• OIPF is the new global standard for Internet TV • OIPF is already in use in Singapore and Taiwan • The new standard incorporates existing technologies and specifications • OIPF has the same specifications world-wide, making it THE standard for Internet-based TV applications It was exactly four years ago, in March 2007, that five telecom heavyweights founded the ‘Open IPTV Forum’, with major players such as Sony, Samsung, Philips and Panasonic, but also with telecom companies focusing mainly on the Internet, like France Telecom, AT&T and Telecom Italia. Added to that were corporations from the mobile sphere, such as Ericsson or Nokia Siemens Networks. What started with nine founding members has meanwhile grown to 66 OIPF member companies, all of which have defined a single goal: to establish a uniform global standard for TV services via Internet (IPTV) and stimulating a horizontal retail market for IPTV end devices. On the journey to this goal the challenge does not lie in video and audio transmission – more than enough established standards are used for that already. The tricky part is interactivity and personalization, as that is the main distinguishing feature of IPTV when compared with terrestrial or satellite reception. In the past, each IPTV provider seemed to do its own thing, developing applications and technologies that best fit its particular purpose. IPTV had become a playground for unregulated proprietary developments, and that is exactly what hindered further growth. Software engineers and hardware manufacturers were having a hard time trying to incorporate as many of these diverging developments as possible, which at the same time meant too much energy had to be wasted on developments and technologies that would simply come and go. Yun Chao Hu is the president of OIPF, and we had the pleasure of meeting him during an OIPF workshop in China. “There is a solution in sight,“ he states. „A uniform standard that is accepted and implemented by all players and that establishes a level playing ground for all interested parties.” The challenges that come with creating the new OIPF standard are twofold: For one, there is no need to start from scratch again and re-invent something that is already available at our fingertips. Rather, existing standards should be the foundation onto which the new OIPF
standard is being built. Secondly, all applications that arise from IPTV interactivity need to be integrated into the open standardized application enablers. “The OIPF specifications will address the necessary application enablers that will be the basis for an open application ecosystem securing transparency towards the IPTV application developers. This will ensure that the application development will be independent of the IPTV middleware and the specific IPTV end-devices. The increased availability of IPTV applications will enrich the end user Quality of Experience of the standard based IPTV deployments,” Yun Chao Hu adds. Interactivity does not only mean that end users – i.e. TV viewers – select the channel they want to watch from a list of offerings by using a remote control to send a request to the provider. There‘s way more to it. The OIPF standard creates a log with information about which channel is currently being watched, how many times a new channel is selected and at what time channels are switched. This way a user profile with a precise viewing pattern can be created to provide valuable information for advertisers and content providers. Commercials can be inserted at a time that creates most viewer attention and a whole range of offerings can be tailor-made to maximise their effect. In order to collect the required data there needs to be an established and uniform standard across platforms. What’s more, the OIPF standard defines how advertisements and other offers are transmitted to the viewer. As you can see, simply watching TV is already based on a rather complex technological structure. If we now consider pay TV or pay-per-view – both of which also have to be implemented in the OIPF standard – it becomes plain for all to see that establishing a new standard involves overcoming a great many stumbling blocks. And then there’s the Internet, which offers even more possibilities, according to OIPF marketing director Monika Gadhammar: “Interactive EPG, video calling, chatting, file sharing, online voting, mobile TV and the like are only some of the applications that can be real-
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TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine
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