I think most of you might had heard about
IPTV by now . Its not much into nations like India , But its a very big thing in developed nations like Europe and America . I think in India ,
RCom ( Reliance IPTV ) is the lonely provider for IPTV . Some
news say Airtel is also looking to enter this segment (Airtel IPTV ) by the end of this year .For those who don't have idea of IPTV , let me introduce you this word .
"
IPTV ( Internet Protocol Television ) is a system where a digital television service is delivered using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection. A general definition of IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks. "
IPTV is much superior to Satellite Systems as it works through interactive communication . You dont have to pay for channels and programs that you dont like to watch , like pay per view . For the case of providers , it enhances their control over the users . It avoids customers who bypass and view their service without paying by the user of highly secure settop box authentication methods . There are many other features also supported like Digital Video Recording (
DVR ) , Video on Demand (
VOD) , Play and pause
Live TV , instant Channel Change (
ICC ) , Multiple picture in picture (
PIP) , Electronic Program Guide (
EPG ) ...
So why I am talking about this ?
These days I am getting trained about the detailed architecture of this IPTV . There is one very good product from Microsoft which helps Telco 's provide this service . The product is
Microsoft Mediaroom .The Microsoft Mediaroom software platform is licensed directly to the world’s leading broadband service providers so they can deliver you, the consumer, the best TV and entertainment experience.
After looking into the entire architecture , I am pretty much impressed by the way Microsoft designed the entire system . There is not a single thing that they had left for their customers to ask them . They addressed security concerns very effectively where every transaction happens in atleast 128 bit encryption through Secure protocol . They incorporated each and every feature a user will ever think to do with his telivision set . Some features which seem to be impossible in logical way are also implemented by Micirosoft somehow . The only thing I dont like that much is it introduces a 4 sec delay compared to live satellite telivision which you cant find unless you observe by putting both the telivision sets together . One more feature I like is its seamless integration with OSS / BSS . Mediaroom exposes lot of webservices for OSS / BSS developers so that they can integrate it with their systems and write some revenue generation applications very easily. Mediaroom Application Development kit also let you develop Games and other interactive programs using XHTML . Microsoft even has got different packages for small service providers also which might be typically catering to 60k customers . Micirosoft has right now got big players like British Telecom , Reliance ... as its customers because Migration of system from satellite to IPTV is quite costly . But once the big players setup the system , the smaller operators will gradually migrate to it . But IPTV is going to have very good future .
For Service providers ,
Mediaroom is the recommended product as it takes care of lot of things for them like security , Management and all . You might have some IPTV product but if you ask me why Mediaroom ? I will say "
Mediaroom is superior in Management compared to any other IPTV product and its from Microsoft who will be supporting you all the time " . But in a word the product rocks .