In October, Get (formerly UPC Norway), one of Scandinavia’s leading cable TV and broadband companies joined the ranks of some of the world’s major digital pay-TV providers in selecting NDS technology to support –- and expand -- its cable platform. NDS will provide Get with VideoGuard®, end-to-end conditional access, as well as MediaHighway™ middleware and its DVR and EPG solutions. Get plans to launch its new service using before the end of the year. In the process, they will introduce new set-top boxes (STBs) and deploy new smart cards to their cable TV subscribers.
The innovations that Get – and other operators such as Ono in Spain – are deploying are significant because a growing number of conventional cable operators are delivering their content over both cable and ADSL and eventually over fiber to their subscribers. “Their strategy is eventually to move all their services to IP so that they will offer common IPTV services over all types of last mile solutions,” says Philip Waterman, NDS Director Platform Sales Europe.
“As a conventional cable operator, Get has digitized its backbone to be able to deliver services to the edge using IP. Once they get to the last mile, NDS technologies give them the choice of delivering content over cable, ADSL or fiber,” he says. “This amounts to a hybrid last mile. And this is essential for pay-TV service providers with an eye on the future.”
Waterman explains that this project is significant because it is very clearly a stepping stone toward the Ultimate Goal: Having different networks but enabling all subscribers to access the same content and services. “The technology has to take into account the different delivery mechanisms for that content. It’s obvious that IP is the future standard so the content will be available over IP irrespective of the network.”
Steps to IPTV
The first step in the process Get began was to change their network backbone to IP. “What this means is that their digital TV content is delivered using IP. When it arrives at the last mile, Get can decide whether it will go over IP all the way to the home or over fiber or ADSL,” he explains. “In effect this is a stepping stone to delivering IP to the home.”
For operators like Get and others, their decision is based on the strength or constraints of their legacy network, Waterman says. “The cable network is already there. So at some point they can deliver IP to the edge. Their customers are connected through legacy networks, and therefore have to be converted back to conventional digital cable. In the future that legacy network will be upgraded and the last mile will also be IP all the way to the home.” And that is why he says it is a stepping stone toward providing IP past the edge all the way to the home.
Telcos and hybrid systems
While cable operators have to take their legacy system and equipment into account before migrating to IP, this is not necessarily the case for telco operators. ”They don’t really have the legacy or hybrid issues to contend with,” Waterman says. “The fact is that they come from a different direction. They have to deliver IP because that’s all their network can take. In effect, they have copper infrastructure. So they have to use xDSL which means IP.”
Basically, no matter what technologies operators currently have, the trend is to move to IP. The question is how long this process will take. Waterman suggests that this could another five to 10 years. “But in the meantime, I think we’ll see some very mature solutions based on hybrid STBs that can receive both legacy and IP content.” Waterman expects there to be a natural process of upgrading services over a period of time. “Obviously no one is going to replace all their STBs overnight.”
As proof of this trend, virtually all STBs that are being delivered now have Ethernet ports which enable them to receive IP delivered TV and other entertainment content. “Operators are aware that in addition to using their legacy networks, they also have to be prepared for the future. Virtually every new platform we currently deliver has IPTV capability – even if it’s not yet in use.”
From a business perspective Waterman says that it should be noted that operators want a single approach for all their subscribers. This includes a single source of metadata for their content for all subscribers irrespective of the type of connectivity as well as a common look and feel whether the subscribers have an IP, broadcast or hybrid STB. Going one step further, for subscribers who are connected via IP, operators want them to have the same type of user experience as other subscribers. This leads to a number of technological challenges.
Technological challenges
In order for these trends to be introduced, there are a variety of technological challenges that will have to be solved:
• Compression techniques. Delivering video over low bandwidth links. MPEG-4 is the standard for a higher level of compression but IPTV requires pushing content through lower bandwidth. As a result, there are new compression techniques to deal with this constraint.
(It should be noted that MPEG 2 is deployed on IPTV however it limits the length of the copper local loop. The main purpose of the higher compression is to improve the economics by extending the service to a larger number of subscribers. It also allows two simultaneous standard definition programs or one high definition program within the constraints of xDSL modulation schemes.)
• Broadcast quality. In order to maintain broadcast quality, operators will have to employ different techniques to digitize and compress the video. These techniques are well defined and standardized now. But they are still relatively new technologies and are therefore still expensive. In a sense they are holding back the industry because when an operator wants to introduce IP services this means they need MPEG-4 standards which require an expensive STB. Within the next 12-18 months these technologies can be expected to become more affordable, and this can be expected to fuel a takeoff of IP-delivered services.
• EPGs. Generating an EPG (ESG) in real time is very different on an IP network than on a conventional broadcast satellite terrestrial network. One of the current challenges is delivering the EPG to hybrid STBs that are connected on a legacy network.
• Subscriber experience. Developing the STB to generate the same subscriber experience regardless of the platform. For IP STBs, a browser-like experience would be based on information from the headend. This would be similar to connecting to an Internet portal. NDS is combining the IP environment with the broadcast environment so that the experience for both will be similar.
• Quality of service. Broadcast quality over a satellite is relatively easy to control because it is based on a mature, stable technology. Television streams over an IP network currently have service dropouts as the IP signal fluctuates. This obviously affects the viewing experience.
Clash of cultures
“The fact is, there is a philosophical difference or clash of cultures between broadcast TV and the Internet,” Waterman says. “Broadcast TV is very much considered a utility. When subscribers turn on their television, they expect it to be there. When they press a button on their remote, they expect the channel to change. On the other hand, on the Internet, viewers are willing to click and wait for something to happen. But for IPTV to succeed it will have to perform like a TV. This includes rapid channel changes, and a very robust, high quality system.”
As for the near future, there are a number of trends that reinforce Waterman’s views. For example, conventional broadcasters are starting parallel IPTV services that can eventually be expected to converge with their legacy services. They obviously won’t want to run parallel businesses indefinitely.
“If it weren’t for the legacy issues, progress would be much faster,” Waterman says. “The idea is that networks should be ubiquitous and transparent. When you’re watching a particular program, it shouldn’t matter if you’re watching on your PC, your broadcast STB or your mobile handset – which all come from the same source. This really is the Ultimate Goal.”
How quickly this happens depends on how quickly the legacy issues are solved. “You obviously can’t go to operators and tell them they have to replace millions of STBs so that they can accommodate IPTV,” he says. There will be a natural progression away from conventional broadcast boxes in favor of IP STBs.
One could argue that eventually the decision will be made to switch off broadcast TV. “This really isn’t as revolutionary as it sounds,” Waterman says. “In the same way the decision was made to switch from black and white to color or from analog to digital broadcasting, the trend now is to move away from conventional broadcast TV and move it across to IP.”
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