In Broadcast - January 2015 - 56

56

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 5 - Issue 1 | January 2015

InMedia

OTT Shows Promise cont'd...
CBS News app for Windows 8/8.1
and Windows Phone 8/8.1 available
through the Windows Store and
Windows Phone Store. CBSN will also
be available on the CBS News apps for
Android and other platforms.
The CBSN OTT network features
a 60-minute format delivering live,
updated news content from 9:00 am
- midnight ET every weekday, and it
takes advantage of the interactivity
of digital platforms through a video
player and on-screen interface. It
gives viewers the full ﬂexibility within
each hour to control what they watch
and when they watch it via PVR-like
functionality that allows them to watch
previous segments and jump back
into live programming seamlessly and
across devices.
Dish Network and Verizon are
also said to be developing their own
respective OTT offerings.
À La Carte Cost
Another hurdle to widespread OTT
adoption: giving consumers the ability
to buy channels individually would
leave little incentive for a subscriber
to keep a pay-TV package with a

distributor, so that revenue could
essentially evaporate. This is perhaps
the operators' biggest fear. It might
not be that good for subscribers either.
In fact, many are saying it could also
cause household rates to increase
signiﬁcantly. For example, ESPN now
costs a subscriber about US$6 per
month. If OTT were to take off in a big
way, that same channel would cost
about US$30 per month, according to
several industry analysts.
In
addition,
having
grown
accustomed to a single monthly bill,
many of these same analysts say
consumers won't like having to pay
four and ﬁve separate bills to separate
companies to get exclusive content.
Then there's the issue of content
security and protecting against
piracy with so many different ways
for consumers to gain access to
multi-screen service delivery. Many
operators have publically stated
their preference for HTTP Live
Streaming (HLS) with enhanced rights
management or basic encryption, over
competitors like Adobe Flash Access or
Microsoft PlayReady for distributing
OTT video.

An example of an easy to deploy OTT infrastructure from SmartLabs

Primetime OTT
So to say that OTT has a clear path
to success is a huge underestimation
of the list of concerns and technical
problems facing content owners and
distributors. However, the potential
beneﬁts are what are driving the OTT
frenzy the industry currently ﬁnds
itself in. Over the air broadcasters
won't be delivering 4K video any time
soon, but thanks to its IP-enabled
content delivery strategy, and a heavy
dose of compression, Netﬂix is doing it.
No one's making money, to any real
extent, but the battle lines are being

drawn each and every day. When
the dust cloud settles, we'll all have
a better understanding of when OTT
makes sense and to whom.
Like it or not, pure-play OTT services
from pay-TV operators that give
non-traditional (broadband only)
customers the chance to subscribe
to services on low-cost and low
commitment packages are going to
become a major feature of the TV
landscape. The use of the Internet as a
delivery infrastructure has made it all
possible. The industry is hoping that
meaningful revenue will follow soon.

Animated Illumination
Entertainment Deploys
Adder Technology
A

The IP-based KVM switching solution
from Adder Technology

AdderLink Inﬁnity IP-based KVM

dder Technology, an industry
leader in high performance
Keyboard, Video and Mouse (KVM)
products, has announced that booming
animation
company
Illumination
Entertainment has deployed the
AdderLink Inﬁnity IP-based KVM to help
address their increase in production
due in part to the enormous success of
the Despicable Me franchise.
Illumination Entertainment needed
to rapidly expand its production
capacity, which created the need for
shared resources at the company.

Additional edit bays came online, and
there was a greater need for editors to
be able to quickly swap in and out of
the review suite for dailies.
After
researching
the
KVM
options available on the market to
address their problem, Illumination
Entertainment looked to Adder to
address their connectivity challenges.
"Using the AdderLink Inﬁnity
products, our editors are now able to
setup for dailies or a review session
on their Avid systems in their edit
bay and then bring up that system in
the review suite without interrupting
any other sessions," said Joe Stevano,
Illumination
Entertainment,
IT
Director. "Adding Adder's digital KVM
switching solution to our editorial
infrastructure has given us increased
ﬂexibility in working on multiple
productions."

"The post production environment
has always been an ideal environment
for the deployment of our IP-based
high performance KVM solutions,"
said Tim Conway, Vice President,
Adder Corp. "We are pleased to
have worked with the Illumination
Entertainment team and succeeded in
addressing their workﬂow challenges.
The AdderLink Inﬁnity solution also
positions the company for future
scalability and upgradability in
production capacity."

"Adder's digital KVM

switching solution...
has given us increased
ﬂexibility in working on
multiple productions"
Joe Stevano
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jHZUj4R78R8
In Broadcast - January 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - January 2015
