The flexible IPTV
IPTV is designed ground-up to scale and fit into a myriad of customer base requirements. Here we see an instance where IPTV service is designed to cater to a niche market audience group. Also, there are many biggies (IBM & Cisco) getting together to offer IPTV services in a massive scale. IBM even has a new division to cater to this business. And, we have a service that tests scalability of an IPTV setup...nice.
IPTV for deaf people takes off
A new web-based television service, or IPTV, for British Sign Language (BSL) users has recently launched in the UK.
VeeSee TV airs news and other programmes in BSL and is available 24 hours a day. VeeSee is the first dedicated channel for BSL users which also includes an interactive forum and user-generated content.
The service is part of ViewTV - a portal of 900 streaming channels.
"VeeSee is another example of how IPTV can cater for a market that traditional cable and satellite broadcasters have been unable to accommodate effectively," said ViewTV director Jamie Branson.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6613097.stm
MTNL fixed line connections rising on broadband, IPTV push
"The trend of surrendering the phones, which started in 2004, has been reversed. Two main initiatives -- broadband and IPTV have helped us retaining customers," Kuldip Singh, MTNL Director (Technical), told PTI.
http://www.thehindu.com/holnus/001200705080313.htm
AT&T Increases U-Verse Spending
AT&T tells the Wall Street Journal they may spend $1.4 billion more on U-Verse VDSL IPTV deployment than previously reported, while decreasing their overall deployment target by one million customers. AT&T says they hope to pass (not serve) 18 million subscribers by 2008 at a cost of $6.5 billion. The service currently passes 2.8 million homes but only has slightly more than 20,000 subscribers.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/83626
IBM to offer complete infrastructure solution for IPTV in EMEA
The solution will utilise Cisco’s IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture to deliver advanced video services. IBM will provide business consulting, technical consulting, implementation services and flexible financing services from IBM Global Financing while Cisco, together with Scientific Atlanta, a Cisco company, will deliver the next-generation IP and video infrastructure for the IPTV portion of the triple-play solution.
As a part of this solution, IBM is also announcing a new service product, IBM Converged Communications Services for IPTV infrastructure which delivers technical consulting, integration and implementation services. More specifically, IBM will perform the following:
* Solution definition workshop.
* Network consulting.
* Readiness assessment.
* Network design assessment.
* Network diagnostic assessment.
* Network integration and deployment.
* Digital video integration and deployment.
* Middleware and video-on-demand integration and deployment.
The IPTV infrastructure solution incorporates best-of-breed IBM hardware, software and services along with Cisco products to provide a complete solution, standard components include: IBM BladeCenter and xSeries Servers; software products from IBM WebSphere, Tivoli and Lotus brands; and Cisco end-to-end IP next-generation network (IP NGN) solutions. The new solution also leverages Linux technology.
The IBM IPTV infrastructure solution will be sold through IBM Global Technology Services and Cisco with general availability in most countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa during 2Q 2007.
http://www.networktimes.co.za/news.aspx?pklNewsId=24642&pklIssueId=629&pklCategoryID=198
Sibir Telecom selects Orca for IPTV service in Russia
Orca Interactive’s IPTV middleware, RiGHTv, has been deployed by Open Technologies, a Russian system integrator of information services for Sibir Telecom, one of the largest telecommunication operators in Russia.
Utilizing Orca’s RiGHTv middleware as part of the end-to-end solution provided by system integrator Open Technologies, Sibir Telecom’s IPTV service includes broadcast television, electronic programming guide (EPG), radio channels, video on demand, network PVR
and time shifted TV. In the future, the services will be expanded to include interactive games and information services that will be integrated into the service using Orca’s Service Delivery Platform (SDP) architecture.
http://www.iptv-news.com/content/view/1081/64/
Kasenna, HP and Intel to complete 'one million subscriber' IPTV and Video-on-Demand service benchmark test
The test was conducted in a simulated access network environment at the HP Communications, Media and Entertainment (CME) Solution Center in Grenoble, France.
"Although scalability of VOD is crucial to the IPTV industry, objective benchmark testing has been missing. MRG congratulates Kasenna, HP and Intel for removing the veil of mystery about what it takes to scale IPTV to subscriber levels of one million while achieving fast channel change."
"For service providers struggling with IPTV roll-outs due to the poor scalability of their first-generation, pre-compiled application-based middleware and second-generation proprietary client/server middleware, this historic HP-Kasenna-Intel one-million-subscriber test using Kasenna's third-generation platform based on open, web-services-based Service Oriented Architecture is a harbinger of an IPTV infrastructure that scales gracefully from hundreds to over one million subscribers,"said Kumar Shah, CEO of Kasenna. "Together with HP and Intel, I want to invite carriers and service providers to witness this test and leverage the results of our rigorous and comprehensive testing efforts to deploy a proven, scalable and resilient IPTV infrastructure."
http://www.iptv-news.com/content/view/1061/64/
