IP on TV – The Channel Challenge
Kieth Newman discovers a revolution in the lounge as computing, telecommunications and entertainment converge on the TV set. While the government dithers over free-to-air digital broadcasting, people are buying the software and set top boxes, and programming their own multimedia experience.
On Singapore airlines earlier this year I gained a first-hand insight into the capabilities of on-demand media from the in-flight entertainment system. It soon dawned on me that I was no longer at the mercy of a programmer. I could stop, rewind, fast forward or pause any of 60 movies, many of them still in cinemas in New Zealand, and a host of other content, at my leisure. And I was using six-year-old technology.
Air New Zealand is about to deliver a similar service on its new 777 aircraft, promising 50 movies and as many TV shows and documentaries, plus a wide selection of music and games. So why do you have to leave the country to experience what technology has obviously been able to deliver for some time?
New Zealanders have been digital ditherers. We're in the bottom quarter of OECD Broadband Statistics, with only 4.5% penetration for the year to December 2004 and are unlikely to have grown much beyond 10% by the end of this year.
Sky TV has had the digital market to itself for seven years, and free-to-air broadcasters are not even at the starting gate. Without visionary leadership to advance core infrastructure the piles of studies and reports have stayed in the in-tray.
Meanwhile the prime space in the lounge is the focus of some fierce marketing as the walls between computing, telecommunications and broadcasting come crashing down. The indications are that if the broadcasters don't lift their game within two years Telecom, TelstraClear and the internet service providers (ISPs) will start delivering on-demand or downloadable video.
New software developments allow you to control your own entertainment options. For example, the evolving Personal Video Recorder (PVR) records television shows to hard drive with a range of complementary abilities such as recording to DVDs, commercial skip and sharing of recordings over the Internet. The Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) platform delivers digital television using the Internet over a broadband connection. These and similar advances threaten to reshape the entire viewing experience.
This case study is reproduced with permission from e.nz magazine. Subscriptions to e.nz are discounted for schools and TENZ members.
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