Ericsson has introduced an IPTV middleware package that is aligned with the Open IPTV Forum specifications and will be pre-integrated with IMS. It will interoperate with third-party products from IPTV companies such as Accedo Broadband, Agama Technologies, Amino, HP, SecureMedia, Sun Microsystem, Tilgin, Verimatrix, and ZyXEL.
This is a major push by Ericsson to increase its dominance in IPTV. It has a tough task in front of it to displace incumbent middleware suppliers, especially with the Tier 1 carriers. Most of the Tier 1 providers are using either Microsoft, Thomson, or middleware packages that they developed themselves.
Showing posts with label Open IPTV Forum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Open IPTV Forum. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Ericsson's IPTV Strategy
I spent a day this week at Ericsson's Analyst Relations meeting in Boston. Ericsson clearly intends to leverage Tandberg's strong position in the IPTV headend and content management markets. It also positions its Redback, Entrisphere, and Marconi acquisitions as giving it strength in IPTV networking and access.
Ericsson is also embracing the work of the Open IPTV Forum in developing an open approach to IPTV. The Open IPTV Forum is incorporating IPTV into IMS. Ericsson told me that it will be possible for existing IPTV middleware and other software component providers to adapt their products to theis Open IPTV architecture.
Ericsson characterized the existing IPTV systems as First Generation and stated that its conversations with IPTV operators indicate that they have strong concerns about the ability of these systems to scale. Ericsson told me that it thinks that many of these systems will top out at 500 thousand IPTV subscribers. It expects that moving to a second genreation of IPTV systems will create major opportunities for it.
There is no question that Ericsson is late to the IPTV party. Its acquisition of Tandberg clearly gives it a strong presence in the market but not as a full service provider.
It will be interesting to see if its view of the market will pan out. Personally, I think it will be much more difficult for Ericsson, or any other large full service system supplier, to break into the market at this time.
Ericsson is also embracing the work of the Open IPTV Forum in developing an open approach to IPTV. The Open IPTV Forum is incorporating IPTV into IMS. Ericsson told me that it will be possible for existing IPTV middleware and other software component providers to adapt their products to theis Open IPTV architecture.
Ericsson characterized the existing IPTV systems as First Generation and stated that its conversations with IPTV operators indicate that they have strong concerns about the ability of these systems to scale. Ericsson told me that it thinks that many of these systems will top out at 500 thousand IPTV subscribers. It expects that moving to a second genreation of IPTV systems will create major opportunities for it.
There is no question that Ericsson is late to the IPTV party. Its acquisition of Tandberg clearly gives it a strong presence in the market but not as a full service provider.
It will be interesting to see if its view of the market will pan out. Personally, I think it will be much more difficult for Ericsson, or any other large full service system supplier, to break into the market at this time.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Open IPTV Forum Publishes End-to-End Architecture
The Open IPTV Forum has published a document describing its end-to-end architecture for IPTV systems. The Forum is working towards an end-to-end specification to allow any consumer end‑device, compliant to the Open IPTV Forum specifications, to access enriched and personalized IPTV services.
While I believe that IPTV standards are important, I wonder how effective they will be since most major service providers have already committed to their architectures. They will have to do a lot of retrofitting to implement IPTV standards as they are created.
While I believe that IPTV standards are important, I wonder how effective they will be since most major service providers have already committed to their architectures. They will have to do a lot of retrofitting to implement IPTV standards as they are created.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Open IPTV Forum Interview
Last Friday I held an interview with the Open IPTV Forum. I spoke with Yunchao Hu of Ericsson who is acting as chairman of the Steeering Group and Barry Gravenhorst of Sony who is the vice chairman of the Steering Group of the Open IPTV Forum. They described four key objectives for the organization:
They identified three reasons why the Forum was formed:
You can get more information at the Open IPTV Forum at www.openiptvforum.org
The Open IPTV Forum is attacking important problems. Today every IPTV middleware package and sometimes separate deployments of the same middleware package have different interfaces. This makes it difficult for the set-t0p box manufacturers and their silicon suppliers. These companies have to go out and develop new software for every middleware package they want to support at a minimum. This is impossible for consumer device companies. There is no way that Sony or any other manufacturer will put an IPTV set-top box into their TVs if different software has to be loaded into it for every IPTV network.
The other work items for the Forum are also good choices. Personalised and interactive services are very important differentiators for IPTV services. The Forum must address the functions required for interactive and other new forms of advertising as well.
The convergence of IPTV and IMS is another important issue. I wrote a report on this for MRG http://www.mrgco.com last year. Bringing telephone services to the TV is another important differentiator, one that the U.S. cable companies are working diligently on.
Integrating the open Internet with managed IPTV services is also important. We will release a new report on this subject the week after next. The Forum is planning to do it right by addressing how content will be brought from the Internet as well as how third party content providers can provide service in addition to the managed IPTV service.
ATIS in the U.S. and the ITU have similar objectives to the Open IPTV Forum. All of this work will need to be harmonized and brought to market. It may be too late. Most of the large telcos have already committed to IPTV architectures. They will have to somehow evolve to Open IPTV Forum standards over time if this work is to be meaningful. It is just not clear how this will occur.
- It will specify a common and open end to end solution for supplying a variety of TV and Internet multimedia services to consumer devices in the home network.
- It will consider establishing a certification and logo program.
- It will include all the key players - customer equipment, content providers, network operators, service providers, network vendors, home device vendors
- It will strive to bring standards to the market more quickly than traditional standards organizations.
- A common IPTV Terminal Function (ITF) that supports services from both an open Internet and a managed network environment.
- Interactive and personalized services and the integration with communications services.
- Convergence of IPTV and multimedia services across different access technologies.
- Easy integration of 3rd party content offerings.
- DLNA
- IMS
- DVB-IPI
- Internet portals
- Web browsers
- Multimedia middleware
They identified three reasons why the Forum was formed:
- No other standards body is covering all aspects of an end to end IPTV solution in a timely manner.
- To address the combination of managed networks and the open Internet for service delivery.
- To address the blending of IPTV and communications services.
You can get more information at the Open IPTV Forum at www.openiptvforum.org
The Open IPTV Forum is attacking important problems. Today every IPTV middleware package and sometimes separate deployments of the same middleware package have different interfaces. This makes it difficult for the set-t0p box manufacturers and their silicon suppliers. These companies have to go out and develop new software for every middleware package they want to support at a minimum. This is impossible for consumer device companies. There is no way that Sony or any other manufacturer will put an IPTV set-top box into their TVs if different software has to be loaded into it for every IPTV network.
The other work items for the Forum are also good choices. Personalised and interactive services are very important differentiators for IPTV services. The Forum must address the functions required for interactive and other new forms of advertising as well.
The convergence of IPTV and IMS is another important issue. I wrote a report on this for MRG http://www.mrgco.com last year. Bringing telephone services to the TV is another important differentiator, one that the U.S. cable companies are working diligently on.
Integrating the open Internet with managed IPTV services is also important. We will release a new report on this subject the week after next. The Forum is planning to do it right by addressing how content will be brought from the Internet as well as how third party content providers can provide service in addition to the managed IPTV service.
ATIS in the U.S. and the ITU have similar objectives to the Open IPTV Forum. All of this work will need to be harmonized and brought to market. It may be too late. Most of the large telcos have already committed to IPTV architectures. They will have to somehow evolve to Open IPTV Forum standards over time if this work is to be meaningful. It is just not clear how this will occur.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Open IPTV Forum Formed
ATT, Ericsson, France Telecom, Panasonic, Phillips, Samsung, Siemens Networks, Sony and Telecom Italia have formed the Open IPTV Forum that will work to define an interoperable end to end specification for the delivery of IPTV services. It will work to aggregate the diverse standards from other bodies into a complete delivery system. It will also work to accelerate the full standardization of IPTV technologies. It plans to establish requirements and architecture specifications by September 2007 and protocol specifications by December 2007.
Initially the Forum will consist of the founding member companies, but will be open for other companies at a later time.
The Forum's website is at:
http://www.openiptvforum.org/index.html
This is an interesting organization. Note that Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft are missing but ATT, one of their biggest customers, is a founding member. There is a clear need for further IPTV standards, particularly at the systems level. ATIS in the U.S. and the ITU at an international level are attacking this problem.
I have requested a briefing with them to get a better understanding of what they are doing and why. I will report what I find.
Initially the Forum will consist of the founding member companies, but will be open for other companies at a later time.
The Forum's website is at:
http://www.openiptvforum.org/index.html
This is an interesting organization. Note that Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft are missing but ATT, one of their biggest customers, is a founding member. There is a clear need for further IPTV standards, particularly at the systems level. ATIS in the U.S. and the ITU at an international level are attacking this problem.
I have requested a briefing with them to get a better understanding of what they are doing and why. I will report what I find.
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