Mobile
‘Many challenges’ for 3D on TV
Chris Forrester ©RapidTVNews | 09-02-2010
Rapid TV News’ recent Round Table on Conditional Access and DRM asked its panel of expects to do a little Crystal Ball gazing into the future.
Here are their responses:
Alex Borland, of software CA specialists Latens:
“Personalisation is really important, so mobility is a critical element of [the future]. Over The Top television, for me, we are just at the watershed right now on OTT. I think we are going to see a huge increase in demand for OTT-type services, so that is going to be very, very important going forward.
“I think also as part of this, we are going to see much more in the realms of micropayment-type schemes and offering services on a pay as you go type basis. [As to] 3D television, I think there are many challenges going forward for 3D television to become a real mainstay in the marketplace and I would say the jury is out, from my point of view.”
Steve Christian, from San Diego-based CA software specialists Verimatrix:
“I can see quite a number of different kinds of directions in which the service delivery and operators’ kind of revenue models will grow. The 3D component seems to me just emblematic of higher value transactions, higher value services, high value content and things that become unique to a particular operator. They are a kind of an extension of existing pay-TV services but with just greater value. The other axis that I could see, and these are not exclusive obviously, but the axis I could see are evening the reach across to PCs and [devices] like that.”
“To reach your subscriber whether they are in the home, in Starbucks, or hop around the mall and hotel, right? That is a real personalised service to be able to talk about. So that is kind of an interesting area to develop. And then, last but not least, I see the integration of web services of various kinds into the TV experience. The integration of the TV delivery service and in particular the protection subscription revenue models that go into a variety of other kinds of web applications and web services that we see on different kinds of devices not just the video delivery but the transactional revenue and self management if you like those kind of things. Those are interesting areas to for us to be working on it.”
NDS’ Howard Silverman’s look into the crystal ball, revealed:
“I actually think that people will continue to enjoy and watch high value content whether it is sports or movies or reality TV and in some ways, broadcast is a great medium for that. That is a happening. If you combine that with the trends of larger TV screens and 3D and high quality video, you need the infrastructure to deliver that. I think that is a major challenge that we should not underestimate. I think, Hybrid [reception] is going to be big and I think ‘push VOD’ is going to be a big application indeed, the value of storage is actually coming down fast [as is] the cost of bandwidth. Being able to push the whole library of content to multiple Terabyte hard drives. The challenge will be how to get it shaired amongst the household members and their devices. The other Crystal Ball in the whirlwind is in the pay-TV business and asks who will build [systems] to monetise these investments? To monetise the investments you need the great applications and when you have great applications, you are going to have a threat to piracy and the winner from our business would be who can maintain CA without piracy.”
Graham Turner, of pay-TV giant Nagra Kudelski, says:
“3D is likely to be quite attractive. Whether it will be, it is probably going to be partly going to be located in more traditional viewing areas where as a large part of what we think the future is going to be, [despite what we think] about the personal TV experience, [and] is going to be your TV. The critical thing is, can I actually access what I want properly? Or do I have all that range of content available? And if there is a huge range of content, how do I find it? I need a really good interface, a really good way of searching through that recommendation list. And all these aids that will actually make it possible, rather than being swamped by a list of hundred thousand different times [a show might be on] l actually want to watch the right thing for the moment, for now, but how do I find that easily? And then to send a bookmark. Those sorts of things and that user interface are all critical to the way that this [industry] will evolve in the long term. One aspect will be 3D, and quite likely in certain locations but it is hard to imagine you will be trying to watch 3D on a device whilst sitting on a train, or will 3D be played through something like the current generation of phones and devices?
Readers can view the Round Table discussion by clicking [here]
© Rapid TV News 2010
