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April 2016
IP in
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In the spotlight: Are apps the future of TV?
csi-cover-april2016.indd 1 31/03/2016 16:00:36
SECURING THE CONNECTED FUTURE
The world of video is becoming more connected. And next-generation video service providers are delivering new connected services based on software and IP technologies.
Now imagine a globally interconnected revenue security platform. A cloud-based engine that can optimize system performance, proactively detect threats and decrease operational costs.
Discover how Verimatrix is defining the future of pay-TV revenue security. www.verimatrix.com/verspective
Visit us at NAB 2016 April 18-21 • Las Vegas • Booth # SU2806
Perspective Publishing3 London Wall BuildingsLondonEC2M 5PDwww.perspectivepublishing.com
Editor’s report:In September last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook reignited a familiar argument when he declared that “the future of TV is apps”, which coincided with the launch of a new TV Operating System from the company. There are, of course, reasons for Cook’s vision of the future (after all, everyone wants their business model to succeed) but regardless of Apple’s ambitions, are there also other reasons to agree with his statement? We explore competing
claims and try to assess what they might mean for the future of TV over the next few years. In particular, how will fragmentation play out, how about search & discovery? Indeed, what happens to channels in a world of apps? These questions and more are tackled on pages 12-17. The cloud and IoT are among the other trends sweeping across ICT and other industries besides. The impact of these is examined with regards to headends on page 18, satellite on page 22 and on a wider level on page 25. Finally, we zoom in on the issue of satellite interference on page 34. Goran Nastic, editor
Contents
05 NewsAll the latest industry news, views and analysis
12 COVER STORY - TV-as-an-appAre apps really the future of television? And just what is TV anyway in an app-centric environment?
16 TV apps - part IITwo leading analysts share their perspective, including usage stats on the most popular OTT and broadcast channel apps
18 Headends evolutionTo what extent are the twin moves to the cloud and virtualisation shaping video headends?
21 Industry columnThe DTG looks at how television is changing amid ongoing debates about whether people prefer to sit back or lean forward
22 Satellite in IoT/M2M We look at what role satellite can play in the Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine space, as well as other emerging opportunities for satellite platforms
25 Data & analyticsActionable intelligence and the cloud has presented a unique opportunity to fight piracy but also wider problems that can disrupt service availability and revenue
31 IP in broadcastInteroperability is among the hurdles hampering the adoption of IP in live production, where multiple standards and approaches are battling for attention
34 Satellite interferenceA look at the current state of affairs and some key development timelines over the next few years
36 CSI AwardsOur industry awards are now open for entry and feature a new category in the shape of VR
38 Events diaryDetails and timings for the big industry shows taking place in 2016
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 03
April 2016
IP in
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In the spotlight: Are apps the future of TV?
csi-cover-april2016.indd 1 31/03/2016 16:00:36
EditorGoran Nastic
CommercialJohn Woods, Hammad Uddin
Design and productionMatt Mills (Manager)Jason TuckerMatleena Lilja
Regular contributorsAdrian Pennington, Philip Hunter,David Adams, Stephen Cousins, Anna Tobin, Chris Pickering
CirculationJoel Whitefoot AccountsMarilou Tait, Lynta Kamaray
Editorialtel +44(0)20 7562 [email protected]
Advertisingtel +44(0)20 7562 [email protected] +44(0)20 7562 [email protected]
Subscriptionstel +44 (0) 20 1635 588 861 [email protected] Circulation manager: [email protected]
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 PressManaging DirectorJohn Woods
Publishing DirectorMark Evans
ISSN 1467-5935
contents-april2016.indd 3 04/04/2016 14:08:24
CSI magazine is now available as a digital-edition across all tablet and smart-phone devices
• 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
sign up to our free e-newsletters and CSI Magazine at www.csimagazine.com/csi/signupcsi.php
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digitalEditions-march2016-204x271.indd 1 01/04/2016 10:48:33
VR news in brief
VR SDK from QualcommQualcomm Technologies has
made available a new virtual
reality software development
kit. The Snapdragon VR SDK
is designed to enable developers
to exploit the power of the
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820
processor, which is capable
of supporting immersive VR
experiences, but can also be
difficult to fully utilise without
the right set of tools for
developers. According to the
company, it abstracts the
complexity of immersive VR and
provides developers with access
to optimised, advanced VR
features for Android smartphones
and upcoming VR headsets.
Many new technologies that are
crucial for an optimal VR user
experience will be supported
in the Snapdragon VR SDK,
including DSP sensor fusion;
Fast motion to photon, which
helps reduce latency by up to
50%; Stereoscopic rendering
with lens correction; VR
layering; and Power management.
The SDK is expected to be
available in the second quarter
of 2016 through the Qualcomm
Developer Network.
Nokia debuts pro VR cameraNokia has launched its OZO
virtual reality camera in Europe,
which is aimed at professional
VR content creation. Camera
features include real-time VR
preview, wireless operation, and
full 3D 360 VR audio and video
live broadcast capabilities. The
company has also teamed up
with post-production house
Deluxe and software house The
Foundry to facilitate the content
production workflow and advance
end-to-end solutions for creating
immersive virtual reality
experiences.
Virtual Reality will
completely transform
storytelling, but the
immersive experience that
comes with it also brings an
entirely different production
paradigm that will have to be
considered. VR specs and
industry bodies are very likely
to emerge to bring standards.
VR will be revolutionary
to both viewers and
storytellers, so panellists at DVB
World 2016 agreed that almost a new
film making language needs to be
invented and that rules on
production grammar are needed.
This is both to improves the quality
of service and to avoid problems like
motion sickness and headaches
which many users report feeling.
360 video and VR is not a new
concept but there are many new
enabling technologies that can now
take it from a niche to mass market.
Smart cameras, digital processing for
stitching, high performance cloud
networks, and, most importantly
perhaps, CE devices like
smartphones and new headsets are
all combining to drive the market.
There are hundreds of new entrants,
including consumer heavyweights
like Facebook, Samsung and Google.
“A new era is starting, all about
delivering experiences. Key words are
immersion, personalisation,
virtualistion and augmentation.
When we talk about VR, it’s a
combination of all these,” said
Ludovic Noblet from b-com.
The key aspect of value
proposition is the capability to
almost jump into the content and the
removal of the screen interface,
according to Noblet, who calls it
‘deep media’. VR brings more
interaction between the audience and
content, compared to today’s ‘static’
experience.
VR also introduces the notion of
‘time elasticity’, where story time vs
narration time changes compared to
traditional video, including non-linear
storytelling. “You have more freedom
of the story you are experiencing,”
he added.
Because VR blurs the lines
between creators and audiences, part
of the storytelling goes on the end-
user side, which begs the questions,
“Whose story is it?” And which part
of post-production goes
on the end-user side?
“Things you know
about classical
filmmaking doesn’t
work in VR,” noted
Peter Kauff from
Fraunhofer. Things like
positioning the film
crew, how to cut, set
light, direct attention…
ultimately how to tell
stories changes. “Almost a new
film making language needs to be
invented,” he noted.
Like with other new
technologies, it will probably be
helpful to introduce elements of
standardisation. There are lots of
standards needed in this space, it
was suggested, and in effect new
rules on production grammar are
needed. “There’s a real desire to
get everyone together and talk a
common language in both
production and deliverables,”
said DTG’s Simon Gauntlet.
There is at the moment an
ongoing DVB study mission that
will provide with all the technical
details for delivering 360 video.
This is expected to be complete
at some point this summer.
Gauntlett also said he would not
be surprised if some sort of VR
Forum emerges to tackle the end-
to-end jigsaw puzzle.
Sky has become one of the first major
broadczetsr to create and set up an
in-house production team dedicated to
Virtual Reality.
Called Sky VR Studio, it will
produce content initially for
Facebook’s 360-degree video
platform, viewable through the social
network’s website and mobile apps.
The Sky content will also be available
for Facebook’s Oculus platform,
including the Rift and Samsung Gear
VR headsets. It will also launch
a dedicated Sky VR app.
The payTV operator will produce
more than 20 videos across sports,
movies, news and entertainment
genres in 2016, starting with two F1
VR experiences, made in partnership
with Formula One Management and
the Williams F1 team, in time for the
new F1 season.
Sky is no stranger to VR, having
invested in Jaunt VR in September
of last year and has been filming
some VR footage since, including
content for Sky News. It feels the
time is right given the availability
of camera technology and even
more device support.
Sky VR Studio will be headed
up by executive producer Neil
Graham.
VR will bring new forms of story telling
Sky sets up VR unit
News
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 05
05news.indd 1 30/03/2016 11:08:21
UHD news in brief
New 4K channels on satelliteYahlive announced the launch of
its first free-to-air 4K channel,
Fashion One 4K, in the Middle
East and North Africa region.
Fashion 4K is part of the Fashion
One television network and is the
first television channel being
broadcast in 4K that is dedicated
to fashion, entertainment and
lifestyle, with an extensive library
of native UHD content. Fellow
carrier AsiaSat will distribute the
new Love Nature channel on the
AsiaSat 4 satellite. Love Nature
is another FTA UHD channel,
giving viewers 4K wildlife and
nature footage from a library of
nature documentaries, series,
featured themes and exclusive
natural history.
4K in SpainVodafone Spain is the country’s
first operator to launch a set-top
box that supports ultra HD. To
go with the UHD decoder, the
telco will offer up four UHD
channels: the music network
Festival 4K, the entertainment
networks Fun Box UHD and
Insight TV, and Slow Channel,
a background signal with images.
UHD services will be offered via
both fibre and ADSL networks.
Through this move, Vodafone will
also unify its TV offering for both
IPTV and ADSL subscribers with
the hybrid DTT/IPTV box.
UHD set-top from OrangeOrange has unveiled its new
Livebox home gateway, which
will available by this summer in
France. The 802.11ac WiFi unit
works in tandem with a new Ultra
HD decoder that features Dolby
Atmos sound. The operator will
offer a catalogue of content
including live events, sports and
more than 300 titles on demand
in UHD.
06 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
News
Upcoming UHD/HDR specs to trigger first Phase 2 deployments This October is a big month in the
evolution of beefed up ultra HD
standards, especially with regards to
High Dynamic Range. This will lead
to the first Phase-2 launches in early
2017 and Sky Deutschland hinted it
will limit HDR to UHD services
rather than dilute it down to HD.
A number of announcements
related to UHD/HDR are expected
from various industry bodies is
October, when the picture should
look a lot clearer of what a key part
of the next-gen ultra HD experience
will look like. ITU-T and MPEG
are planning to conclude their work
on HDR that month, at which time
the DVB will then also approve the
‘UHD-1 Phase 2’ specification.
Some markets require backwards
compatibility with Phase 1 but
others don’t.
Because HDR (which is about
better and brighter pictures and
contrasts) is widely perceived to be
a major feature of UHDTV Phase 2
– indeed, DVB’s Phil Laven
declared that “HDR is the killer
app for UHDTV” – the final
specification work by these groups is
keenly anticipated by the industry. It
is also why the October approval is
likely to trigger the first commercial
deployments in early 2017, probably
starting with payTV and broadband
OTT providers.
But there are disagreements over
the best type of HDR. ITU-R has
been discussing HDR for over two
years, with a new recommendation
finally agreed in February, settling on
both the US perceptual quantiser
(PQ) system (defined by SMPTE ST
2084) and BBC/NHK’s Hybrig Log
Gamma (HLG) system for HDR
broadcast productions. These are
now in the process of being
approved, which should happen
before October.
UltraHD BluRay disc, meanwhile,
has opted for PQ (ST 2084) as its
HDR solution and is about to enter
market for BR discs.
As far as DVB is concerned,
a total of nine candidate HDR
systems/technical proposals have
been put forward for Phase 2. The
systems being discussed in DVB
today generally fall under the
umbrella of either being a PQ type
system or a LG type system. The
candidates under consideration
comprise single layer solutions and
dual layer solutions, and come from
the likes of Philips, Dolby, Philips
and Technicolor.
DVB’s David Wood pointed out
that the DVB focus is on
transmission of video signal and
signalling, not the contrast ratio of
displays, which are responsibility of
manufacturer. Assuming the October
timeline is met, it will be followed by
several months of final work in ETSI
before becoming an official standard.
As well as HDR, a higher frame
rate (HFR) will be ushered into the
specification, but this is expected to
take several years longer than other
features, likely in 2019.
HDR in HD or UHD only?High Dynamic Range technology
may not just be for ultra HD
platforms, as it can bring value
to HD systems as well.
From the perspective of
consumers, HDTV + HDR may
be a good option as proponents
of so-called HDR+ argue this
will not be impacted by viewing
distance as higher resolutions are.
Whether HDR gets implement
in HD will be a decision for
individual media companies
however. It seems that there might
be a loose split between payTV
operators, who want to achieve
the full UHD + HDR premium
experience, and some (especially
free-to-air) broadcasters who may
want to go for the cheaper HD +
HDR combination.
Sky Deutschland is among the
payTV providers who look set to
include HDR only in its upcoming
ultra HD offer as a way of further
differentiating upcoming UHD
services from their HD propositions.
“HDR in HD is certainly a
business model but at this point in
time we would like to use HDR as a
certain leverage to introduce ultra
HD,” said Stephan Heimbecher,
Director, Innovations & Standards in
Technology at Sky Deutschland, at
DVB World 2016. “I think that it will
eventually make its way into the HD
world but at the moment it’s one of
the ingredients of the UHD soup.”
Martin Fähnrich from Panasonic
said the decision is ultimately up to
broadcasters and it is technologically
neutral as a CE manufacturer.
However, he pointed out that by the
time the HDR decision is made in
October and the products appear in
the market in 2017 that most TV sets
in the mid-range onwards will be
UHD Phase 2-enabled. There will
still be HDTV sets shipped next year,
of course, so whether these include
HDR remains an open question.
As Panasonic suggested, it seems
demand from broadcasters will
influence this.
06news.indd 1 31/03/2016 10:18:49
12 May 2016, Millennium Hotel Mayfair, London
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BetterSocietySaveTheDate.indd 1 11/02/2016 16:39:42
news in brief
KPN licenses DT’s smart home platform Dutch incumbent KPN is one
of the first operators to use
Deutsche Telekom’s Qivicon
smart home platform. The Dutch
telco trialled Qiviocon last year,
following which it has now
launched an app-based SmartLife
offering to all customers. It also
features a security service that
KPN has developed with Trigion
and Philips. The announcement
comes 12 months after DT
revealed Qivicon was coming to
the Netherlands and the UK.
KPN follows Austrian energy
company eww Group in offering
services based on Qivicon outside
of Germany. Last month, DT
signed up five new partners
to develop services based on
Qivicon as it aims to take a lead
in the connected home market
and enter other European
countries.
UK broadcasters mull joint SVoD serviceThe BBC, ITV and and
NBCUniversal have been in
discussion about launching a
subscription video on demand
streaming service to rival Netflix.
Talks are understood to be at an
early, explorative stage for the
proposed service, which is likely
to focus on providing older
archive TV content, not first-run
shows, although it would have
some original content. Netflix has
more than 5m users in the UK.
Sky invests in iflixSky has invested $45m in a
Malaysia-based VoD start up,
its first foray into Asia. The iflix
service operates in Malaysia,
the Philippines and Thailand
with more than 11,000 hours
of Hollywood and Asian content
to 1m subs.
News
DVB-T2 ready to roll out in GermanyThe first phase of Germany’s DVB-
T2 migration starts in late May,
with a soft launch of the largest six
channels provided in full HD. It
means that the European football
championships will be shown in
1080p for the first time on the DTT
anywhere worldwide.
With the upcoming move,
Germany is going direct from
MPEG-2 to HEVC, thereby
leapfrogging MPEG-4. In doing so,
it is also scrapping interlaced and
going with 1080p50 in DVB-T2, the
new terrestrial broadcast standard.
It marks the gradual culmination
of a process that started with the
introduction of DTT in 2002 in
the country.
But the current German DTT
platform offers no HD services
putting it at a severe disadvantage
against competitive cable and
satellite systems. This has formed
the key part of the strategic shift
to HEVC-based DVBT-2 services.
Holger Meinzer, CMO at Media
Broadcast, the country’s DTT
infrastructure provider, explained at
DVB World 2016 that major public
and private broadcasters are now
doubling the size of the broadcast
pipe and
squeezing data
rates of full
HD channel
from 16Mpbs
to 4mps.
Media
Broadcast
carried out
DVB-T2 &
HEVC trials in
Berlin, Cologne and Munich in
order to tweak the right technical
parameters, including portable
DTT reception.
One of the main findings
concluded there was no significant
saving found in the bitrate with
720p/1080i compared to 1080p,
which promoted the decision to go
with the latter.
The DVB-T2/HEVC combination
will be used for a mix of more
channels, almost all in HD, and
interactive content via the ‘multithek’
HbbTV portal, which will also be
expanded over time due to spectrum
constraints, according to Meinzer.
There will be between 15 and 20
free-to-air (FTA) public channels and
20-25 commercial channels available
for a small fee. These will be
encrypted with a cardless CA
solution from Irdeto.
The pilot launch of select services
with 6 multiplexes - three for public
and three for commercial
broadcasters - will start on 31 May
in time for the Euros, when there
will be a simulcast offer where all
other DVB-T channels remain on air.
A hard migration takes place in
Q1 2017, when DVB-T transmissions
will cease in all major areas.
A switchover will then follow in
rural areas and the transition is
due to finish in 2019 when DVB-T
will be switched off completely to
coincide with the clearing of
700Mhz spectrum.
Besides low-cost STBs, DVB-T2
will be available on connected TVs,
laptops, smartphones and dongles.
Telefonica rules out widespread LTE-B
Dr Mike Short of Telefonica has
ruled out national deployments of
LTE-Broadcast technology.
He suggested that a combination
of sites, spectrum and business case
will limit LTE-B’s applications.
“LTE-Broadcast is a great
technology but it’s only as good as
the sites, or the spectrum or the
business that you have. Some of
the issues though when looked at
together constrain the adoptability
so I think we should see it as a
compliment rather than competition
to TV broadcasting,” said Short,
speaking at the DVB World 2016.
“Some of the use cases we’ve
looked at are interesting but for
national deployment most unlikely.
It does depend on which country or
city you’re in. if I take London, the
biggest city in Europe, it’s not likely
to happen at a large scale any time
soon,” Short added.
Little progress has also been
made on the handsets front, where
Rehfuess admits the issue remains
a typical ‘chicken and egg problem’.
Qualcomm test terminals were used
for the recent Nokia-led Munich
trials, due to a lack of commercial
devices. As Rehfuess pointed out,
there needs to be a certain level
of market demand visible for the
handset makers to, which is not yet
the case. Moreover, a longer battery
life would also be useful.
08 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
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Untitled-2 1 11/02/2016 16:02:50
news in brief
RTL to buy SmartclipThe German media firm will
acquire the online video
advertising company’s operations
in a number of European
markets. RTL Germany is buying
a 93.75% stake in Smartclip for
around EUR74 million, through
which it will acquire Smartclip’s
businesses in Germany, the
Netherlands, Scandinavia and
Italy. Smartclip bundles the
online video advertising inventory
of 700 publishers worldwide, and
manages the integration and
serving of video advertising to all
internet-connected devices.
According to the companies,
Smartclip complements RTL
Group’s investments in digital
advertising sales, including in
particular SpotX, a platform for
programmatic online video
advertising.
DOCSIS 3.1 goes live in USComcast has kept its promise and
kicked off the first Gigabit speed
service based on DOCSIS 3.1 in
Atlanta. The deployment makes
Comcast the first in the US to
deploy DOCSIS 3.1 technology.
However, it is not available to all
customers in the Atlanta market
from the beginning. The new
gigabit downstream service
(35Mbps on the upstream) is
priced at for $70 per month with
a three-year contract, or for $140
per month with no contract.
There have been pockets of
announcements in Europe and
Asia so far but most MSOs won’t
start deploying DOCSIS 3.1 until
next year. ABI Research says only
1% of cable subscribers
worldwide will be using D3.1-
enabled services by the end of
2016. Comcast plans to launch
DOCSIS 3.1 in new markets
including Nashville, Chicago,
Detroit and Miami later this year.
10 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
News
Big traction for SAT-IP globallyThe first commercial services based
on the new SAT-IP standard are due
by the end of the year in Germany,
while the technology is also being
trialled by operators outside Europe.
And it is seeing such high industry
demand from manufacturers that
testing is now being outsourced.
SAT-IP technology, originally
devised and developed by SES,
allows DVB based satellite
broadcasts to be made available
inside home networks, converting
broadcast signals via a local device
to IP after reception to the dish. It
is a client server architecture that
allows linear broadcast services to
become available on more devices
and satellite reception then
becomes a pure software
application.
“How do we reach tablets and
phones over indoor networks?
Investors ask us what we will do
about tablets,” said Thomas Wrede
of SES, speaking at DVB World
2016. “We have 7,000 video servers
so we don’t want to change to IP
from DVB,” said Wrede.
SAT-IP interoperability is
guaranteed by passing the
necessary compliance testing
procedure. Compliance testing in the
past was carried out by SES and was
recently handed over to Finland’s
Labwise due to the volume of
demand from manufacturers, some
of which require “lots of debugging”.
Wrede said talks are taking place
with other test houses and welcomes
more testing facilities to express their
interest.
The technology is benefiting from
a new powerful complete SoC from
Broadcom, which is enabling new
products. There are now at least 75
products from 45 partners, including
integrated TVs from Panasonic, a
Humax streaming player and apps for
iOS and Android. There’s a further
large number of devices awaiting
certification, including HDMI sticks
and a Vestel set-top box among other
STBs.
The hope is also that devices such
as the OTT Apple TV adapter will be
able to use the SAT-IP signals (Tizi
recently brought out a client which
runs on Apple TV 4). The partners
are looking to further enlarge
universe of servers and clients.
In Germany, where Panasonic has
sold 30,000 flat screen TVs with Sat-
IP, the technology is being
implemented for the HD+ platform.
Called HD+ ExtraScreen, it will be
launched towards the end of 2016
once the current field trials have
been completed, marking the first
practical implementation of Sat-IP.
According to Wrede, 80% of
homes in Germany have never heard
of Sat-IP or know that they can take
a satellite signal onto IP network,
showing the scope of the marketing
challenge but also the opportunity.
In parallel, the Sat-IP Alliance has
been established to raise industry
awareness and the next step will be
coordinated marketing efforts,
including a joint presence at trade
shows. Members include SES,
Eutelsat, Hispasat, Panasonic, Nagra,
Maxlinear and Ali, with more
coming on board. The aim is to get
more satellite and other types of
operators outside Europe. Indeed,
Wrede said that trials are underway
from three operators in Korea, South
Africa and Malaysia.
Finally, the Alliance is considering
a transfer of the Sat-IP standard
under the auspices of DVB.
Altice in IoT deal with SigfoxAltice said it will integrate SIGFOX
connectivity in the operator’s
offering in France and
internationally to support a range
of Internet of Things services.
In France, where the network
already covers 92% of the
population, this partnership will
allow the customers of Altice-
owned SFR, to benefit from high
bandwidth and low bandwidth
offers. SFR clients will use
SIGFOX connectivity as a
complement to existing
connectivity solutions, such as
4G or WiFi.
The partnership with Altice will
then extend in all territories where
the group is present, including
Portugal with Portugal
Telecom, the US and Israel.
By offering complementary
connectivity solutions,
the companies aim to
“democratize the IoT in all
sectors of the economy” and
expand the offer of connected
solutions for businesses and
consumers.
The alliance will square Altice
against French rivals Orange and
Bouygues Telecom, who have opted
to use of the LoRa standard.
“We are convinced that the IoT
market is an opportunity to seize
now, with a global vision,” said
Michel Combes, COO of Altice,
Chairman and CEO of SFR. “We are
talking about billions of connections.
We share the same entrepreneurial
vision with SIGFOX and the will to
conquer new markets. The
availability of the SIGFOX network
allows us to bring new Internet of
Things solutions to our B2B clients.”
10news.indd 1 31/03/2016 10:01:44
news in brief
Cord-shaving in the USAThe number of pay TV subs in
North America will fall from
112 million in the peak year of
2012 to 106 million in 2021, but
the rates of losses will plateau,
says new research. According to
the Digital TV TV Research,
payTV penetration will drop from
87.1% in 2012 to 80.3% in 2021.
Last year was notable because
subscriber losses were recorded
for all of the major platforms:
cable, satellite and IPTV. Cable
has been losing subscribers since
2011, satellite TV started in
2014, and IPTV joined them
in 2015. Despite these gloomy
facts, fewer than two million
pay TV subscribers will be lost
between 2016 and 2021, the
analyst house said.
A new report from NSR identifies
2016 as a key inflection point for the
rollout of ultra HD via satellite and
forecasts over 785 UHD channels by
the year 2025.
UltraHD remains a small
component of the video market, with
around 1% of overall channel counts,
but by 2025 UHD will form a critical
component of most platforms by
2025. Those without it will be viewed
the same way SD-only platforms are
viewed in the market today, says NSR
in its report, UltraHD via Satellite,
3rd Edition.
While commercial UltraHD
channels in East Asia have been
available for over a year, the new
format expands its geographic reach
on linear TV platforms. By next year,
almost all regions worldwide will
have UHD channels available, and
even developing regions see content
by the end of the decade.
The report also says the plunging
price of 4K TV will see 4K TV
penetration rates to rise faster than
the initial introduction of HD TVs.
Given the exponential increases
we’ve seen on 4K TV shipments,
introducing UltraHD channels and
packages is a key strategy to retain
and grow pay TV subscriber bases in
an increasingly competitive
environment. Additionally, this is a
vital competitive response to OTT
platforms’ ever expanding online
content catalogues,” said Alan Crisp.
While in the short term DTH,
Cable TV and IPTV platforms will
offer UltraHD for ‘free’ with existing
premium channel bundles, longer
term UltraHD will achieve higher
revenue streams generated by
increasing ARPUs and subscriber
levels, said NSR.
• The number of paying IPTV
subscribers in the Asia Pacific
region overtook paying satellite TV
ones in 2015, and the gap will
widen, according to Digital TV
Research. Over 123.5 million IPTV
subs are expected by 2021. China
will contribute 78.4 million IPTV
subs, or nearly two-thirds of the
region’s total, by 2021. Pay satellite
TV will only supply an extra 30
million in comparison, with FTA
satellite TV adding ten million.
Satellite to carry over 785 UHD channels
News
11newsATX.indd 1 01/04/2016 10:01:30
In September, Apple CEO Tim Cook
declared, at the launch of a new version
of Apple TV, that “the future of TV is
apps”. Apple has opened up its SDK for
the first time and created a new operating
system (tvOS) that allows third party
developers to create apps for the platform.
The most enthusiastic Apple fans in the industry
believe this could be a very significant change,
allowing Apple to attack the business models of
operators and content providers of all kinds,
including online gaming platforms.
But regardless of the progress of Apple’s
ambitions, there are already good reasons
to agree with Cook’s statement. After all,
trends in video viewing, moving away from
the living room and linear TV towards TV
everywhere services from multiple sources, are
very clear. An increasing number of consumers
in many different markets are also now used
to interacting with apps on smartphones,
tablets, smart TVs, set top boxes of various
kinds and other devices. And apps can help
the creators and distributors of content increase
interactivity, offer complementary services,
build stronger relationships with consumers, and
monetise those relationships in multiple ways.
However, there is also clearly a big gap between
the traditional, lean-back TV experience using
a conventional EPG and the experience of
using a vast and confusing array of aggregation
platforms and apps – for channels, genres,
individual programmes, individual sports and
other content-related services. There is clearly
going to be a need for some sort of aggregation
mechanism to help consumers make sense of this
fragmented TV landscape.
So if the future of TV really is some sort of
platform that helps consumers make sense of
an app-filled world, how can technology enable
content providers, operators, broadcasters or
other industry players develop that platform,
or find other ways to provide services that
consumers will want to use? And which players
are best placed to profit from this transformation
in content delivery, discovery and consumption?
The ‘applification’ of TV Although statistics suggest that the most popular
video apps for the under 30s are platforms like
Amazon, Netflix and YouTube, with newer apps
like Periscope also rapidly gaining users, there is
no reason to assume this means the demise of the
incumbent operators. As Neale Foster, chief
operating officer and vice-president of global sales
at Access says: “Just because it’s an app doesn’t
mean it can’t be a pay TV operator.”
Still, the threat to the current pay TV business
model is obvious. “The ‘applification’ of TV is
part of the bigger trend around the restructuring
of the industry with the agility of the internet,”
says Mike Couture, senior vice-president, product
and marketing, at Quickplay. “It’s global; and
increasingly it’s mobile and it’s personal. There
are many more apps coming. We’re only seeing
the beginning of this.”
The most important change for channel or
content providers of all kinds will be increased
interactivity, says Daragh Ward, CTO at
Axonista. He gives the hypothetical example
of an interactive news channel that would allow
consumers to access stories or programming
most relevant to them as and when they choose,
including clicking on captions running across the
bottom of the main screen. “If the future of TV
TV as an app
Are apps the future of TV?
12 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
Image courtesy of NAGRA
David Adams weighs in on both sides of the argument and assesses their implications
12-15_TV_as_an_app.indd 2 30/03/2016 12:00:26
has to include this ability to interact, the only
way to deliver that experience has to be through
apps,” he says.
Apps will provide an opportunity for industry
players to use accurate viewer data more rapidly
and in many more different ways, says Michael
Fridman, vice-president, marketing, at Comigo:
“If TV providers want to create the best possible
TV experience for their subscribers,
and, for example, take advantage of
ultra-targeted, measurable advertising
opportunities, they need to use data in
an advanced way.”
Although previous attempts to
introduce app-like technologies into
smart TV environments have not
enjoyed great success, it is worth
considering that other types of app may
provide useful complements to those that
are directly related to content, in part as
a result of Apple TV now being open to third
party developers.
For example, suggests Iddo Shai, director,
product marketing for video and OTT at Kaltura,
he and his family enjoyed planning a holiday
together, looking at possible accommodation on
Airbnb, on their smart TV. It is also easy to
imagine the sorts of educational or healthcare-
related apps that a growing number of consumers
already access via laptops and tablets finding an
audience on the main TV if presented effectively.
Lost in a sea of appsBut the challenge remains how best to bring all of
these capabilities to the viewer in a user-friendly,
lean-back form. If the future of TV really is going
to be about apps it will need to overcome the fact
that at present TV is very much about the lean
back experience and that linear TV is still popular
with mass audiences. “Linear delivery is still the
dominant format,” says Ian Munford, director of
product marketing and enablement for media
solutions at Akamai. “Even in countries where the
adoption of online viewing is at its highest, the
share of viewing time achieved through OTT
technology is still barely 20 per cent.”
For Anthony Smith-Chaigneau, senior director,
product marketing at NAGRA, the method used
for content discovery is key. “There’s a danger
that we’re all trying to cater for the content
connoisseur, the person who knows what they
want to watch, as opposed to the person who
wants to sit down in front of the TV and find a
pot of content that opens up for them,” he says.
Everyone agrees that the ideal would be a
navigation experience that is seamless and leaves
the viewer blissfully unaware of what lies behind
the ‘channel’ they are watching. Consumers also
increasingly expect to see the same interface on
every device they use. Technologies such as
TWINE from Access offer the ability to provide
consumers with the same branded experience
across a wide range of devices.
Jeroen Ghijsen, co-founder and CEO at
Metrological, believes personalisation in content
search and discovery will help to solve the
information overload problem. Metrological uses
an abstraction layer in its technology to ease
technical issues for broadcasters aiming to offer
such services.
NAGRA has also tried to address this issue
with its cloud-based intuiTV solution for pay TV
operators, launched at CES 2016. As Andre
Kudleski, chairman and CEO of NAGRA parent
company Kudelski Group put it at the launch,
with a nod to Apple: “The future of television is
television and it’s more about enjoying content
than anything else. This means getting back to
TV as an app
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 13
TV apps predictionsJeroen Ghijsen, CEO of Metrological, expects
to see operators adopting application
framework technology that enables support of
personalised TV app experiences and delivers
greater app performance on any device. His
app-related predications are as follows:
1. Operators deploying more robust TV app
offerings: Simply offering the most popular
4 or 5 TV apps natively isn’t scaling to
support a breadth of apps across a growing
number of devices.
2. More personalised apps line ups: Operators
now have the tools to customise app store
line ups and introduce local app content
based on audience segments, live events
and viewing habits to automatically change
app line ups and make them more personal
for each household.
3. Apps integrated with live TV: Contextual
app experiences enable apps to recognise
what the customer is watching and suggest
contextually relevant internet content that
complements the TV viewing experience.
Apps act as a content feed, providing
consumers with relevant content without
having to leave the live TV experience.
4. More focus on the performance of TV apps:
We expect to see more deployments of
browser enhancements that help operators
achieve results that are usually reserved for
native app approaches. Additionally, the
technology enables operators to support
and personalise UIs and HTML5 apps with
higher fidelity.
“There’s a danger that we’re all trying to cater for the content connoisseur, the person who knows what they want to watch, as opposed to the person who wants to sit down in front of the TV and find a pot of content that opens up for them.”
12-15_TV_as_an_app.indd 3 31/03/2016 16:20:33
TV as an app
14 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
“In the end it’s about content and that is a scarce resource.”
a simpler and more intuitive viewing experience
that makes it easy for consumers to find the
content they want, without having to worry
about constantly swapping inputs, changing
remote controls and guessing what is behind
each and every app on a constantly morphing
app dashboard.”
New entrants vs incumbentsThere are other forms of navigation already in
operation that could be an indication of the shape
of things to come. Voice search technology, as
offered by Apple, Amazon, Google and some smart
TV manufacturers, may form part of the answer.
Chem Assayag, executive vice-president, sales,
at Viaccess-Orca, thinks the most important
ingredients of any successful solution addressing
the navigation challenge will be easy to use
interfaces, a powerful search engine – and also
simple payment mechanisms allowing consumers
to buy content spontaneously. “People will have
a hard time understanding why they can’t pay as
they go,” he says.
He is impressed by what he has seen of the
Molotov platform, which allows users to access
a huge range of different types of content from
different sources, including social media; and
which offers a search engine which allows more
tangential search queries – relating to actors
within a particular movie or programme,
not just the content itself, for example. Both
incumbent operators and new entrants into this
market possess advantages and disadvantages that
may help or hinder their attempts to become one
of the players who ‘own the glass’. But ultimately,
says Jason Flick, founder and CEO of You.i TV,
the old model of a $100 monthly pay TV
subscription is not going to be sustainable.
He also believes that many of the traditional
operators’ legacy infrastructures will hinder
their attempts to create services as flexible as
those that will be offered by newer entrants.
And yet, there are also reasons why the
incumbent operators may be well placed to
prosper in a new, app-filled TV world. As Dan
Finch, commercial director at Simplestream
points out, the new technologies give them a
chance to build two-way relationships with their
viewers too, building on existing brand awareness
and trust.
Daragh Ward agrees that incumbent operators
do have a chance in any battle to own the glass,
but suggests they will need to design better
interfaces for content discovery if they are to do so.
Some of the newer players, faster to create new,
cloud-based infrastructures, may also be able to
use personal data in more innovative ways than
the incumbents can, he suggests. “Google can be
in a better position to know much more about
you, so you might be sitting in front of the TV but
they know what you were doing, what you were
searching for earlier in the day, so they may know
what kind of mood you’re likely to be in,” he
explains. “So they may be in a better position to
recommend content to you.”
Ward thinks Apple TV has a great interface
and Android TV will also stimulate innovation in
apps and services. “So Apple and Google are in
a good position,” he concludes. “There’s only so
long that the incumbents can hold out, I think.”
On the other hand, the incumbents still, for the
time being at least, hold one of the strongest
cards: the pick of the most valuable content.
“Content is still king,” says Foster. “The
platform’s only as good as the content. Much will
depend on what content owners want to do to
maximise revenue.”
He notes that Apple and Google have both
been connected with corporate acquisitions of
other content providers, and even with the
possibility of bidding for sports rights: “It maybe
doesn’t fit with their business model right now,
but that might change.”
“In the end it’s about content and that is a
scarce resource,” agrees Assayag. “Companies like
Apple and Google have great technical skills and
very deep pockets. If these guys suddenly decide
that they will compete for some of the premium
content, like sport – I can’t see the traditional
players being in a position to compete if Google
and Apple decide to pay a lot of money. Their
spending power could create a lot of change in
the industry.”
But perhaps we’re asking the wrong question,
says Metrological’s Jeroen Ghijsen. “If you talk
about ‘ownership of the screen’, that is, to us, an
old fashioned way of thinking,” he says. He
12-15_TV_as_an_app.indd 4 30/03/2016 12:00:32
TV as an app
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 15
“This is the wrong question – it should be ‘What is TV?’ in the App environment”- TV is really about entertainment, and
entertainment apps are already here
- If we want to move the TV experience to the
app world then we need to recreate what
makes it so popular – live and linear content
need to be at the core of the experience
- We can then build our own viewing
experience around this. Recommendations
will be contextual: ‘Show me something that
I want to see, that fits into this programming
gap’ Why? Because Downton Abbey is on at
9:00pm
- TV as an app can take from the linear and
the on-demand world and allow us to create
a ‘blended viewing experience of live and
on-demand
- The challenge for players in the app-verse
will be in creating loyalty with their users.
Just as service providers are experiencing
some churn because of OTT and app
services, the users of these services are
very promiscuous
- So the TV as an app provider needs to
define an offering that is sticky enough to
keep the viewer – or is it consumer – coming
back, without them feeling like they are tied
to a service
- And, of course, content will remain as the
key differentiator
- But ubiquity will become more and more
important – give me what I want, when, and
‘where’ I want it. Let me access my DVR on
my tablet when I’m overseas
- And as consumers add to their devices, the
winners will be the providers who can
deliver their apps to where their audiences
are actually going (and not to where they’d
‘like’ them to go)
- By using the cloud, content providers will
have access to the same scale and
functionality previously only available to
large service providers. And service
providers will be able to add new capability
- As the market fragments and TV apps
increase, consumers will have greater
choices in how they pay for their content, so
flexibility in pricing and business models
will support app providers in building and
maintaining audience
- Consumer Insight, understanding how
TV apps are being used, establishing
different usage and purchasing profiles
will also play a large part in helping
to shape a more personalised experience
for the end user
- In summary: The shared nature of
storytelling goes back to cavemen
sitting around the fire. Today, we can
carry the fire around with us, but we
still want a shared experience, and on
TV that includes live and linear content.
Fill in the gaps with relevant content,
and that will keep the consumer sitting
around your fire parties or arms of
large agencies) aggregating household
level data and using it to personalise
the TV viewing experience, making
programmatic more powerful.”
suspects the future may be more about harnessing
personalisation and mobile technologies to share
revenue between several different players.
Adam Nightingale, vice-president, EMEA at
Accedo, is intrigued by news of the possible
NBC/BBC/ITV streaming on-demand service
thought (at the time of writing) to be the subject
of discussion between the broadcasters.
“Collaboration is where the industry should be
going,” he says.
So, is the future of TV an app? “I think apps
are a big part of TV,” says Murali Nemani, CMO
at Active Video. “But the statement from Tim Cook
assumes that everything you ever want is available
through Apple. I don’t think that is true. But can
Apple truly be an aggregator of apps, with the
best of all the content from different places? Yes.”
If Cook was right, he wasn’t talking about the
short term, says Iddo Shai. “For the future of TV
to be apps it should be as easy to navigate around
Apple TV as it is to navigate around your normal
TV experience,” he says. “The truth is, we’re just
not there yet. Not all the content is there, the
usability is not there. It’s not yet as easy to watch
Apple TV or Amazon Fire as it is to turn on your
set top box. People will buy those devices, but it
will be a while before they say ‘this is how I want
to consume my TV’.”
Adam Davies, senior product manager, Cisco
Data shows % more (less) likely that a user is to have one of the major broadcaster Apps installed on any of their video devices vs. Netfl ix (18-34 year olds only)
12-15_TV_as_an_app.indd 5 30/03/2016 12:00:34
Michael Googman is Director, Digital Media Strategies, Digital Consumer Practice, at Strategy Analytics
TV-as-an-app
16 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
As the market becomes
increasingly fragmented
with TVE apps,
individual programmer
apps, and online video
services, it seems that
there are an almost
infinite number of video services available. So in
this emerging app driven TV market, how do
viewers find out what’s on and where? Without a
schedule and with a library of 1000’s of movies
and TV shows to choose from how are viewers to
know what is available, making it easy for networks
and programs to get buried in a sea of titles.
For example the latest episodes of Downton
Abby are available on linear TV while past
seasons are available via electronic sell-thru (EST)
on Amazon, while season 1 is available via SVOD
on Amazon. According to FX Networks CEO
John Landgraf, “there will be more than 400
original scripted shows on television this year”,
while Amazon and Netflix will introduce a wealth
of original programming over the next few years.
With all this to choose from how is a consumer
expected to know what is available to them, let
alone know where it is available? Regardless of
where you sit in the television ecosystem, in order
to be successful it is critical for consumers to find
shows they want to watch. Failing to do so suggests
that many of these shows will go unwatched due
to a lack of awareness, rather than lack of interest.
So how do consumers find out what’s on,
where, and when? According to Strategy Analytics
ConsumerMetrix Survey, on-air promotions (i.e.,
TV trailers) are by far the most common way
consumer find out what TV/video programming
is available. Fifty-seven percent of respondents age
18-74 said that they used on-air promotions to
find out what TV/video programming is available.
This was followed by channel surfing (37%),
browsing the electronic program guide (EPG)
(38%) and word of mouth (WOM) from family
and friends (35%).
Some key findings include the following.
• On-air promotions are the most common way
viewers found out about other programs to
view, however, as television viewership declines
these promotions are reaching fewer and fewer
viewers. This is particularly relevant when
trying to reach Millennials whose television
viewing has seen the greatest decline.
• Electronic Program Guides (EPGs) are
becoming an important way to inform people
about new shows. Today’s service provider
EPGs are effective at helping viewers navigate
linear TV, VOD, and in some cases DVRed
programs but they fails to take into account the
larger viewing patterns of today’s consumer.
Like it or not todays viewers get programming
from a variety of sources (i.e., broadcast and
cable networks, Netflix, Amazon, iTunes,
Vudu, Google Play, etc.). While it may seem
counterintuitive for service providers to include
viewing options from sources outside their
control in the long run they will benefit from it
by being in a much stronger position to
influence the choices viewers make. At the end
of the day consumers are going to watch video
from a variety of sources. Services providers
can either put themselves in the optimal
position to influence those viewing choices or
they can allow other to do so.
• Social media is not a source used by a
significant number of consumers to find out
what is airing on TV/video. Fewer than 1 out
of 5 respondents said that they use social
media to find out what is airing on TV/video.
• As online service providers continue to produce
more and more original content finding it in
their vast video libraries becomes a greater
challenge. For the most part, online video
services don’t run on-screen promotions (except
for very select programs), making it challenging
for viewers to find new programming.
Unlocking the value of programmers and
online video service providers video catalogues in
this fragmented world is not easy. It will require
significant improvements to existing search and
recommendation algorithms, unified search and
recommendations that cross services, and solutions
that account for generational differences in how
viewers find out about programs to watch.
Buried in a sea of titlesIn this emerging app-driven TV market, how do consumers find out what’s on, where, and when?
16_AnalystColumn-march16.indd 1 31/03/2016 16:08:45
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 17
TV-as-an-app
If you can’t beat them join them, right?
That’s certainly a must when it comes to
TV as an app. Shifting viewing habits mean
more and more video is being viewed on
line. That goes for full length TV content
just as much short-form video and user-
generated. There are a number of factors
at work here. Chief among them is fragmentation:
fragmentation of viewing and of channels as the
options for accessing a channel’s content become
more diverse.
Splitting viewing across a linear channel and an
app-based catch-up or streaming service is a
necessary evil today. But at the same time, there is
a second factor. Unless a channel’s online service
is a scheduled linear stream, fragmentation online
is coupled to content disaggregation, making
search and discovery central to the user experience.
At the same time, when entering the world of
TV apps, channels face a renewed competitive
landscape in which channel-like competitors such
as Netflix jostle for viewing share alongside
emerging video platforms such as Facebook,
Instagram and Snapchat.
Looking at the top ten most watched video
apps by young people (under 34) across the big
five European markets (UK, France, Germany,
Italy, Spain), it is the new platforms that are most
often watched: Youtube, Facebook, Amazon and
Netflix. Emerging video apps like Instagram and
Snapchat also now make the top ten for monthly
viewing and live streaming apps like Periscope
are ascending quickly. Only a couple of the big
broadcaster platforms (BBC iPlayer and Spain’s
Artresmedia) make the top league. So when the
app becomes the channel, the old guard are
certainly losing out.
So what does the new battleground that is the
app mean for the major broadcasters? I thought
it would be interesting to look at the impact of
Netflix establishing in a market on the video apps
of the incumbent and public service broadcast
groups. In other words, how well do the most-
watched channels in a given country fare against
an app-based up-start like Netflix?
The analysis makes for pretty interesting reading.
Looking at the under 34’s, again across the big
European markets and the USA, it’s clear that
where Netflix has been long established, it thrashes
most incumbent broadcasters in terms of app
installations (app installed by user on any device).
This trend is most pronounced in the USA,
Netflix’s home market, where younger US
viewers are more than 1.5 times more likely
to have installed Netflix on a device than the
video apps of one of the major US networks.
There’s a similar, but less pronounced, trend
in the big European markets where Netflix is
well established, although a few incumbent
broadcasters, such as the BBC in the UK and
TF1 in France are still holding their own.
Finally, in the new Netflix markets of Spain
and Italy, incumbents still rule, but for how
much longer? If the future of TV is an app,
then the battle lines, it seems, have already
been drawn.
What happens to a channel in a world of Apps?By Guy Bisson, Ampere Analysis
Sour
ce: A
mpe
re A
naly
sis
APP % of homes using in past month
MyTF1 6% Snapchat 6% Atresplayer 6% Sky Go 8% Instagram 9% BBC iPlayer 9% Netflix 14% Amazon Instant Video 15% Facebook 19% YouTube 63%
Sour
ce: A
mpe
re A
naly
sis
Data shows % of homes watching in the past month and is based on Euro big Five: UK, DE, ES, IT, FR)
17_datacorner.indd 3 29/03/2016 10:06:22
The changing of face of video
headends nicely mirrors the
wider transformative shift
taking place in the TV and
broadcast industry. This has
taken in the move from
analogue services to digital,
while the source content itself has changed from
SD to predominantly HD.
With the growth of multiscreen delivery, the
last few years have also seen headends grow in
scale and complexity to reflect delivery beyond
the main television in the living room. Headends
have evolved to multi-platform, including support
for OTT distribution. Consumer expectation for
access to content on more devices, and any place
or time, is driving the need for more formats and
access to the content. At the same time, the
compression efficiency has improved dramatically
over the period and there’s an ongoing migration
towards M{PEG-4 and HEVC.
While the core linear TV services change
relatively slowly, the ability to rapidly introduce
changes to the ways consumers access that
content is a key competitive aspect for many
operators. So the number and types of output
have been increased: adding Adaptive Bit Rate
(ABR) outputs to conventional linear streams,
extending the reach to more devices and to
devices that may be on the public internet,
as well as providing cloud DVR and on-demand
services as part of the overall subscriber offering.
Another fundamental shift in headend
architectures involves the migration from
uncompressed SDI routing to
compressed video over IP.
With the rise in IP,
satellite
acquisition has found itself trending down, from
the acquisition of programmes via satellite to
direct fibre over IP.
“You are seeing a lot of operators, especially
the larger ones, receiving their content directly
over fibre and not over satellite,” says Rich Peske,
VP of the video processing business at Arris.
“The smaller ones still get a lot of their
programming direct over satellite, but more and
more you’re seeing direct fibre connections.”
It is a case of down but very much not quite
out for satellite. “Even operators going with direct
fibre connectivity for their programme source will
still use satellite as a back-up. There’s no signs
satellite will disappear, but it’s definitely moving
towards IP delivery,” adds Peske.
The move away from ASI and SDI/HD-SDI
towards transport over IP is affecting connectivity
throughout the headend. The desire for most
operators to move towards an all-IP environment
is impacting a lot of headends products and
technologies.
“Paradoxically the move to having compressed
video in the headend actually reflects an
improvement in quality, as it is often introduced
at the same time that the source feeds are
switched from relatively highly compressed
satellite sources to high bit-rate IP links,” says
Video headends
From headends in the sky to headends in the cloud?
18 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
Goran Nastic looks at the evolution of video headends architecture and examines the extent to which the cloud is dictating the course
18-20_headends.indd 2 31/03/2016 17:50:57
Tony Jones, VP Technology & Architecture,
TV & Media at Ericsson.
What to virtualise?All this has simultaneously coincided with a
gradual shift to software based infrastructure for
video processing and virtualisation.
“Transitions to cloud infrastructure typically
correspond with the expansion of services or the
launch of new facilities,” says Tom Lattie, VP,
market management & development, video
products at Harmonic, which claims there are
hundreds of live 24/7 video services being
delivered to consumers from its virtualised video
infrastructure.
Typically, items that make most sense to
virtualise first are ones that change rapidly and
those that may have varying utilisation. This
makes services like VoD and file-based services
ideally suited to the cloud because they are very
elastic in demand. Unsurprisingly, this is where
the most visible and rapid migration is happening
today. By contrast, the cloud is a more
challenging platform for live streaming so very
little of this is today performed in the cloud.
“For live, you’re still in a transition phase -
there is some live transcoding taking place in the
cloud but it’s pretty minimal because it doesn’t
take advantage of the elastic nature of the cloud
and it’s very processor intensive,” says Peske at
Arris, which on the video side has been most
aggressive in cloud DVR/nDVR technologies and
moving that functionality towards virtualisation.
Some of the main considerations that affect
the ability and cost of mapping into cloud
infrastructure relate to content location and
rights, processing and cost of compute,
connectivity (including cost of transit), delay
sensitivity and utilisation. Since the main drivers
relate to potential cost savings, each use case
needs to consider how those cost reductions
might be derived, and also whether there are any
unwanted consequences that might introduce
new costs or impair the operational needs,
according to Ericsson’s Jones.
According to Johan Bolin, VP of Products at
Edgeware, it makes more sense to move functions
such as content management, origin servers,
re-packaging and encryption, transcoding and
encoding. “Components that do not scale with
computing power and are traffic and storage-
intense, such as caching, make less sense to move
to the cloud,” says Bolin.
At this stage, it’s important to be clear about
what ‘cloud’ means, points out Jones. “This can
vary from being the way that containerised
applications are mapped to clusters in a private
data centre, through to meaning truly public
cloud offered by a third party. The potential and
restrictions of the two are very different, so we
need to consider exactly what might be mapped
to which type of infrastructure,” he explains.
“The choice of private/public then becomes
a question of the relative cost of moving content,
along with content security considerations versus
cost of owning the infrastructure.”
Most conventional data centre applications
natively support transaction-based services, but
‘pure’ cloud deployments place restrictions on the
type of technology that can be used, adds Jones.
Typically, this means limiting to conventional
Intel Architecture devices. “So here there needs
to be a consideration of the relative merits of
different technology options: at this point it is far
from clear that just one technology option can be
optimal for all applications,” he says. (Incidentally,
Ericsson has introduced the HDS 8000, which it
claims is the first data centre system to use Intel
Rack Scale Architecture to achieve significantly
better flexibility and utilisation.)
As the use of ABR services increases, the ABR
outputs are becoming an increasingly important
Video headends
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 19
Types of cloud – factors to consider:It is a case of different technology options for different situations.
Private cloud• For large companies with many
products and applications, private clouds
can result in better scale gains due to the
elasticity and the advantages of shared
and virtualised platforms, as well as the
simplifi ed operational processes
• A private cloud enables scale
advantages by hosting multiple products
and applications
• Private clouds include the ability to
manage the network, control prioritisation
of resource allocation and control when
maintenance operations take place
• Private cloud solutions may be easier
to integrate with the playout on managed
networks
Hybrid and public clouds• Hybrid cloud solutions can be benefi cial as a means
to reduce the amount of infrastructure owned and man-
aged by the video company. Hybrids typically offer the
most fl exibility
• Public cloud leaves more room to focus on what is
considered core business (operators may also be able to
benefi t from subscription or OpEx billing options)
• For services that require high capacity on a given
network footprint, a hybrid model makes more sense
where some cloud components are complemented by
distributed video delivery optimised network appliances
• If the video content is being delivered across the
Internet, processing the content closer to the consumer
in a public cloud can make sense
• Public cloud (or hybrid) can be useful as ‘extension
space’ for apps that have few critical dependencies
Liberty’s virtual data centresIn late 2013, Liberty Global outlined how its
move to the cloud has resulted in accelerated
time-to-market of the Horizon TV platform in
the second wave of market rollouts. The plan
was to virtualise the Pan European Central Head
End (PECHE) model as much as possible.
Faycal Amrani, managing director and chief
architect for Liberty, said the operator would
move traditional headend functions such as
encoding, transcoding, encryption and
multiplexing to the cloud across a series
of virtual data centres, depending on rights
issues. “It is not so much the centralisation
or location that is important; it is more about
whether you own that infrastructure or not.
The aim is to perform the video processing in
the best and most cost efficient way. Our goal
is to harmonise the services and solution across
our footprint with agility and we can’t do it
without the cloud. The move to the cloud is
clear,” he said.
Amrani noted that Horizon launches in the first
two markets of the Netherlands and Switzerland
took 12 months at a time when PECHE was not
yet operational. The next two markets by
comparison, Ireland and Germany, took only
three months thanks to the PECHE. “So when
we talk about elasticity, agility and service
velocity, we mean it, it’s real,” Amrani said.
18-20_headends.indd 3 31/03/2016 17:50:58
part of the overall TV service offering, and
conventional linear and ABR paths are becoming
more converged. ABR services that are provided
exclusively via the public internet can work well
in third party data centres, argues Jones, however
if the main publishing point is instead onto an
operator’s own network, it is likely to be more
cost effective to keep the processing at the
operator and save the costs of moving content
to and from the third party data centre.
While large cable and telcos can run private
clouds inside their own data centres (see box out),
that is not the case for many others. “To have
your own data centre you need to be pretty big.
Most people will rely on public data centres like
Amazon, Google and Microsoft,” says Peske.
Recently, some larger operators are also
looking at ways to use standard data centre
infrastructure management to simplify the
operations of their video processing.
As in the case of Netflix (see box), it is
expected that some content owners who only
deliver via the public internet will move towards
full cloud operation, as they don’t own their
own delivery network. Operators who have both
the content rights and own their network have
more tools at their disposal to make sure the
experience lives up to the expectations of
consumers, so are more likely to remain either
on private cloud or use a hybrid cloud approach.
Ultimately, it depends on what their goals are
for this migration.
Finally, Harmonic’s Lattie raises the point
that one of the most important considerations
is the skill set of the headend staff. “Similar
with previous transitions to digital or IP,
training and skill set augmentation is critical.
“It is also an ideal time to re-evaluate the
level of engagement with your technology vendors
post-sale,” adds Lattie. “These new and deeper
relationships can help a smaller operator scale
faster or a larger operator move more quickly not
hampered by staffing levels or other projects. Of
course it only makes sense to transition once a
given company’s workflows can be supported
reliably in a cloud based infrastructure.”
Further on down the roadThe emergence of ultra HD with HDR will bring
about a new step change and the need for extremely
high levels of processing power to achieve the full
potential of HEVC and other next-gen codecs.
Headeands will develop further to OTT
headends and perhaps adopt new cloud concepts
such as NFV, thinks Edgeware’s Bolin. “New
hybrid models will likely be developed, and on
the more commercial side, we will likely see
more ‘as a service’ business models,” he says.
On the content distribution side, Bolin foresees
increasingly see ‘super-distributed’ solutions
needed to manage the increased volumes of
network traffic. The delivery layer of caches and
streaming servers will be increasingly distributed
and integrated in the networks.
Applications and functionality such as
re-packaging, encryption, protection and
personalisation - scaling with the amount of
streaming but traditionally hosted in the headend
- will move from the headends to applications in
the delivery layer. This will not only offload
networks and reduce storage, but also facilitate
improved protection and security and new more
personalised concepts, according to Bolin.
Data centres may also become more diverse
in the technology they support, with more
application-specific processing being supported.
“Progressively, we may see more orchestration of
successive stages of processing by higher level
systems as a further stage of simplification of
operational management,” concludes Jones.
The message by all is don’t expect a sweeping,
swift move to the cloud. While ‘Everything’s in
the cloud’ makes for a good story, it’s limited
to a few marquee things for marketing purposes,
notes Peske.
“There’s a great deal of talk about moving
everything to the cloud. There’s a lot of hype
about it, but the reality doesn’t necessarily match
the yet,” says Peske. “It’s a relatively slow
movement but that depends on which functions
we’re talking about. More will be housed in data
centres but that’s a slower process than the
‘IP-isation’ of the headend.”
As ever, it’s a gradual migration, one step at
a time.
Video headends
20 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
Netflix goes ‘cloud native’ – will others follow?Netflix earlier this year closed the last data
centre for its video-streaming business,
completing a seven-year migration to the
Amazon Web Services cloud. It has now
transformed into a self-proclaimed ‘cloud
native’ company.
Netflix now operates tens of thousands
of servers and tens of petabytes of storage
in the Amazon cloud, a move that brings
multiple benefits, such as service elasticity
and availability, as well as reliability and
redundancy, according to the company.
The company said that cloud costs per
streaming start also ended up being a fraction
of those in the data centre.
Netflix relies on the cloud for all of its
scalable computing and storage needs,
including business logic, distributed
databases and big data processing/analytics,
recommendations, transcoding, and hundreds
of other functions that make up the Netflix
application.
“It took time and effort to transform Netflix
into a cloud-native company, but it put us in a
much better position to continue to grow and
become a global TV network, creating a better
and more enjoyable streaming experience for
Netflix members wherever they are,” said Yury
Izrailevsky, vice president, cloud and platform
engineering, Netflix.
While one of the biggest, Netflix is not the
first platform to go ‘cloud native’. It is agreed
that for companies delivering services across
the internet going cloud-native makes sense
more of it is expected going forward.
Nevertheless, it is also worth noting that
this is in effect a hybrid set-up, which
combines AWS with Open Connect. Netflix
still uses a highly distributed CDN based on
servers optimised for video delivery (the Open
Connect), placed in a very large number of
PoPs across the globe.
“Some larger operators are also looking at ways to use standard data centre infrastructure management to simplify the operations of their video processing.”
18-20_headends.indd 4 31/03/2016 17:50:58
So what is “television”
these days? We hear
lots of statements such
as “broadcasting is dead”,
“the future is IP” or
even the infamous
“We believe the future
of television is apps.”
Going back to basics, we are talking about
creating content to “inform, educate and
entertain” and then delivering it to viewers. There
are ongoing debates about whether people prefer
to “sit back” or “lean forward” but it is clear that
both options are used. Likewise, whether people
prefer to enjoy “scheduled” content, “time
flexibility” or even “binge viewing”, all variants
need to be supported. Finally, the proliferation of
viewing devices means that watching can be on
any sized screen, both in the home and on the
move and even now in immersive environments
with Virtual Reality.
According to Ofcom, the UK leads the world
in the way it views TV. UK viewers are apparently
the most advanced in embracing new ways to
enjoy TV and video content. However, the latest
research from Thinkbox, the marketing body for
commercial TV in the UK, shows that the average
TV viewer in the UK watched a total of 3 hours
51 minutes of TV a day in 2015. For the average
viewer, 3 hours 47 minutes of this daily viewing
was watched on a TV set, with just 4 minutes
watched on other devices such as tablets,
smartphones and laptops.
TV – live, playback or on-demand across all
screens had a 76 per cent share of total viewing
and Thinkbox states that YouTube accounts for
just 4.4% of viewing while SVoD (Netflix,
Amazon Prime and other SVoD services)
accounts for another 4 per cent. When combined
with recent developments such as Microsoft’s
announcement to stop support for its Skype for
TV application from June this year, the ongoing
availability of TV app functions is under question.
As TV continues to dominate viewing for all
age groups despite so many new technologies and
services claiming to be disruptive, perhaps TV is
disrupting the internet rather than the other way
around? Whatever your view, in this increasingly
fragmented world we need standards and industry
collaboration to efficiently deliver the experiences
consumers want.
Broadcasters are looking to enhance their
linear offering with easy access to catch-up
content. Ensuring a simple proposition to allow
viewers to legitimately move content around the
home and across devices while protecting assets is
something that needs to be addressed in the
horizontal market, something that Sky are now
offering with Sky Q. Improving quality is essential
to differentiate and we are finally getting closer to
large scale deployment of ultra HD services now
that the standards are being settled. Addressing
new markets such as VR and the trend towards
making content more interactive and game like is
television’s new frontier.
Progressing such areas of industry
collaboration are exactly why the UK’s Digital
Television Group (DTG) was set up over 20 years
ago and we continue to help broadcasters,
manufactures, service providers and retailers
develop a coordinated offering for the benefit of
the consumer.
Television is changing. So what exactly does that mean for the future of TV?
Industry Column
21 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
Simon Gauntlett is the chief technology officer at the DTG. There is more on this at www.dtg.org.uk and if you’re interested in getting
involved, please contact Simon Gauntlett at [email protected]
TV is the new TV
31_DTGColumn-april2016.indd 2 29/03/2016 11:13:55
Fibre is commonly seen as the
biggest challenge to a satellite
operator’s core business. In
order to thrive proactive bird
operators have entered that
market themselves and
diversified to tap into emerging
income streams. Conversely, however, fibre has
also boosted demand for satellite services too.
“It’s worked in our favour by creating consumer
expectation for services that many will never get,
because the cost of fibre deployment per home
explodes in regions with lower population
density,” explains Antonio Arcidiacono, Eutelsat’s
director of innovation. “Even in developed
countries, fibre is not an economically viable
solution for 100% coverage.”
The more direct competitor, particularly in the
machine-to-machine (M2M) area, is cellular,
argues David Wigglesworth, head of Inmarsat’s
M2M division. “A fibre network provides
terrestrial connectivity and is limited in the type
of terrain it can cover. It cannot, for example,
directly provide connectivity to mobile units. A
cellular network, on the other hand, uses
terrestrial base stations to provide wireless
connectivity to fixed and mobile units. The M2M
market, among other things, enables the tracking
of remote assets in inaccessible locations, so
cellular network access would be rightly
considered a direct competitor to satellite.”
Cellular networks are, however, often reliant on
fibre for key stages of their transmission process.
The biggest threat to established satellite
operators are new entrants, claims Roger Boddy,
CEO of Global Teleports. “The biggest challenge
to satellite operators’ core business is the growth
of alternative satellite constellations due to
increase the density in low earth orbit by 100%
in the next two years and by 700% within the
next four years,” he says.
The Internet of ThingsThe Internet of Things services (IoT) is a major
growth area for satellite. Millions of tiny processes
such as smart-home meters reporting daily energy
usage could add up to a lot of bandwidth
requirements. Most IoT devices rely on WiFi or
blue tooth access, which can be served either by
satellite or terrestrial infrastructures. Whichever
comes in cheapest will be the winner here.
“Some of the main advantages of satellite
for M2M and IoT markets is consistency and
guaranteed quality, in addition to ubiquitous
Satellite
New directions for satellite
22 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
“Satellite could play a key role in motoring and traffic management in the future.”
Anna Tobin looks at M2M/IoT and other emerging opportunities for satellite operators, as well as the emergence of new competitive threats
Source: NSR
22-24_satellite.indd 2 04/04/2016 12:04:49
coverage,” says Eutelsat’s Arcidiacono. “With
low-cost and low-power user terminals, such
as Eutelsat’s smart LNB, we’re able to deliver
an affordable service that can also be used
by terrestrial networks to extend or back-up
their coverage.
“According to our internal estimates, 25 to
30 billion objects will be connected by 2025,
creating scope to leverage our USPs to serve
an emerging business.”
The scope for this business is immense.
Satellite’s USP lies in its ability to connect
devices where there is no terrestrial connectivity.
The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System
(GMDSS) which sends distress calls to rescue
services, is a prime example of a communication
system that will remain dependent on satellite
technology. Satellites are also crucial for providing
weather information that is invaluable for flood
or forest fire control, for example. Being able
to allocate additional capacity as a result of
unexpected demand in situations such as this,
will be what makes one satellite operator stand
out from the crowd.
“Our M2M solutions, have been deployed
to transmit sensor data to improve visibility of
changes in water levels and water quality. They’ve
also been harnessed for oil and gas pipeline
monitoring, observing corrosion and other risks
through placing sensors at intervals along a
pipeline,” highlights Wigglesworth at Inmarsat.
Interestingly, many of these new connected
services will not require huge amounts of
bandwidth. “It’s too early to judge,” says Stephen
Douglas, solutions and technical strategy lead,
IoT, at Spirent, “but the volume of units is more
likely to be in the millions, rather than billions
with minimal bandwidth requirements.”
Whilst bandwidth may not be an issue,
however, security could be a problem, warns
Boddy of Global Teleports. “I have a major
concern about the penetration of the IoT into
the world wide web,” he says. “Domestic
household appliances are increasingly being
equipped with a web-based interface so that they
may be interrogated for fault finding or remote
management by a computer or smart phone, but,
without due regard for security, this opens up the
home to the hacker.
“On the basis of IoT being a least cost impact
platform, IoT-enabled domestic devices will be
minimally equipped. If that home has its own
local area network and the IoT device has access
to that LAN, the hacker will be able to
gain access.”
This is something that may be of concern
to on the ground technology, more than
satellite, however.
Connected carsThe soon to launch self-driving cars will be
heavily reliant on satellite technology, particularly
geo-location services. Cars already use satellite
technology with GPS, ‘Sat Nav’. Driverless cars
and auto-parking technology open up huge
opportunities for remote control, satellite
tracking and other technology applications.
“So, satellite could play a key role in motoring
and traffic management in the future,” says
Boddy at Global Teleports.
Satellite has a double role to play in
connected cars, adds Arcidiacono at Eutelsat.
“We predict that car telematics will be checked
by satellite for predictive maintenance, software
updates, road safety, etc. and that infotainment
will also rely on satellites.”
As our role as drivers is taken over by the car
itself, the car will become a mobile infotainment
centre for everyone it is transporting and satellite
will have a primary role in transmitting this
content to cars.
Ku-band movesNorthern Sky Research has already noted that in
some niche markets M2M/IoT units are starting
to move away from L-band to Ku-band and it
expects some High Throughput Satellite (HTS)
M2M/IoT usage to move over in future.
Wigglesworth at Inmarsat, however, doesn’t
believe that there will be a huge switchover in this
respect. He says: “Ku-Band and HTS are not a
substitute for L-band. The technology for Ku and
HTS is typically designed for applications
requiring large amounts of bandwidth with
relatively expensive and physically large terminals.
M2M, by its inherent nature requires small,
compact, discreet and cost effective terminals
with relatively small amounts of data transfer.
Today, Ku and HTS are sub-optimal technologies
for M2M end points, however, they may be used
as concentrators to back haul aggregated M2M
data. For KU and HTS to emerge beyond this
will take significant investment in technology
and many years.”
Boddy at Global Teleports has a more positive
view, however. “Wake up! The KU/KA band
HTS train has arrived, the IoT passengers are
on board and about to move on to the next
destination. We are already delivering IoT service
on HTS satellites
“We have already adopted HTS technology in
our domestic and enterprise service offerings to
augment our traditional satellite service offerings
Satellite
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 23
“The KU/KA band HTS train has arrived, the IoT passengers are on board and about to move on to the next destination.”
22-24_satellite.indd 3 31/03/2016 16:11:40
and use wireless and optical fibre technologies to
extend service to Local and Metropolitan Area
Networks around the satellite landing point.’
Meanwhile, SES is leveraging its partner O3b
Networks’ low-latency high throughput MEO
fleet to fully utilise the world’s only hybrid
GEO-MEO network.
Being flexible and open to new technologies is
key for anyone operating in the satellite industry
says Douglas at Spirent. ‘If satellite is to compete
with other connectivity solutions it needs to offer
a more flexible development and test environment
to help drive adoption. It needs to better position
its value adds - ubiquitous coverage, borderless
roaming, flexible bandwidth management,
reliability, immediacy - and it needs to better
position itself within the eco-system of
connectivity solutions as complimentary. Inmarsat
joining the LoRa Alliance is a good first step.’
Satellite operators not only need to be flexible
when looking at new business opportunities, they
also need to offer their clients interchangeable
services, adds Bozhinkova at SES. “SES is
constantly working on making one-stop satellite
solutions; with pre-defined pricing packages;
pre-engineered networks, that take some of
the complexity off of our customers while
allowing them to manage their satellite network
remotely; and shorter provisioning times.
We’re also creating satellite-agnostic business
models, allowing customers to roam between
satellites or combine multiple beams at the
same price per Mbps.”
Standards As is normal for this industry, various competing
standards have developed for IoT and M2M
technology, but the LoRa Alliance focusing on the
Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN)
specification for wireless battery-operated things
in regional, national or global networks is the
standard that has gained the most traction.
Leading IoT system providers Cisco and IBM are
key members of the Alliance, for example, whilst
Inmarsat is the first bird operator to get behind it.
Being early to market has been a big plus point
for LoRa, points out Arcidiacono at Eutelsat.
“LoRa, such as Sigfox, is available today and
remains more open for new players than any
LTE network platform could be.”
The openness of LoRa is what attracted
Inmarsat to it. “Inmarsat has joined LoRa as it
provides a more dynamic and open ecosystem
than its competitors, where the members of the
Alliance aim to deliver interoperability between
platforms and devices to enable complete
solutions built from across the ecosystem,”
explains Joel Schroeder, director of Inmarsat’s
M2M programme.
“From Inmarsat’s perspective, the LoRa
strategy and technology and marketplace offer
the best fit for Inmarsat and its channel, many
of whom require similar or standardised
solutions that are scalable and easy to deploy
across the globe.”
As this standard has already entrenched itself,
it is likely that all the big players will eventually
adopt it. We await to see who will be next in
line join.
Satellite
24 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
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22-24_satellite.indd 4 30/03/2016 10:45:06
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Connected intelligence
verimatrix-april2016.indd 1 31/03/2016 11:52:37
There are two oncoming
waves of technology in the
television space: a greater
image and sound realism,
and personalisation/
interactivity. The first takes
in the likes of ultra HD and
virtual reality, the second includes the likes of
mobile video, addressable advertising and VoD.
It remains to be seen what combination of these
viewers will want and be willing to pay for.
It also brings in the need for security and
privacy. Largely thanks to IP, TV now touches
the consumer in a much more connected and
personalised way. Because TV is much more
personalised, a new level of interaction is
emerging between our personal data and
broadcast, which wasn’t the case a few years ago.
The convergence of broadcast and mobile
is a big topic point among both parties.
While this has been a failure in the past, there
is greater hope and optimism for the future.
People are downloading and streaming more
than ever but there hasn’t been a major
disruption to the classical payTV industry.
There is a lot of consumption and delivery
over WiFi networks, both inside and outside the
home, but cellular delivery over 4G still faces
some fairly significant bandwidth constraints,
especially for HD and even more so 4k.
5G could be a game changer, however.
That promises data rates for 4k type of content
and could significantly up the game for mobile.
But again, it will be a case of licensing rights.
Content owners are still trying to figure out how
to maximise their money once users start going
outside the home. Those business rules will
certainly affect the 5G discussion.
At Mobile World Congress, there was much
talk about how mobility and the cloud are
disrupting industries globally. As media supply
chains continue to migrate to the cloud, consider
this recent statement from the Digital Production
Partnership (DPP), a not for profit company
founded by major UK broadcasters ITV, BBC
and Channel 4: “The television production
model has changed remarkably little in the last
few decades. But the proliferation of video across
all sectors, the emergence of new digital agencies,
changing consumer consumption habits and
the growing maturity of web-based production
services could all prove hugely disruptive to the
established model.”
It is acknowledgement that times are changing,
all the way from the traditionally conservative
field of production through to consumption - and
that disruption is inevitable.
IoT and data analyticsThe other disruptive wave affecting the entire
technology landscape is the Internet of Things,
which in turn affects a whole range of other
verticals, from retail and banking, to agriculture
and automotive. The mobile industry sees 5G/IoT
New rules of engagementCSI looks at the changes sweeping the television industry, not least its relationship with data
26 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
Sponsored feature
“According to Norway’s SINTEF, approximately 90% of the world’s data has been generated over the last two years.”
Predictive analyticsTelcos, internet and cloud service
providers are dealing with converged
services with the help of network analytics
solutions and services, as well as network
intelligence solutions. Dell has been
researching analytics business benefits
and uptake and has found around half of
business and IT decision-makers anticipate
gaining a competitive advantage in the future
through predictive analytics. OTT is creating
a much more competitive environment and
we are also beginning to see the rise of
Analytics-as-a-Service.
verimatrix-april2016.indd 2 31/03/2016 11:52:38
disrupting the media industry on top of other
verticals. And once again, IoT also brings
with it a new privacy and security paradigm.
A decade ago there were about 500 million
devices connected to the Internet. Today, there
are 10 to 20 billion. In five years’ time, that
number could reach 40 to 50 billion, according
to estimates by technology firm Cisco. This rate
of growth goes a long way to explaining how
the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has,
in a short space of time, gone from a vision
of how information and data could be managed
in the future, to something that is at the heart
of modern business and utterly ubiquitous
in its scope.
But the phenomenon of the IIoT is unique
because it allows the forward-thinking company
to prepare, adapt, and thrive in this new economic
age. The rise of IIoT also means we are at the
start of a new age of data. Two chief components
of an ‘IIoT object’ are its ability to capture data
via sensors and transmit data via the Internet.
The declining cost of sensors since the start of
the new millennium has been a main driver in
this growth. This has had profound implications
on organisations’ ability to capture data that
was previously out of reach.
According to the Norwegian research
organisation SINTEF, approximately 90 per cent
of the world’s data has been generated over the
past two years. Every second, over 205,000 new
gigabytes are created – roughly the equivalent of
150 million books.
The challenge for the insurance industry is
how to leverage all of this data and adapt its
own approach to business in this increasingly
connected world.
While much early attention was directed at
vehicle telematics, in the past year or so, the
sector has seen a two- to three-fold increase in
the number of IoT-related products, services and
pilots focused on homes and buildings, health and
fitness, and other wearables according to research
by Accenture. Consultants at the firm surveyed
insurance executives in Europe, North America,
Asia-Pacific and Latin America, finding that 39
per cent have already launched or are piloting
connected home or connected building initiatives
that use the IoT, and 44 per cent consider
connected devices to be a driver of future
insurance revenue growth.
The IoT presents unprecedented opportunities
for growth. It gives insurers the potential to
move up the value chain, from providing only
indemnification for a loss that has occurred,
to a more proactive, positive role that includes
continuously helping customers prevent the loss.
The IoT is definitely changing the risk
landscape significantly. One of the biggest issues
with the IoT in general has been that of liability –
working out who or what is responsible for errors
and malfunctions. IoT devices communicate with
each other in a highly complex manner, and
working out which device is responsible when
something goes wrong can be challenging. This
is an issue with connected cars – especially once
they become semi-autonomous and eventually
driverless - and there are early discussions around
liability, what decisions to make in case of an
unavoidable accident, insurance and so on.
Data is already a big deal but it will be an even
bigger one as more and more devices – from
tractors to pets – get connected. With billions
of devices collecting data, the lines get blurred
on who is responsible for what data. IIoT
objects function autonomously and in conjunction
with multiple other objects. Data is quickly
shared, processed, reshared, and reprocessed
before it might be seen by human eyes. In other
words, it is too simple to associate one device
with one piece of data, since so much of the
IIoT’s potential lies in the seamless transfer of
this data between objects.
Data storage and privacy is another huge issue
currently doing the rounds in regulatory circles.
The way in which individuals view their personal
data and the ways in which it is used by
businesses or all kinds will further change in the
future. This will have far reaching implications
for all manner of systems within the IIoT sphere.
“Disruption is coming and we haven’t seen it
all yet. We are just at the beginning of ICT
transformation in industries and society,” said
Hans Vestberg, president & CEO of Ericsson,
with 5G and IoT firmly in mind.
The TV industry will continue to need to
adapt to the challenges and opportunities of
data-driven analytics in IoT and IoT itself.
At this year’s DVB World, the global terrestrial
standards group set itself the task of exploring
the possibility to host supplemental IoT/M2M
downlink traffic over a DTT network. Looking
at the long term future of the DTT platform,
it is an admission that DVB must better connect
with other technology islands going forward.
Seeing what role broadcasters, operators,
vendors and other stakeholders take in this
emerging space – and where they fit in this wider
technology and societal evolution - will be very
interesting indeed.
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 27
Sponsored feature
“The proliferation of video across all sectors, changing consumption habits and growing maturity of web-based production could all prove hugely disruptive to the established model.”
Data in the cloudPeople and industries are being transformed
by broadband, mobility and the cloud,
according to AT&T. Customers are gathering
huge amounts of data, which is increasingly
being stored and connected to the cloud in
a secure way.
“Everything is moving to the cloud. Once data
no longer resides in the end devices but in the
cloud there will be no stopping it,” said Ralph
de la Vega, Vice Chairman, AT&T, at MWC
this year. “It’s the combination of devices,
software, mobility and the cloud that is
disrupting everything. Complete business
models around the world are getting changed.”
It’s about real-time data too, taking
information and using the cloud to manage
all the analytics through cloud computing.
“Cities and governments worldwide will be
able to operate more efficiently once they’ve
had data about things they’ve never had data
before. We can no longer sell connectivity, we
have to sell solutions to make customers more
successful,” said de la Vega, who added that
data has to be orchestrated end-to-end.
verimatrix-april2016.indd 3 31/03/2016 11:52:38
Security for premium video
services has always been
an arms race with the
result that new threats
have tended to emerge as
quickly as existing ones
are countered. Inevitably
this has meant providers of revenue security for
video platforms have had to expend a lot of effort
dealing with breaches and security related
problems after they occur. Crisis management
has been a critical part of the business.
But the advent of the cloud has presented
a unique opportunity to take a major leap
forward against not just the pirates but also
all those exceptions and unanticipated problems
that can disrupt service availability and revenue.
It presents the opportunity to progress from
reactivity to proactivity.
Acquiring actionable business intelligenceBy taking a global perspective across a spectrum
of video service activity covering a diverse
population of platforms, client devices
and users, the cloud has the potential to detect
a representative global heartbeat of both healthy
and potentially problematic activity. Major
revenue security providers are uniquely placed to
capture this heartbeat through their access
to hundreds of operators worldwide, ranging
from major Tier 1s to emerging service
providers in different markets embracing
a wide range of use cases and threat scenarios.
The ability to analyse this heartbeat can
give early warning of impending issues or
problems that might be relevant either for
an individual customer or more widely to
the whole pay TV ecosystem. As such, this
plays an important role in the trend towards
the software-empowered operator.
The underlying theme here is that the whole
entertainment and video services industry is
shifting towards a much more software-based and
adaptable ecosystem as the infrastructure
becomes IP-based and virtualized around standard
commodity hardware components. At the same
time operators are also becoming more data
centric and increasingly reliant on actionable
insights derived from intelligent big data analytics.
Security is at the heart of this revolution because
it is emerging as a vital source of analytics, as well
as expanding its traditional role by protecting all
the data including new sources. In this context,
cloud-based monitoring and support services
will have the very important role of aggregating
and analysing data from across the whole
customer base.
Establishing secure lines of trustBut there are also significant hurdles to
overcome in aggregating all of this data, not
least because some of this data can be highly
sensitive. Operators will need convincing that
privacy can be upheld. After all the concept
behind cloud-based monitoring turns on its head
the long established idea that connectivity is a
threat to revenue security, presenting it instead as
an opportunity to extend its scope. It challenges
the prevailing orthodoxy that a system is more
secure if it is kept in isolation. It also positions
the cloud as a positive force for security by
enabling insights to be gained and potential
threats detected early on, despite the apparent
risks of letting a third party gain access.
Operators have obviously established their
own security layers at the data centre level in
parallel with the revenue security provided by
external specialists in the field. This will typically
include various mechanisms including firewalls
and Intrusion Protection Systems (IDS). Their
role is precisely to prevent cases of sensitive data
leaking out or unwanted external access to
critical systems. Now, in order to aggregate
data, operators are being invited to allow a hole
through these protective walls in order to have
information extracted for a global monitoring
platform. Therefore it is crucial that the extraction
process does not introduce any new vulnerability
to outside attack, while contributing to collective
security from which operators will each benefit
individually.
Partly this comes down to trust, as well as
accessibility. This should not however be a
significant hurdle since by definition an operator
should already trust a security provider on which
it depends for the protection of its most valuable
assets. Seen in this light global monitoring is no
Global connectivity: Enhancing security and reducing costBy Steve Christian, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Verimatrix
28 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
Sponsored feature
verimatrix-april2016.indd 4 31/03/2016 11:52:39
more than a logical extension of the existing
proven trust model, which has presumably stood
the test of time given that most operators have
long established relationships with their revenue
security providers.
Anticipating threats and challengesA proactive monitoring system can also
potentially identify operational issues such as a
particular system reaching its capacity, or even
niggling things like expiry of a software licence
or password. A secure infrastructure supports
semi-automated delivery of license updates to
operators, so that operators can avoid subscriber
growth exceeding license capacity in a proactive
manner. At the same time, by having this
infrastructure in place, routine operations that
counter ongoing threats such as downloading OS
security patches can be performed automatically.
A natural question is what the full operational
impact will be and the extent to which errors or
conditions that previously involved a reactive
response after the event can now be nipped in the
bud before operators have even noticed them.
While at this stage it is too early to provide a
definitive answer, based on past history from the
field, Verimatrix has found convincing evidence
that well over 50% of current incidents can be
intercepted and headed off through proactive
monitoring. This is based on patterns of our
error logs that we call P1s, which gives good
reason for confidence that more than half can be
anticipated. Furthermore there is potential to bear
down more effectively on pirates than has been
done to date.
Database health is another area where there is
a clearly identified scope for reducing problems
through proactive monitoring. It is common for
inconsistencies to arise within, for example, the
entitlement database that harmonizes solutions,
incorporating APIs to manage rights, messages,
devices, content and configurations. It has been
shown that identifying any inconsistencies
between elements in this database and correcting
them almost as soon as they arise can prevent
operational problems occurring later.
Leveraging a wider range of expertiseThere is another important dimension for
operators, which is ROI. The point here is that
many of the issues identified through data
monitoring cannot be completely dealt with
automatically and will continue to require
considerable expertise to resolve. In the past,
operators have had much of this expertise
available in-house. Yet it clearly makes more sense
and enables scale economies at the human
resource level for this expertise to be concentrated
with the revenue security provider rather than
scattered across large numbers of operators.
This will not only save money for operators but
also, over time, extend the scope of revenue
protection further, which is crucial as the
proliferation of live and on-demand streaming
creates new threats. Beyond that, the advent of
Ultra HD services is also creating new security
challenges and opening fresh avenues for piracy.
We are convinced that data monitoring itself
raises the bar higher against pirates and will keep
it there, while at the same time extends the scope
for operators to embrace analytics and proactively
protect revenue against emerging threats. Visit
www.verimatrix.com/verspective
to learn more.
Steve Christian, Senior Vice
President of Marketing,
Verimatrix
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 29
Sponsored feature
“There is potential to bear down more effectively on pirates than before.”
verimatrix-april2016.indd 5 31/03/2016 11:52:43
SECURING THE CONNECTED FUTURE
The world of video is becoming more connected. And next-generation video service providers are delivering new connected services based on software and IP technologies.
Now imagine a globally interconnected revenue security platform. A cloud-based engine that can optimize system performance, proactively detect threats and decrease operational costs.
Discover how Verimatrix is defining the future of pay-TV revenue security. www.verimatrix.com/verspective
Visit us at NAB 2016 April 18-21 • Las Vegas • Booth # SU2806
IP in broadcast
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 31
The wholesale
move to IP in
broadcasting
has birthed
a number of
solutions to the
same problem:
IP in the live production
environment.
The groups can count
multiple backers, all claim to
be standards-based and all tout
their open credentials. But no
scheme has been fully ratified by
any international standards body
and the degree of openness is one
of interpretation.
IP-based broadcast is not as
simple as connecting wiring, switches and drive
arrays to servers, applications and equipment.
If it was, we’d be much farther down this path.
In fact, it’s just as easy to build proprietary
solutions on an IP backbone as it is to continue
development based on SDI.
Live production is the biggest challenge
for IP due to the requirement for low latency
and discrete, reliable switching. The variety
of approaches recognise that IP affords the
opportunity to move from the constraints
of SDI to allow for a more flexible means of
treating video, audio, and metadata. However,
the sluggish nature of standardisation, the
impatience of some customers wanting to
move their business forward and proprietorial
business interests, mean the industry enters
NAB at risk of falling into gatewayed silos
instead of universal interoperability.
A question of standards“The danger is one of losing confidence and
creating confusion for our customers,” spells
out Mo Goyal, Director - Product Marketing,
Evertz. “The industry wants to employ IP as
quickly as possible, however they want to
ensure they invest in a technology that will
protect them in the future.”
Few would argue with this description by
Nevion’s of engineering, Andy Rayner, of overall
goal for production: “The transport of separate
media essences with appropriate timing to allow
them to be brought together in production,
but kept seperate to allow for the processing
that needs to happen.”
And why do we want this? “Because IP
independence removes you from the ever
increasing number of formats,” says Rayner.
“Spatial and temporal resolution are increasing
to HDR and 8K and down to various
requirements for mobile, so moving to a native
video interface, rather than a composite one,
is where we need to be.”
Most approaches take the SMPTE standard
2022-6 as their starting point. These include
Sony’s Networked Media Interface (NMI), an
adaptation of 2022-6 which supports SMPTE
2059 PTP for timing but not the AES67 audio
standard and wraps media in a single multicast
stream. This technology is before SMPTE as a
Registered Disclosure
Documents/RDD34.
Lobby group AIMS
(Alliance for IP Media
Solutions) has Nevion,
Grass Valley, Imagine
Communications, Lawo
and SAM as founder
members. They want to
build on 2022-6 with
AES67 and Video Services
Forum (VSF)-devised
TR-03 which splits the
video, audio and metadata
into separate paths.
Some of these consortiums
are based entirely on a world
without SDI, according to
Cisco. “While visionary, they are impractical
for large broadcast and media businesses that
need to make money today,” the company says.
Others are designed to move customers and
prospects to IP-based infrastructure while
protecting the proprietary lock-in that is
common in today’s SDI-based world.
“No wonder broadcasters are confused and
cautious. And that’s why Cisco has committed
to the AIMS alliance and its approach to building
the common standards the broadcast and media
industry needs for a successful transition to an
IP-based future,” it says.
Cisco says it has combined AIMS’ goals
with its own expertise developing intelligent
connectivity, storage and distribution, resulting
in a better approach to IP-based backbones and
applications for broadcast and media.
Evertz, which is a participant in VSF and the
TR-03 effort, has a different approach. ASPEN
(Adaptive Sample Picture Encapsulation), uses
MPEG-2 Transport Streams to carry video
(before SMPTE as draft RDD37) because, says
Evertz, this is a technical route that works today.
Both AIMS and Evertz work uncompressed
IP stumbles at the fi rst hurdleIs the promise of systems interoperability and open workfl ows using IP interfaces at risk of being undermined by an unjoined up vendor-centric approach? Adrian Pennington explores
32-33_IP_production.indd 1 31/03/2016 17:53:49
and claim to be agnostic about compression
which is believed important – though not
necessary given enough bandwidth - for
handling UHD.
Another proposal comes from NewTek.
Its Network Device Interface (NDI) eschews
traditional broadcast standards and is aimed
at lower-budget broadcast, corporate
communications, niche sports and YouTubers.
NewTek CTO Andrew Cross argues that
there is an industry standard in terms of cabling
and that this has in fact permitted the different
media transport protocols to flourish.
“In the past the industry has been burned
because if a facility made a decision about a
standard and bet on the wrong one it would
end up with a huge sunk cost and no way out,”
he says. “To a degree, IP has ovecome that
since the IP cabling or network doesn’t need
to change. I don’t believe the multiplicity or
lack of standards will be as much of an issue
this time around.”
Some of the messaging and counter
messaging between sponsors of competing
protocols is pretty intense, showing just
what is at stake for companies backing the
wrong horse.
“AIMS collectively — and SAM individually —
see a danger in the adoption of proprietary
formats,” says Tim Felstead, Head of
Product Marketing, SAM. “Our philosophy
is that we should be adopting open protocols
that are as much as humanly possible
royalty free.”
Nevion’s Rayner agrees, “We are committed
to open standards rather than retro-fitting
one manufacturer’s proposal. Such proposals
are initiated only to garner market share and
attempt to impose a solution on the market.”
Sony brushes off such criticism. “If you
look back to when we first introduced NMI
it could have been seen as proprietary but
Sony has quickly opened up RDDs to SMPTE
and other groups. We are committed to an
interoperable approach,” says Nicolas Moreau,
Product Marketing Manager IP Live Production
& Workflows.
ASPEN – which is supported by Sony,
Discovery Communications, ChryonHego,
AJA, Hitachi and NEP Group – comes in for
most criticism. Here’s a stinging repost from
Koen Meyskens, open innovation manager at
Belgium broadcaster VRT, which ran the AIMS-
supported world’s first remote live IP production
as part of the EBU Sandbox LiveIP project:
“We have a strong belief in open standards not
linked to any vendor and broadcasters are not
helped with a mess of different protocols.
ASPEN dictates its standards and then makes
them free to use which is not the same as an
open standard.”
Imagine Communications CTO Steve Reynolds
concedes that Evertz devised “a clever solution
to IP encapsulation in the transport stream”.
Nonetheless, he says, “this has compromises that
are not aligned with the longer term vision
of the industry. It’s evident that ASPEN was
a short term solution to a short term problem.
That’s not to say Evertz won’t move into
TR-03 but we didn’t see the need to take
that interim step.”
Evertz is robust in response: “There’s a
misconception that ASPEN is proprietary,
and that’s not true,” says Goyal. “The purpose
of submitting an RDD to SMPTE is to publicly
disclose how to expand the existing MPEG-2 TS
standard to include uncompressed video.
There’s no royalty or license fee associated
with it.”
While the EBU’s project Sandbox has been
making all the headlines with a live IP studio and
a live IP remote production of a concert (neither
using TR-03), Evertz can point to deployments
since 2014. “ESPN the first real facility built
using an IP core and running the ASPEN
framework,” says Goyal. “This year the Superbowl
was the first major event to be produced using
NEP’s facilities for CBS Sports using an IP
infrastructure based on an ASPEN framework
(CBS made similar use of the tech for coverage
of Masters golf this time routing 4K (from
a quad 4K capture) and NBC Sports is trialling
ASPEN for production of the Olympics.
Goyal continues: “The big difference between
AIMS and ASPEN is that we’ve used a proven
standard and have deployed over 30 global
installations using IP. AIMS is promoting TR-03
and TR-04 as a possible path for IP. But it’s not
proven. It’s at an early phase with a lot of
unanswered questions. Starting from scratch
will pose a challenge. They have some optimistic
views on when the industry will see a final
solution. We’re not as confident at this point
when (and if) it will happen.”
Sony makes a similar case against AIMS.
“TR-03 is not yet a standard, it is only a
recommendation and we only support standards.”
[though Moreau neglects to mention Sony’s own
draft document].
But let’s not paint this as a VHS verus Betamax
argument. Evertz appears more concillatory
IP in broadcast
32 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
Image courtesy of Cisco
32-33_IP_production.indd 2 31/03/2016 17:56:16
toward its rivals than AIMS members are toward
it. “It is easy for us and our customers to deploy
ASPEN today but that’s not to say if and when
something down the pipe is proven and has
commercial value that we can’t make adjustments
to it,” says Goyal. “It could be ASPEN or some
version of TR-03 – it’s all software and we have
the flexility to adapt.”
Compression conundrumOne chief differentiator between the protocols
is compression. While AIMS and ASPEN are
theoretically uncompressed there is growing
consensus that a form of light compression
will be needed to work with 4K over standard
10GigE pipes.
Sony deploys its own Low Latency Video
Codec in its pathway, while IntoPix has gathered
considerable support behind its own JPEG2000-
based codec branded TICO.
Imagine is agnostic about which scheme is
used in an AIMS framework, but fellow AIMS
member SAM wants to see the royalty free VC2
dominate. The EBU Sandbox tests worked with
uncompressed HD only, but the vendors
which collaborated on the project are thought
to favour TICO.
ASPEN is taking a wait and see approach,
noting that both TICO and Sony have their
benefits. “ASPEN currently defines uncompressed
video over TS, but as a framework can be
expanded to include compression formats if
required,” clarifies Goyal.
NewTek NMI is uncompromisingly
compressed at what Cross calls baseband
quality (similar
to ProRes or DNXHD) over 1GigE pipes.
“Almost everyone will come to the same
conclusion,” says Cross. “If you want to
transport uncompressed around then SDI
is going to be better than IP. For instance,
in TR-03, you need 10 microsecond timing
accuracy for each scan line of video. There’s
just no way that a computer system without
customised hardware is ever going to be able
to achieve that.”
Discovery and registrationNevion wants to steer AIMS beyond TR-03. In
particular it wants to focus on registration and
discovery, two elements it feels are lacking in
the VSF formula.
“We are committed to using essence-based
TR-03 but with addition of registration and
discovery protocols that BBC R&D have
proposed,” says Rayner.
This has been a sticking point for many
engineers at the cutting edge of live production
since if something goes down it’s up to them
to find and rectify it. With the specialised
routing, physical connections and manual
configuration of current OB and studio
infrastructure, diagnosis is relatively
straightforward.
In an IP-based approach such connections,
routes and devices may be virtual. So, asks
BBC R&D Senior Technologist, Clynt Pinfold,
“How do we know what is available, where it is
available, and most importantly, how to get to it?
It should be possible to plug an IP-based video
camera in, and immediately have the pictures
it produces available on the network.”
BBC R&D has implemented a ‘discovery and
registration’ system which allows networked
media devices and resources to be automatically
recognised and made available. “A data model
describes how resources (cameras, displays,
media feeds) are represented within the system,”
explains Pinfold. Central to this is the concept
of identity in which every resource as well as
every stream of video, audio, or data flowing
through the system is given a unique identifier.
“All together, this brings benefits in terms
of agility, independence from physical location,
and a reduction in configuration time,” he says.
The IABM view Understandably,
the broadcast equipment vendor’s trade
body IABM, is taking a diplomatic tack.
“Industry standards remain important
and should continue to be one benchmark
of stability,” tiptoes John Ive, director of
technology and strategic insight. “However,
looking for a single standard is no longer
tenable for every aspect of the industry.
The value of standards is increasingly in
the open documentation of important
parameters, ensuring that more than one
supplier can produce systems that will be
compatible or operate in a consistent way.
If one standard leads others, this will come
from popular use.”
The transition to an all IT/IP system is
different from other technology developments
in that it affects so many aspects of the
production/playout chain - it’s not just
a box-for-box replacement within existing
systems. The consequence is that workflows
need to be re-designed, skillsets are different,
new creative opportunities will develop and
most important, the technology deployment
will be very different with some commodity
hardware, software solutions, shared resources,
cloud integration and virtual machines.
“All of this is going to take time to mature
and evolve,” stresses Ive. “As there is no
precedent for these changes, we are facing
a period of experimentation for some
aspects. Fortunately, not everyone is facing
a refurbishment cycle at the same time.”
Fortunate indeed.
IP in broadcast
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 33
“There’s a misconception that ASPEN is proprietary. That’s not true.”
32-33_IP_production.indd 3 31/03/2016 17:56:45
The risk of satellite interference
is at the forefront of most
satellite broadcasters’ minds.
It only affects a minor number
of services, but when it does
occur the results are often
detrimental, leading consumers
to miss that winning goal, for example. Clearly,
in a broadcast world, including outside broadcast
(OB), live feeds are a particular problem, once
a viewer has missed the moment, there is no
going back!
Also, consumer viewing expectations have
been drastically increasing and competition,
fiercer than ever; with premium content being
delivered at anytime and to multiple devices.
The net result is that viewers will simply not
tolerate a loss of service, and will simply get
their content elsewhere if service is interrupted.
It is for this reason that the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) introduced
the deadline for all video feeds transmitting
in the US to contain Carrier ID by 1 June 2016.
Recently, that deadline has shifted back to
September, with a further grace period until 3rd
September 2017. As an organisation pushing for
this important technology to be mandated, I was
at first a little concerned that has been shifted.
However, in actual fact what this means is that
the FCC is serious about enforcing it and has
given broadcasters more time as reaching the
initial deadline was proving impossible. Indeed,
at Satellite 2016 we were beginning to see some
of that panic set in, with broadcasters desperate
to find out what new equipment might be needed
to meet that.
Fear not, however, the tools and technology
are already in place, as I will outline in this
article, but the focus now has to come from
the broadcasters to do their bit and help
themselves.
The causes of satellite interference are varied
but can normally be put into one of three groups:
Deliberate jamming; Equipment failure; and
Human error.
1. Deliberate jamming. Instances of deliberate
jamming are rare and account for a minimal
number of interference cases. However, it does of
course occur and this case is the most difficult to
solve. The broadcaster being jammed cannot do
much themselves to resolve it, however, to help
safeguard their services the satellite community
has and continues to build better tools and
processes to combat this very specific challenge.
It is mostly politically motivated and mainly
occurs in regions with unstable political
situations. For a number of years, we have been
working closely with regulators, both national
and the ITU, to ensure they can intervene when
deliberate jamming occurs. At the same time,
geolocation manufacturers have been putting a
great deal of effort into making better systems
with more accuracy. This means that the satellite
operator can easily pinpoint the location of
the jammer, within a very small margin. That
information can then be passed onto the ITU or
other regulator and take steps to stop the jammer.
This process has been working well, but now
we could do with making it more efficient and
one way has been to introduce standards for
geolocation reporting. If regulators receive
reporting in a common format from everyone,
it will be easier for them to quickly compare
information and create consistent evidence to
then apply the appropriate action.
The major satellite operators have their own
geolocation solutions in house, but that is not true
for all satellite operators. For those that don’t, it
obviously takes longer to determine the source of
the interference and this can be a major challenge.
That is why this year, the Space Data Association
(SDA) has introduced a geolocation solution
service to its satellite operator members. This is
supported through its executive members and
means that an operator without their own solution
can request a geolocation. The SDA will then
determine which other member is in the best
position to help and then a geolocation will be
performed. That process is currently manual but
will shortly be automated, making it all the more
efficient. So, even if your operator does not have
its own solution, it can still support you effectively
through deliberate jamming if it is a member of
the SDA, or by using a third party geolocation
service provider.
2. Equipment Failure. Broadcasters have
a huge amount of equipment throughout the
operation. So, no-one can blame them for
shopping around for the best deal. The problem
Satellite interference
The state of interferenceMartin Coleman of SIRG says the focus now has to come from the broadcasters to do their bit and help themselves
34 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
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is however that there are far too many bad
products still available, which can then cause
interference. Equipment is getting better and
there are far more good products than bad, but
the other problem is the long lifecycles and
reticence on the part of the broadcasters to
replace equipment that really should not be
operational anymore.
There are a number of ways to minimise
this risk however. Firstly, if you are buying new
equipment, check whether it has been approved
by the Global VSAT Forum (GVF). Secondly,
make sure you maintain existing equipment,
service it regularly and check for errors. And
thirdly, invest in a good monitoring system that
will continually check the entire network and flag
up any errors as soon as they occur. And finally
make sure any single channel per carrier (SCPC)
system has Carrier ID.
3. Human Error. This is by far the most prolific
cause of satellite interference, but it is also the
one you can control the most. We have been
working tirelessly to develop tools and strategies
that help, and often these developments will cover
equipment failure.
TrainingIn any industry training is the best way to
combat human error. With better training for
those operating the satellite uplink equipment
is key. Our End Users Initiative (EUI) Training
and Certification working group has created
a customized training and certification
program, which is offered through Global
VSAT Forum (GVF).
This course is specifically tailored to the
broadcast environment, Carrier ID and all the
specific challenges, and scenarios that entails.
EUI also offers best practice and
documentation, including a new set of guides
aimed specifically at satellite broadcasters to help
them understand how best to mitigate the risk of
interference and implement Carrier ID.
TechnologyTechnology is really the main focus of IRG.
By developing new technology, we can get
better at detecting interference when it occurs,
as well as automating to minimise the risk of
errors in the first place. We have in particular
seen a flurry of new technology being launched
over recent months and years and it is extremely
encouraging to see.
CIDArguably
the biggest
development in
the technology
over recent years,
and IRG’s biggest
achievement has
been the
introduction of
Carrier ID (CID).
For anyone not up
to speed, CID embeds a unique ID spread
spectrum carrier within the main transmission
carrier. Our DVB-CID technology, standardised
by ETSI, enables that signal to be carried
below the noise floor, which crucially means
the carrier, in the majority of cases, does not
have to be dropped to identify the source of
interference.
Today, CID is included in almost all
equipment manufactured. So, before you buy
any new modulators or encoders, check our list to
see the ones with DVB-CID (the ETSI version) -
http://satirg.org/dvb-cid/cid-ready-products/.
You can also use the list to check whether your
existing equipment already has CID, as in many
cases, it does. We endeavour to keep the list as
updated as possible, but if you are unsure, please
do either contact your manufacturer or get in
touch with us, we would be happy to advise.
For broadcasters, there are a number of
resolutions that mean compliance with CID is
becoming a requirement for many. I have already
mentioned the guideline in the US, for all SCPC
and MCPC video transmissions needing to be
CID compliant by 3 September 2017, latest! We
are pushing to get the same kind of regulation
rolled out elsewhere and we hope to get some real
traction there over the coming months.
However, one of the biggest barriers for
widespread implementation will remain the cost
of installing brand new equipment. If you have
legacy equipment, it is naturally going to be very
costly to replace all of that, which may otherwise
still have a long life ahead of it. That said, if you
are in that situation, I would encourage you to
double-check with your manufacturer, as in some
cases it maybe a case of a simple firmware
upgrade to be CID compatible. In other cases,
you may find you do already have CID and it is
merely a question of enabling it as most likely,
equipment is shipped with CID turned off. For
everything else IRG is looking at the development
of a simple add-on unit to apply carriers at the
L-Band output of any Modem/modulator system.
Once you are transmitting CID, you may also
want to consider a CID detection tool to ensure
you are displaying your CID accurately.
The next stepsWe are continually looking to develop new tools,
processes, and systems, to reduce interference as
much as possible. We are currently looking at the
role big data may have to play, for example,
something that has increasing importance in the
broadcast industry generally. However, with all of
these initiatives, the key to their success is the
users embracing them.
So, if you are a satellite broadcaster, you now
have a responsibility to:
1. Train your staff,
2. Check your equipment is up to scratch,
type approved if possible,
3. Ensure you have CID and are transmitting it,
4. Put the right tools in place to monitor your
carriers and alert you to any problems,
5. If you are operating in an OB environment,
make sure your antenna is aligned correctly
at each move.
Any broadcaster wanting to know more about
reducing interference can also use our group as a
valuable resource. We have a growing data library
containing valuable resources and information,
which can be found here - http://satirg.org/
resources/irg_data/
Martin Coleman is executive
director of the Satellite Interference
Reduction Group
Satellite interference
www.csimagazine.com April 2016 35
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The CSI Awards – Enter nowDeadline for entries: 12 May 2016 Established in 2003 the awards are among the most prestigious and competitive technology awards in the industry, designed to recognise and reward innovation and excellence in the cable, satellite, broadcast, IPTV, telco, broadband/OTT video, mobile TV and associated sectors.
NEW CATEGORY ANNOUNCED! Best virtual reality innovation VR is a new field awash with exciting opportunities. The 360-degree medium opens the way for content providers to tell stories in a new way and for operators and broadcasters to provide a more immersive experience. It also brings a new way of producing content and creates richer opportunities of engaging with audiences. This category looks to celebrate these emerging products and services as they evolve with market demands and end-user behaviours. It is open to CE manufactures, headset makers, content owners, broadcasters, payTV operators and others experimenting in this space and looking to bring this medium to life.
For the latest news and updates follow us @CSI_Magazine #CSIAwards
1. Best digital video processing technology
2. Best cable or fibre contribution/distribution/transmission solution
3. Best satellite contribution/distribution/transmission solution
4. Best customer premise technology
5. Best monitoring or network management solution
6. Best content protection technology
7. Best content-on-demand solution
8. Best interactive TV technology or application
9. Best mobile TV technology or service
10. Best internet TV technology or service
11. Best ultra HD TV technology or project
12. Best TV everywhere/multi-screen video
13. Best social TV technology, service or application
14. Best contribution to TV accessibility
15. Best HbbTV technology or service
16. Best data & analytics innovation
17. Best cloud/virtualisation innovation
18. Best smart home product, technology or service
19. Best IoT product, technology or application
20. Best virtual reality innovation - NEW CATEGORY
The CSI Categories
Awards 2016page forty four www.csimagazine.com
CSI magazine • Awards
36-37_CSIAwards2016.indd 2 31/03/2016 11:29:29
For award entry enquiries:Hayley Kempen+44 (0)207 562 2414 [email protected]
For sponsorship enquiries:John Woods+44 (0)207 562 2421 [email protected]
For marketing enquiries:Sarah Whittington+44 (0)207 562 [email protected]
ENTER NOW: www.csimagazine.com/awards
The CSI Award winners will be announced on Friday 9 September at IBC in Amsterdam.Join us at the 14th annual CSI awards to see this year's winners exclusively announced. The Awards ceremony will include drinks and canapés and will as always be a chance to network with the leading names in the industry.
Judges:• William Cooper, Founder and Chief Executive, Interactive Media and Convergent Communications Consultancy, informitv• Alex Davies, Editor, RIoT• Andy Hickman, CEO, Eurofins Digital Testing, UK and Hong Kong• Steve Hawley, Principal Analyst and Consultant, tvstrategies (Advanced Media Strategies LLC)• Philip Hunter, Independent Writing and Editing Professional• Terry Marsh, Strategy in Digital Media• Brett Sappington, Director, Research, Parks Associate
Host of the CSI Awards 2016 Welcome Nadine DerezaNadine Dereza is a specialist business presenter. She has been a reporter for the BBC, Sky and CNN, and was named Financial Journalist of the Year whilst working as London Markets Correspondent for the FT and Summit TV. She has a wealth of international experience and has worked with organisations from all over the world.
page forty five www.cable-satellite.comAwards 2016CSI magazine • Awards
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Events diary 2016
Date Name Location Website
22-25 February Mobile World Congress Barcelona mobileworldcongress.com
23-25 February BVE London bvexpo.com
1 March CASBAA OTT Summit Singapore casbaa.com/event/ott-summit-2016/
7-10 March Satellite 2016 Washington DC satshow.com
8-10 March CabSat Dubai cabsat.com
14-16 March DVB World Venice dvbworld.org
16-17 March Connected TV Summit London connectedtvsummit.com
24-26 March CCBN Beijing ccbn.tv/en
4-7 April MIPTV Cannes miptv.com
16-21 April NAB Las Vegas nabshow.com
26-27 April M2M World Congress London m2mconference.com
26-28 April TV Connect London tvconnectevent.com
10--12 May Internet of Things World Sillicon Valley iotworldevent.com/
12 May DTG Summit London dtg.org.uk/dtg/summit.html
16-18 May INTX Boston 2016.intxshow.com
31 May-3 June Broadcast Asia Singapore broadcast-asia.com
7-9 June ANGA Com Cologne angacom.de/en
21-22 June Digital Home World Summit London smarthomeworld2016.com
28-30 June Cable Congress Warsaw cablecongress.com
8-13 September IBC Amsterdam ibc.org
26-29 September Cable-Tec Expo Philadelphia expo.scte.org
04-06 October CDN World Summit London cdnworldsummit.com
8-11 November OTT TV World Summit London ottworldsummit.com
10-11 November Connections Europe Amsterdam parksassociates.com/events
TBC December Future TV Advertising London futuretvads.com
For a full list of events taking place in 2016 please go to http://www.csimagazine.com/csi/events.php
38 April 2016 www.csimagazine.com
EventsDiary-april2016.indd 2 30/03/2016 13:07:29
38 May-June 2014 www.csimagazine.com www.csimagazine.com April 2016 39
To advertise contact John Woods +44 (0)20 7562 2421 [email protected]
Business DirecTory
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Cisco is the longstanding market-leading supplier of video entertainment. With more than, 7500 video professionals , Cisco is unique in having the scale, resources and breadth of vision to deliver differentiated solutions to Service Providers.
See what Videoscape Unity can offer, visit www.cisco.com/go/videoscape.
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ATX Networks designs, manufactures, markets and delivers a broad range of products to the global cable television industry. Other market verticals served include healthcare, enterprise, government, broadcast, hospitality, education, stadiums/arenas/casinos, retail, worship, and telcos.
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march_directory_2016.indd 1 31/03/2016 16:10:22
The Intelsat
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7548-CSI_Media.indd 1 3/28/2016 10:44:23 AM
