Customers

DTT operators

Situation description

With digital terrestrial networks total available bandwidths are usually limited to less than 10 MUX:es of roughly 20 Mbit/s each. National frequency utilisations in Europe spans from 8 MUX:es down to 4 or even less. Given that one MUX is often allocated to public service and another to free to air commercial TV the resulting bandwidths available for pay-TV are in the range of 50 - 100 Mbit/s, allowing for some 10 - 30 MPEG 2 standard definition services. There is a technical potential to almost double the number of services by adopting MPEG-4 coding but no business model available until today to support a transition.

Requirements

Whilst 30 services is enough for payTV operations today there is no room for growth providing choices to a more and more segmented audience nor to launch new services such as VOD and HDTV.

The VODvision solution

Push-TV opens two routes to develop service offerings and extend usability of available capacity:

  • By downloading content to a local storage in the Set Top Box, network capacity around the clock becomes available prime time.
  • By using MPEG-4 coding for push-VOD services an installed base of MPEG-4 ready STB:s is grown, later to be exploited by MPEG-4 broadcasted live services.

PushVOD allows the user to access content when suitable to him/her. With an ever increasing number of broadcast channels the viewer have less and less control of broadcast schedules and hence will gain from being able to start the programme when suitable. On the other hand a broadcast schedule is sometimes appreciated as a service of planning what to watch. With virtual channels this schedule can accompany the downloaded content to be replayed/accessible for the first time accordingly.

The combination of network utilisation during broadcast off hours and MPEG-4 encoding will give the possibility for the terrestrial operator to launch an increased service offering (virtual channels and pushVOD) and improved picture from HDTV, without requiring more network investments.

True VOD requires a network topology different from broadcast and therefore not achievable to broadcast network operators. It also requires a return path for ordering.

Subscription PushVOD overcomes these network limitations and at the same time gives the opportunity to offer a more attractive service to the consumer.

Operator benefits

With PushVOD terrestrial operators can offer customers more and better TV services, both HDTV and VOD and a bigger choice of services even at prime time. Operators can increase and improve their service offerings by boosting available network capacity and utilise the free capacity at off prime time hours to download content that demands high bandwidth capacity such as HDTV and VOD.

Cable TV-operators

Background

Cable networks often have ample bandwidth for downstream but to provide true VOD the capacity will quickly hit the roof. The network ability to provide for VOD is also dependent upon Video server topologies in the network and combined traffic load. By utilising a scheme in where most popular block buster titles are pushed whilst less frequent catalogue titles will be accessed by request from root, an optimal service can be provided together with a very efficient network utilisation.

The VODvision solution

PushVOD overcomes these network limitations and at the same time gives the opportunity to offer a more attractive service to the consumer.

Operator benefits

The VODvision User Interface can be utilised as a powerful tool to market Content offerings and services. For instance trailers can be downloaded and displayed at suitable occasions, ratings and comments can be provided, campaigns can be run and highlighted.

ADSL IPTV-providers

Background

Whilst IPTV network in theory provides almost unlimited available bandwidth this is not yet the case with ADSL access. Often 2 Mbit/s is the maximum bandwidth achieved and even with higher access bitrates the capacity is quickly being occupied when more than one TV are on or with HDTV. The network ability to provide for VOD is also dependent upon Video server topologies in the network and combined traffic load.

The VODvision solution

PushTV allows for Multicast download reducing the network load whilst at the same time provides the user friendliness of VOD. By utilising a scheme in where most popular block buster titles are pushed whilst less frequent catalogue titles will be accessed by request from root, an optimal service can be provided together with a very efficient network utilisation.

Operator benefits

PushVOD and virtual channels overcomes network limitations and at the same time gives the opportunity to offer a HD TV at the highest Quality of Service level to the consumer. The VODvision User Interface can be utilised as a powerful tool to market content offerings and services. For instance trailers can be downloaded and displayed at suitable occasions, ratings and comments can be provided, campaigns can be run and highlighted.