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IPTV vs. Internet Television: Key Differences

What is the difference between IPTV, the Internet Protocol-based TV paradigm heralded by major telecom providers and large media groups (Microsoft included) and the Internet Television painted by the Long Tail phenomenon, Ourmedia, the Internet Archive, Brightcove, and the availability of amazing new technology opportunities such as faster and faster net connections, free unlimited storage space, BitTorrent, MPEG4 and powerful low-cost hardware and software production tools?

Are they two opposite and diverging forces or are they the different aspects of the same media phenomenon portrayed in different ways?

If you ask these questions around today, few people will be able to answer in a clear and articulate way. Even those executives working for would-be IPTV ventures would give no credit whatsoever to the idea that an alternative way of leveraging Internet strengths for the commercial delivery of video content exists. Most of the time they see only theirs.

So, what are the key differences between these two radically different approaches to distributing video content via IP and which the related-issues that make them important to me and you?
The choice, for those who can see it, appears to be between a universe of highly diversified and dynamic independent production and one dominated by secure dedicated private delivery networks distributing more traditional types of video-based content largely provided by Hollywood and other established big media conglomerates.
IPTV is represented by a profile of closed, proprietary TV systems such as those present today on cable services but delivered via IP-based secure channels representing a sharp increase in control of content distribution.
Internet Television is instead an open evolving framework in which a very large number of small and medium-sized video producers contribute highly innovative niche content alongside with offerings from more traditional retail and distribution channels.
Nonetheless key differences, being able to appreciate the true nature of these two models remain a challenging task for the uninitiated reader unless she starts to look a little deeper into the differentiating details.

IPTV A Look from the Outside

IPTV is an emerging technology at the time this is being written. Both the software and hardware required for broadcasting IPTV is in its infancy when looking at the "big picture". It is predicted that by 2008, 20 million homes worldwide will subscribe to IPTV services.

IPTV Hardware and Software Technology
Some of the hardware developers worth mentioning are Cisco, Amino Communications, Microsoft, Kreatel Communications, and HUMAX. Cisco and Microsoft are working on IPTV server solutions for broadcasting IPTV video and content to the end user or consumer. Cisco is currently pursuing IPTV solutions via enterprise networks for streaming live closed circuit video in the business, government, and educational sectors with its broadcasting hardware and software solutions. Cisco IPTV enables businesses and organizations to provide live instruction, communications, and seminars directly to employees, partners and students. Since the Cisco IPTV solution is based on network-efficient multicast technology, businesses and organizations can take advantage of a quality streaming solution that offers total control over bandwidth and network performance.
Microsoft is busy developing a total solution to bring IPTV to the masses via software and hardware technologies for broadcasting and viewing digital video IPTV over broadband internet connections. At this time Microsoft has already made several deals with some of the communication giants in the United States, Switzerland, and Canada to bring IPTV services to the consumer through its Microsoft TV IPTV Edition platform. The platform allows operators to display caller ID information, instant messages, e-mail, or SMS on the TV - even notify consumers about TV schedule changes as they occur. It of course offers the broadcasters to deliver complete channel navigation, DVR hardware, video on demand, subscription, and advertising to the consumer. Leading telecommunications providers are conducting trials of Microsoft TV IPTV Edition in Europe, North America, and Asia. The other hardware manufacturers mentioned provide the set top boxes (STB) needed for the consumer to receive IPTV entertainment and broadcast services. All streaming digital video broadcasts surrounding IPTV depend on compression techniques to provide very high quality video with compression ratios needed to serve the masses over a broadband connection whether it is cable or DSL. Some of the leading developers in this video compression technology include Tandberg and Harmonic Inc.

Tandberg Television creates products and systems for the delivery of high quality live video and on demand content across cable, DSL, fiber, IP, satellite and terrestrial networks providing systems integration and support capabilities through its operations in the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. They have been a pioneer in video compression and hardware systems for the delivery of TV and on-demand content for the digital video market. Their iTTV Delivery Platform has been designed specifically for the television over DSL and FTTH market. It supports the delivery of TV and on demand services over both IP and ATM. Built on open solutions and compliant with leading international standards, they have one of the broadest range of cable products available, including descramblers and receivers, encoders, multiplexers with CA insertion and bit-rate changing capability, network adaptors to suit all the common core network distribution methods, QAM modulators and comprehensive control and monitoring systems.

Harmonic’s Convergent Systems Division develops standards-based products that effectively multiply the delivery capacity of existing network infrastructures. Digital video products include multiplexers, stream processors, the high-capacity gateways for video-on-demand, and the DiviCom® family of encoders. Advanced technology solutions provide ultra-low bit rate encoding and digital stream processing, in addition to the statistical multiplexing of HD, SD and data streams. With nearly 20,000 real-time digital encoders deployed by DTH satellite, cable, terrestrial broadcast and telecoms network operators, Harmonic has the largest installed base in the world. They provide flexible and cost-effective digital headend solutions for cable system providers - designed to accommodate broadcast and on-demand narrowcast services. Their products are based on open standards such as MPEG-2, DVB, SNMP and DVB SimulCrypt, allowing service providers to select from a range of conditional access technologies, set-top boxes and EIS/scheduling systems. Harmonic’s Telco architecture is based primarily on MPEG-2 encoding and some digital turnaround of MPEG-2 content in a headend, as well as distribution to the home terminal over an IP (FTTH) or ATM (xDSL) infrastructure.

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