By Brent Grablachoff
Early this February, I packed my bags and headed to San Jose, California, for OTTCon 2010. These days, everyone is trying to figure out where the Internet TV revolution is headed. Many folks were looking for a simple answer to the big question, “What is the role of OTT in the rapidly-changing world of TV,” while others wanted to know, "What device will emerge as the "entertainment box of choice? ...or is a box even the best solution?”
Speakers and industry pundits at the conference discussed their view of Over-The-Top and how they envision Internet TV being delivered. Although the majority of presenters had great solutions for certain pieces of the puzzle, no single company really offered a full end-to-end turn-key solution.
Some of the major topics of interest at the conference were:
- The emergence of Blu-ray players as a preferred OTT delivery solution
- Quality of Service (QoS) and how network service providers (telcos and MSOs) can guarantee a superb user experience over a managed network
- Best-efforts Internet vs. delivering your content through a predictable medium
- TV Everywhere and the ability to distribute video content to PC, TV and mobile devices
Some of the major concerns and areas of opportunity that were commonly shared among network service providers were:
- Monetizing video content remains a key focus
- Providers want their content delivered to as many subscriber devices as possible
- Ability to deliver HD or better quality content with no buffering, e.g. Smooth Streaming, Adaptive Streaming
- Improving the end user’s experience
- Giving their subscribers more options and flexibility
- Controlled distribution of content via authenticated devices
Consumer expectations are already being set with initiatives like TV Everywhere, and although the technology already exists to broadcast to multiple devices, the total experience must first be integrated and seamless. Ultimately, the end user should be able to casually turn on their linear TV channel, or browse through a VOD library from various content sources, without any drop in the experience. If you’re away on vacation or out on business with your laptop, you should be able to enjoy your video content wherever you are, with TV, netbook or mobile phone. It takes something like enhanced OTT video services, which combine the benefits of managed network delivery of IPTV with the interactivity of the Internet to address this opportunity. Ideally, your audience should be able to watch their TV channels and VOD content anywhere, anyplace, anytime, on any device…delivered with sufficient QoS to meet their expectations.
With new technology comes a new set of questions and concerns, but the age-old success formula remains the same -- listen to your customers, give them the experience that they want, and you’ll be providing real value as a business. It's a real win-win situation…if you can deliver.
Hey, anyone else attend OTTCon this year? Have something to say or want to share your experiences? Just send me an email.
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