VOD Readies Cross-Platform Leap
Cable Explores Solutions for Multiple Devices
by Craig Kuhl -- Multichannel News, 2/24/2008 5:00:00 PM MT
Moving on-demand content across multiple platforms and onto a host of devices — from mobile phones to laptops — is gaining momentum as a potentially lucrative new revenue stream for cable operators.
And for good reason. With the hours of available VOD fare growing exponentially, new technologies are allowing massive amounts of movies, games and more, to be accessed over cell phones, mobile devices and a host of other media.
ABI Research predicts the total number of mobile TV subscribers to reach 462 million by 2012.
Shipments of Internet protocol-enabled devices reached 64 million units in 2007. According to MultiMedia Intelligence, that suggests “an increasing variety of TV-centric consumer electronics devices with IP interfaces is developing.”
“Some of the technologies in the traditional VOD space are moving to the Internet. But the technology for PCs and mobile phones are different than cable's classic definition of VOD. And those technologies are still emerging,” said Gerry Kaufhold, analyst for research group In-Stat, a sister company to Multichannel News.
Delivering all of that content to several devices — and making a business of it — is no slam dunk. A number of technology and business issues remain to be solved. But the push is on to aggressively address both, starting with the technology.
“There have been technical advances with VOD, and now there's more flexibility with codec H.264 and others,” said Jeff Seebeck, vice president of product strategy and development for Scientific Atlanta. “Getting VOD content to other devices, requires these newer codecs to store and transport video over both IP and cable networks.”
With those advances, however, come a number of technological challenges, not the least of which is dealing with the sheer quantity of VOD content now available, with much more on the way.
“There are some technical challenges about devices being identified in the network, and some content security issues. But the real challenge is digesting all the VOD content,” Seebeck said.
One way SA is addressing VOD quantity is through its Content Delivery System of servers and encoders, which digests on-demand fare and provides the proper formats for cell phones and other devices.
Avoiding VOD content indigestion is on every company's to-do list. For example, SeaChange advocates a holistic infrastructure strategy from the get-go. “The focus of the industry is to look at the infrastructure as device neutral,” said Yvette Kanouff, chief strategy officer for SeaChange International. “Forget the device, the end game is a neutral infrastructure that works in an environment of all different types of streaming. It's not about playing out to different devices, it's anything to anything.”
Getting there will take some technological savvy and scaleability. “How do you store all the content as it scales, and reliably? The technology is there, but it will take a while,” Concurrent/Everstream vice president of business development and marketing Tim Dodge said.
Others say that the technology exists to migrate VOD content across multiple platforms with many of the major hurdles having been overcome. The result is a brightening future for the multiplatform/multidevice VOD business model, particularly with the addition of advertising.
Said Dodge: “The VOD model will be made more appealing with advertising. By transferring content across multiple devices, expectations are even higher, and on-demand content on cell phones is growing, so delivering a reliable VOD platform is paramount to success.”
And that success, added Kanouff, will depend on technology and the business model. “There are a lot of technology partnerships and business issues, so it's not just the technology, and some technical hurdles remain like new formats to handle new devices. And, how does a VOD movie play on a cell phone. But technically, it can happen, and there are some exciting developments like real time transcoding systems,” she said. “In addition, there's a huge amount of work being done with standards and technical innovations for reactive and pro-active systems. Two years ago it was about spinning disks, racks and flash memory. Now there's another evolution to VOD.”
And part of that evolution, according to Harmonic's director of on-demand solutions Shahar Bar, is the advancing technologies that will distribute VOD content to multiple devices, albeit with some strings attached.
“Operators are seeking multiple platforms and delivery mediums, and they are great at their core business. But there is a long learning curve for cable operators to deliver VOD content over laptops and PCs. Now, they have to expand into the competitive space. But barriers like codec are gone, and the technology is here and working,” Bar said.
And it's leading to what many believe will be a fundamental shift in how, where and when consumers view on demand content. “The concept that cable services are only delivered to the TV will change dramatically. Now, the challenge is content aggregation. The role of VOD is changing,” said John Holobinko, vice president and general manager of the cable edge business unit for BigBand Networks, a broadband multimedia infrastructure provider.
BigBand, for example, has developed edge quadrature Amplitude modulation technology that will interface with navigation services and deliver QAM over VOD. The company also expects significant technological advances in the VOD space, especially with DOCSIS 3.0, moving forward.
With the advancing VOD technology, the competitive advantage of on-demand content over multiple platforms becomes a significant tool.
“We definitely have new abilities to deliver on-demand content to a wide variety of devices, anytime. It's a true competitive advantage, and all doable from a technology perspective. We're seeing lots of on-demand content on cell phones. Now, it's about the right business model,” Seebeck said.
And it's about the right timing. “VOD content is extending to the PC and to mobile spaces, and the bandwidth and technologies are in place to do it now,” said Kaufhold. “Cable has the up arrows on all of these.”
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