coverstory_cover story 20/08/2014 11:27 Page 1
STB and Home Gateway
Survey 2014
For every C-level executive who declares “The set-top
box is dead”, an analyst report suggests record sales.
With content storage and intelligence increasingly in
the cloud, and consumers wanting access on a range
of devices around the home, what is the future for
STBs, Home Gateways and Smart TVs? Euromedia
asked a range of industry players for their views on
the market.
uromedia: What role will STBs,
Home Gateways and Smart TVs play
in an increasingly cloud-based
E
future?
ABOX42: Modern STBs such as the
ABOX42 M-series is designed for cloud
based TV services as well as for local TV
applications. Since on the one hand the
operator needs to control the user
experience, and on the other hand needs to
be ahead of competition with the
introduction of new TV features, it is
mandatory to have a modern, flexible and
scalable STB platform for the first screen TV
experience of paying users. Smart TVs offer a
certain range of OTT applications, but will
not replace the main STB device in endusers home.
ActiveVideo: Because the cloud eliminates
the fragmentation and device resource
limitations that inhibit advanced services on
every device, it has the ability to reduce the
need for greater device processing and
memory. In addition, it can increase device
life spans by enabling any STB or connected
device to continue to provide the most
advanced leading-edge user experiences, as
long as those experiences are rendered in the
cloud and streamed to the device.
Albis: In a potential cloud-based
future, STBs still play a valuable role for
the operators as they ensure both quality
of experience, and end-to-end security.
Amino: The STB continues to play an
essential role for operators to deliver
premium services to their customers. While
there has been an industry debate about
virtualisation, it’s been interesting to see
over the last 12 months how major operators
have reaffirmed their commitment to the
STB. They see clear and valid reasons – easy
upgrading, QoE, QoS, and customer
‘ownership’ and support costs plus
fragmented smart TV platforms – to retain
the STB as a key component in service
delivery. For many operators, the CPE device
is a strategic investment in the subscriber
home for future services such as home
automation and multiscreen delivery. T