IPTV is your plain old TV, reinvented
\"The future of television is internet protocol television (IPTV) as it makes TV personalised,\" says Manjunath Naik, regional manager, sales and marketing, IOL Netcom, IPTV content provider for BSNL in Bangalore.
Flush with new features and interactivity, it definitely packs a punch. Television has over the years evolved from terrestrial transmission to satellite TV distributed via cable operators, direct to home services and now TV via broadband.
Internet television, however, looks like the TV technology of the future, that is when convergence is the in-thing in the tech world. IPTV offers triple-play, where your single landline will provide you telephone, broadband internet and television. Convergence, here, brings you the ease of having to deal with a single vendor, with the added advantage of single billing which means you can pay your TV bills along with your telephone.
All you need is a broadband connection, a set-top box and a TV. \"In Bangalore we provide about 92 channels, as of now. We charge Rs 600 as non-refundable installation fee and no monthly fee. Going forward we plan to charge about Rs 150 per month for TV facility. We are also introducing the concept of renting set top box at a monthly fee of Rs 99 and a refundable deposit of Rs 1,500. However, you'll also have the option of buying a set-top box,\" Naik said.
In India, BSNL with its robust network infrastructure and unmatched last-mile connectivity has rolled out IPTV. MTNL, in Delhi and Mumbai has tied up with Aksh Optifibre for providing IPTV services. In Bangalore, IPTV is provided by IOL Netcom service.
\"We have opted to partner with BSNL because the telecom company has the best infrastructure in the country and has unmatched connectivity and scale across the country, \" said Naik.
The technology, however, is nascent and has a long way to go before it can grace your living rooms replacing cable operators and DTH services. \"As of now, the service can be availed only by those living in within a 3 km radius of the BSNL telephone exchange as we have technical and bandwidth limitations forcing us to limit our reach. Despite this, in Bangalore, the feasibility of IPTV is almost 90% compared with 60% in Mumbai,\" said Arindam Ghosh Dastidar, senior network engineer, IOL Netcom.
\"We provide HDTV quality Mpeg4 format video. Earlier, we had customers complaining about freezing and jittering of video but now, we have been able to solve the problem and can assure problem-free service,\" he added.
IPTV ushers in a new era in television by adding useful features like rewind, fast-forward and pause. Fast forwarding, rewinding and even pausing of TV content was till recently a beaten-to-death living room joke. Now, it seems like we wouldn't have to sit through a garish song sequence or a badly picturised stunt.
Furthermore, the most exciting feature that IPTV provides is interactivity. With realty shows and game shows taking up prime-time television space and garnering all the TRP ratings, this seems to be just the requirement for broadcasters to take their shows to the next level of engaging the viewer.
IPTV enables real-time participation in game shows, reality programmes and going forward may even let the viewer join a heated political debate. That's not all, IPTV also provides picture-in-picture viewing through a single tuner, which lets you watch a channel and at the same time surf other channels.
IPTV's video-on-demand (VOD) facility is more user-friendly than what is provided by other services. \"To order movies of music videos unlike in other services you do not have to phone or log on to the Web. Instead, you have the option of doing it through your remote control. Where our VOD scores above the rest is the freedom it offers you to watch it at your own time and pace. You don't have to wait for broadcast timings and in the middle of a movie, you can pause and switch to another channel. You can come back and finish the movie in the next 24 hours,\" Naik says.
\"IPTV can also record multiple broadcasts at once using digital video recorders to record multiple broadcasts. It will let you find your favourite programmes by using \"custom view guides,\" Naik explains.
One can also receive Web service notifications while watching IPTV for things like incoming email and instant messages. Another application would be the ability to turn on multiple angles of an event, such as a touchdown, and watch it from dual angles simultaneously using picture-in-picture viewing.
According to Naik, \"IPTV will also be able to provide you VoIP and internet facilities as well as features like e-learning, banking, telephone directory and other utilities. The features that we can offer are unmatched by other services. We can even offer a separate channel on demand to broadcast your family function to your friends and relatives across India.\"
\"For instance, if somebody cannot make it to a wedding in your house, you can capture the function on camera placed in your set-top box and then transmit it to select people real time,\" Naik said.
The service provider sees a lot of scope for the technology. Naik says that IPTV can also take television content to smart phones and soon you could be watching your favourite programme or a cricket match on an internet-enabled mobile.
The service is still crippled by technological hurdles as it is a fairly new concept. The 3-km radius cap from the exchange is a big handicap for the service, so it will take some time before the service actually moves out of the metros and is ready for pan-India roll out.
Moreover, the service providers still haven't reached an agreement with broadcasters and are unable to give some of the more popular channels. Other supporting technological infrastructure is just being developed and will take time to actually provide all that it promises.
IPTV is your plain old TV, reinvented | Televisionpoint.com News
\"The future of television is internet protocol television (IPTV) as it makes TV personalised,\" says Manjunath Naik, regional manager, sales and marketing, IOL Netcom, IPTV content provider for BSNL in Bangalore.
Flush with new features and interactivity, it definitely packs a punch. Television has over the years evolved from terrestrial transmission to satellite TV distributed via cable operators, direct to home services and now TV via broadband.
Internet television, however, looks like the TV technology of the future, that is when convergence is the in-thing in the tech world. IPTV offers triple-play, where your single landline will provide you telephone, broadband internet and television. Convergence, here, brings you the ease of having to deal with a single vendor, with the added advantage of single billing which means you can pay your TV bills along with your telephone.
All you need is a broadband connection, a set-top box and a TV. \"In Bangalore we provide about 92 channels, as of now. We charge Rs 600 as non-refundable installation fee and no monthly fee. Going forward we plan to charge about Rs 150 per month for TV facility. We are also introducing the concept of renting set top box at a monthly fee of Rs 99 and a refundable deposit of Rs 1,500. However, you'll also have the option of buying a set-top box,\" Naik said.
In India, BSNL with its robust network infrastructure and unmatched last-mile connectivity has rolled out IPTV. MTNL, in Delhi and Mumbai has tied up with Aksh Optifibre for providing IPTV services. In Bangalore, IPTV is provided by IOL Netcom service.
\"We have opted to partner with BSNL because the telecom company has the best infrastructure in the country and has unmatched connectivity and scale across the country, \" said Naik.
The technology, however, is nascent and has a long way to go before it can grace your living rooms replacing cable operators and DTH services. \"As of now, the service can be availed only by those living in within a 3 km radius of the BSNL telephone exchange as we have technical and bandwidth limitations forcing us to limit our reach. Despite this, in Bangalore, the feasibility of IPTV is almost 90% compared with 60% in Mumbai,\" said Arindam Ghosh Dastidar, senior network engineer, IOL Netcom.
\"We provide HDTV quality Mpeg4 format video. Earlier, we had customers complaining about freezing and jittering of video but now, we have been able to solve the problem and can assure problem-free service,\" he added.
IPTV ushers in a new era in television by adding useful features like rewind, fast-forward and pause. Fast forwarding, rewinding and even pausing of TV content was till recently a beaten-to-death living room joke. Now, it seems like we wouldn't have to sit through a garish song sequence or a badly picturised stunt.
Furthermore, the most exciting feature that IPTV provides is interactivity. With realty shows and game shows taking up prime-time television space and garnering all the TRP ratings, this seems to be just the requirement for broadcasters to take their shows to the next level of engaging the viewer.
IPTV enables real-time participation in game shows, reality programmes and going forward may even let the viewer join a heated political debate. That's not all, IPTV also provides picture-in-picture viewing through a single tuner, which lets you watch a channel and at the same time surf other channels.
IPTV's video-on-demand (VOD) facility is more user-friendly than what is provided by other services. \"To order movies of music videos unlike in other services you do not have to phone or log on to the Web. Instead, you have the option of doing it through your remote control. Where our VOD scores above the rest is the freedom it offers you to watch it at your own time and pace. You don't have to wait for broadcast timings and in the middle of a movie, you can pause and switch to another channel. You can come back and finish the movie in the next 24 hours,\" Naik says.
\"IPTV can also record multiple broadcasts at once using digital video recorders to record multiple broadcasts. It will let you find your favourite programmes by using \"custom view guides,\" Naik explains.
One can also receive Web service notifications while watching IPTV for things like incoming email and instant messages. Another application would be the ability to turn on multiple angles of an event, such as a touchdown, and watch it from dual angles simultaneously using picture-in-picture viewing.
According to Naik, \"IPTV will also be able to provide you VoIP and internet facilities as well as features like e-learning, banking, telephone directory and other utilities. The features that we can offer are unmatched by other services. We can even offer a separate channel on demand to broadcast your family function to your friends and relatives across India.\"
\"For instance, if somebody cannot make it to a wedding in your house, you can capture the function on camera placed in your set-top box and then transmit it to select people real time,\" Naik said.
The service provider sees a lot of scope for the technology. Naik says that IPTV can also take television content to smart phones and soon you could be watching your favourite programme or a cricket match on an internet-enabled mobile.
The service is still crippled by technological hurdles as it is a fairly new concept. The 3-km radius cap from the exchange is a big handicap for the service, so it will take some time before the service actually moves out of the metros and is ready for pan-India roll out.
Moreover, the service providers still haven't reached an agreement with broadcasters and are unable to give some of the more popular channels. Other supporting technological infrastructure is just being developed and will take time to actually provide all that it promises.
IPTV is your plain old TV, reinvented | Televisionpoint.com News