Communications Crossroads - Spring 2008 - (Page 10)

VIODI’S PYLE SAYS THE SMALL CARRIERS SHOULD EVALUATE A NUMBER OF FACTORS BEFORE DECIDING. THESE INCLUDE WHAT THEIR COMPETITION IS DOING, SUBSCRIBER DENSITY AND THE GEOGRAPHIC/DEMOGRAPHIC MIX, THEIR CURRENT NETWORK CONFIGURATION AND THEIR EXISTING VIDEO EXPERIENCE. Ken Pyle, co-founder of Viodi, LLC and managing editor of the Viodi View—an online newsletter focusing on independent telecoms—believes the biggest change in IPTV is what exactly ‘IPTV’ means. “A year ago, I would have used a narrow deﬁnition of IPTV: A franchised operator providing delivery of video via Internet Protocol to televisions.” Progress has broadened his description. “In many ways, video is going over the top just as voice has,” he says. “Studios, advertisers and content producers are increasingly bringing content directly to the consumer in forms such as ABC.com, Hulu, et cetera—potentially by-passing the traditional video distributors.” Like SES’s Squadron, Pyle sees the accoutrements of IPTV—MPEG4, DVRs, and HD—at last, as real. “We are starting to see deployments in 2008,” he says, “and wider commercial rollout.” He suggests that in the coming year, we may see the implementation of the more interactive aspects “[features] that personalize and make the television an interactive experience in a way that makes it easy for the customer to be more engaged.” says Matt Cuson, vice president of marketing for Minerva Networks in Santa Clara, CA. But he adds that for now, the limited horsepower of the set-top box and the likelihood that service providers will lag in regular upgrades could leave the UI experience “a bit frozen in time.” “Clearly the pace of technology might force the TV operators to rethink their set-top box life estimates, but it will come at a price,” he says. The math is simple: Higher prices for consumers or less proﬁt for operators. “The cool factor will likely be limited to the nature and variety of the content that’s available.” Seamless integration of Web and TV may not be much on a PC platform, he says, “but doing it on a TV isn’t trivial.” Cuson believes the ‘wow’ factor for TV, for now, will be the ease with which new applications can show up without much effort on the part of operators or users. “I think it will be especially interesting when subscribers themselves start picking which applications they want. Today, any application running on the set-top box is operator-driven. As a result, innovation is slow and choice is limited. IPTV promises more apps. We’re close, but not quite there yet for large-scale deployments.” The ‘Cool’ Factor It was 2007 that saw the release of the iPhone and a continued mass indoctrination into the congregation of Wii devotees, bringing more of that so-called “Minority Report” technology (touch-screen interfacing, gesture navigation) out of the movie-fantasy realm and into the real world. This year, say the professionals, will see that same interactivity rolling out into IPTV homes. “Free space pointing devices, like a mouse, will become available on settop boxes and the UI (user interface) experience will improve accordingly,” Please support the advertisers who have helped make this publication possible. COMMUNICATIONS 361942_BerryCompany.indd 1 CROSSROADS www.ustelecom.org Small Telecoms: What’s Next? While its resources may be limited, says SES Americom’s Squadron, the 10 1/21/08 8:24:28 PM http://www.lmberry.com http://www.ustelecom.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Communications Crossroads - Spring 2008

Communications Crossroads - Spring 2008 Up Front Contents TeleBites Cover Story: IPTV Technology Today: Network Transitioning: It’s Not a Matter of If, but How Business Advantages: Turning Knowledge and Growth into Profit and Success Industry Calendar Advertisers DotCom Index to Advertisers Straight Talk

Communications Crossroads - Spring 2008

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