IP&TV WORLD FORUM – LONDON. Multiscreen delivery and the ecosystem being built around it was a key talking point at the opening session of the IP&TV World Forum.
Emphasising its newly rebranded title of the IP&TV World Forum, it was cable that took to the stage in the keynote session of the London-based event
Peter Percosan, managing director, Cable Europe Labs, told delegates the cable sector had been using IP-based technologies for the best part of a decade. “Our motivation is different from our friends in OTT and telcos. We’re not going there out of necessity, but we go there as we evolve the product. IP is necessary as we evolve our products to embrace device and location dependence.” Percosan said cable was not in a race to become IP and would do so in steps.
Taking up the theme Giles Wilson, Ericsson’s head of technology within its TV solutions area said multiscreen TV was not about vertical TV solutions, but consumer experience. “Fundamentally what consumers want to do is changing, there are different use cases, but they are moving to something that is experience-led,” he said. “We need to share user data across delivery platforms and multiple devices, so when you are building a platform it needs to be consolidated into one.”
Highlighting Ericsson’s Media Delivery Network, which reduces the reliance that content providers and operators might have on a CDN, Wilson said there was a renewed interest in bringing the mobile into a multiscreen experience.
Virgin Media’s director of consumer platforms, Ian Mecklenburgh, empasised the importance of a single eco-system. He criticised over-the-top offerings where the plethora of unedited apps meant that functionality varied considerably from one to another. “For the customer there is no consistency in over-the-top world. On some apps even the pause button doesn’t work.
