IPTV
Encyclopedia
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is a system through which television
services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite
over a packet-switched network such as the Internet
, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial
, satellite
signal, and cable
television formats.
IPTV services may be classified into three main groups:
IPTV is distinguished from Internet television
by its on-going standardization process (e.g., European Telecommunications Standards Institute
) and preferential deployment scenarios in subscriber-based telecommunications networks with high-speed access channels into end-user premises via set-top box
es or other customer-premises equipment
.
One official definition approved by the International Telecommunication Union
focus group on IPTV (ITU-T FG IPTV) is:
Another more detailed definition of IPTV is the one given by Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions
(ATIS) IPTV Exploratory Group on 2005:
One definition for consumer IPTV is for single or multiple program transport streams (MPTS) which are sourced by the same network operator that owns or directly controls the "last mile" to the consumer's premises . This control over delivery enables a guaranteed quality of service
(QoS), and also allows the service provider to offer an enhanced user experience such as better program guide, interactive services etc.
In commercial environments IPTV distributes live TV, video playout channels and Video on Demand
(VOD) material across LAN
or WAN
IP network infrastructures, with a controlled QoS.
's World News Now
was the first television show
to be broadcast over the Internet, using the CU-SeeMe
videoconferencing
software.
The term IPTV first appeared in 1995 with the founding of Precept Software
by Judith Estrin
and Bill Carrico
. Precept developed an Internet video product named IP/TV. IP/TV was an MBONE
compatible Windows and Unix-based application that transmitted single and multi-source audio/video traffic, ranging from low to DVD quality, using both unicast
and IP multicast
Real-time Transport Protocol
(RTP) and Real time control protocol
(RTCP). The software was written primarily by Steve Casner, Karl Auerbach
, and Cha Chee Kuan. Precept was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1998. Cisco retains the IP/TV trademark.
Internet radio
company AudioNet
started the first continuous live
webcast
s with content from WFAA-TV
in January, 1998 and KCTU-LP
on January 10, 1998.
Kingston Communications
, a regional telecommunications operator in UK, launched KIT (Kingston Interactive Television), an IPTV over DSL broadband interactive TV service in September 1999 after conducting various TV and VoD
trials. The operator added additional VoD
service in October 2001 with Yes TV, a VoD content provider. Kingston was one of the first companies in the world to introduce IPTV and IP VoD
over ADSL.
In 2006 the KIT service was discontinued, subscribers having declined from a peak of 10,000 to 4,000
In 1999, NBTel
(now known as Bell Aliant) was the first to commercially deploy Internet Protocol Television over digital subscriber line (DSL) in Canada
using the Alcatel 7350 DSLAM and middleware created by iMagic TV (owned by NBTel's parent company Bruncor
). The service was marketed under the brand VibeVision in New Brunswick
, and later expanded into Nova Scotia
in early 2000 after the formation of Aliant
. iMagic TV was later sold to Alcatel
.
In 2002, Sasktel
was the second in Canada
to commercially deploy Internet Protocol (IP) video over digital subscriber line (DSL), using the Lucent Stinger(R) DSL platform. In 2006, it was the first North American company to offer HDTV
channels over an IPTV service
In 2003, Total Access Networks Inc launched its IPTV service, comprising 100 free IPTV stations world wide. The service has been used in over 100 countries world wide, and has channels in 26 languages.
In 2005, Bredbandsbolaget
launched its IPTV service as the first service provider in Sweden
. As of January 2009, they are not the biggest supplier any longer; TeliaSonera
who launched their service later has now more customers.
In 2006, AT&T
launched its U-Verse
IPTV service in the United States
, comprising a national head end and regional video-serving offices. AT&T offered over 300 channels in 11 cities with more to be added in 2007 and beyond. In March 2009, AT&T announced that U-verse had expanded to 100 or more High Definition channels in every U-Verse TV market. While using IP protocols, AT&T built a private IP network exclusively for video transport.
In 2010, CenturyLink
- after acquiring Embarq
(2009) and Qwest
(2010), entered five U.S. markets with an IPTV service called Prism. This was after successful test marketing in Florida.
Also, there are a growing number of IPTV installations within schools, universities, corporations and local institutions.
In December 2009, the FCC began looking into using set-top boxes to make TVs with cable or similar services
into network video players. FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake had said earlier that TV and the Internet would soon be the same, but only 75 percent of homes had computers, while 99 percent had TV. A Nielsen survey said 99 percent of video viewing was done on TV.
While all major western countries and most developed economies have IPTV deployments, the world's leading markets for IPTV were Germany
(by Deutsche Telekom
) France
(led by Free
, then Orange, then Neuf Cegetel
(now SFR
) ; total of over 4 million subscriptions), South Korea
(4 million subscriptions as of May 2011), United States
(by AT&T
), Hong Kong
, Japan
, Italy
, Spain
, Belgium
, Luxembourg
, Austria
, China
, Singapore
, Taiwan
, Switzerland
and Portugal
(with meo, Optimus Clix and Vodafone Casa
).
Services also launched in Bosnia and Herzegovina
, Pakistan
, Canada
, Croatia
, Lithuania
, Republic of Moldova, Macedonia
, Montenegro
, Poland
, Mongolia
, Romania
, Serbia
, Slovenia
, the Netherlands
, Georgia
, Greece
, Denmark
, Finland
, Estonia
, Czech Republic
, Slovakia
, Hungary
, Norway
, Sweden
, Iceland
, Lithuania
, Turkey
, Colombia
and Chile
. The United Kingdom
launched IPTV early and after a slow initial growth, in February 2009 BT
announced that it had reached 398,000 subscribers to its BT Vision
service. Claro
has launched their own IPTV service called "Claro TV". This service is available in several countries in which they operate, such as Dominican Republic
, El Salvador
, Guatemala
, Honduras
, Nicaragua
. IPTV is just beginning to grow in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America, and now it is growing in South Asian countries such as Sri Lanka
, Pakistan
and especially India
. but significant plans exist in countries such as Russia
. Kazakhstan
introduced its own IPTV services by the national provider Kazakhtelecom JSC and content integrator Alacast under the "iD TV" brand in two major cities Astana and Almaty in 2009 and is about to go nationwide starting 2010. Australian ISP iiNet launched Australia's first IPTV with fetchtv.
The first IPTV service to launch on the Chinese mainland sells under the "BesTV" brand and is currently available in the cities of Shanghai and Harbin. In India IPTV was launched by Airtel and the government service provider MTNL and BSNL and is available in most of the major cities of the country . In Pakistan
IPTV was launched by PTCL
, brand name Smart TV
which is available in most of the major cities of Pakistan.
In Malaysia, various companies have attempted to launch IPTV services since 2005. Failed PayTV provider MiTV
attempted to use a IPTV-over-UHF service but the service failed to take off. Hypp.TV
was supposed to use an IPTV-based system, but is not true IPTV as it does not provide a set top box and requires users to view channels using a computer. True IPTV providers available in the country at the moment are Fine TV
and DETV. In Q2 2010, Telekom Malaysia launched IPTV services through their fiber to the home product UniFi
in select areas.
In Turkey
, TTNET
launched IPTV services under the name IPtivibu in 2010. It was available in pilot areas in the cities of Istanbul, İzmir and Ankara. As of 2011 IPTV service is launched as a large scale commercial service and widely available across the country under the trademark "Tivibu EV" Superonline plans to provide IPTV under the different name "WebTV" in 2011. Türk Telekom
started building the fiber optic substructure for IPTV in late 2007.
and video on demand
offerings. Some players such as Select-TV
, VDA
have actually started offering IPTV to the hotels before moving into the homes.
The centralized architecture model is a relatively simple and easy to manage solution. For example, as all contents are stored in centralized servers, it does not require a comprehensive content distribution system. Centralized architecture is generally good for a network that provides relatively small VOD service deployment, has adequate core and edge bandwidth and has an efficient content delivery network (CDN).
Distributed architecture is just as scalable as the centralized model, however it has bandwidth usage advantages and inherent system management features that are essential for managing a larger server network. Operators who plan to deploy a relatively large system should therefore consider implementing a Distributed Architecture model right from the start. Distributed architecture requires intelligent and sophisticated content distribution technologies to augment effective delivery of multimedia contents over service provider's network.
that provides connectivity with the Internet access
network is not located in proximity to the IPTV Set-Top Box. This scenario becomes very common as service providers start to offer service packages with multiple Set-Top Boxes per subscriber.
Traditional home networking technologies such as Ethernet
and 802.11 do not provide a good solution to provide connectivity between the Gateway and each Set-Top-Box. Most homes today are not wired with Ethernet cable in every room, and installing new Ethernet cables is expensive. Wireless technologies like 802.11 don't always provide the Quality of Service
required by IPTV applications.
Networking technologies that take advantage of existing home wiring
(such as power lines, phone lines or coaxial cables) have become a popular solution for this problem, although fragmentation in the wired home networking market has limited somewhat the growth in this market.
On December 2008, ITU-T
adopted Recommendation G.hn
(also known as G.9960), which is a next generation home networking standard that specifies a common PHY/MAC that can operate over any home wiring (power lines, phone lines or coaxial cables).
Groups such as the Multimedia over Coax Alliance
, HomePlug Powerline Alliance
or Home Phoneline Networking Alliance advocate their own technologies.
(IMS) as an architecture for supporting IPTV services in carriers networks. Both ITU-T and ETSI are working on so-called "IMS-based IPTV" standards (see e.g. ETSI TS 182 027). The benefits of this approach are obvious. Carriers will be able to offer both voice and IPTV services over the same core infrastructure and the implementation of services combining conventional TV services with telephony features (e.g. caller ID on the TV screen) will become straigthforward.
The MultiService Forum recently conducted interoperability of IMS-based IPTV solutions during its GMI event in 2008.
or a set-top-box connected to a TV. Video content is typically compressed using either a MPEG-2
or a MPEG-4
codec and then sent in an MPEG transport stream delivered via IP Multicast
in case of live TV or via IP Unicast in case of video on demand. IP multicast is a method in which information can be sent to multiple computers at the same time. H.264
(MPEG-4) codec is increasingly used to replace the older MPEG-2 codec.
In standards-based IPTV systems, the primary underlying protocols used are:
A telecommunications company IPTV service is usually delivered over an investment-heavy walled garden network.
Local IPTV, as used by businesses for audio visual AV distribution on their company networks is typically based on a mixture of:
trunking and corporate VSAT networks. The use of satellite to carry IP is fundamental to overcoming the greatest shortcoming of IPTV over terrestrial cables – the speed/bandwidth of the connection.
The copper twisted pair cabling that forms the last mile
of the telephone/broadband network in many countries is not able to provide a sizeable proportion of the population with an IPTV service that matches even existing terrestrial or satellite digital TV distribution. For a competitive multi-channel TV service, a connection speed of 20Mbit/s is likely to be required, but unavailable to most potential customers. The increasing popularity of high definition TV (with twice the data rate of SD video) increases connection speed requirements, or limits IPTV service quality and connection eligibility even further.
However, satellites are capable of delivering in excess of 100Gbit/s via multi-spot beam technologies, making satellite a clear emerging technology for implementing IPTV networks. Satellite distribution can be included in an IPTV network architecture in several ways. Simplest to implement is an IPTV-DTH architecture, in which hybrid DVB/broadband set-top boxes in subscriber homes integrate satellite and IP reception to give near-infinite bandwidth with return channel capabilities. In such a system, many live TV channels may be multicast via satellite (IP-encapsulated or as conventional DVB digital TV) with stored video-on-demand transmission via the broadband connection. Arqiva
’s Satellite Media Solutions Division suggests “IPTV works best in a hybrid format. For example, you would use broadband to receive some content and satellite to receive other, such as live channels”.
.
Hybrid IPTV has grown in popularity in recent years as a result of two major drivers. Since the emergence of online video aggregation sites, like YouTube
and Vimeo
in the mid-2000s, traditional pay-TV operators have come under increasing pressure to provide their subscribers with a means of viewing Internet
-based video [both professional and user-generated] on their TVs. At the same time, specialist IP
-based operators [often telecommunications providers] have looked for ways to offer analogue
and digital terrestrial services to their operations, without adding either additional cost or complexity to their transmission operations. Bandwidth
is a valuable asset for operators, so many have looked for alternative ways to deliver these new services without investing in additional network infrastructures.
These trends led to the development of Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
es that included both a traditional broadcast tuner
and an Internet
connection – usually an Ethernet
port. The first commercially available Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
was developed by Advanced Digital Broadcast
, a developer of digital television hardware and software, in 2005. The platform was developed for Spanish pay TV operator, Telefonica
, and used as part of its Imagenio service, launched to subscribers at the end of 2005.
A hybrid set-top allows content from a range of sources, including terrestrial
broadcast, satellite
, and cable
to be brought together with video delivered over the Internet via an Ethernet
connection on the device. This enables television viewers to access a greater variety of content on their TV sets, without the need for a separate box for each service.
Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
es also enable consumers to access a range of advanced interactive services, such as VOD
and catch-up TV, as well as Internet applications, including video telephony, surveillance, gaming, shopping, e-government accessed via a television set
.
From a pay-TV operator’s perspective, a Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
gives them greater long term flexibility by enabling them to deploy new services and applications as and when consumers require, most often without the need to upgrade equipment or for an engineer to visit and reconfigure or swap out the device. This minimizes the cost of launching new services, increases speed to market and limits disruption for consumers.
The Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV
(HbbTV) consortium of industry companies is currently promoting and establishing an open European standard for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast and broadband digital TV and multimedia applications with a single user interface.
An alternative approach is the IPTV version of the Headend in the Sky
cable TV solution. Here, mutilple TV channels are distributed via satellite to the ISP or IPTV provider’s point of presence
(POP) for IP-encapsulated distribution to individual subscribers as required by each subscriber.
This can provide a huge selection of channels to subscribers without overburdening Internet trunking to the POP, and enables an IPTV service to be offered to small or remote operators outside the reach of terrestrial high speed broadband connection. An example is a network combining fibre and satellite distribution via an SES New Skies
satellite of 95 channels to Latin America and the Caribbean, operated by IPTV Americas.
While the future development of IPTV probably lies with a number of coexisting architectures and implementations, it’s clear that broadcasting of high bandwidth applications such as IPTV is accomplished more efficiently and cost-effectively using satellite and it’s predicted that the majority of global IPTV growth will be fuelled by hybrid networks.
A switched IP network also allows for the delivery of significantly more content and functionality. In a typical TV or satellite network, using broadcast video technology, all the content constantly flows downstream to each customer, and the customer switches the content at the set-top box. The customer can select from as many choices as the telecomms, cable or satellite company can stuff into the “pipe” flowing into the home. A switched IP network works differently. Content remains in the network, and only the content the customer selects is sent into the customer’s home. That frees up bandwidth, and the customer’s choice is less restricted by the size of the “pipe” into the home. This also implies that the customer's privacy could be compromised to a greater extent than is possible with traditional TV or satellite networks. It may also provide a means to hack into, or at least disrupt (see Denial of Service) the private network.
The supplier may, for example, include an interactive program guide that allows viewers to search for content by title or actor’s name, or a picture-in-picture
functionality that allows them to “channel surf” without leaving the program they’re watching. Viewers may be able to look up a player’s stats while watching a sports game, or control the camera angle. They also may be able to access photos or music from their PC on their television, use a wireless phone to schedule a recording of their favorite show, or even adjust parental controls so their child can watch a documentary for a school report, while they’re away from home.
Note that this is all possible, to some degree, with existing digital terrestrial, satellite and cable networks in tandem with modern set top boxes. In order that there can take place an interaction between the receiver and the transmitter a feedback channel is needed. Due to this, terrestrial, satellite, and cable networks for television do not allow interactivity. However, interactivity with those networks can be possible by combining TV networks with data networks such as the Internet
or a mobile communication network.
of the selected item starts nearly instantaneously on the customer's TV or PC.
Technically, when the customer selects the movie, a point-to-point
unicast connection is set up between the customer's decoder (Set Top Box or PC) and the delivering streaming server. The signalling for the trick play functionality (pause, slow-motion, wind/rewind etc.) is assured by RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol).
The most common codecs used for VoD are MPEG-2
, MPEG-4
and VC-1
.
In an attempt to avoid content piracy, the VoD content is usually encrypted. Whilst encryption
of satellite and cable TV broadcasts is an old practice, with IPTV technology it can effectively be thought of as a form of Digital Rights Management
. A film that is chosen, for example, may be playable for 24 hours following payment, after which time it becomes unavailable.
Although a few countries have very high speed broadband-enabled populations, such as South Korea
with 6 million homes benefiting from a minimum connection speed of 100Mbit/s, in other countries (such as the UK) legacy networks struggle to provide 3-5 Mbit/s and so simultaneous provision to the home of TV channels, VOIP and Internet access may not be viable. The last mile delivery for IPTV usually has a bandwidth restriction that only allows a small number of simultaneous TV channel streams – typically from one to three – to be delivered.
Streaming IPTV across wireless links within the home has proved troublesome; not due to bandwidth limitations as many assume, but due to issues with multipath and reflections of the RF signal carrying the IP data packets. An IPTV stream is sensitive to packets arriving at the right time and in the right order. Improvements in wireless technology are now starting to provide equipment to solve the problem.
Due to the limitations of wireless, most IPTV service providers today use wired home networking technologies instead of wireless technologies like 802.11. Service Providers such as AT&T
(which makes extensive use of wireline home networking as part of its U-Verse
IPTV service) have expressed support for the work done in this direction by ITU-T
, which has adopted Recommendation G.hn
(also known as G.9960), which is a next generation home networking standard that specifies a common PHY/MAC that can operate over any home wiring (power lines, phone lines or coaxial cables).
inherent in the use of satellite Internet
is often held up as reason why satellites cannot be successfully used for IPTV, but in practice latency is not an important factor for IPTV. An IPTV service does not require real-time transmission, as is the case with telephony or videoconferencing services.
It is the latency of response to requests to change channel, display an EPG, etc. that most affects customers’ perceived quality of service, and these problems affect satellite IPTV no more than terrestrial IPTV. Indeed, command latency problems, faced by terrestrial IPTV networks with insufficient bandwidth as their customer base grows, may be solved by the high capacity of satellite distribution.
Satellite distribution does suffer from latency – the time for the signal to travel up from the hub to the satellite and back down to the user is around 0.25 seconds, and cannot be reduced. However, the effects of this delay are mitigated in real-life systems using data compression, TCP-acceleration, and HTTP pre-fetching.
Satellite latency can be detrimental to especially time-sensitive applications such as on-line gaming (although it only seriously affects the likes of first-person shooters while many MMOGs can operate well over satellite Internet), but IPTV is typically a simplex
operation (one-way transmission) and latency is not a critical factor for video transmission.
Existing video transmission systems of both analogue and digital formats already introduce known quantifiable delays. Indeed, existing DVB TV channels that simulcast
by both terrestrial and satellite transmissions, experience the same 0.25s delay difference between the two services with no detrimental effect, and it goes unnoticed by viewers.
Movies are using 24 frames per second; however, the rate of the frames can change according to territories electrical system. So that there are different kinds of frame rates, for instance, North America is using approximately 30 frames per second where the Europe television frame rate is 25 frames per second. Each digital video has dimensions; width and height, when referred to analogue television, the dimension for SDTV is 650×480 pixels, on the other hand, numerous HDTV requires 1920×1080 pixels. Moreover, whilst for SDTV, 2 bytes (16 bits) is enough to create the colour depth, HDTV requires 3 (24 bits) bytes to create the colour depth.
Thereby, with a rate of 30 FPS, the uncompressed date rate for SDTV becomes 30x640x480x16, in other words, 147,456,000 bit per second. Moreover, for HDTV, at the same frame rate, uncompressed date rate becomes 30x1920x1080x24 or 1,492,992,000 bits per second. With that simple calculation, it is obvious that without using a lossy compression methods service provider’s service delivery to the subscribers is limited.
There is no absolute answer for the bandwidth requirement for the IPTV service because the bandwidth requirement is increasing due to the devices inside the household. Thus, currently compressed HDTV content can be delivered at a data rate between 8 to 10 Mbps, but if the home of the consumer equipped with several HDTV outputs, this rate will be multiplied respectively.
The high speed data transfer will increase the needed bandwidth for the viewer, at least 2 Mbps needed to use web based applications on the computer. Additional to that, 64 kbps required to use landline telephone for the property. In minimal usage, to receive an IPTV triple play service requires 13 Mbps to process in a household.
(For VOD the stream is delivered using Unicast
, for the normal TV signal Multicast
is used). This could enable the service provider to accurately track each and every programme watched and the duration of watching for each viewer, broadcasters and advertisers could then understand their audience and programming better with accurate data and targeted advertising.
, were formed by telecoms operators themselves, to minimise external costs, a tactic also used by PCCW
of Hong Kong
. Some major telecoms vendors are also active in this space, notably Alcatel-Lucent
(sometimes working with Imagenio), Ericsson
(notably since acquiring Tandberg Television
), NEC
, Nokia Siemens Networks
, Thomson
, Huawei
, and ZTE
, as are some IT houses, led by Microsoft
. California-based UTStarcom, Inc.
, Tennessee-based Worley Consulting, Tokyo-based The New Media Group, Malaysian-based Select-TV
and Oslo/Norway-based SnapTV also offer end-to-end networking infrastructure for IPTV-based services, and Hong Kong-based BNS Ltd. provides turnkey open platform IPTV technology solutions. Global sales of IPTV systems exceeded 2 billion USD in 2007.
Many of these IPTV solution vendors participated in the biennial http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/msf-announces-details-gmi-2008/2008-09-10?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=telecom_M&cmp-id=OTC-RSS-FT0Global MSF
Interoperability 2008] (GMI) event which was coordinated by the MultiService Forum (MSF) at five sites worldwide from 20- to 31-October 2008. Test equipment vendors including Absilion, Codenomicon
, Empirix
, Ixia, Mu Dynamics
and Spirent
joined solution vendors such as the companies listed above in one of the largest IPTV proving grounds ever deployed.
and may be bundled with Internet services such as Internet access
and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telecommunications services. Commercial bundling of IPTV, VoIP and Internet access is sometimes referred to in marketing as triple play
service. When these three are offered with cellular service, the combined service may be referred to as quadruple play
.
Professor Eli M. Noam highlights in his report "TV or Not TV: Three Screens, One Regulation?" some of the key challenges with sector specific regulation that is becoming obsolete due to convergence in this field.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite
Internet protocol suite
The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks. It is commonly known as TCP/IP from its most important protocols: Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol , which were the first networking protocols defined in this...
over a packet-switched network such as the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
, satellite
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
signal, and cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
television formats.
IPTV services may be classified into three main groups:
- live televisionLive televisionLive television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
, with or without interactivity related to the current TV show; - time-shiftedTime shiftingTime shifting is the recording of programming to a storage medium to be viewed or listened to at a time more convenient to the consumer. Typically, this refers to TV programming but can also refer to radio shows via podcasts....
television: catch-up TV (replays a TV show that was broadcast hours or days ago), start-over TV (replays the current TV show from its beginning); - video on demandVideo on demandVideo on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
(VOD): browse a catalog of videos, not related to TV programming.
IPTV is distinguished from Internet television
Internet television
Internet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
by its on-going standardization process (e.g., European Telecommunications Standards Institute
European Telecommunications Standards Institute
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute is an independent, non-profit, standardization organization in the telecommunications industry in Europe, with worldwide projection...
) and preferential deployment scenarios in subscriber-based telecommunications networks with high-speed access channels into end-user premises via set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
es or other customer-premises equipment
Customer-premises equipment
Customer-premises equipment or customer-provided equipment is any terminal and associated equipment located at a subscriber's premises and connected with a carrier's telecommunication channel at the demarcation point...
.
Definition
Historically, many different definitions of IPTV have appeared, including elementary streams over IP networks, transport streams over IP networks and a number of proprietary systems.One official definition approved by the International Telecommunication Union
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...
focus group on IPTV (ITU-T FG IPTV) is:
"IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as television/video/audio/text/graphics/data delivered over IP based networks managed to provide the required level of quality of service and experience, security, interactivity and reliability."
Another more detailed definition of IPTV is the one given by Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions
Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions is a standards organization that develops technical and operational standards for the telecommunication industry. ATIS is headquartered in Washington, D.C....
(ATIS) IPTV Exploratory Group on 2005:
"IPTV is defined as the secure and reliable delivery to subscribers of entertainment video and related services. These services may include, for example, Live TV, Video On Demand (VOD) and Interactive TV (iTV). These services are delivered across an access agnostic, packet switched network that employs the IP protocol to transport the audio, video and control signals. In contrast to video over the public Internet, with IPTV deployments, network security and performance are tightly managed to ensure a superior entertainment experience, resulting in a compelling business environment for content providers, advertisers and customers alike."
One definition for consumer IPTV is for single or multiple program transport streams (MPTS) which are sourced by the same network operator that owns or directly controls the "last mile" to the consumer's premises . This control over delivery enables a guaranteed quality of service
Quality of service
The quality of service refers to several related aspects of telephony and computer networks that allow the transport of traffic with special requirements...
(QoS), and also allows the service provider to offer an enhanced user experience such as better program guide, interactive services etc.
In commercial environments IPTV distributes live TV, video playout channels and Video on Demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
(VOD) material across LAN
Län
Län and lääni refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010....
or WAN
Wide area network
A wide area network is a telecommunication network that covers a broad area . Business and government entities utilize WANs to relay data among employees, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various geographical locations...
IP network infrastructures, with a controlled QoS.
History
In 1994, ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's World News Now
World News Now
World News Now is an American overnight news program broadcast on American Broadcasting Company's television network. Its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent and humorous...
was the first television show
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
to be broadcast over the Internet, using the CU-SeeMe
CU-SeeMe
CU-SeeMe is an Internet videoconferencing client. CU-SeeMe can make point to point video calls without a server or make multi-point calls through server software first called a "reflector" and later called a "conference server" or Multipoint Control Unit...
videoconferencing
Videoconferencing
Videoconferencing is the conduct of a videoconference by a set of telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously...
software.
The term IPTV first appeared in 1995 with the founding of Precept Software
Precept Software
Precept Software was a company based in the United States producing a series of products known as Precept IP/TV. It was acquired by Cisco Systems on March 11, 1998....
by Judith Estrin
Judith Estrin
Judith "Judy" L. Estrin is an American business executive. She is currently the CEO of JLabs , through which she pursues a broad range of advisory activities including sitting on corporate and advisory boards and speaking engagements...
and Bill Carrico
William N. Carrico, Jr.
William "Bill" N. Carrico, Jr. is a computer scientist and has founded several technology companies in the Silicon Valley area. He has been president and CEO of 3Com Corporation, senior vice president of Cisco Systems, and currently works at Packet Design LLC....
. Precept developed an Internet video product named IP/TV. IP/TV was an MBONE
Mbone
Mbone was an experimental backbone for IP multicast traffic across the Internet developed in the early 1990s. It required specialized hardware and software...
compatible Windows and Unix-based application that transmitted single and multi-source audio/video traffic, ranging from low to DVD quality, using both unicast
Unicast
right|200pxIn computer networking, unicast transmission is the sending of messages to a single network destination identified by a unique address.-Addressing methodologies:...
and IP multicast
IP Multicast
IP multicast is a method of sending Internet Protocol datagrams to a group of interested receivers in a single transmission. It is often employed for streaming media applications on the Internet and private networks. The method is the IP-specific version of the general concept of multicast...
Real-time Transport Protocol
Real-time Transport Protocol
The Real-time Transport Protocol defines a standardized packet format for delivering audio and video over IP networks. RTP is used extensively in communication and entertainment systems that involve streaming media, such as telephony, video teleconference applications, television services and...
(RTP) and Real time control protocol
Real time control protocol
The Real-Time Transport Control Protocol is a sister protocol of the Real-time Transport Protocol . Its basic functionality and packet structure is defined in the RTP specification RFC 3550, superseding its original standardization in 1996 .RTCP provides out-of-band statistics and control...
(RTCP). The software was written primarily by Steve Casner, Karl Auerbach
Karl Auerbach
Karl Auerbach is a California attorney and internet protocol engineer who in 2002 sued the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers —of which he was an elected board member—for refusing to share corporate records...
, and Cha Chee Kuan. Precept was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1998. Cisco retains the IP/TV trademark.
Internet radio
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
company AudioNet
Broadcast.com
Broadcast.com was a web radio company founded as "AudioNet" in September 1995 by Chris Jaeb. Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban later led the organization to hugely capitalize on the Dot-com bubble and be sold to Yahoo.com.-History:...
started the first continuous live
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
s with content from WFAA-TV
WFAA-TV
WFAA, channel 8, is an ABC-affiliated television station serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, one of the top ten media markets in North America. The station is the flagship of Belo Corporation and the largest ABC affiliate not owned and operated by the network...
in January, 1998 and KCTU-LP
KCTU-LP
KCTU-LD, channel 43, is a digital low-power television station in Wichita, Kansas. It is locally-owned by River City Broadcasters and has affiliations with ThisTV, AMGTV, Untamed Sports and FamilyNet...
on January 10, 1998.
Kingston Communications
Kingston Communications
KCOM Group , formerly known as Kingston Communications, is a UK communications and IT services provider. Its headquarters is in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, where subsidiary business unit KC serves local residents and businesses with Internet and telephony services...
, a regional telecommunications operator in UK, launched KIT (Kingston Interactive Television), an IPTV over DSL broadband interactive TV service in September 1999 after conducting various TV and VoD
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
trials. The operator added additional VoD
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
service in October 2001 with Yes TV, a VoD content provider. Kingston was one of the first companies in the world to introduce IPTV and IP VoD
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
over ADSL.
In 2006 the KIT service was discontinued, subscribers having declined from a peak of 10,000 to 4,000
In 1999, NBTel
NBTel
NBTel was founded as the New Brunswick Telephone Company in 1888 after Bell Telephone Company of Canada's attempt to establish telephone service in the Maritime provinces failed. The company purchased the assets in New Brunswick, Canada from Bell Canada in 1889...
(now known as Bell Aliant) was the first to commercially deploy Internet Protocol Television over digital subscriber line (DSL) in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
using the Alcatel 7350 DSLAM and middleware created by iMagic TV (owned by NBTel's parent company Bruncor
Bruncor
Bruncor, based in Saint John, New Brunswick was a Canadian telecommunications holding company and the parent company of NBTel.Bruncor merged in 1999 with 3 other telecommunication companies in Atlantic Canada to form Aliant ....
). The service was marketed under the brand VibeVision in New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
, and later expanded into Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
in early 2000 after the formation of Aliant
Aliant
Bell Aliant Inc. is a communications company providing services in various areas throughout eastern Canada, as Bell Aliant throughout Atlantic Canada, and under the NorthernTel, and Télébec brands in rural areas of Ontario and Quebec....
. iMagic TV was later sold to Alcatel
Alcatel
Alcatel Mobile Phones is a brand of mobile handsets. It was established in 2004 as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent of France and TCL Communication of China....
.
In 2002, Sasktel
SaskTel
Saskatchewan Telecommunications is a provincial Crown Corporation operating under the authority of the Saskatchewan Telecommunications Act. It is the only remaining Crown Corporation in the Canadian telecommunications industry....
was the second in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to commercially deploy Internet Protocol (IP) video over digital subscriber line (DSL), using the Lucent Stinger(R) DSL platform. In 2006, it was the first North American company to offer HDTV
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
channels over an IPTV service
In 2003, Total Access Networks Inc launched its IPTV service, comprising 100 free IPTV stations world wide. The service has been used in over 100 countries world wide, and has channels in 26 languages.
In 2005, Bredbandsbolaget
Bredbandsbolaget
Bredbandsbolaget is a Swedish Internet service provider owned by Telenor. It was founded in 1998 with a focus on high-speed Internet connection for homes and businesses using optical fiber. It is the second largest ISP in Sweden ....
launched its IPTV service as the first service provider in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. As of January 2009, they are not the biggest supplier any longer; TeliaSonera
TeliaSonera
TeliaSonera AB is the dominant telephone company and mobile network operator in Sweden and Finland. The company has operations in other countries in Northern, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Spain, with a total of 150 million mobile customers...
who launched their service later has now more customers.
In 2006, AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
launched its U-Verse
U-Verse
AT&T U-verse is a registered service mark under which AT&T offers Internet access, television, and telephone services in various parts of the United States. It began in 2008 to serve mostly residences and small businesses in urban and suburban areas.-Services:...
IPTV service in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, comprising a national head end and regional video-serving offices. AT&T offered over 300 channels in 11 cities with more to be added in 2007 and beyond. In March 2009, AT&T announced that U-verse had expanded to 100 or more High Definition channels in every U-Verse TV market. While using IP protocols, AT&T built a private IP network exclusively for video transport.
In 2010, CenturyLink
CenturyLink
CenturyLink, Inc. is a United States telecommunications firm, headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana. The company, founded as Central Telephone & Electronics Corporation in 1968, later changed its name to Century Telephone Enterprises, Inc. in 1971, and then was called CenturyTel, Inc. from 1999 to 2010...
- after acquiring Embarq
Embarq
Embarq Corporation was the largest independent local exchange carrier in the United States , serving customers in 18 states and providing local, long distance, high-speed data and wireless services to residential and business customers...
(2009) and Qwest
Qwest
Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a large United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.On April...
(2010), entered five U.S. markets with an IPTV service called Prism. This was after successful test marketing in Florida.
Promise
This technology was restricted by low broadband penetration and by the relatively high cost of installing wiring capable of transporting IPTV content reliably in the customer's home. However, residential IPTV was expected to grow as broadband was available to more than 200 million households worldwide in the year 2005, projected to grow to 400 million by the year 2010. Many of the world's major telecommunications providers are exploring IPTV as a new revenue opportunity from their existing markets and as a defensive measure against encroachment from more conventional Cable Television services.Also, there are a growing number of IPTV installations within schools, universities, corporations and local institutions.
In December 2009, the FCC began looking into using set-top boxes to make TVs with cable or similar services
Multichannel Video Programming Distributor
A multichannel video programming distributor is a service provider delivering video programming services, usually for a subscription fee...
into network video players. FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake had said earlier that TV and the Internet would soon be the same, but only 75 percent of homes had computers, while 99 percent had TV. A Nielsen survey said 99 percent of video viewing was done on TV.
Markets
The number of global IPTV subscribers was expected to grow from 28 million in 2009 to 83 million in 2013. Europe and Asia are the leading territories in terms of the over-all number of subscribers. But in terms of service revenues, Europe and North America generate a larger share of global revenue, due to very low average revenue per user (ARPU) in China and India, the fastest growing (and ultimately, the biggest market) is Asia. The global IPTV market revenues are forecast to grow from US$12 billion in 2009 to US$38 billion in 2013.While all major western countries and most developed economies have IPTV deployments, the world's leading markets for IPTV were Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(by Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Europe....
) France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(led by Free
Iliad (company)
Iliad S.A. is a French provider of telecommunication services. It is based in Paris and its operations comprise fixed telephony services, prepaid phone cards and internet access providing and hosting services. The company was founded by Xavier Niel in 1999....
, then Orange, then Neuf Cegetel
Neuf Cegetel
Neuf Cegetel is a French wireline telecom services provider and a mobile virtual network operator offering different services to consumers, enterprises and wholesale customers, ranking number two in the country...
(now SFR
SFR
SFR is a French mobile phone company. It has over 20 million customers, and provides over 4.6 million households with high-speed internet access...
) ; total of over 4 million subscriptions), South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
(4 million subscriptions as of May 2011), United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(by AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
), Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
(with meo, Optimus Clix and Vodafone Casa
Vodafone Portugal
Vodafone Portugal, a full subsidiary of the Vodafone Group, is the second mobile operator in Portugal, both chronologically and in market share...
).
Services also launched in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Republic of Moldova, Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. The United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
launched IPTV early and after a slow initial growth, in February 2009 BT
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
announced that it had reached 398,000 subscribers to its BT Vision
BT Vision
BT Vision is a hybrid IPTV-digital terrestrial television service provided by BT Group in the United Kingdom which was launched in December 2006...
service. Claro
Claro (mobile phone network)
Claro is the largest mobile phone network in the Americas. It is part of the Mexican telecom group América Móvil which is one of the four largest mobile phone network operators in the world, with more than 200 million customers...
has launched their own IPTV service called "Claro TV". This service is available in several countries in which they operate, such as Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
. IPTV is just beginning to grow in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America, and now it is growing in South Asian countries such as Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and especially India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. but significant plans exist in countries such as Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
introduced its own IPTV services by the national provider Kazakhtelecom JSC and content integrator Alacast under the "iD TV" brand in two major cities Astana and Almaty in 2009 and is about to go nationwide starting 2010. Australian ISP iiNet launched Australia's first IPTV with fetchtv.
The first IPTV service to launch on the Chinese mainland sells under the "BesTV" brand and is currently available in the cities of Shanghai and Harbin. In India IPTV was launched by Airtel and the government service provider MTNL and BSNL and is available in most of the major cities of the country . In Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
IPTV was launched by PTCL
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited is the largest telecommunication company in Pakistan.The company provides telephony services nation-wide and is the backbone for country's telecommunication infrastructure despite arrival of a dozen other telecommunication comanies, including giants like...
, brand name Smart TV
PTCL Smart TV
PTCL Smart TV is an IPTV service in Pakistan owned by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited that was launched on 14 August 2008. The service is currently available in 17 major cities including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Peshawar, Sialkot,...
which is available in most of the major cities of Pakistan.
In Malaysia, various companies have attempted to launch IPTV services since 2005. Failed PayTV provider MiTV
MiTV
U Television Sdn. Bhd. is Malaysia's third pay television operator. It was launched in September 2005 after having obtained all the necessary approvals from the censorship board on its broadcast contents...
attempted to use a IPTV-over-UHF service but the service failed to take off. Hypp.TV
Hypp.TV
Hypp.TV is a Malaysian subscription-based internet protocol television service owned by Telekom Malaysia Berhad. It provides IPTV channels over ADSL and video on demand programming delivered via broadband. Hypp.TV is an example of telecommunication convergence...
was supposed to use an IPTV-based system, but is not true IPTV as it does not provide a set top box and requires users to view channels using a computer. True IPTV providers available in the country at the moment are Fine TV
Fine TV
Fine TV is the fourth Pay TV station in Malaysia. It was launched on December 28, 2005 and follows a TV On-Demand model and also has PPV channels...
and DETV. In Q2 2010, Telekom Malaysia launched IPTV services through their fiber to the home product UniFi
UniFi
UniFi is an amalgamation of “Uni” which denotes togetherness and camaraderie, while “Fi” symbolises fibre optics. This is a new service provided by TM Berhad the leading Integrated Telecommunications provider in Malaysia....
in select areas.
In Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, TTNET
Ttnet
TTNET is the largest Internet service provider in Turkey and has around 6 million subscribers. TTNET is a subsidiary of Türk Telekom.Currently, Dr. Paul Doany is Chairman of the Board of Directors....
launched IPTV services under the name IPtivibu in 2010. It was available in pilot areas in the cities of Istanbul, İzmir and Ankara. As of 2011 IPTV service is launched as a large scale commercial service and widely available across the country under the trademark "Tivibu EV" Superonline plans to provide IPTV under the different name "WebTV" in 2011. Türk Telekom
Türk Telekom
Türk Telekom is the formerly state owned Turkish telecommunications company. Türk Telekom was being separated from the Post Office in 1995. In November 2005 it was privatized to Oger Telecom....
started building the fiber optic substructure for IPTV in late 2007.
IPTV for hospitality
Besides targeting the homes, vendors target IPTV services to the hospitality sector. IPTV is a natural progression from the pay-per-viewPay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
and video on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
offerings. Some players such as Select-TV
Select-TV
Select-TV is a Malaysian based company specializing on the IPTV technology for the hospitality and telecommunication sectors. Since its inception, it has delivered several IPTV projects, which the company named as CXS, to the Middle East and South East Asian region...
, VDA
VDA
The Verband der Automobilindustrie e. V., short VDA, is a German interest group of the German automobile industry, both automobile manufactures and automobile component suppliers. The group is located in Berlin, Germany...
have actually started offering IPTV to the hotels before moving into the homes.
Elements
- TV Head-end: where live TV channels are encoded, encrypted and delivered in the form of IP multicast streams.
- VOD platform: where on-demand video assets are stored and served when a user makes a request in the form of IP unicast stream.
- Interactive portal: allows the user to navigate within the different IPTV services, such as the VOD catalog.
- delivery network: the packet switched network that carries IP packets (unicast and multicast).
- home gateway: the piece of equipment at the user's home that terminates the access link from the delivery network.
- user's set-top boxSet-top boxA set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
: the piece of equipment at the user's home that decodes and decrypt TV and VOD content and displays it on the TV screen.
Architecture of a Video Server Network
Depending on the network architecture of the service provider, there are two main types of video server architectures that can be considered for IPTV deployment, centralized, and distributed.The centralized architecture model is a relatively simple and easy to manage solution. For example, as all contents are stored in centralized servers, it does not require a comprehensive content distribution system. Centralized architecture is generally good for a network that provides relatively small VOD service deployment, has adequate core and edge bandwidth and has an efficient content delivery network (CDN).
Distributed architecture is just as scalable as the centralized model, however it has bandwidth usage advantages and inherent system management features that are essential for managing a larger server network. Operators who plan to deploy a relatively large system should therefore consider implementing a Distributed Architecture model right from the start. Distributed architecture requires intelligent and sophisticated content distribution technologies to augment effective delivery of multimedia contents over service provider's network.
Home networks
In many cases, the residential gatewayResidential gateway
A residential gateway is a home networking device, used as a gateway to connect devices in the home to the Internet or other WAN.It is an umbrella term, used to cover multi-function networking computer appliances used in homes, which may combine a DSL or cable modem, a firewall, a consumer-grade...
that provides connectivity with the Internet access
Internet access
Many technologies and service plans for Internet access allow customers to connect to the Internet.Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century....
network is not located in proximity to the IPTV Set-Top Box. This scenario becomes very common as service providers start to offer service packages with multiple Set-Top Boxes per subscriber.
Traditional home networking technologies such as Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
and 802.11 do not provide a good solution to provide connectivity between the Gateway and each Set-Top-Box. Most homes today are not wired with Ethernet cable in every room, and installing new Ethernet cables is expensive. Wireless technologies like 802.11 don't always provide the Quality of Service
Quality of service
The quality of service refers to several related aspects of telephony and computer networks that allow the transport of traffic with special requirements...
required by IPTV applications.
Networking technologies that take advantage of existing home wiring
Home wiring
Home wiring is wiring in domestic use such as houses and gardens.-Overview:The evolution of home wiring can be said to have started when electric lights and telephone where first installed in homes towards the end of the 19th century...
(such as power lines, phone lines or coaxial cables) have become a popular solution for this problem, although fragmentation in the wired home networking market has limited somewhat the growth in this market.
On December 2008, ITU-T
ITU-T
The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector is one of the three sectors of the International Telecommunication Union ; it coordinates standards for telecommunications....
adopted Recommendation G.hn
G.hn
G.hn is the common name for a home network technology family of standards developed under the International Telecommunication Union's Standardization arm and promoted by the HomeGrid Forum...
(also known as G.9960), which is a next generation home networking standard that specifies a common PHY/MAC that can operate over any home wiring (power lines, phone lines or coaxial cables).
Groups such as the Multimedia over Coax Alliance
Multimedia over Coax Alliance
Multimedia over Coax Alliance is a trade group promoting a standard that uses coaxial cables to connect consumer electronics and home networking devices in homes. It allows both data communication and the transfer of audio and video streams....
, HomePlug Powerline Alliance
HomePlug Powerline Alliance
The HomePlug Powerline Alliance is a trade association of electronics manufacturers, service providers, and retailers that establishes standards for, and tests members' devices for compliance to, the various power line communication technologies known as HomePlug.The alliance developed standards...
or Home Phoneline Networking Alliance advocate their own technologies.
IMS architecture for IPTV
There is a growing standardization effort on the use of the 3GPP IP Multimedia SubsystemIP Multimedia Subsystem
The IP Multimedia Subsystem or IP Multimedia Core Network Subsystem is an architectural framework for delivering Internet Protocol multimedia services. It was originally designed by the wireless standards body 3rd Generation Partnership Project , as a part of the vision for evolving mobile...
(IMS) as an architecture for supporting IPTV services in carriers networks. Both ITU-T and ETSI are working on so-called "IMS-based IPTV" standards (see e.g. ETSI TS 182 027). The benefits of this approach are obvious. Carriers will be able to offer both voice and IPTV services over the same core infrastructure and the implementation of services combining conventional TV services with telephony features (e.g. caller ID on the TV screen) will become straigthforward.
The MultiService Forum recently conducted interoperability of IMS-based IPTV solutions during its GMI event in 2008.
Protocols
IPTV covers both live TV (multicasting) as well as stored video (Video-on-Demand, or VoD). The playback of IPTV requires either a personal computerPersonal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
or a set-top-box connected to a TV. Video content is typically compressed using either a MPEG-2
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
or a MPEG-4
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...
codec and then sent in an MPEG transport stream delivered via IP Multicast
IP Multicast
IP multicast is a method of sending Internet Protocol datagrams to a group of interested receivers in a single transmission. It is often employed for streaming media applications on the Internet and private networks. The method is the IP-specific version of the general concept of multicast...
in case of live TV or via IP Unicast in case of video on demand. IP multicast is a method in which information can be sent to multiple computers at the same time. H.264
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
(MPEG-4) codec is increasingly used to replace the older MPEG-2 codec.
In standards-based IPTV systems, the primary underlying protocols used are:
- Live IPTV uses IGMP for connecting to a multicast stream (TV channel) and for changing from one multicast stream to another (TV channel change). IP multicastIP MulticastIP multicast is a method of sending Internet Protocol datagrams to a group of interested receivers in a single transmission. It is often employed for streaming media applications on the Internet and private networks. The method is the IP-specific version of the general concept of multicast...
operates within LANs or VLANs so other protocols, such as Protocol Independent MulticastProtocol Independent MulticastProtocol-Independent Multicast is a family of multicast routing protocols for Internet Protocol networks that provide one-to-many and many-to-many distribution of data over a LAN, WAN or the Internet...
(PIM), are used to route IPTV multicast streams from one LAN segment to another.
- VOD uses UDP or RTP protocols for channel streams and control is done using the Real Time Streaming ProtocolReal Time Streaming ProtocolThe Real Time Streaming Protocol is a network control protocol designed for use in entertainment and communications systems to control streaming media servers. The protocol is used for establishing and controlling media sessions between end points...
(RTSP).
- A network personal video recorder, like VOD, uses UDP or RTP for IPTV streams and RTSP for end-user control communications.
A telecommunications company IPTV service is usually delivered over an investment-heavy walled garden network.
Local IPTV, as used by businesses for audio visual AV distribution on their company networks is typically based on a mixture of:
- Conventional TV reception equipment and IPTV encoders
- IPTV Gateways that take broadcast MPEG channels and IP wrap them to create multicastMulticastIn computer networking, multicast is the delivery of a message or information to a group of destination computers simultaneously in a single transmission from the source creating copies automatically in other network elements, such as routers, only when the topology of the network requires...
streams.
IPTV via satellite
Although IPTV and conventional satellite TV distribution have been seen as complementary technologies, they are likely to be increasingly used together in hybrid IPTV networks that deliver the highest levels of performance and reliability. IPTV is largely neutral to the transmission medium, and IP traffic is already routinely carried by satellite for Internet backboneInternet backbone
The Internet backbone refers to the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected networks and core routers in the Internet...
trunking and corporate VSAT networks. The use of satellite to carry IP is fundamental to overcoming the greatest shortcoming of IPTV over terrestrial cables – the speed/bandwidth of the connection.
The copper twisted pair cabling that forms the last mile
Last mile
The "last mile" or "last kilometer" is the final leg of delivering connectivity from a communications provider to a customer. The phrase is therefore often used by the telecommunications and cable television industries. The actual distance of this leg may be considerably more than a mile,...
of the telephone/broadband network in many countries is not able to provide a sizeable proportion of the population with an IPTV service that matches even existing terrestrial or satellite digital TV distribution. For a competitive multi-channel TV service, a connection speed of 20Mbit/s is likely to be required, but unavailable to most potential customers. The increasing popularity of high definition TV (with twice the data rate of SD video) increases connection speed requirements, or limits IPTV service quality and connection eligibility even further.
However, satellites are capable of delivering in excess of 100Gbit/s via multi-spot beam technologies, making satellite a clear emerging technology for implementing IPTV networks. Satellite distribution can be included in an IPTV network architecture in several ways. Simplest to implement is an IPTV-DTH architecture, in which hybrid DVB/broadband set-top boxes in subscriber homes integrate satellite and IP reception to give near-infinite bandwidth with return channel capabilities. In such a system, many live TV channels may be multicast via satellite (IP-encapsulated or as conventional DVB digital TV) with stored video-on-demand transmission via the broadband connection. Arqiva
Arqiva
Arqiva is a telecommunications company which provides infrastructure and broadcast transmission facilities in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The present company, with headquarters located at Crawley Court in the village of Crawley, Hampshire, was formed by National Grid Wireless...
’s Satellite Media Solutions Division suggests “IPTV works best in a hybrid format. For example, you would use broadband to receive some content and satellite to receive other, such as live channels”.
Hybrid IPTV
Hybrid IPTV refers to the combination of traditional broadcast TV services and video delivered over either managed IP networks or the public Internet. It is an increasing trend in both the consumer and pay TV [operator] markets.
Hybrid IPTV has grown in popularity in recent years as a result of two major drivers. Since the emergence of online video aggregation sites, like YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and Vimeo
Vimeo
Vimeo is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. It was founded by Zach Klein and Jake Lodwick in November 2004...
in the mid-2000s, traditional pay-TV operators have come under increasing pressure to provide their subscribers with a means of viewing Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
-based video [both professional and user-generated] on their TVs. At the same time, specialist IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
-based operators [often telecommunications providers] have looked for ways to offer analogue
Analog television
Analog television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal: one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal...
and digital terrestrial services to their operations, without adding either additional cost or complexity to their transmission operations. Bandwidth
Bandwidth (computing)
In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
is a valuable asset for operators, so many have looked for alternative ways to deliver these new services without investing in additional network infrastructures.
These trends led to the development of Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
A hybrid IPTV set-top box enables the aggregation of traditional linear TV broadcasts with video delivered via both managed and unmanaged IP networks...
es that included both a traditional broadcast tuner
Tuner
Tuner may refer to someone or something which adjusts or configures a mechanical, electronic, or musical device.- Electronic :* Antenna tuner, a device to adjust the resonance frequency of an antenna or transmission line...
and an Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
connection – usually an Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
port. The first commercially available Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
A hybrid IPTV set-top box enables the aggregation of traditional linear TV broadcasts with video delivered via both managed and unmanaged IP networks...
was developed by Advanced Digital Broadcast
Advanced Digital Broadcast
Advanced Digital Broadcast designs, manufactures and deploys solutions to distribute pay-TV and multimedia services to the connected home, for all types of networks. The company has its global headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and regional headquarters in Denver, USA and Taipei, Taiwan...
, a developer of digital television hardware and software, in 2005. The platform was developed for Spanish pay TV operator, Telefonica
Telefónica
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...
, and used as part of its Imagenio service, launched to subscribers at the end of 2005.
A hybrid set-top allows content from a range of sources, including terrestrial
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
broadcast, satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
, and cable
Cable
A cable is two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics cables, otherwise known as wire ropes, are used for lifting, hauling and towing or conveying force through tension. In electrical engineering cables are used to carry...
to be brought together with video delivered over the Internet via an Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
connection on the device. This enables television viewers to access a greater variety of content on their TV sets, without the need for a separate box for each service.
Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
A hybrid IPTV set-top box enables the aggregation of traditional linear TV broadcasts with video delivered via both managed and unmanaged IP networks...
es also enable consumers to access a range of advanced interactive services, such as VOD
VOD
VOD may stand for:*Velocity of detonation, the speed of a shock wave through a detonated explosive*Veno-occlusive disease, a complication of bone marrow transplantation*Versant Object Database, a database management system...
and catch-up TV, as well as Internet applications, including video telephony, surveillance, gaming, shopping, e-government accessed via a television set
Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
.
From a pay-TV operator’s perspective, a Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box
A hybrid IPTV set-top box enables the aggregation of traditional linear TV broadcasts with video delivered via both managed and unmanaged IP networks...
gives them greater long term flexibility by enabling them to deploy new services and applications as and when consumers require, most often without the need to upgrade equipment or for an engineer to visit and reconfigure or swap out the device. This minimizes the cost of launching new services, increases speed to market and limits disruption for consumers.
The Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV
Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV
Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV is both an industry standard and promotional initiative for hybrid digital TV to harmonise the broadcast, IPTV, and broadband delivery of entertainment to the end consumer through connected TVs and set-top boxes...
(HbbTV) consortium of industry companies is currently promoting and establishing an open European standard for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast and broadband digital TV and multimedia applications with a single user interface.
An alternative approach is the IPTV version of the Headend in the Sky
Headend in the Sky
Headend in the Sky is Comcast's satellite multiplex service that provides cable channels to cable television operations.At a traditional cable television headend, multitudes of satellite dishes and antennas are used to grab cable stations from dozens of communication satellites...
cable TV solution. Here, mutilple TV channels are distributed via satellite to the ISP or IPTV provider’s point of presence
Point of presence
A point of presence is an artificial demarcation point or interface point between communications entities. It may include a meet-me-room.In the US, this term became important during the court-ordered breakup of the Bell Telephone system...
(POP) for IP-encapsulated distribution to individual subscribers as required by each subscriber.
This can provide a huge selection of channels to subscribers without overburdening Internet trunking to the POP, and enables an IPTV service to be offered to small or remote operators outside the reach of terrestrial high speed broadband connection. An example is a network combining fibre and satellite distribution via an SES New Skies
SES NEW SKIES
SES World Skies—formerly SES New Skies, New Skies Satellites , and SES Americom—is a Dutch operator of communications spacecraft, owned by SES.On 30 November 1998, several former Intelsat satellites were transferred to New Skies’ control...
satellite of 95 channels to Latin America and the Caribbean, operated by IPTV Americas.
While the future development of IPTV probably lies with a number of coexisting architectures and implementations, it’s clear that broadcasting of high bandwidth applications such as IPTV is accomplished more efficiently and cost-effectively using satellite and it’s predicted that the majority of global IPTV growth will be fuelled by hybrid networks.
Advantages
The IP(Internet Protocol)-based platform offers significant advantages, including the ability to integrate television with other IP-based services like high speed Internet access and VoIP.A switched IP network also allows for the delivery of significantly more content and functionality. In a typical TV or satellite network, using broadcast video technology, all the content constantly flows downstream to each customer, and the customer switches the content at the set-top box. The customer can select from as many choices as the telecomms, cable or satellite company can stuff into the “pipe” flowing into the home. A switched IP network works differently. Content remains in the network, and only the content the customer selects is sent into the customer’s home. That frees up bandwidth, and the customer’s choice is less restricted by the size of the “pipe” into the home. This also implies that the customer's privacy could be compromised to a greater extent than is possible with traditional TV or satellite networks. It may also provide a means to hack into, or at least disrupt (see Denial of Service) the private network.
The economics of IPTV
The cable industry's expenditures of approximately $1 Billion per year are based on network updates to accommodate higher data speeds. Most operators use 2-3 channels to support maximum data speeds of 50 Mb/s to 100 Mb/s. However, because video streams require a high bit rate for much longer periods of time, the expenditures to support high amounts of video traffic will be much greater. This phenomenon is called persistency. Data persistency is routinely 5% while video persistency can easily reach 50%. As video traffic continues to grow, this means that significantly more CMTS downstream channels will be required to carry this video content. Based on today's market, it is likely that industry expenditures for CMTS expansion could exceed $2 Billion a year, virtually all of this expenditure being driven by video traffic. Adoption of IPTV for carrying the majority of this traffic could save the industry approximately 75% of this capital expenditure.Interactivity
An IP-based platform also allows significant opportunities to make the TV viewing experience more interactive and personalized.The supplier may, for example, include an interactive program guide that allows viewers to search for content by title or actor’s name, or a picture-in-picture
Picture-in-picture
Picture in Picture is a feature of some television receivers and similar devices. One program is displayed on the full TV screen at the same time as one or more other programs are displayed in inset windows. Sound is usually from the main program only.Picture in Picture requires two independent...
functionality that allows them to “channel surf” without leaving the program they’re watching. Viewers may be able to look up a player’s stats while watching a sports game, or control the camera angle. They also may be able to access photos or music from their PC on their television, use a wireless phone to schedule a recording of their favorite show, or even adjust parental controls so their child can watch a documentary for a school report, while they’re away from home.
Note that this is all possible, to some degree, with existing digital terrestrial, satellite and cable networks in tandem with modern set top boxes. In order that there can take place an interaction between the receiver and the transmitter a feedback channel is needed. Due to this, terrestrial, satellite, and cable networks for television do not allow interactivity. However, interactivity with those networks can be possible by combining TV networks with data networks such as the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
or a mobile communication network.
Video-on-demand
IPTV technology is bringing Video-on-demand (VoD) to television which permits a customer to browse an online program or film catalog, to watch trailers and to then select a selected recording. The playoutPlayout
In broadcasting, playout is a term for the transmission of radio or TV channels from the broadcaster into broadcast networks that delivers the content to the audience...
of the selected item starts nearly instantaneously on the customer's TV or PC.
Technically, when the customer selects the movie, a point-to-point
Point-to-Point Protocol
In networking, the Point-to-Point Protocol is a data link protocol commonly used in establishing a direct connection between two networking nodes...
unicast connection is set up between the customer's decoder (Set Top Box or PC) and the delivering streaming server. The signalling for the trick play functionality (pause, slow-motion, wind/rewind etc.) is assured by RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol).
The most common codecs used for VoD are MPEG-2
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
, MPEG-4
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...
and VC-1
VC-1
VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard, which was initially developed as a proprietary video format by Microsoft before it was released as a formal SMPTE standard video format on April 3, 2006...
.
In an attempt to avoid content piracy, the VoD content is usually encrypted. Whilst encryption
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
of satellite and cable TV broadcasts is an old practice, with IPTV technology it can effectively be thought of as a form of Digital Rights Management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
. A film that is chosen, for example, may be playable for 24 hours following payment, after which time it becomes unavailable.
IPTV-based converged services
Another advantage of an IP-based network is the opportunity for integration and convergence. This opportunity is amplified when using IMS-based solutions. Converged services implies interaction of existing services in a seamless manner to create new value added services. One good example is On-Screen Caller ID, getting Caller ID on your TV and the ability to handle it (send it to voice mail, etc.). IP-based services will help to enable efforts to provide consumers anytime-anywhere access to content over their televisions, PCs and cell phones, and to integrate services and content to tie them together. Within businesses and institutions, IPTV eliminates the need to run a parallel infrastructure to deliver live and stored video services.Limitations
IPTV is sensitive to packet loss and delays if the streamed data is unreliable. IPTV has strict minimum speed requirements in order to facilitate the right number of frames per second to deliver moving pictures. This means that the limited connection speed/bandwidth available for a large IPTV customer base can reduce the service quality delivered.Although a few countries have very high speed broadband-enabled populations, such as South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
with 6 million homes benefiting from a minimum connection speed of 100Mbit/s, in other countries (such as the UK) legacy networks struggle to provide 3-5 Mbit/s and so simultaneous provision to the home of TV channels, VOIP and Internet access may not be viable. The last mile delivery for IPTV usually has a bandwidth restriction that only allows a small number of simultaneous TV channel streams – typically from one to three – to be delivered.
Streaming IPTV across wireless links within the home has proved troublesome; not due to bandwidth limitations as many assume, but due to issues with multipath and reflections of the RF signal carrying the IP data packets. An IPTV stream is sensitive to packets arriving at the right time and in the right order. Improvements in wireless technology are now starting to provide equipment to solve the problem.
Due to the limitations of wireless, most IPTV service providers today use wired home networking technologies instead of wireless technologies like 802.11. Service Providers such as AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
(which makes extensive use of wireline home networking as part of its U-Verse
U-Verse
AT&T U-verse is a registered service mark under which AT&T offers Internet access, television, and telephone services in various parts of the United States. It began in 2008 to serve mostly residences and small businesses in urban and suburban areas.-Services:...
IPTV service) have expressed support for the work done in this direction by ITU-T
ITU-T
The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector is one of the three sectors of the International Telecommunication Union ; it coordinates standards for telecommunications....
, which has adopted Recommendation G.hn
G.hn
G.hn is the common name for a home network technology family of standards developed under the International Telecommunication Union's Standardization arm and promoted by the HomeGrid Forum...
(also known as G.9960), which is a next generation home networking standard that specifies a common PHY/MAC that can operate over any home wiring (power lines, phone lines or coaxial cables).
Latency
The latencyLatency (engineering)
Latency is a measure of time delay experienced in a system, the precise definition of which depends on the system and the time being measured. Latencies may have different meaning in different contexts.-Packet-switched networks:...
inherent in the use of satellite Internet
Satellite Internet access
Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through satellites. The service can be provided to users world-wide through low Earth orbit satellites. Geostationary satellites can offer higher data speeds, but their signals can not reach some polar regions of the world...
is often held up as reason why satellites cannot be successfully used for IPTV, but in practice latency is not an important factor for IPTV. An IPTV service does not require real-time transmission, as is the case with telephony or videoconferencing services.
It is the latency of response to requests to change channel, display an EPG, etc. that most affects customers’ perceived quality of service, and these problems affect satellite IPTV no more than terrestrial IPTV. Indeed, command latency problems, faced by terrestrial IPTV networks with insufficient bandwidth as their customer base grows, may be solved by the high capacity of satellite distribution.
Satellite distribution does suffer from latency – the time for the signal to travel up from the hub to the satellite and back down to the user is around 0.25 seconds, and cannot be reduced. However, the effects of this delay are mitigated in real-life systems using data compression, TCP-acceleration, and HTTP pre-fetching.
Satellite latency can be detrimental to especially time-sensitive applications such as on-line gaming (although it only seriously affects the likes of first-person shooters while many MMOGs can operate well over satellite Internet), but IPTV is typically a simplex
Simplex communication
Simplex communication refers to communication that occurs in one direction only. Two definitions have arisen over time: a common definition, which is used in ANSI standard and elsewhere, and an ITU-T definition...
operation (one-way transmission) and latency is not a critical factor for video transmission.
Existing video transmission systems of both analogue and digital formats already introduce known quantifiable delays. Indeed, existing DVB TV channels that simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
by both terrestrial and satellite transmissions, experience the same 0.25s delay difference between the two services with no detrimental effect, and it goes unnoticed by viewers.
IPTV Bandwidth Requirements
Digital video is a combination of sequence of digital images, and they are made up of pixels or picture elements. Each pixel has two values, which is luminance and chrominance. Luminance is representing intensity of the pixel; on the other hand chrominance is representing the colour of the pixel. 3 bytes would be used to represent the colour of the high quality image for a true colour technique. A sequence of images is creating the digital video, in that case, images is called as frames.Movies are using 24 frames per second; however, the rate of the frames can change according to territories electrical system. So that there are different kinds of frame rates, for instance, North America is using approximately 30 frames per second where the Europe television frame rate is 25 frames per second. Each digital video has dimensions; width and height, when referred to analogue television, the dimension for SDTV is 650×480 pixels, on the other hand, numerous HDTV requires 1920×1080 pixels. Moreover, whilst for SDTV, 2 bytes (16 bits) is enough to create the colour depth, HDTV requires 3 (24 bits) bytes to create the colour depth.
Thereby, with a rate of 30 FPS, the uncompressed date rate for SDTV becomes 30x640x480x16, in other words, 147,456,000 bit per second. Moreover, for HDTV, at the same frame rate, uncompressed date rate becomes 30x1920x1080x24 or 1,492,992,000 bits per second. With that simple calculation, it is obvious that without using a lossy compression methods service provider’s service delivery to the subscribers is limited.
There is no absolute answer for the bandwidth requirement for the IPTV service because the bandwidth requirement is increasing due to the devices inside the household. Thus, currently compressed HDTV content can be delivered at a data rate between 8 to 10 Mbps, but if the home of the consumer equipped with several HDTV outputs, this rate will be multiplied respectively.
The high speed data transfer will increase the needed bandwidth for the viewer, at least 2 Mbps needed to use web based applications on the computer. Additional to that, 64 kbps required to use landline telephone for the property. In minimal usage, to receive an IPTV triple play service requires 13 Mbps to process in a household.
Privacy implications
Due to limitations in bandwidth, an IPTV channel is delivered to the user one at a time, as opposed to the traditional multiplexed delivery. Changing a channel requires requesting the head-end server to provide a different broadcast stream, much like VODVideo on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
(For VOD the stream is delivered using Unicast
Unicast
right|200pxIn computer networking, unicast transmission is the sending of messages to a single network destination identified by a unique address.-Addressing methodologies:...
, for the normal TV signal Multicast
Multicast
In computer networking, multicast is the delivery of a message or information to a group of destination computers simultaneously in a single transmission from the source creating copies automatically in other network elements, such as routers, only when the topology of the network requires...
is used). This could enable the service provider to accurately track each and every programme watched and the duration of watching for each viewer, broadcasters and advertisers could then understand their audience and programming better with accurate data and targeted advertising.
Vendors
A small number of companies supply most current IPTV systems. Some, such as ImagenioImagenio
Movistar Imagenio is an IPTV television service provided in Spain operated by Telefonica. The service was started as a commercial pilot test in the city of Alicante on 2002 and later extended to some major cities like Madrid and Barcelona on April 2004....
, were formed by telecoms operators themselves, to minimise external costs, a tactic also used by PCCW
PCCW
PCCW Limited is the holding company of HKT Group Holdings Limited, Hong Kong's premier telecommunications provider in the Information and Communications Technologies industry. PCCW also holds a majority interest in Pacific Century Premium Developments Limited...
of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. Some major telecoms vendors are also active in this space, notably Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
(sometimes working with Imagenio), Ericsson
Ericsson
Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...
(notably since acquiring Tandberg Television
Tandberg Television
Ericsson Television, formerly Tandberg Television, is a company providing MPEG-4 video on demand, and interactive television systems to telecommunications network operators and broadcasters. It was acquired by Swedish company, Ericsson in 2007, and was re-branded as Ericsson Television in 2010.The...
), NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
, Nokia Siemens Networks
Nokia Siemens Networks
Nokia Siemens Networks is a global data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It is a joint venture between Nokia of Finland and Siemens of Germany...
, Thomson
Thomson SA
Technicolor SA , formerly Thomson SA and Thomson Multimedia, is a French international provider of solutions for the creation, management, post-production, delivery and access of video, for the Communication, Media and Entertainment industries. Technicolor’s headquarters are located in Issy les...
, Huawei
Huawei
Huawei is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China...
, and ZTE
ZTE
ZTE Corporation formerly Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment Corporation is a Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and systems company headquartered in Shenzhen, China...
, as are some IT houses, led by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. California-based UTStarcom, Inc.
UTStarcom
UTStarcom is a Fortune 1000 company that specializes in IP-based networking products for telecommunications companies and service providers. Its core markets are multimedia communications and broadband, including IP and entertainment , next generation broadband networks and optical network solutions...
, Tennessee-based Worley Consulting, Tokyo-based The New Media Group, Malaysian-based Select-TV
Select-TV
Select-TV is a Malaysian based company specializing on the IPTV technology for the hospitality and telecommunication sectors. Since its inception, it has delivered several IPTV projects, which the company named as CXS, to the Middle East and South East Asian region...
and Oslo/Norway-based SnapTV also offer end-to-end networking infrastructure for IPTV-based services, and Hong Kong-based BNS Ltd. provides turnkey open platform IPTV technology solutions. Global sales of IPTV systems exceeded 2 billion USD in 2007.
Many of these IPTV solution vendors participated in the biennial http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/msf-announces-details-gmi-2008/2008-09-10?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=telecom_M&cmp-id=OTC-RSS-FT0Global MSF
MSF
MSF may refer to:* Mail Summary File , file extension used by Earthlink, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Netscape mail clients to store folder data in Mork.* Marvel Super Heroes vs...
Interoperability 2008] (GMI) event which was coordinated by the MultiService Forum (MSF) at five sites worldwide from 20- to 31-October 2008. Test equipment vendors including Absilion, Codenomicon
Codenomicon
Codenomicon is a private company founded in late 2001, and develops robustness testing tools for manufacturers, service providers, government/defense and enterprise customers. The company has raised Venture money mid 2000's and and has been profitable since 2008, with more than 40% growth in...
, Empirix
Empirix
Empirix Inc. is a privately held company which designs and manufactures service assurance testing and monitoring equipment for IP-based communications networks such as Voice-over-Internet-Protocol , IP Multimedia Subsystem -based, next generation network and 4G wireless networks...
, Ixia, Mu Dynamics
Mu Dynamics
Mu Dynamics is an American private venture-funded company that makes hardware and software to test network services, to quantify their product's or service's reliability, availability and security.-Products and services:...
and Spirent
Spirent
Spirent Communications plc is a multinational telecommunications testing company headquartered in Crawley, United Kingdom.It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
joined solution vendors such as the companies listed above in one of the largest IPTV proving grounds ever deployed.
Service bundling
For residential users, IPTV is often provided in conjunction with Video on DemandVideo on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
and may be bundled with Internet services such as Internet access
Internet access
Many technologies and service plans for Internet access allow customers to connect to the Internet.Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century....
and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telecommunications services. Commercial bundling of IPTV, VoIP and Internet access is sometimes referred to in marketing as triple play
Triple play (telecommunications)
In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning of two bandwidth-intensive services, high-speed Internet access and television, and a less bandwidth-demanding service, telephone, over a single broadband connection. Triple play focuses on a combined business...
service. When these three are offered with cellular service, the combined service may be referred to as quadruple play
Quadruple play
In telecommunications, quadruple play is a marketing term combining the triple play service of broadband Internet access, television and telephone with wireless service provisions...
.
IPTV Regulation
Historically, broadcast television has been regulated differently than telecommunications. As IPTV allows TV and VoD to be transmitted over IP networks new regulatory issues arise.Professor Eli M. Noam highlights in his report "TV or Not TV: Three Screens, One Regulation?" some of the key challenges with sector specific regulation that is becoming obsolete due to convergence in this field.
See also
- Comparison of streaming media systemsComparison of streaming media systemsThis is a comparison of streaming media systems. A more complete list of streaming media systems is also available.-General:The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of streaming media systems both audio and video...
- Comparison of video servicesComparison of video servicesThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of notable video hosting services. Please see the individual products' articles for further information...
- Content delivery networkContent Delivery NetworkA content delivery network or content distribution network is a system of computers containing copies of data placed at various nodes of a network....
- Grid castingGrid castingGrid casting or gridcasting is a file and stream sharing system that cooperates transparently by using idle bandwidth on a user's computer to deliver large scale live or on-demand broadcasts...
- Internet televisionInternet televisionInternet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
- List of music streaming services
- List of streaming media systems
- MulticastMulticastIn computer networking, multicast is the delivery of a message or information to a group of destination computers simultaneously in a single transmission from the source creating copies automatically in other network elements, such as routers, only when the topology of the network requires...
- P2PTVP2PTVThe term P2PTV refers to peer-to-peer software applications designed to redistribute video streams in real time on a P2P network; the distributed video streams are typically TV channels from all over the world but may also come from other sources...
- Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations TreatyProtection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations TreatyThe WIPO Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations Treaty or the Broadcast Treaty is a treaty designed to afford broadcasters some control and copyright-like control over the content of their broadcasts...
- Software as a serviceSoftware as a ServiceSoftware as a service , sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.SaaS has become a common...
- Streaming mediaStreaming mediaStreaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
- WebcastWebcastA webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
- Web televisionWeb televisionWeb television, also commonly referred to as web TV, not to be confused with WebTV, Internet television or catch up TV, is an emerging genre of digital entertainment that is distinct from traditional broadcast television...