In the lead up to Cable Congress 2012, taking place on 7-9 March in Brussels, Cable Europe speaks to Paul Bristow of ADB. Paul is the VP Strategy, Middleware and Consumer Experience and shares his thoughts on cable’s challenges for 2012. Paul urges operators to focus their efforts on advancing standard set-top boxes to bring a whole-home multi-screen experience, including integration of both live and on-demand TV services to a variety of smart devices such as smart phones, tablets and games consoles. The full interview can be seen here

Advanced Digital Broadcast is delighted to announce that we are sponsoring Cable Congress 2012, taking place this March (7-9th) at the Square in Brussels, with a special workshop.

We invite you to the ’3 Years is a Long Time in the Pay-TV Industry – Or is it?’ workshop taking place at Cable Congress on Thursday, 8th March 2012 at 1.15pm.

The session is free of charge to all Cable Congress attendees.

This interactive workshop aims at examining what the Pay-TV landscape could look like in a few years down the road, and how operators can start planning to deliver a compelling new TV experience to its subscribers. It will consider what this really means in terms of simplifying the overall user experience and exploring what the cable industry needs to do to deliver the promise of multi-screen.

The workshop will be hosted by Paul Bristow, VP Strategy, Middleware & Consumer Experience. He will be joined by Krzysztof Bilinski, Executive VP, General Manager Broadcast Division and Serge Dulhoste, VP and General Manager EMEA Cable Business Unit.

See you in Brussels!

If there is one thing our industry needs to take away from CES2012 it is this statement from The Next Web’s Brad McCarty in his piece titled, ‘…Proof that 3D still sucks and brands don’t understand TV.’ It is, perhaps, the most important commentary on our industry in many years.

While I don’t know whether I’d go as far as Brad in relation to 3D – I agree it’s certainly not ready for mass market audiences just yet, but wouldn’t write if off completely – his assertion that anything that makes the enjoyment of TV more difficult can
only spell trouble. I’ve been saying the same thing for many years.  It is, admittedly, sometimes easy to get carried away, amid the hype for connected TV, social TV, TV Apps and 3D TV, to name a few – all of which I believe will play a role in the future of our industry – that our primary focus must remain on delivering a compelling televisual experience. If we lose sight of this I believe we stand to lose the most important people in the success, or otherwise, of our industry – the viewers.

If this happens, everything else will simply become a footnote in the demise of the television.

How many times in the last couple of years have you heard somebody predict the death of the set-top box? I tried to work it out the other day and very quickly ran out of fingers and toes… So, you can imagine my delight when analyst Kurt Scherf declared that he believed that the death of the set-top box was somewhat premature at the Parks Associates Connections Europe event last November.

Working in our industry I’m used to hearing a constant stream of FUD [Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt], First it was VHS remember those?] was going to bring about the demise of television. A few years later, the same prediction was made when the
DVD arrived. In recent years the internet was predicted to bring about the demise of the TV. Unsurprisingly however, the TV is still with us and, according to reports, is more popular than ever before. More recently it’s been the Connected TV set that has been seen as the heir to the set-top’s crown.

In my post earlier in the year, ‘The set-top box is dead… long live the set-top box‘, I talked about both the evolution of the set-top box and why it would continue to be a key part of the connected, multiscreen, hybrid [insert your favourite buzz word] TV experience for both consumers and operators for many years to come.

Given the direction of our industry – towards hybrid broadcast and broadband-delivered services – both operators and consumers will need a device with which to manage them and distribute a multitude of services to a growing array of devices, from TVs to PCs and portable devices. While the name may change – from set-top box to home [or residential] gateway, the set-top box is here to stay!

I wrote a couple of blog posts earlier in the year about the cord-cutting phenomena and my belief that the future of television will be hybrid. In the light of a couple of recent news stories I thought it was worth revisiting these topics.

First, the news that Charter Communications CEO Mike Lovett announced on the company’s latest earnings call that, while video remains a critical part of the business, he considers the firms primary function to be providing connectivity.  This supports my assertion in my earlier post that consumers are less concerned about who is providing the pipe and the services that are delivered via it. They want both connectivity and services – and want the best [read simplest] consumer experience to make it quick and easy for them to enjoy the content.

Equally, a pipe with no content, whether that’s a traditional ISP or PayTV operator, that provides ‘broadcast’ video will, I believe, find it increasingly difficult to win consumer hearts and minds. Time Warner’s Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes’ announcement that providing their consumers with SVOD services like Netflix and Hulu, alongside its more traditional PayTV services, actually helps their business, rather than harms it.

My piece, OTT hype signals a hybrid TV future talked about the need for PayTV operators to embrace streaming services and
that offering them alongside their traditional channel bouquets was, I believed, a recipe for successful business growth in an increasingly competitive video world.  It seems like an increasing number of operators and service providers are seeing a similar
vision of the future and taking advantage of the benefits a hybrid strategy can deliver.

The further we go along this OTT path the more it seems like OTT providers are turning out to be like TV channels. They are becoming just another content providing player in the TV space, which just like any TV channel may, or may not, be included in
any specific Pay-TV offer.

ADB has announced that it will deliver its intelligent wireless ADSL & GBETH gateways and Epicentro software to TEO LT, AB, the largest provider of integrated telecommunication, IT and TV services in Lithuania.

ADB Broadband has been supplying TEO with its broadband devices since 2009, and will now add state of the art Intelligent Gateways using its Epicentro^® software stack with OSGi framework and Network Application Portal.

The Application Portal makes it very simple for consumers to transparently install home network
applications from a dedicated “application store”. Example services include energy management, home automation, home security, health-care and more. Until today, these applications required complex software installations and an always-on PC. Read full press release here

We are very proud that two of our latest creations – ADB’s three-way hybrid Multi-room solution and our Connected TV Portal – have been shortlisted in two exclusive awards where the
winners will be announced during the course of IBC2011 (Amsterdam, September 9^th to 13^th).

ADB’s Multi-room is the first true multi-room solution that delivers on both consumer experience and operating costs. The solution is target at PayTV operators who wish to differentiate with an offer that is both cost-effective for them and rich in functionalities for their subscribers. This
solution was successfully deployed by one of our Eastern European customers in November 2010 and has been highly complimented by the end users. Our Multi-room is shortlisted in the category “Best Consumer Premise Equipment Technology” in CSI’s Product of the Year Awards. The finalists will be announced on Friday, September 9^th at IBC in Amsterdam.

ADB’s Connected TV Portal is the most complete launch pad for Connected TV services and is finalist in the category “Service Delivery Platform” in the Connected TV World Awards. The awards ceremony will be held on Monday, September 12^th in Amsterdam. ADB’s Connected TV Portal equips operators with a complete tool to develop and launch over-the-top services on multiple screens, fast and independently. The portal was successfully launched by one of our customers in the Asia-Pacific region in March this year.

Both of the above solutions are delivered with ADB’s award winning Carbo™ high definition user interface. The key to Carbo is its simplicity. It makes watching today’s hybrid multichannel
high definition and 3D digital TV services easy. It also provides a consumer experience that is
closer to old-fashioned ‘telly’ than some of the more complex interfaces on the market.

At ADB, we believe in a future where multi-media content will come from multiple sources and – at the user’s preference – seamlessly move between multiple screens and devices. To make this future a profitable reality for pay-TV and broadband operators, we have developed a comprehensive set of solutions that we will be showcasing at IBC 2011, Stand 5.B48.

Following the acquisition of Pirelli Broadband Solutions in late 2010, we now offer a full range of broadcast and broadband devices and software, working together to provide a complete multi-room, multi-services experience:

The ADB stand at IBC will have several exciting solutions on display:
ADB’s multi-room pay-TV platform, unique in its ability to deliver on both consumer experience and operating costs, and vouched for by a successful field implementation.
ADB’s Connected Home software suite, that remotely manages consumer devices using the TR-069 standard, already adopted by leading service providers in Europe and in the Americas, who benefit from improved consumer satisfaction and lower operating costs.
ADB’s Connected TV Portal, a comprehensive launch pad for Connected TV services, equipping operators with a complete tool to develop and launch over-the-top services on multiple screens, fast and independently, providing viewers with one-click access to services, even on entry-level set-top boxes, from our award-winning Carbo™ interface.

Other broadband and pay-TV innovations will be unveiled during the show.

The ADB team was very active at Broadcast Asia this year, bringing their experience of 3DTV and connected products for the benefit of the whole Asian audience.

The June 21-24 event in Singapore kicked off with a panel on “Public Service vs. Pay TV vs. Web TV interest,” where a consensus was formed between ADB and the other panelists that the three concepts should not work against one another; rather, they should complement each other to ensure a win-win situation for all.

Also on the first day, our very own Albert Canigueral spoke on 3D TV, which he said is going through a “trough of disillusionment” after the usual initial hype wanes. However he said the market will eventually bottom out as the industry gets better at using the 3D hardware and creating 3D content. He also described ADB’s Carbo, which offers an ingenious 3D user interface that is backward compatible with existing 2D hardware.

On the second day, ADB’s Vincent Hendrata presented  our Virtual Gateway solution, which distributes Pay-TV capabilities throughout the home. Vincent lauded standards formulated by the DLNA and discussed overarching issues facing operators, including a fragmentation of the market and the lack of viable business models for much of the competition.

Digitization of cable is a key element for raising the industry’s overall competitiveness. Yet, Taiwanese operators have been slow in adopting the technology – digital cable penetration is currently only seven percent. For a nation that prides itself in its technological prowess this number is embarrassingly low.

But things might be about to change. Numerous hearings, forums and summits have resulted in the government looking at ways to increase competition in a bid to kick-start the growth of new digital Cable services. Starting October 2011, operators will be allowed to operate in multiple regions, but will be required to cap subscriber base at no more than one-third of the island’s population. This should help increase innovation and digital transition.

Our experience helping Pay-TV operators in fast-changing TV markets is that, ultimately, the rate at which consumers adopt new digital Pay TV services is determined by operator innovation. In Taiwan, TFN’s digital TV subscriptions grew more than 200% following the launch of a new digital Cable TV service that offers subscribers faster channel change times, more high definition channels and an improved consumer TV experience.

Let’s hope that Taiwanese operators take the Government’s lead in creating a bright digital TV future.