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streaming channels on our platform that offer
broadcast, premium, on-demand and OTT
services. We don’t prefer one over the other.
On top of that it is crucial to then make the
platform easy-to-use for consumers, so all
these services can co-exist. Being able to
search for content across various channels and
centralised billing so consumers can subscribe
to services and rent movies by pressing a
button make it easy for users to find and
purchase content from different sources. All
this leads to increased consumer engagement:
an average Roku customer streams 50 hours
of video per week.
Rovi: As we move further into the world of
multiple content sources, the consumer needs
to be quickly guided to the content they are
looking for or they will give up. In a recent
global customer survey, Rovi found that 84%
of people have turned off their TV because
they can’t find anything to watch, with 20% of
those doing so on a regular basis.
S3: The biggest challenge standing in the way
of providing the rich blend of content that
today's subscriber demands continues to be
rights related. The technology exists to
seamlessly blend linear, on-demand, cloudcached, network-cached and OTT all into
beautifully integrated offerings to subscribers.
SoftAtHome: We have invested into our
Universal Video Player technology. The value
we bring is a software solution compatible
with all the different streaming technologies
that can be found in broadcast networks
(DVB-C/S2/T2), multicast IPTV on demand
http and RTSP, or Adaptive streaming OTT
(Smooth Streaming, HLS, Dash). It also
manages different security technologies in
parallel, including CAS and DRM. This is a
concrete example where the embedded STB
software has a key role to play in
interoperability for a global network.
Technicolor: Operators need to support all
different types of content but also deliver it
across different types of network. This means
that, in many cases, they need to re-examine
their overall user experience approach.
Seamless swapping between different content
sources and devices will become even more
critical. Operators need to offer high
performance Wi-Fi in the home and also be
able to deliver content across different
networks. All this needs to be done while also
maintaining conditional access and multiple
device support.
Euromedia: Who controls the gateway to
the home? Where does the responsibility for
ensuring quality lie?
ABOX42: The Home Gateway can either be a
retail product or supplied by the operator. The
operator solution offers the best quality of
service for the end user, since quality of
content and services is the core competence of
the operators. With the new products from
ABOX42 operators can combine their services
with retail services in a simple way. This gives
them the best of both worlds.
ActiveVideo: Ultimately, the gateway is
controlled by the network provider.
Responsibility for content is shared, with
content providers liable for source video
quality and service providers responsible for
network performance.
AirTies: Broadband operators will continue
to control the gateway to the home, but it may
not be such a strong control of user content as
it was in the past. Consumers will mostly rely
on fast broadband and then choose the
content from whoever has the best offer. Most
likely they will pick up from multiple sources
and content providers will face an increasingly
open and challenging market to establish their
leadership.
Albis: Having control of the gateway —
instead of several devices throughout the
home — makes it easier for operators to
provide good customer support and
operational excellence. On the other hand,
media gadgets can be different kinds of
devices not under operator control, which
increases complexity.
Alcatel-Lucent: With virtual home gateway,
service providers can streamline service
delivery, turn on new and innovative services
more efficiently, increase revenue, and lower
CAPEX and OPEX for existing and new
services. Virtualisation of Home Gateway
functions enables faster time to market for
new services. It also assures faster evolution to
new technologies, such as IPv6. Just as
important, virtualisation enables a centralised
management model that simplifies service
deployment and troubleshooting.
Amino: Increasingly, we are seeing the
operator control the gateway into the home one of the key reasons why the STB remains a
central component in their service delivery
model. However, ‘quality’ must be delivered
throughout the value chain. In providing the
‘end component’ in the entertainment delivery
chain we have to ensure that our software can
receive and display content seamlessly. We’ve
integrated technolo