Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is an up-and-coming technology with lots of promise. Ironically, it’s the smaller regional telecommunications companies that are making IPTV waves in mostly local markets, although at least one national company has big-time plans to replace your current digital service with their digital solution.
IPTV to Your TV – How it Works
Never heard of IPTV? Even if you haven’t, chances are you’ve used it, or something like it. In fact, anyone who has ever accessed their digital television service’s Video on Demand feature has some familiarity with how IPTV works. Internet Protocol Television is an alternative way of sending digital television service to either a computer, mobile phone, or a television. It is this latter solution that we will explore, as the IPTV solution is fast becoming an attractive alternative to traditional cable or digital broadcast satellite (DBS) service.
Without getting too technical, IPTV refers to a method of delivering both live TV and stored video (on-demand or pay-per-view) to the home in the same manner in which internet content is sent, and over that same network. IPTV is a form of “switched video,” or switched broadcast technology, whereby the end-user only receives the programming being requested. Where satellite and cable companies cram 100% of live programming content into end-users set-top box 100% of the time, IPTV content is delivered only when asked for. Just as typing in ”www.electonichouse.com” in the browser bar brings the site’s content to your computer, so does changing the television station to Discovery HD bring the content to the IPTV-subscriber’s set-top box, and thus to the connected television.
“It’s a different manner of delivering broadcast-quality content to the subscriber,” says Haavard Sterri, Executive Director of Marketing for SureWest, a telecommunications company based in the Sacramento, California area. By broadcast quality content, Sterri refers to all the options consumers have come to expect from their digital television service provider, including your beloved HD channels. On the user end, IPTV looks and feels much like traditional cable or satellite. Turn on the TV, request a channel, and up it comes. There’s even a set-top box that connects to the TV, just like cable or satellite. But the use of Internet Protocol to deliver the digital television content enables some service providers to integrate service across platforms, bringing a convergence of the voice, data, and television services brought to the home, on the same network, all using the same language, through one company (see “Convergence” below.)
It’s telecommunication companies like SureWest that are largely responsible for the push in the growing IPTV opportunities nation-wide. To date AT&T is probably the biggest IPTV provider, with their U-verse service now available in 11 states, and a U-verse Initiative that aims to expand the service across 22 states by the end of 2008. “We’re the only national service provider, and we are 100% IPTV,” says Destiny Varghese, spokesperson for AT&T.
Better Than Cable or Satellite?
The average consumer might not care to understand what goes on behind the scenes to bring IPTV into the home, or how it is different from cable or satellite. But that end-user experience sure is important. Consumers have gotten used to comparing digital television service providers using a set of criteria, which usually includes: price, packages, bundles, HD channels (quantity AND quality), installation, and a few other comparison points. Making the same evaluation of an IPTV service is a wise step for the consumer with the option. And it is important to understand that, like competing cable or satellite companies, the offerings of each IPTV service provider will vary from market to market and company to company.
If I remember correctly, UVerse can only send one HD channel at a time to your location. What if I wanted to record 2 HD channels with my DVR and watch a 3rd HD channel at the same time?
As more and more channels become HD, this is becoming more of a reality.
I’m sure people are replacing their bedroom TVs with HD as well as the one in their living room. That still doesn’t include the home theatre some will have in their basement
Another important point...not really having to do with IPTV per se, but maybe having to do with interactive IPTV....if such a thing ever exists…
I was reading an article a few years ago where the author stated something like..."the internet will not fully function to its full potential until all services are symetrical...” After reading that statement I thought..how RIGHT this was. What this means is “until all speeds are the same down and up”. Let’s say you have 5mHz down and 5 mHz up or 20 mHz down and 20 mHz up. This day is finally here, although symetrical service has a higher price right now, at least it is now offered. Maybe as it becomes more common, and more competively offered by different services, it will become more economical.
You’ll be able to run a website off your PC or upload that large TiVo movie file in a flash, etc… All interactive technology will be much better, interactive games, services, etc…
Maybe for owning One TV Grampa’s house, but NOT for me. I have two (2) Cable Set Top boxes and two (2) PVR’s. One PVR has two tuners with two cable cards inside (1.50/mo.) and needs no STB. (The other PVR stands with one of the cable boxes in another room.) OK, these are the ones I have to pay a monthly fee for.
Now I also have 5 other TV’s in different area’s (other bedrooms, shop in basement, etc.) receiving free local and unscrambled channels over Cable. I also have an HTPC with multiple tuners (4) all receiving FREE local and unscrambled channels. I pay NOTHING for all of these!
Also, I can ALREADY access my two (2) PVR’s and my HTPC to change or make recordings. You DON’t NEED IPTV to do that, anybody can with the right unit. Soon I will be able to access lighting thru the network.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it will be a Great Picture (or it better be) if they’re only sending me one signal over IP at a time.
But there are things unanswered by this artical and need to be looked into and/or considered…
1. Let’s say I lost all my marbles and went ahead with IPTV and payed for every signal I needed/or that I have now. Having more than 8 IPTV boxes, each requesting a different channel, would all the channels still look as good at the same time? Would all signals being sent down the IPTV start being compressed to handle the situation?
Would I start receiving messages like “Please wait while the buffer fills up...blah blah blah.????
2. What about all that equipment that people have already bought with cable cards? Will IPTV honor them/work with them?
Please don’t get me wrong, I love stuff over IP. But I feel, in the present day, that cable gives the most quantity free service. What I am striving for in the next couple of month’s (since my area is now FIOS to my door ready) is to have everything over IP, except TV. I would like to get a pkg from Verizon for 20mHz down/5 up, Phone Loc/LD, and Cell, and even EVDO for Laptop when I am in NYC at work in the field.
Right now unless IPTV allows for viewing of all local and those “80 lower channels” with no per box fee and no loss in signal, I would NOT choose it.
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Another great idea that needs more development and rolling out and real world testing, particularly in rural areas, To play devils advocate , Ie content producer side, the idea of a set top box in which everything come in is prime for DRM and monitoring whats being watched ect.. Another interim idea until Iptv gets worked out is tvs with internet access built in, ie, wireless, or wired,,and a build in web browser, and possibly coming with a wireless keyboard, letting you surf the net and watch youtube and stream content directly to the tv without going through a computer. The idea of a pvr built into a tv doesn’t appeal to me , as I know, from past experience, pvr hard drives work the hardest of any hard drive out there and tend to fail, thus replacing a pvr hard drive built into a tv could be a challenge.
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