met with critically mixed reviews, the Alien prequel should look pretty good in a location that sits 1,700 people and boasts facilities for 4K and stereoscopic 3D digital projection, with audio presented in Dolby 7.1 surround sound. Doors open at 18:15 for an 18.30 showing on the Saturday.

http://www.cstb.ru

Once upon a time,

broadcast asset

management was a room

with a large amount of

shelving, a card index

and – almost always – a

librarian with a

comprehensive knowledge of what was in the

archive. When “file transfer” meant taking a tape

off the shelf and getting a production assistant to

sign for it, the system worked reasonably well.

Digital workflows meant that content was

capable of being simultaneously stored in multiple

places and accessed by different devices and

people, so a structured and integrated asset

management system was required. The first asset

management systems grew out of playout

automation, and their requirements were relatively

simple.

The database needed to know what sort of

content it was – programme, trailer or

commercial – and its precise timings. It also

needed to know where it was, which might be on

a tape in a robot or on a server. Armed with this

information, the playout automation could

convert a schedule into seamless transmission.

Linear channel playout today is often

outsourced to a specialist centre, but the

requirements of asset management have scarcely

changed. There might be a need to set a flag for

surround sound or graphics, but otherwise

transmission automation still requires just the

basics. Indeed, the asset management databases at

outsourcing playout centres generally only include

that core information in their metadata schemas.

But content owners today

want to make their assets work

much harder. They see new

revenue opportunities in video

on demand services, and in

sell-through platforms like

iTunes and Amazon. For some content there is

the prospect of selling clips to other productions.

The dilemma, then, for content owners, is

between what metadata is needed for traditional

broadcast and the greatly expanded data set

required for expanded distribution.

This need for bigger data models is the

elephant in the room. Clearly without better

metadata and asset management content owners

cannot maximise their potential revenues, but

implementing such a system is dauntingly

complex. The temptation is to ignore the problem.

The data model

So what does a data model look like today? The

answer is that there is no answer to that: each

user will need to tailor the data model to their

own requirements. There are standardised data

models, like the BBC SMEF (standard metadata

exchange framework) and the Dublin Core, and

these have their advantages (and disadvantages).

Good asset management systems, like TMD’s

Mediaflex, will provide support for them through

their inherent flexibility. They may provide a

foundation, but slavishly replicating them is

unlikely to meet specific needs.

I believe that, before you even sit down to

The elephant in the roomTony Taylor of TMD argues there is a need for much more metadata, and flexibility in the way that media tagging is used

Archiving

56 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com

“The dilemma for content owners is between what metadata is needed for traditional broadcast and the greatly expanded data set required for expa-nded distribution.”

Archiving

develop the data model, you need to take a

radically fresh look at information flows within

the whole business. In the traditional broadcast or

production company there have been technical

systems – including asset management – which

dealt with media, and there have been business

systems – from a couple of spreadsheets to a full-

blown SAP network – to handle commercial

decision-making. The two eco-systems are almost

always separated by a gulf of understanding and

motivation.

While it may not happen immediately, I think it

is vital that you plan for information to be shared

across all the processing systems in an enterprise.

A successful media business in the future will be

one which best manages its costs and maximises

its revenues. The media technology has to support

that goal.

That is not to say these businesses should rip

out all their IT and start again. Even if it was a

viable option, the risks in designing and

implementing such a system would be too great to

contemplate.

The answer is to provide for links and

interoperability between legacy systems and the

asset management network to ensure that the

right information is available, or can be entered,

at the right time. When we started working with

one client, we discovered that the old way of

working involved typing the title of an acquired

programme into 34 separate computer systems.

You do not need me to explain the danger of error

and sheer inefficiency.

Integrating systems is less of a technical

challenge than it used to be, thanks to the

development of techniques like the service-

oriented architecture (SOA). This avoids the need

to design, write and maintain point to point

interfaces between all systems involved, with the

consequent exponential rise in complexity as

systems are added and the risk of it all grinding to

a halt if just one element is upgraded.

The service-oriented architecture is based on

simple adaptors on each system which allow it to

talk to a common bus, and thus all the other

systems. Open standards for web services make

these adaptors simple to write and interface.

Should an individual system be upgraded it is

only that system’s adaptor that needs to be

checked for continuing compatibility.

While this integration of legacy and business

systems minimises the need for new

developments, it must be recognised that there is

a need for much more metadata, and flexibility in

the way that it is used.

Amazon, iTunes and

CableLabs all require

different sets of data

alongside content to be

distributed by them, and as

is probably well known by

now the biggest source of

rejections by iTunes is not

for any failings in the

content but because of

metadata errors.

The asset management

system, therefore, needs to

be constructed carefully

from the beginning, to at

least ensure it is flexible enough to store,

manipulate and manage the data set which you

are likely to require in the future.

Tagging and asset management

Having set out a comprehensive and flexible

metadata schema which suits the current and

future needs of your media business, the next

challenge you face is populating the database with

all that information. The fear is that this will

involve teams of people copy-typing information

before the system can be of any use.

This is the wrong way to think about it. My

best advice, as someone who has overseen a lot of

huge asset management projects is not to even

consider batch entry. Plan to add metadata at the

most appropriate point, and by the most

appropriate person, as the content moves through

the workflow.

Because of the integration between business

systems and asset management, when a tape or a

file arrives in the building the essential

information – title, category, maybe transmission

dates and rights – will already exist. The first

stage is simply to confirm that the content has

arrived, and maybe that it has been transcoded

into the house format.

Later other operators will add technical QC

information, precise timings, the presence of

subtitle files, notes for conformance editing and

more. Where you want content tagging and other

intellectual metadata that can be added as the

content gets to that part of the workflow.

The system should not be designed to allow

this, it should be designed to encourage it.

Screens should be tailored for each operator, with

only the relevant fields presented, and checks to

ensure that they are complete before the file is

handed on. Presenting the whole schema to every

operator would be deeply disheartening for people

who had to search screens full of boxes to find

the one field that needs to be completed, a sure-

fire recipe for mistakes.

Because the asset management is linked to

other systems, it can also be linked to external

sources via the web. Rather than laboriously copy-

typing the cast and synopsis of a film or

programme part, go to external systems or web

sites and download it. We have simple tools that

allow the information to be parsed and inserted

into the right fields. If you need to tag the content

by script pointers, pull in the subtitle file which is

already timecode-linked.

In summary, then, do not put off thinking

about comprehensive asset management because

it is critical to business efficiency as well as

maximising revenues. But do choose a system

which has a solid foundation you can then build

on to create a structure that does what you need it

to do. The National Film & Sound Archive in

Australia chose TMD for its archive management

because of this flexibility: it added more than 500

fields to match its very specific intellectual and

preservation metadata requirements.

Ensure the asset management system is

integrated with the rest of your operations.

Minimise repetition by pulling in data from

elsewhere; maximise effectiveness by reporting

from asset management to other systems.

Finally, think of entering metadata as enriching

the content not a chore to be overcome. Make it

easy for people who care about specific pieces of

the data to find and enter the information quickly

and accurately. The result will be a powerful and

flexible business tool which will enhance your

capability to deliver content profitably.

www.csimagazine.com September-October 2012 57

“The biggest source of rejections by iTunes is not for any failings in the content but because of meta-data errors.”

58 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com58 September-October 2012 www.csimagazine.com50 January-February 2012 www.csimagazine.com www.csimagazine.com January-February 2012 51

To advertise contact Tiro Bestonso +44 (0)20 7562 2427 tiro.bestonso@csimagazine.com

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ATX Networks offers a broad range of products from the headend to the home including digital video processing systems, bulk video transition solutions, multichannel encoding and transmission, multiscreen and traditional offerings, audio/video deletion and insertion, RF filters, signal management equipment (RF, L-Band, Optical), transmitters/receivers, headend and MDU amplifiers, node segmentation, node/amp upgrades, monitor/control equipment, pads/EQs, drop amps, drop passives, digital voice switches, and connectors.

VISLINK plc is a global business, strategically focussed on providing secure communication technologies to customers in our chosen markets. We have three international business units organised to serve our customers in Broadcast, Surveillance, and the related Services markets. Our world renowned brands of ADVENT, GIGAWAVE, LINK, MRC and PMR lead the way with award winning products including IP gateways, microwave radio, satellite transmission and wireless cameras.With offices in the UK, USA, Dubai, South Africa and Singapore, and dedicated sales and engineering teams, VISLINK has the experience and expertise to deliver the most comprehensive solutions for today’s challenges.

Irdeto empowers companies to protect and monetize their digital assets and maximize return on content with innovative and reliable software technologies end-to-end solution and services. The company’s products include conditional access, digital rights management, business support systems, set-top box software solutions and, through its Cloakware subsidiary, software and datacenter security. More than 400 customers worldwide trust Irdeto to secure delivery of their valuable content across digital broadcast, IP, Mobile, enterprise and government networks. Irdeto solutions currently enable simple to advanced business models on more than one billion devices and applications.

For more information, please visit www.irdeto.com.

ADB designs, manufactures and deploys solutions to distribute pay-TV and multimedia services to the connected home, for all types of networks, providing an amazing user experience.

ADB believes in a future where multi-media content will come from multiple sources and seamlessly move between multiple screens and devices, at the user’s preference. The Company has delivered over 30 million consumer premise devices to a global customer base. ADB’s innovations and software expertise have been recognized by numerous industry awards.

NDS creates the security and enabling technologies as well as the applications that allow operators to generate revenues by delivering digital content to TVs, STBs, DVRs, PCs, PMPs, mobile phones, and removable security over one or more networks. Headquartered in the UK, NDS employs more than 3,950 people and continues to make a major commitment to R&D with over 85% of our employees dedicated to pioneering development work at centers worldwide

NDS Group Ltd, One London Road, Staines, Middlesex TW18 4EX Tel +44 (0)178 484 8500 Fax +44 (0)178 484 8600Web: www.nds.com Email: info@nds.com

Taurus Avenue 105, 2132 LS HoofddorpThe NetherlandsTel: +31 23 556 22 22 Fax: +31 23 556 22 40 Email: info@irdeto.com Web: www.irdeto.com

Address: 27 Maylands Avenue, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP2 7DE, UKPhone: +44 (0)14 42 43 13 00 Fax: +44 (0) 14 42 43 13 01Website: www.vislink.com Email: sales@vislink.com

Corneliusstr. 22, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland Tel: +49-17-1998-3676Email: support@atxnetworks.comWeb: www.atxnetworks.com

Advanced Digital Broadcast S.A. Avenue de Tournay 7, CH-1292 Chambesy, Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 799 0799 Fax: +41 22 799 0790 Web: www.adbglobal.com

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To advertise contact Tiro Bestonso +44 (0)20 7562 2427 tiro.bestonso@csimagazine.com

Business DirecTory

Intelsat is the leading provider of fi xed satellite services worldwide. Intelsat supplies video, data and voice connectivity for leading media and communications companies, Internet Service Providers and government organizations. Intelsat’s valuable regional video neighborhoods deliver more television channels than any other system. Intelsat’s terrestrial network of eight strategically-located teleports and over 36,000 miles of leased fi ber complements a global satel-lite fl eet of more than 50 satellites, covering 99% of the world’s population. Intelsat utilizes a fully integrated satellite operations model, enabling global delivery from a single platform. With Intelsat, communications with your customers are closer, by far.

Bridge Technologies designs, develops, and manufactures advanced analysis, measurement, and monitoring solutions for the digital media, broadcast and telecommunications industries.

The award-winning VideoBRIDGE series provides an advanced platform for converging TV services employing stream-based IP packets and all other Digital TV interfaces within DVB and ATSC for Cable, Terrestrial and Satellite. Compatible with all major industrial standards such as MPEG-2, h.264/AVC, HTTP based streaming and ETSI TR 101 290, the VideoBRIDGE series offers a complete end-to-end system for the continuous quality assurance of media services.

The Humax range of award-winning digital TV set-top boxes and recorders for Freeview and Freesat has a product to suit any TV viewer. Feature rich and technologically advanced, yet intuitive and easy to use, the Humax range offers the ultimate way to enjoy multi-channel, subscription-free digital TV, from high defi nition (HD) and on-demand content, to recording features and multi-media services.

Verimatrix specializes in securing and enhancing revenue for multi-screen digital TV services for more than 500 operators around the globe. The award-winning and independently audited Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS™) and ViewRight® solutions offer an inno-vative approach for cable, satellite, terrestrial and IPTV operators to cost-effectively extend their networks and enable new business models. As the recognized leader in software-based security solutions for premier service providers, Verimatrix has pioneered the 3-Dimensional Security approach that offers fl exible layers of protection techniques to address evolving business needs and revenue threats. Maintaining close relationships with major studios, broadcasters, industry organizations, and its unmatched partner ecosystem enables Verimatrix to provide a unique perspective on digital TV business issues beyond content security as operators seek to deliver compelling new services. www.verimatrix.com

EchoStar Europe is dedicated to enabling digital entertainment providers to optimise revenues by delivering added-value connected device solutions, services and applications. Through a comprehensive product range, including STBs, DVRs, home networking and TV anywhere technology, our solutions enable the provision of state-of-the-art and cost effective entertainment services.

Headquartered in the UK, EchoStar Europe comprises a number of business units and is af-fi liated with EchoStar Technologies, a subsidiary of the publicly traded EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS).

6825 Flanders Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, USATel: +1-858-677-7800 Fax: +1-858-677-7804Web: www.verimatrix.com

Humax Electronics Co., Ltd, The Mille Building (8th Floor), 1000 Great West Road, Brentford, London TW8 9HHWeb: www.humaxdigital.com

Sandakerveien 24c, Building D5NO-0473 OsloTel: +47 22 38 51 00 Offi ce Switchboard Tel: +47 22 38 51 01 Offi ce Fax Web: www.bridgetech.tv

3400 International Drive, NW, Washington D.C. 20008 USATel: +1 202 944 6800 Fax: +1 202 944 7898Web: www.intelsat.com

Beckside Design Centre, Millennium Business Park, Station Road, Steeton, Keighley BD20 6QW, United Kingdom Tel: +44 1535 659000 Fax: +44 1535 659100Web: www.echostar.com

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Unlock the full potential for your content.When it comes to reaching new audiences, there’s no better partner than Intelsat.

Our exclusive Video Neighborhoods and MCPC platforms launch your channels on

the dedicated media satellites that are most in demand among top international

programmers worldwide. Intelsat has leading neighborhoods service in every region,

for a truly global solution. You’ll cost-effectively increase your visibility among cable

systems and DTH platforms while reaching the greatest number of homes.

Meet with Intelsat during IBC 2012 at Hall 1, Stand 1.C71.

Visit www.intelsat.com or contact us at sales.eme@intelsat.com for details.

Your Key to the Best Video Neighborhoods

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