The DVB World Blog

Asking the Chairman to Wrap up #dvbw11

Conference Admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 11:47:56 +0000

Phil Laven gave his usual sparkling wrap up of the conference.

He talked about the issue of services to ‘mobiles’. Up until know, there appeared to be no business case for mobile, but could the growth of Tablets be a ‘game changer’ which could make all the difference? Good question, isn’t it?

Another issue was whether the planned system of DVB NGH, which will offer the chance to broadcast to many platforms at the same time. Can this be succesful, or will the difference in coverage areas of the different platforms be a barrier?

Phil asked the audience about whether they thought they would be watching 3DTV in five years time. Almost all the attendees thought they would.

We look forward to next year’s DVB World. Maybe mostly about Tablets?

3DTV is a right game #dvbw11

Conference Admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 11:28:29 +0000

Paul Holman, he of Video Games, gave the meeting some advice from the world of 3D games to those in 3D broadcasting. One of the things he mentionned is that 3D can be so captivating that players can use it for longer than they should, and can experience some nausia, and they take pains to explain this to users. I loved the idea of including cameras in the future 3D game consule, that Paul explained, so the game can actually apparently ‘take place in your living room’, and be populated by strange animals who appear (on the display) around you. Wow! fantastically frightening.

Sub-titles for 3DTV #dvbw11

Conference Admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 11:20:07 +0000

Nick Tanton took the meeting through the way the DVB 3D subtitling specification works. The trick is to provide the display with a clue about where in terms of the depth in the picture to place a subtitle. It should not cut the objects, and probably be placed just forward of the object closest to the viewer. The spec allows this. This was a fascinating presentation, but there is clearly a lot of experience to be gain in placing titles in general in 3DTV. I found myself wondering if 3DTV itself could not help some to correct stereoscopic viewing disorders? I geuss it might. What do you think?

DVB 3DTV stands out #dvbw11

Conference Admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 11:11:30 +0000

David Daniels explained the recently agreed DVB 3DTV specification. Its designed for broadcasters who need to use existing HDTV digital set top boxes (like BSkyB and others). The specification creates an HDTV-like signal, which includes squashed versions of the Left and Right images. The display itself unsquashes the Left and Right images and displays them on the 3D display as two full pictures. The disparity between the objects in the two views are taken by the eye as equivalent to depth in the picture. The specification is surely a milestone in the history of broadcasting, and this presentation was the world’s first. Good to be here to tell grandchildren about.

But how big will 3DTV be? Is it just something for occasional events? What kinds of programmes best suit 3DTV? What do you think?

Is UHDTV a ‘quality too far’?

Conference Admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:02:24 +0000

David Wood (your humble blogger) outlined the progress made in the ITU-R on standards for ‘next generation television’. It’s diffcult to criticize the presntation. A sondage at the beginning of the session showed that two thirds of the audience thought UHDTV was ‘quite un-needed’, but by the end, with the same question time, only one third thought it was ‘un-needed’. This must be some sort of progress .

What can IPTV provide? #dvbw11

Conference Admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:25:02 +0000

Alexander Will explained the IPTV offer being provided by Deutsche Telekom. The services offer 150 TV channels and Internet access. The use made of the TV channels is many time more than the use of Internet content. This may be due to ease of access and familiarity. The services can be switched on remotely. Viewers away from home can, for example, remotely programme recording of TV programmes, so they are available when they return. Hey, I’d like that! There is navigation system for over 2000+ radio stations. (I know personally that normal Internet Radios need a PhD to navigate). You can also share photos with others. There will be a DT ‘App store’ too. Is this the shape of IPTV to come – combining TV, Internet, and the ‘App’ environment?

Streaming, Neutrality, and Blame #dvbw11

Conference Admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:09:12 +0000

Alexander Adolf explained a range of issues about success and failure factors for media delivery in the new world which combines broadcasting and Internet. One of the keys to succesful integration is likely to be an organsized metadata system which would allow content to be located on any platform and easliy found. The so called ‘CRID’ system fullfills this need, and Alexander suggested that it was much superior to the ISAN labellling system developed some years ago. Will the web and broadcast world merge to becaome a single market? No, said, Alexander, but we need to arrange the intersection. Who should build the standards for this? No one is doing this today, and there are no signs of a cross industry forum yet. Alexander argued that we need to do this now. Will his cry be heard?

DVBWorld Day 3 opens – what future? #dvbw11

Conference Admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:44:10 +0000

Dietrich Westerkamp opened the meeting by asking how many delegates use ‘twitter’. There were fewer than the fingers on his hand. What does this tell us about an audience of 150?

What will make for success in mobile broadcasting?

Conference Admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:00:56 +0000

The final session of the second day of DVB World was a Panel session, Chaired by Phil Laven, about ‘supply and demand’ for mobile TV.

Olivier Dhotel began the session by looking at the lessons learned from the failure of DVB-H. The first mistake was to assume that since customers love TV, they will also love mobile TV. Actually customers only want to watch mobile TV for a short time. There is also fierce competition for our ‘mobile’ time. The second mistake was to make the mobile TV model the same as the linear TV linear models. There is not enough business here. The third was the argument that video will overload 3G networks. This was not the case. The final mistake was in standards. They cannot be imposed by regulators or broadcasters. The subsidized receiver in the one that works. Another point is to recognize that the public goes for ‘brands’ .

The discussion began by asking whether free or pay content is needed for success in mobiles. Most thought ‘both’ were needed. A survey of the audience showed that most members of the audience were still pessimistic that mobile television can be succesful. The discussion was interesting, and brought up many ‘success factors’ for broadcasting to mobiles. But which were the critical ones? Thats a much more difficult question. Is it combining broadband and broadcast in the same system? Is it the blend of content you provide? Is it regulation?

The session held a final vote about whether mobile broadcasting will succed or not. The crowd were more convinced, but not totally so.

How can mobile TV make money? #dvbw11

Conference Admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:43:12 +0000

Herbert Mittermayr took the meeting though the critical issue of how money can be made from mobile TV. On average, we spend about 21 dollars per month on media. This goes to service providers, to the content industry, to the CE industry, and to the social networks industry. Herbert did not have a unique recipe for making money, but he did signal the importance of the ‘hybridization of TV’ , the combination of TV and Internet delivered services. He said success calls for ‘winning differentiation’ – is it reliable, useful, easy to find, a great user experience?…. If it is all these things, you will make money.