IPTV 1.0 vs IPTV 2.0
05/02/08 BY Jonathan Callcut
If you skip to the diagram at the end here, this post may appear to be a blatant marketeer’s product pitch. In fact, it’s not – so please be patient…. What I want to describe is extremely important in terms of getting service provision right, and it’s closely linked to my previous post on the on-demand / IPTV infrastructure landscape.
In our ‘Infrastructure Action Quadrant’ I described the difference between single channel plays and multi-channel plays, and why it’s important to build something that allows you to get your stuff to as many ’store fronts’ as possible. I also described the difference between focusing on raw content and your overall service proposition, and why you need to build a system that gives you the flexibility to mix, match and remix all your precious content assets.
As well as helping us to get a grip on the whole vendor marketplace, these technical and functional directions also help to describe the evolution of today’s infrastructure solutions, and where the smart money is when it comes to making technology bets for tomorrow.
Let’s look at the Quadrant again….
Top right is where we recommend you focus – on building systems that allow you to operate ‘retail’ fashion, creating compelling products based on viewer wants and needs, and delivering them to as many folks as possible, through as many store fronts as you wish.
Now, you’d expect us to say that, right, since we sit firmly in this part of the chart. But the other way of looking at things is in historical terms. I doubt anyone would want to occupy the space to the left or to the base of the matrix…. but they do, and there’s a reason why.
The first generation of on-demand / IPTV services tended to be hastily compiled to address a single delivery channel or type of content asset. For example, you can very easily access last night’s TV programs via the web today. In itself this isn’t too technically challenging – you take a pre-existing asset, re-purpose it for another channel, and wait for folks to access it.
The problem with this method of ‘on-demand’ delivery is that it’s not that inspiring. It’s all about ‘repeat’ functionality – a repeat of the viewing experience that we’re all used to.
Now I’m not saying this is a bad thing… it’s just not the only thing, and as a service provider you need to be thinking how to deliver interactive entertainment experiences that are more in-tune with today’s web-savvy consumer.
So, at a very basic level, when it comes to building the right infrastructure you should be thinking multi-channel and interactive. Simple, huh? Well, not if you choose the wrong technology platform.
If you want to ‘think like a retailer’ and deliver your on-demand entertainment / IPTV services into a multitude of store fronts then you need to make a very fundamental technology choice: do you choose middleware that’s tightly integrated with the user interface and his or her device, or do you go for something more loosely coupled?
Or, in other words, do you choose an IPTV 1.0 solution or an IPTV 2.0 solution?
Here’s another diagram:
As mentioned, the first IPTV-style services were built on a software stack that ‘piped’ raw content assets into ‘catalogue’ style products, from which users could pick whatever was made available. And that’s about as interactive as it got.
Now, this wasn’t because service providers lacked the vision to create all-singing, all-dancing interactive entertainment services, but because yesterday the technology choices were more limited.
The supporting software tended to be developed either downwards or upwards from established positions at the back end or the user device. In other words, in some scenarios, interface or device-level operating system vendors (I mention no names) established a foothold at the consumer end of the stack and hastily cobbled together a software solution that could cope with the publishing and content management and delivery requirements of a total on-demand / IPTV system. Which in turn meant that the resulting solutions were shot through with whatever device and/or asset management and publishing flavours they favoured. Which ultimately resulted in a bunch of semi-myopic services, produced by some regretful (and out of pocket) service providers.
Well, that was then and this is now.
At AssetHouse, we believe a brighter future for entertainment on-demand / IPTV will be secured by building more flexible, agnostic middleware stacks that are capable of delivering content products to any number of consumer store fronts. Check out AssetFactory to see what I mean…
