Speaking at the Edinburgh International TV Festival, Dr Robert Pepper, senior managing director of global advanced technology policy at Cisco Systems discussed with delegates advances in technologies and the implications these had on the television industry.
Pepper claimed that the shift from analogue to digital was resulting in the technology world beginning to “blur”, predicting that we are moving into a world of internet protocol, in which everything will be done over the internet.
Advances in broadband transmission have resulted in a convergence of media allowing broadband providers to offer users a triple play of services comprising voice, video and data.
Pepper asserted that the main technology drivers are faster network technologies, cheap storage and dramatic improvements in compression. He said: “Take these advances and combine them with broadband and you can deliver and access real time on your networks.”
The managing director of Cisco Systems, told delegates about a new device in the states that allowed consumers to watch their cable, satellite or personal video recorder (PVR) from wherever they are.
The “Slingbox” redirects, or “placeshifts” a single live TV stream from a cable box, satellite receiver, or PVR to the viewer’s PC located anywhere within the home. If the “Slingbox” is coupled with a broadband internet connection, the viewer’s live TV stream can be “placeshifted” via the internet to a PC anywhere.
Pepper said: “So I can sit in Edinburgh and watch my local cable with over a hundred different channels from my TV in Washington – in real time. What does that do to the traditional concepts of geographical exclusivity of TV content?”
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is predicted to reach 25.9 million subscribers globally by the end of 2010, up from just 2.7 million at the end of 2005, according to research from Informa Telecoms & Media (see IPTV To Reach 25.9 Million By 2010).
The IPTV: A Global Analysis report, claims that China will be the leading IPTV market, with 4.9 million subscribers by the end of 2010. The US is forecast to be in second place, with 3.4 million, while Hong Kong, the leading country in 2004 with 475,000 subscribers, will drop to eighth position by 2010, having been overtaken by the UK with 1.5 million.
Voice over internet protocol is another way in which the internet can be used for streaming, with the latest estimates from Point Topic suggesting that currently over 11 million people use retail VoIP, marking an increase from just over five million in mid-2004 (see Popularity Of E-Shopping Continues To Grow).
Research group Frost & Sullivan estimates the number of residential VoIP lines to increase to about 18 million by 2010, up from just 1.5 million in 2004 (see Residential VoIP Revenues Forecast To Increase To Over $4 Billion By 2010).
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