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Compromise is in the air between the broadcasting and cellular industries in the wake of the recent Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016 in Barcelona. This was highlighted in a presentation by Günther Oettinger, EU (European Union) commissioner for the Digital Economy & Society, who urged the broadcasting and broadband sectors to collaborate more closely over development of converged services and frameworks that meet the common requirements of all media and Internet services, particularly with regard to mobile devices.
Building the technical core for a cable, satellite or broadcast system starts with predicting the transport needs. Add to that requirement constantly changing viewer demands and needed support for new technology like 4K, UHD and HDR. Now ask yourself, what state-of-the-art monitoring technology will be needed to ensure proper system performance?
Live OTT has been the butt of various recent announcements focusing on security, quality and synchronization with traditional broadcast signals over satellite, digital terrestrial, cable or multicast IPTV. The goal is to enable delivery of premium content including TV shows and news but especially live sports to multiscreen devices at high quality, while minimizing the impact of piracy by illicit stream redistribution.
In lobbying to get rid of the CableCARD, the cable television industry shot itself in the foot. Now, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has taken the lead in using their misstep to loosen the industry’s monopoly on cable set-top boxes. It is all shaping up to be a huge fight with billions of dollars at stake.
Broadcasters didn’t invent wireless. They invented how to bring wireless news and entertainment content to the public for free, and make money at it. Since the first US wireless broadcast with sound 106 years ago, radio and TV broadcasters have built the largest, most powerful wireless networks in the world and people love it. Wireless is in broadcasting’s DNA. The unique key to its future success is equal bandwidth for all.
According to a 2015 study from Digital TV Research, global OTT TV and video revenues will reach $51.1 billion in 2020.
The great promise of IP is to create a truly open and interoperable environment for the smooth plug and play of best of breed technologies. A bit like SDI in fact, but with greater potential for economic and creative benefit. There are a number of overlapping initiatives trying to solve the same problem: IP in the Live Production environment. Some fuse proprietary technologies with open standards, others are attempting to work with a mix of standards and technical drafts before committees at SMPTE. There isn’t one which has all the pieces of the puzzle to genuinely claim to be fully open, end-to-end and standards based. Here we take a close look at one of them, the ASPEN initiative, founded by Evertz and backed by over 30 end-users and manufacturers.
Dolby Laboratories has announced major partnerships that will bring Dolby Vision to your living room HDR TV faster than 4K video is becoming available. Look for it in home movie releases and theaters, too.
