CES: Drive to ‘Video Everywhere’ Shifts Into High Gear

Multiscreen Video, Web-Delivered TV Content (and Even 3D) Advance in Las Vegas

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 1/16/2012 12:01:00 AM

Las Vegas — The news bubbling up from the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show called to mind a classic Led Zeppelin tune: “The Song Remains the Same.”

For the TV industry, the focus of many CES demos and announcements last week revolved around getting access to video content on multiple screens and devices. That concept is not new. But the promise of ubiquitous and enhanced multiscreen TV services clearly is now closer to reality than it was a year ago.

Dish Network tried to hog the spotlight in announcing its first multiroom digital video recorder, the Hopper, as well as plans to launch a broadband bundle through a deal with ViaSat (see Cover Story). The No. 2 satellite-TV operator boasted that the Hopper is 40% smaller than DirecTV’s multiroom DVR and highlighted a unique feature called “PrimeTime Anytime,” which records the past eight days of primetime programming on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

“You’ll have instant access to the best primetime programming without having to set timers or using up your personal DVR hard-drive space,” Dish said in promoting the Hopper. And with a Sling adapter connected to the Dish DVR, those shows are available to multiple devices — over any Internet connection.

CE PLUGS INTO PAY TV

Initially, the connected TVs from major set manufacturers provided options for accessing “over-the-top” content from nontraditional players. Now they’re adding cable, satellite and telco TV services to the menu.

Samsung Electronics is working with four providers — Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon Communications’ FiOS TV and DirecTV — to pipe their video services directly into its “smart TVs.”

At its booth here at CES, Samsung demonstrated pre-release versions of each the services, which are scheduled to be available through its TVs later this year.

Comcast and TWC are delivering on-demand content through the Samsung sets. Verizon is providing 26 live TV channels — the same lineup that is now available through the Xbox 360 game console — as well as VOD; a representative said the service will be available “very soon.” Verizon is also working with LG to deliver FiOS TV content across its HDTV sets and Blu-ray Disc players.

DirecTV, meanwhile, is teaming up with Samsung to provide access to live and DVR content directly on Samsung’s 2012 line of smart TVs, without the need for additional set-top boxes. The sets will include a Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) interface, to connect into the satellite operator’s HR34 Home Media Center HD multiroom DVR, which can store up to 200 hours of HD programming.

The Samsung TVs will replicate the full user interface of the DirecTV DVR using the specifi cation from the RVU Alliance. The two companies announced plans for the RVU-enabled TVs at the 2011 CES.

Samsung said the RVU-compatible Smart TVs will be available in spring 2012.

“Many homes today have more than one TV to cater to the different needs of everyone in the family. By working with a leading provider like DirecTV, we’re able to offer consumers enhanced convenience in access so they can enjoy the content they desire from any room in the home, any time they choose,” Stephen Goldstein, vice president of Samsung Electronics America, said in a statement.

Panasonic, for its part, was showing a Time Warner Cable app running on its Viera HDTVs, which provides access to VOD and DVR content on a subscriber’s set-top.

At last year’s CES, Comcast and TWC announced their partnership with Samsung, outlining plans to make their video services available on the CE maker’s smart TVs, smartphones and tablets. Originally, the MSOs expected to deliver the capabilities before the end of 2011.

While embracing pay TV providers, CE makers are continuing to extend their over-the-top video plays, as well.

Panasonic, in looking pull content more easily into its Internet- connected HDTVs, is plugging Ooyala’s syndication platform into its Viera Connect platform, with The Country Network (TCN) as the first publisher to take advantage of the partnership. Later this month, TCN will begin delivering music videos and other content — including a simulcast of the network’s linear channel — to Panasonic TVs.

Panasonic also announced a deal with Myspace, the social-networking website sold last year by News Corp. to Specific Media, to launch an over-the-top service for its connected TVs. Myspace TV, slated to launch by midyear, will initially focus on music with its library of 100,000 music videos and 42 million songs. Eventually, Myspace plans to expand into movie, news, sports and reality channels.

Then there were new Google TV products, aimed at augmenting traditional TV with Web content and apps. The hoopla seemed more muted, however, perhaps given that the first Google TV products, introduced in late 2010, were DOA.

LG, the latest Google TV partner, announced plans for two 3D-enabled HDTVs with support for the second-generation of the Internet giant’s software, which is supposed to be easier to use and provide better access to Android apps on TV. Vizio also has a slate of HDTVs, a Blu-ray Player and a streaming-media set-top that incorporate the latest Google TV experience.

And Sony, which had poor sales of HDTVs with the 1.0 version of Google TV, announced two new devices: the NSZ-GS7 Network Media Player and NSZ-GP9 Blu-ray Disc Player, both scheduled to arrive on shelves in North America and Europe by early summer 2012.

But none of the vendors announced pricing for their Google TV products. It’s a critical question, since a key reason consumers ignored the fi rst round of Google TVs was because they cost up to $400 more than models without the embedded software.

Note that even in announcing support for Google TV, LG made a point of saying it will “continue to advance its own Smart TV platform based on NetCast, using open Web technology such as Webkit browser and Linux.”

TAKE A TABLET TV

TiVo showed a prototype at CES of an adapter for its DVRs that transcodes up to four streams of video — including both live TV and DVR content — and delivers them wirelessly to iPads and other devices.

“What we’re showing is how you get content on any screen in the home,” David Sanford, vice president and general manager of TiVo’s service provider business, said. “Right now, consumers don’t have a way to get DVR content on multiple devices.”

TiVo also released research finding that only 38% of viewing by its 2 million subscribers was live TV, with the bulk of time spent watching DVR content or broadband-delivered video. Among TiVo users who use Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus and other over-the-top services, live TV was just 27% of total time spent viewing.

“A year ago, people would have said this is bad for cable,” TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers said in an interview. “I think it’s good, because people still want all their TV content. The overwhelming amount of [non-live] viewing is time-shifted TV.”

Rogers identified two primary competitors in the service provider space: NDS and Arris, which has introduced a wholehome gateway based on the Moxi set-top from Digeo.

“There are not many people who can do what we do,” Rogers said. “You have to do this without disrupting the field operations side, which is damn hard.”

Meanwhile, away from the CES show floor, Comcast announced that it launched its AnyPlay device developed by Motorola — which transcodes live TV content for wireless delivery to tablets and other displays — in Denver and Nashville, Tenn.

The AnyPlay device is currently available to Xfinity HD triple-play customers in areas of Denver and Nashville, Tenn., at no additional charge, with more markets to be added in the coming months, Mark Hess, Comcast’s senior vice president of video product development, wrote in a blog post announcing the trial.

AnyPlay currently lets subscribers watch channels included in their linear channel subscription through the Xfinity TV app on Apple’s iPad over in-home Wi-Fi, with support coming soon for the Motorola Xoom tablet. “So as long as your tablet is within range of the home wireless router, you can turn it into another television screen,” Hess wrote.

Comcast and Motorola demonstrated the AnyPlay device (which Motorola calls “Televation”) at the 2011 Cable Show last summer. Previously, AnyPlay was the name of a portable DVR developed with Panasonic, which the MSO never launched.

INTO THE CLOUD

Another theme at CES was the shift toward delivering content and services from “the cloud” — that is, over a network. Cisco announced extensions to its Videoscape TV platform with new products to rain down “video in the cloud,” which the company promises will let service providers deliver a consistent look-and-feel across any device and paves the way for full IPTV down the road.

Cisco originally launched the Videoscape strategy, to meld traditional TV and Internet- delivered content into a unified service, at last year’s CES.

At the 2012 show, the vendor highlighted multiscreen capabilities that deliver live TV and video-on-demand not only to PCs and Macs, but also across iPads, iPhones and Android devices.

Cisco has licensed ActiveVideo Networks’ CloudTV network-based interactive-TV software as part of the new Videoscape suite. That includes Voyager Vantage, software that connects set-tops to the cloud for deploying user interfaces and interactive program guides, and Voyager Virtual, a cloud-rendered user interface that delivers IP video to legacy MPEG-2 set-top boxes and helps enable new apps.

Cisco chose to license the ActiveVideo software instead of developing that capability itself because it is focused on delivering next-generation user experiences to new IP-based devices, Chuck Stucki, vice president and general manager of IP video systems in Cisco’s Service Provider Video Technology Group, said.

“We didn’t want to spend on delivering to where the installed base has been,” Stucki said. “We’ve been focusing on the next two generations of user experiences.”

ActiveVideo CEO Jeff Miller said in a statement, “We are delighted to have the world’s largest networking- infrastructure provider expanding ActiveVideo’s value proposition globally and helping our customers deliver uniform viewing experience to their subscribers.”

At CES, for its part, ActiveVideo demonstrated its new CloudTV H5 platform, which supports applications written in HTML5 format, along with a proof-of-concept demo that uses the iPhone 4S’s Siri voice-recognition feature to let users search TV content using voice commands.

EchoStar Technologies also has pushed the Aria “cloud-based” IPG and video-on-demand system for cable operators, trying to extend beyond its historical relationship with Dish. (EchoStar also developed the Hopper DVR and related Joey set-tops.) Last week, the vendor said Cable One is testing out Aria, and EchoStar was showing off its Sling Media place-shifting technology integrated into Broadcom’s latest set-top box system-on-a-chip platforms for multiscreen video gateways.

KEEPING THE 3D FLAME ALIVE

On the 3D front, stereoscopic television sets were prominently featured across the show floor. The centerpiece of LG’s massive booth, in the pole position in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s main Central Hall, was a gigantic 3D display that spanned about a city block.

But the scarcity of 3D content from pay TV providers available remains a major issue in pushing the category forward (see “Filling a ‘Black Hole of Content,’ ”).

Looking to help carry the 3DTV torch forward, NBC Sports Group and Panasonic said they will team up to make the London 2012 Olympic Games available in 3D to all U.S. distributors who carry Olympic coverage, which will be the first time 3DTV owners will be able to watch the games in the format.

The companies did not announce which pay TV providers intend to carry the Olympic coverage in 3D, but presumably Comcast — which owns NBCUniversal — will be in the mix, along with DirecTV, which has aimed to be the leading provider of 3DTV in the U.S.

Cable, satellite and telco providers who receive the Olympics package may distribute the 3D broadcast via the Comcast Media Center.

“NBC has a history of utilizing technological innovations to distribute the Olympics in new ways for viewers,” NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel said in a statement. “We are proud to continue that tradition by partnering with Panasonic and Olympic Broadcasting Services to distribute the first 3D broadcast of the Games in the U.S. in partnership with our multichannel video programming distributors.”

Panasonic is the exclusive flat-panel HDTV and Blu-ray Disc player advertiser for NBC’s coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Last year, Panasonic announced it would partner with the International Olympic Committee and Olympic Broadcasting Services to make the London 2012 Olympic Games the first ever 3D Olympic Games.

The more than 200 hours of 3D telecasts, to be produced by OBS and shown on next-day delay in the U.S., will span multiple competitions throughout the games, including the opening and closing ceremonies, gymnastics, diving and swimming. OBS will produce the 3D coverage using Panasonic’s 3D production technologies.

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Broadcasting & Cable contributing editor George Winslow contributed to this article.