Following our previous IBC Special blog post on whether the set-top box industry is heading towards its expiration date, we aptly move on to address another market trend that has long been at the center of a “will it, won’t it” debate – 3DTV.

At last year’s IBC, 3DTV was absolutely everywhere. The show floor was awash with 3D television sets, 3D demos and people wearing those crazy glasses to view content. A year on, 3DTV is an official IBC 2011 “hot topic” and has continued to dominate industry headlines, with businesses across all aspects of the industry still racing to get their 3D products to market. 3D content is still being released in abundance, from gaming to live television shows to big screen films.

However, despite all the hype surrounding 3D, there are still doubts as to whether a 3DTV business model is viable. The challenges associated with deploying bandwidth-hungry 3D services, including the cost and impact on the network infrastructure, can present one hurdle too many for providers in their endeavor to reconcile the consumer demand for low-cost and user-friendly content with their ability to supply a cost-efficient 3D service.

Indeed, there’s a distinct lack of evidence to support real-world success of 3DTV, and in the past two weeks alone, significant news stories seem to confirm that the expectations placed on 3D’s market potential are far from being realized. After only a year, AT&T recently dropped its flagship 3D sport channel – ESPN – citing cost of the service and low consumer demand. Two recent films relying on their 3D appeal to draw in audiences became the latest examples of how this selling-point may not be the savior of big screen revenues as had been touted. A study by Ofcom further demonstrates that 3DTV sales have barely taken off, with nearly ten times as many sales of connected TV sets for every 3DTV set sold in the UK over 2010.

Interestingly, along with 3DTV, connected TVs were also ubiquitous at last year’s IBC, making the multiscreen experience a key theme of 2010’s show. However, whereas multiscreen video services have seen significant uptake over the past year and are only continuing to grow – with connected device sales expected to rise 50% in 2012 – the build-up around 3DTV has only led to minimal returns for businesses.

It seems clear that the future lies in multiscreen services – but what do you think? Let us know!

There are several factors that can indicate the success of a product and we at RGB can check at least two off our list. We are having tremendous success in the field with our products in trials and deployment around the world. Our customers are finding the unique benefits of our products to be exactly what they need as they scale their multiscreen deployments to meet the growing demand from subscribers for video on any device. Stay tuned to this space for more details on this aspect of our success as our customers reach the phase where they’re prepared to go public with details.

A second key factor is the recognition by industry experts and respected organizations for innovation and unique contributions to the industry. In this vein, we are delighted to announce that RGB’s TransAct Packager and our combined VMG/TransAct Packager multiscreen solution have been named as finalists in the CSI Awards and the ConnectedTV Awards respectively, both to be presented at the upcoming IBC event.

Shortlisted for the “Best Mobile TV Technology” category for the CSI Awards, RGB’s TransAct Packager faces some worthy competition. While in the inaugural ConnectedTV awards, RGB’s combined VMG/TransAct Packager is up for the “Content Delivery Technology” award alongside several strong contenders.

We at RGB are thrilled about this recognition and believe it’s just one indication of what promises to be a very exciting IBC. We hope you’ll stop by our stand (#4.C78) at the show and learn more about our award-worthy solutions and other innovative developments to come.

Kicking off our IBC blog series is a topic which has dominated the media over the past year – the connected and multiscreened home of tomorrow. It’s a conversation which will inevitably be high on the agenda for most companies attending IBC 2011 this year as organizations scramble to ensure they don’t lose out in the battle for consumers – but which will win, the set-top box market or a move to IP?

The set-top box had until this point played a highly dominant role in the delivery of content to the home. However, recent figures have shown the market share starting to suffer, with Infonetics reporting a 10.2 percent decline in the global set-top box market in Q1 2011 to $3.1 billion (June 2011). While this was for the most part attributed to ‘seasonal trends’, it’s safe to say that the future doesn’t look too bright for this particular piece of technology, especially as operators are increasingly struggling with the operational challenges and high costs associated with this model.

After all, the nature of the game has changed. The introduction of the IP-connected TV has most certainly presented a threat, as has the increasing demand from consumers for content on any device. Both of these factors have ultimately led to questions surrounding the long term viability of the set-top box market. With ‘multiscreen’ such a hot topic, why would an operator migrate to a set-top box-based IPTV platform, when they can roll out IP streaming services and deploy intelligent IP devices that can pick up video in any format, through any network, anywhere their subscribers go?

Operators may not be there yet, but over time there will most certainly be a departure away from the set-top box model as the younger generation forces a shift in viewing habits away from the traditional home TV.

Let us know what you think.

I’ve written about how both Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and Microsoft Smooth Streaming work, and the main differences between each adaptive streaming delivery protocol. Today I will focus on the third of the market trilogy of adaptive streaming power houses, Adobe’s HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS).

HTTP Dynamic Streaming was announced by Adobe in late 2009 as “project Zeri” and was delivered in June 2010. HDS is typical of adaptive streaming – the video content is segmented into small chunks, it is delivered over HTTP, and multiple bit rates are encoded so that the client can choose the best video bit rate to deliver an optimal viewing experience based on network conditions.

HDS is more similar to Microsoft Smooth Streaming than it is to Apple HLS. Primarily this is because it uses a single aggregate file from which MPEG-file container fragments are extracted and delivered rather than HLS-like individual chunks, and consequently there are certain implications of that design, which will be discussed in detail.

Characteristics of Adobe HDS

HTTP Dynamic Streaming supports both live and on-demand content using a standard MP4 fragment format (F4F). Video/audio codec support includes VP6/MP3 and H.264/AAC, however as with HLS and SS, the predominant video/audio codecs are H.264/AAC.

Similar to other adaptive streaming protocols, at the start of the stream, the client or CDN/origin server downloads the manifest file (in this case F4M file) which provides all the information needed to play back the content, including fragment format, available bitrates, Flash Access license server location, and metadata information.

Files representing either live or VOD workflows are sent to an HTTP origin server. The origin server is responsible for receiving segment requests from the client over HTTP and returning the appropriate segment from the file. Standard origin servers like Apache can leverage Adobe’s Open Source Media Framework (OSMF) to serve the content.

Differences Between Adobe HDS and Apple HLS

There are several key differences between Adobe HDS and Apple HLS:

• HLS makes use of a regularly updated “moving window” metadata index (manifest) file that tells the client which chunks are available for download. Adobe HDS uses sequence numbers in the chunk requests and thus the client doesn’t have to repeatedly download a manifest file.
• In addition to the manifest, there is a bootstrap file, which in the live case gives the updated sequence numbers and is equivalent to the repeatedly downloaded HLS playlist.
• Because HLS requires a download of a manifest file as often as every time a new chunk is available, it is desirable to run HLS with longer duration chunks, thus minimizing the number of manifest file downloads. More recent Apple client versions appear to now check how many segments are in the playlist and only re-fetch the manifest when the client runs out of segments. Nevertheless, the recommended chunk duration with HLS is 10 seconds, while with Adobe HDS it is usually 2-5 seconds.
• The “wire format” of the chunks is different. Both formats use H.264 video encoding and AAC audio encoding, but HLS makes use of MPEG-2 Transport Stream files, while Adobe HDS (and Microsoft SS) make use of “fragmented” ISO MPEG-4 files.

As with HLS, Adobe Flash clients first request a manifest file. The manifest contains information about what streams are available, bit rates, codecs, etc. and the streams are represented by a URL. Using a contiguous file creates two significant changes in the client/server architecture:

• The client reads the manifest and can request chunks by a URL with a sequence number rather than a specific chunk name.
• The server must calculate exact byte range offsets within the aggregate file by translating URL requests and delivers the appropriate chunk.

For a more in-depth overview of how Adobe HDS works, a good resource is Adobe’s HTTP Dynamic Streaming technical whitepaper.

Interestingly, several changes are on the horizon though for Adobe’s adaptive streaming capabilities, so stay tuned to Adobe announcements for what is on the way.

As we get deeper into multiscreen trials and deployments, the team at RGB is working closely with our customers to address the challenges of delivering IP video to a plethora of devices. It was certainly a lot easier when you only had to worry about reaching the large screens of the televisions sitting stationary in subscribers’ living rooms. Now, we like to consume our video on the go on PCs, tablets, mobile phones and even gaming devices, and as the number of devices increases, so does the complexity of the delivery system.

RGB’s integrated solutions are designed to make these complexities more manageable and we’re keenly aware that the market is evolving quickly and it’s our responsibility to our customers to stay ahead of the challenges. This is why we’ve added a new member to our Video Multiprocessing Gateway product family—the VMG-8—along with making advancements to our transcoding module. Both of these developments offer our customers more transcoding capacity, while still delivering the scalability and reliability that they have come to rely on to keep their costs in check and their subscribers happy.

Read on for more details on this announcement and stay tuned over the coming weeks for more information that will help you to meet the challenges of multiscreen IP video deployments.

It’s the first week of August and that can only mean one thing—preparations are in full swing for IBC 2011! As one of the premier shows for the media industry and one of the key events on our calendar, it’s an exhilirating time here at corporate HQ as the build-up commences and we prepare to share some exciting new developments.

As we start counting down the days to IBC (only 36 to go!), we want to take our readers through some of the key themes of the event this year and open up the forum for discussion—hearing your thoughts on the hot topics in the sector at the moment and the developments being made.

Over the coming weeks, our special IBC blog series will analyse the state of the market today—looking at all aspects of the connected home. From set-top boxes to smart TVs, from 3DTV to live sports streaming—we’ll be talking about it here. Bottom line—the future is all about IP video and we’ll try to help you understand the important issues in this area.

Coming out every week, this series will be a must-read for all those attending the show. So make sure you keep watching this blog to see it all unfold. We look forward to your participation.