DTT | Blackarrow Consulting

Componentised TV Services

Written by Ian Nock on January 31, 2012 — 1 Comment

A little under a month ago I started (but didn’t finish) a blog post about how the launch of Netflix in the UK (and the ready availability already of Lovefilm) created a special situation for the UK, caused by the quality of the Freeview/FreeSat platform. This situation was that it was perfectly possible to hand craft a decent linear, PVR and Premium content service without going anywhere near a Pay TV provider like BSkyB or Virgin. The threat of these component services towards BSkyB was palpable, with BSkyB’s advantage only being the availability of Premium Sports content and a limited number of channels only available on that platform like Sky One.

Various people have complained about the lack of content on Netflix and even Lovefilm but the content available compares fairly well to what is on Sky Movies and for the really premium content you could end up buying a DVD copy of the movie you want for almost the same price as the VoD version.

To me, I could get a very decent TV and Premium package for £250 (for the HD Freeview+ box with iPlayer) and £10 per month (if I took Netflix and Lovefilm at the same time via my ‘Connected TV’). This is the future, componentised TV services where you find and add the components to your package.

We can now see BSkyB’s response to that through the combined announcement of allowing non-Sky Broadband customers access to Sky Active+ and the announcement of the launch of an OTT service targeted at those customers who do not have a Sky TV Satellite subscription. This is initially a defensive measure but very clearly it moves to being an offensive measure to acquire more customers than they can reach via dishes (because so many people either do not want or cannot have the dish), and also a setup for Sky TV not caring about the delivery mechanism for its TV and dropping the association with Satellites. All they would need to do now is allow access to this OTT service from a Freeview STB (Picnic anyone?).

This is the key issue that should be taken away from all of this, the important thing for customers is content, not the way it is received. Sky are taking action here to ensure that all the obstacles to people paying for their (Sky’s) content are removed.

As for Youview, when and if it launches, this very clearly puts them at the back of the pack with very little to distinguish them in this setup.

Also posted in Blog, Consumer Device, Content, DTV, IPTV, OTT, Satellite, STB | Tagged BSkyB, Connected TV, Freesat, Freeview, Lovefilm, Netflix, Picnic, Sky Movies, Sky+, Virgin, Virgin Media, Youview

Blackarrow Consulting at IBC2011

Written by Ian Nock on September 9, 2011 — Leave a Comment

IBC has rolled round again and we will be enjoying the delights of the RAI – hot dogs and Coke Lite that are almost as expensive as Inkjet Printer Ink (that is the most expensive thing by volume on the planet I understand) – for the 14th year in a row, over the coming days starting today – 9th September and going through to the end. As for many it will be a hard work expo with quite a bit of networking with the aim of not expiring under the green bottles, and hitting those 9am and 10am meetings feeling refreshed (and not damp under rain). The weather forecast is mixed from warm days to rainy days… Amsterdam is always a little different.

The word on the street is that we will see ‘Cloud’ everywhere, whether it is content delivery or production, and quite a number of hybrid broadcast/IPTV and OTT solutions. We shall see really what that brings, and whether there is good business, poor business or pure hype.

If you want to meet up at all then feel free to tweet me at @iannock, and follow me there as I tweet the occasional on-the-spot experience from the show.

Also posted in Blog, Broadband, Cable, Computers, Consumer Device, Content, Development, DTV, Gaming, IPTV, Mobile, News, OTT, Profession, Radio, Satellite, STB | Tagged Amsterdam, Broadcast, Digital, IBC, IBC11, IBC2011, IPTV, OTT, Production, RAI, TV

Google TV second coming (in the UK?)

Written by Ian Nock on August 27, 2011 — 1 Comment

Some months ago when Google TV launched in the US, I thought about the possibilities of how this could work in the UK. The UK and the US markets are very different, most notably the lack of overall control that pay TV has on the market in the UK. Now we have the news coming through that Google TV will be coming to the UK.

Hey! Britain! Guess what? You’re getting Google TV!

via Google TV coming to the UK within six months – Engadget.

Since the original launch in the US, the flaws in the Google TV product have been seen clearly and it is not just the lack of content caused by wholesale blocking by the content owners in the US that caused Google TV Version 1 to be a dead duck. The product was clumsy and ill thought out, and pushing the long dead (ill)thoughts about ‘Web TV’ and thus failing as they did.

With the prevalence of the Freeview DTT and Freesat DVB-S platforms in the UK, we hope and believe that there will not be the wholesale blocking of the product as has happened in the US. This will allow the product functionality to shine through we hope and that is where improvements need to be made.

The Honeycomb version of Google TV will need to resolve the issues of usability of the current Google TV products and refocus on video content along with Apps that are TV centric. After all, the reason that most people watch TV is for video, not for the apps. TV apps need to be additive to the video experience and not detract by spreading themselves all over the far screen, making use of the second (close in) screen for that additive experience. If they don’t do a good job then I can only believe that Google TV will become the second Wave… and go the way of Wave and Buzz before it.

I have not seen much of the mock-ups as yet but hopefully that will change at IBC2011 next month. See you there.

Also posted in Blog, Consumer Device, Content, IPTV, OTT, STB | Tagged Freesat, Freeview, Google, GoogleTV, Honeycomb, OTT

Practical DLNA Fail

Written by Ian Nock on July 15, 2011 — Leave a Comment

As an early adopter, primarily due to my involvement in the business, I have been using home media streaming solutions for many years. I have evolved from my early PCTV solutions, via proprietary PC based server solutions through to what I have in day to day operation today. I have a Windows 7 PC as a Media server combined with a Western Digital NAS device. The PC also acts as the Media client as it is hooked up on the back of my Flat screen TV, providing me with adaptable if a little clumsy access to both in-home and Over The Top services. It works, sort of. That is not working in the way ordinary people need it to work – straight away with a nice swish UI.

This is a set of features that the industry is now pushing out there through Connected TV and enhanced STBs, mostly with DLNA Digital Media Player support. I have had one of these now for nine months in the shape of a Humax Fox-HDR-T2 PVR. This offers support for playback off the Windows 7 PC and the NAS, over the network and does this in a basic fashion. The UI offers a ‘Storage’ selector, which allows the selection of the internal HDD, USB or the Network. Selecting Network, gives access to my video selection of DivX encoded content. It also gives access to photos and music. However the whole experience is a bit of a let down on multiple fronts. I would not wish the photo and music functionality on my worst enemy, and the move functionality requires the navigation of so many levels of folders just to get to my content that members of my family cannot bear to use it and prefer to fire up the PC directly and navigate the fiddly controls that Microsoft provide in Windows Media Centre. At least the STB does play 99% of my content, although that excludes my Apple movie content of course. All in all, very clumsy and not ready for the average viewer and human.

Now Humax have released the Media Server functionality for the box, and it has been suitable downloaded and upgraded (an awful process that they should be shot for – why put the OTA code ONLY on HD DTT muxes! I know, I know, it is a HD box, but it is also a great SD PVR as well for the majority of people today. The resultant experience is reminiscent of a TV upgrade process – awful.

However getting the Media server to function, shows exactly why DLNA is not yet ready for the consumer. Serving the content was fine as long as I used the Windows 7 PC (no hope under Windows XP but that is not Humax’s fault and the less said about Vista the better), and then only if you took the less obvious route (accessing network and then trying to pull up the content just got empty folders… oh yes you had to run Windows Media Player first and then select the Humax box in the Other Sources list to get to the visible content). Playing the content though resulted in an unusable couple of frames a second with the worst video tearing you have ever seen and stuttering audio. At least, this was the experience with the built in Windows Media Player software. Running up XBMC (an alternative DLNA Server and Player), gave a much more fluid experience with proper playback of the content with none of the tearing and frame loss. This demonstrated an awful lack of compatibility with the most common and built in Digital Player software in the world. How did Humax test this and decide it was fit for human consumption? Saying it is Beta is NOT a defence, not when you put it out for general use.

Speaking with my brother who has the same Humax elicited similar tales of woe, but his exacerbated by his attempt to get it working with his Sony Bravia Connected TV. He simply failed to any of his PCs to work with without the XBMC approach, and the TV simply saw the top level content only – anything in a sub-folder (which includes anything recorded in a series) was invisible, and the top level content wouldn’t play.

I should not attack Humax too much (why oh why did they not make sure it works smoothly with Windows 7 and Windows Media Player? as well as with the main makes of TV – Sony Bravia is not rare) but this shows how putting home media sharing out there for normal people is far from ready as Benjamin Schwartz has stated in recent blog post during a Connected TV conference. I can only agree with him, but only to the extent that device makes and software makers really need to up the game and stop blaming each other, and come up with software and hardware that just works out of the box. That really cannot be as hard as they seem to be making it.

Also posted in Blog, Consumer Device, STB | Tagged Compatibility, DLNA, DMP, DMS, Home Networking, Humax, Media Centre, Media Player, Microsoft, Plugfest, Usability, Windows, Windows 7

Sony doubts Youview?

Written by Ian Nock on July 6, 2011 — Leave a Comment

A very interesting post appeared on reghardware today

Sony will not support the UK’s would-be IPTV standard, YouView, the company’s UK chief has revealed.

via Sony says no to YouView • reghardware.

There are two points to this news. Firstly that ‘yet another CE vendor’ has made public pronouncements about their lack of faith in the old Canvas/now Youview project to deliver devices and software to provide OTT delivered services in the UK. Secondly, when did Sony actually make any supporting announcements about Youview? This news report is both interesting and not interesting because of this in ‘my view’.

This gives pause though to a few thoughts about Youview from the CE vendor perspective. The key thought is that Youview is a very parochial solution, very much more targeted to the UK than the standards promoted by DTG for Digital television in the UK in that, at least with some minor modification, you could deliver the UK specific features as a ‘bolt on’ to regionally or worldwide delivered TVs. Youview is an entire stack that is wholly different from Europe-wide/other region wide OTT/IPTV solutions, which would make it unpopular with all of the TV makers who want to make once, deliver in as many places as possible. CE vendors are more aligning themselves with approaches such as HbbTV, or the straightforward OTT solutions that are provided via Connected TVs, which work across whole regions and not just in one small island off the north coast of France.

So is it really any surprise that Sony have made this statement?

Also posted in Blog, Broadband, Consumer Device, DTV, IPTV, OTT, STB | Tagged Canvas, CE, Consumer Device, IPTV, OTT, Sony, Youview

Does the pipe really matter?

Written by Ian Nock on June 30, 2011 — Leave a Comment

Every day and every week, people in the TV technology industry talk about Pay TV, Cable, Satellite, IPTV, OTT, Internet TV, Connected TV and all sorts of technical delivery platforms for content. We go to conferences about it where there is much discussion about how one is better than the other because of the special nuances of the particular delivery mechanism. It turns into a war between OTT and PayTV, between OTT and IPTV, between IPTV and Cable TV etc.

However the consumer point is being missed. They don’t actually care about the tech. They care about whether it has the content they want, whether it is cheap or expensive, how easy it is to use, whether they can have the content the way they want it, and all other sorts of usage related characteristics. They don’t care if it is IP packets, ATM packets, or MPEG2 packets. BSkyB is successful in the UK because it gets content to the customer in way that is not too uncomfortable, and not because of their Middleware solution or their return path tech, or their forward path capability or lack thereof. Without the content, then Sky would lose customers even with the best tech solution in the world.

Content solutions need to be the focus – we need to concentrate on that and not the tech. The tech is a means to an end for the majority of viewers and consumers out there, and we have forgotten that in the rush to new technology. It also helps that all those tech methods are now taking on very similar if not identical characteristics through hybridisation.

Is this the Emperor’s New Clothes moment?

Also posted in Blog, Broadband, Cable, Content, DTV, IPTV, Satellite, STB | Tagged Cable, Connected TV, Internet TV, IPTV, OTT, Pay TV, Satellite

Connected TV World Summit and Awards

Written by Ian Nock on May 11, 2011 — Leave a Comment

In the middle of next week (18/19 May 2011) I will be off to attend the Connected TV World Summit taking place at RIBA in London (http://connectedtvsummit.com/), along with two excellent breakfast briefings. This is a must-see event with the added bonus of the Connected TV Awards (http://connectedtvsummit.com/ctv-awards.html) on the evening of the 18th which is open even to those who are not paid up attendees at the summit, well worth it, and I have to say so myself because I have contributed to these awards which are recognising innovation and achievement in this rapidly growing segment of the TV business. That is an important point – this is about TV and its future, as the industry strips away the walls of the walled garden. Be there or…

… not be square. For those who are not attending this summit there is online streaming of the event which you just need to register for via the website.

If you specifically want to meet up, then drop me a line. Otherwise look out for me on the day.

UPDATED

Online streaming of the event is available for a reasonable fee.

Also posted in Blog, Broadband, Consumer Device, Content, DTV, IPTV, OTT, Satellite, STB | Tagged Conference, Connected TV, DTV, Future, IPTV, OTT, Pay TV, Summit, TV

HbbTV growing in the UK

Written by Ian Nock on March 9, 2011 — Leave a Comment

The UK market seems to be starting to splinter away from the evolution of Freeview/Freesat with MHEG, towards the HbbTV side, with this report from Broadband TV News.

Freesat is preparing to launch a new series of receivers that will run on the HbbTV hybrid broadcast broadbandplatform popularised in Germany and France. The plans codenamed G2, and already presented to some receiver manufacturers, run counter to the thinking by shareholders the BBC and ITV, which are also involved in the YouView hybrid platform.

via New Freesat boxes to run on HbbTV | Broadband TV News.

The causes for this seems to be very much related to time to market, and HbbTV has the upper hand. It is not just on the Freesat side, with HbbTV components being used in Freeview HD boxes as deployed by Humax, which give customers access to iPlayer and other services right now.

This is sending further messages about the disposition of Youview, and that Youview will simply be too late to the market. The appointment of Alan Sugar as Chairman is pretty much a plaster over a gaping wound that I doubt will make much difference and, in fact, may actually make things worse. Sugar’s recent performance has been in shedding companies that other people make more of a success. Youview could just be the next Em@iler!

Also posted in Blog, DTV, IPTV, OTT, Satellite, STB | Tagged Amstrad, Freesat, Freeview, G2, HbbTV, Humax, MHEG, Youview

Timing is important… Youview

Written by Ian Nock on February 11, 2011 — Leave a Comment

Last weekend I received a new software update for my Humax HDR-T2 DVR, giving it access to iPlayer and a limited number of other services. This has been promoted as a feature of my DVR since it was launched in the summer of last year, and it a pretty nice implementation of a portal allowing me to switch from my standard TV viewing experience. The keyword is switch… there is no integration between the portal and the EPG… something that would be a great UI experience and something that Youview is promising. However it works reliably and it is available right now, giving excellent time for improvements over the coming months. I like added functionality, I like it more that great UI experiences… as long as the UI experience is ok to good. That is definitely what the Humax upgrade has given me, a good experience with great functionality. I look forward to additional content services on the portal in the near future.

The Humax software makes use of the Ant Gallio platform, which is heavily engaged in making use of the HbbTV standards and developments. In other words, HbbTV is here now in all but launch in the UK. Youview on the other hand is not going to appear any time soon, in fact they are stating right now that they will launch sometime in ‘early 2012′ which in project speak means end March 2012 at the earliest. Considering the weight of standardisation behind HbbTV and first mover advantage, there is a definite chance that Youview will be simply too late to the market. Will the shareholders of Youview keep patient? Or will they go with the market and provide services to any box as the BBC is committed to today, with the advantage being on HbbTV technology? I believe it depends on just how many other box manufacturers in the UK go the same way as Humax.

I am watching with interest.

Also posted in Blog, DTV, STB | Tagged Ant, Arquiva, BBC, C4, Canvas, Five, Gallio, HbbTV, Humax, Humax HDR-T2, ITV, Youview

Google TV Will “Change the Way People Live their Lives”.. Maybe…

Written by Ian Nock on October 4, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Not so sure about this one, it would take a lot to change many people’s lives - Google TV Will “Change the Way People Live their Lives”.

Yet to get around the sensationalist views, this is an important new product. However its importance to European TV users requires breaking through the content quality barrier and also the integration with existing TV services.

The content quality barrier is important – you cannot make a whole TV day out of Youtube – which is why support for iPlayer in the UK, and support for the many other OTT video services across Europe will be key.

Also Europeans have not been big fans of IR blasters and other fiddles to allow integration with existing STBs and TVs. This has to change, and for that we would need to see integration into Free to air DTT, DSAT and D-Cable STBs and TVs, with the addition of the CI+ capability that is growing in popularity in Europe.

I look forward to seeing how this develops.

Also posted in Blog, Broadband, Cable, DTV, IPTV, Satellite, STB | Tagged Google TV, iPlayer, OTT, STB, YouTube

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