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Research and Markets: Many
Early IPTV Adopters Are Evaluating Ways to Update Their IPTV
Deployments – And in Some Cases, Replace Their Middleware Altogether
Other Topics: IPTV Trading
Update, IPTV Multichannel IP
Encoder
BUSINESS WIRE
July 26, 2007
Dunlin, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c63728)
has announced the addition of IPTV Middleware Ranking Report June
2007 to their offering.
This report defines and describes the software category known as
IPTV middleware and provides a comprehensive view of the status of
this important technology category, and in-depth views of the
vendors participating in the category and their products. It also
provides trends and conclusions about the “four generations” of IPTV
middleware, ranks category leaders by a variety of criteria, and
recommends best practices for service providers evaluating these
platforms as the foundation of their IPTV deployments. In March
2007, the author ranked the leading middleware vendors based on
their actual deployments. |
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IPTV middleware is a
system of software that provides both the organizing framework for
the video delivery ecosystem and its command and control center: its
brains and much of its nervous system. IPTV services include
standard ad-supported and pay multichannel television,
video-on-demand, time-shifted television, digital video recording
and related multimedia content services that are framed and
presented in a controlled manner to a TV screen. IPTV middleware
also defines and manages subscribers, the services available to
them, the business rules and the billable transactions associated
with their use of the system. It also oversees or directly manages
content assets, physical assets, and to an extent, oversees and
manages many of the subsystems of the end-to-end IPTV deployment
ecosystem.
As such, it is extremely complex, not to mention the fact that the
operators deploying it are generally not familiar with some of its
core enabling technologies, nor with the services it enables. IPTV,
as a service and as an enabling platform, is also becoming a
catalyst for operators to bring a broad range of fixed-line and
mobile communications-based services out of their individual
“silos,” and offer them to consumers under a converged services
umbrella. IPTV also presents a wealth of new opportunities to
business stakeholders. For operators, it will contribute significant
new revenue while providing justification for the operator to create
a single all-IP network that can host voice, broadband data, video
and other services, thereby helping reduce capital and operational
costs associated with the converged network.
In recent years, and with increasing momentum, incumbent operators
in Western Europe and the UK, North America and in some countries of
East Asia have been transitioning from internal experimentation, lab
trials and limited external trials among friendly customers, into
scaled production IPTV deployments. The largest deployments in the
world are now found in these regions.
In some regions, most notably in the US, IPTV deployments happened
later for the large operators than it did for US independents and
Canadian ILECs, which were pioneering video services as early as the
late 1990s. This was before the advent of all-IP broadband networks
or true high-speed access. In addition, enabling technology
platforms – including middleware, video encoding, content
protection, test-and-measurement and end-to-end IT software
platforms – all have evolved significantly. In order to offer TV
services, operators must assemble, deploy and manage a highly
interdependent ecosystem consisting of networks, computing systems,
content processing systems, customer premises devices and software.
The domains that make up this ecosystem are detailed in Section 4.
Now, due to the evolution of these systems and enabling
technologies, as well as the emergence of new service and business
models, the increasing sophistication level of consumers and the
rising expectations of operators, many early IPTV adopters are
evaluating ways to update their IPTV deployments – and in some
cases, replace their middleware altogether.
Platform Leadership Criteria
If operators are to make well-informed decisions regarding their
choice of middleware platform, they must weigh two key concerns:
technical competencies that facilitate new and innovative
revenue-producing services while minimizing risk, and leadership in
the platform marketplace.
If IPTV were still a service and technology category without a
critical mass of deployments, as it was just a few years ago,
technical competency and a breadth of features alone might pass
muster. After all, features equal revenue, at least theoretically.
But, given the fact that many operators are counting on IPTV
middleware platforms to support a rapid scaling effort that, for
many, will ultimately serve millions of subscribers, a platform’s
proven ability to scale is equally important. |
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