Suddenly! The Next Wave of the broadband Wars

Posted by Dennis Sellers Mar 28, 2005 at 12:01am

Neo is Macsimum News’ international man of mystery. If we told you more, we’d have to kill you.

The Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) is a global group of companies including Co-founders Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems and otherswho have formulated steps to advancing MPEG-4 into its final stages.

“The ISMA family of multimedia streaming specifications forms an ecosystem for the content delivery chain, from content creators to media players. Before finalizing a spec, ISMA gives these companies an opportunity to provide input. The specification cuts through the confusing choices for audio/video codec profiles and levels, the multiple choices for network protocols and signaling, and establishes the interoperability points to assure robust delivery of audio and video over IP in a multi-vendor environment.” Ultimately, compliance to the specifications gives consumers a better experience in terms of audio/video quality, network delivery, and multi-vendor choice,” stated Yuval Fisher, ISMA Technical Integration Board Member from Envivio.

Yuval Fisher is chief scientist and co-founder of Envivio, which has one of the broadest collections of ISMA-compliant products on the market. He is currently the lead editor of the MPEG-4 Systems specification, and was the Chair of the MPEG-4 System Conformance Group and Advanced Text and 2D Graphics Group.

While we all await the wonders that Apple themselves will bring to market shortly, I think it would be of some benefit to first review Envivio’s new business model very carefully. In fact, I would consider the following “walk-through” of the Triple-Play Consortium to be a likely blueprint that Apple themselves could be adopting in the coming months ahead – if the roots of it are not already in place today. The following presentation of this next generation business model will provide you a very unique overview that will help you understand the nature of the next wave of the Internet.

Envivio and the Triple-Play Consortium

The goal of this new consortium is to aggressively address the new market reality that is driving the Triple play arena. The IPlay3 consortium merges the market-leading technologies from NetCentrex, Envivio, and Highdeal into one, turnkey, flexible and cost-effective Triple Play solution. IPlay3 offers a turnkey Voice over IP, Video over IP, and Pricing and Rating solution that leverages any type of broadband IP infrastructure (ETTx/FTTx, xDSL, CABLE, WIFI). Consortium members deliver carrier-class reliability, have proven track records in the market, provide a global presence for sales, service, and support, and are working with a partnership business model to best address the market needs.

The iPlay3 players

Envivio: Envivio is a leading provider of complete MPEG-4 and H.264 solutions, which consist of a rich set of integrated streaming media tools and systems including high-performance audio and video, two-dimensional graphics, and animation.

The Envivio solution includes various components to create, encode, protect, distribute, manage, and view MPEG-4 content. No other company offers a complete MPEG-4 solution, from authoring through advanced playback.

NetCentrex: NetCentrex develops next-generation networking products and network-based applications for three main markets: business communications, customer interactions and broadband residential communications. NetCentrex’ solutions include voice portals, network-based multimedia contact centers, voice and video over IP virtual private networks (VPN), IP Centrex services, business trunking, infrastructure and class IV solution and residential broadband communication services.

The solutions enable both service providers and enterprises to build converged networks and to deploy a wide variety of advanced, high value-added communication services which have minimum installation requirements and lower operational costs. All solutions are built on the NetCentrex Softswitch and Media Server platforms that provide core infrastructure and network connectivity.

Highdeal: The Highdeal mission is to enable broadband and mobile service providers to launch profitable services and win targeted customers. Their solution, Highdeal Transactive, enables service providers to accomplish this by quickly creating and launching compelling triple play service offerings.

Triple play is a convergence of services by one provider on one invoice. Highdeal Transactive goes one step further by delivering true pricing convergence. Pricing convergence empowers marketing organizations to leverage the breadth of opportunities triple play services create to meet the needs of their target markets.

The key ingredients of the next broadband wars

Traditionally, voice, video, and data services are delivered by separate providers. Market dynamics have forced the next round of the Broadband War. And suddenly, the three have come crashing together because of …
° New competition – added opportunities;

° New regulatory environment;

° Improved and matured technology;

° Reduced CAPEX and OPEX for triple play deployment.

Voice, video, and data convergence is the goal.

Broadband Internet is not enough. Service providers need value-added service bundles to increase service uptake, increase customer loyalty, and increase ARPU. The “New Public Network” will consist of telephony, video, and broadband networks co-existing as they converge toward a single IP services architecture.This provides an opportunity for service providers delivering services to the home.

IPlay3 delivers a fully integrated solution to provide value-added voice and video services on top of a high-speed Internet offering. The solution addresses many issues facing the service provider in this new age of convergence. IPlay3 is delivered as…

…rack-mount servers to enable voice, video, and OSS [Operational Support System] services from the service provider’s headend or central office. Utilizing the service provider-owned IP network, the services are delivered to run on a set-top box in the subscriber home.

IPlay3 consists of four integrated components: IP telephony (aka VoIP), IP video, service bundling and OSS integration, and subscriber services.
By delivering triple play with IPlay3, the service provider benefits with: one-stop shopping; new revenue streams through migration to sophisticated IP services; energized broadband service uptake; reduced subscriber churn and increased subscriber loyalty; increased ARPU; reduced CAPEX/OPEX; content security; optimized bandwidth utilization. The subscribers will win with: a single bill; new services such as on-screen caller ID and video conferencing; universal access in the living room and in the home office; and quality TV.
The result: a best of breed integrated triple play solution

A Comprehensive Customer Platform

A key component to the IPlay3 solution is the subscriber-side portal framework. Utilizing the TV and remote control, service providers enable their subscribers to access interactive services and self-care features. Video, telephony, and account management merge seamlessly into a familiar interface used from the widespread and convenient medium of the television.

The Global Portal provides access to all user services. This portal displays as a floating menu when the user clicks the MENU button on the remote.

The Account Portal provides access to self-care and billing features. The user can view a current bill, upgrade services and packages, and set service parameters.

An Electronic Program Guide (EPG) provides access to the live TV features. Through the EPG, the subscriber can view and search the current schedule.

The Video on Demand portal allows subscribers to search, select, and purchase video content on demand.

The Telephony Services portal provides access to the history of received and placed calls, voice mail retrieval, phone book management, and telephony profile management.

As services expand, the portal framework expands leveraging a standard-based interactive portal creation environment to provide the subscriber access to features such as video conferencing, interactive gaming, and home security. The portal framework is brand-able using an optional MPEG-4 authoring tool.
Now to QuickTime TV – 2005
Sound Familiar? Where were the principles of Triple-Play first presented to the Mac community in a comprehensive manner ? Well, in chapter three this series of course! So let’s review this key component once again.

The primary focus at the World DAB Forum held in korea in 2003 was broadcasting standards that would drive next generation digital broadcasting systems. Those chosen for Audio and Video were none other than ACC and H.264 AVC, which were prominently highlighted throughout the presentation targeting Digital Mobile Broadcasting (DMB) for both terrestrial and sattelite broadcasting systems powering the next generation IP/TV market.

Apple’s OS X Tiger a Winner

Apple’s Next iteration of OS X Tiger based QuickTime will now hold the keys to the file, audio and video file formats being adopted by WorldDAB. As the de facto standards behind digital mobile broadcasting for IP/TV in the fastest growing economies on the planet today supporting Eureka-147 DAB (Such as China, Taiwan, Europe etc.), this is a huge win for Apple, make no mistake about it. In this context, the report filled by TrendWatch back in January of this year entitled,

Apple Computer Gains Share in Broadcast Market, is given new light. The report pointed to an unusual leap in Apple’s market share from 8 to 26 percent in just one year. It stands to reason that this leap was the direct result of those attending the World DAB forum! Obviously leading broadcasters around the world got the message.

In addition, this goes a long way to explaining why Apple launched their beta Xsan lineup at last year’sNational Association of Broadcasters (NAB) spring event [2004], doesn’t it now?

Lastly on this point, did you take notice of the first slide’s reference to MPEG LIVE TV and the three services it will provide: audio, video and yes, data!. This is going to be very important going forward.

A whole new market for Apple

Earlier I included the statement: …rack-mount servers to enable voice, video, and OSS (Operational Support System) services from the service provider’s headend or central office. Utilizing the service provider-owned IP network, the services are delivered to run on a set-top box in the subscriber home.

Yes, rack-mount servers such as those described above are specifically in context with Telco’s to which Frank Casanova addressed all too clearly back in June 2004’s WWDC 2004 – QuickTime State of the Union keynote. Review this keynote again and specifically tune into the time frames of 27:00 – 33:00 minutes where Frank covers the fact that Apple is selling “racks and racks of Xserves into Telco’s and Cellco’s around the globe and how it’s opening “a whole new market for Apple.”

Yet more importantly perhaps is Frank Casanova’s CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2004
Keynote points around the 2:42 minute mark where he describes these Xserves as “Industrial Strength Telco grade products … based on Tiger” – he didn’t say Panther, but rather Tiger! And although Frank was careful to backtrack and state that it wasn’t shipping yet, it was in fact what he was presenting to the engineers of Telco’s around the globe—Tiger!

In the controversial chapter 8 of this series I stated that “The old way of doing things isn’t going to ‘cut-it’ in the Next Wave of the Internet and Frank spelt that out very succinctly.

CNET described it this way: “In a way, Apple’s found its way into the core of cell phone carrierswithout having to build a single handset.” And now you know it was all about Apple’s OS X Tiger—in plain black and white. The heart of Frank Casanova’s keynote was how Apple didn’t need to have QuickTime players on any device like that of their competitors and is on that point that the audience and press were wowed. That is one of the next wave components of Tiger – which definitely means Apple has been in fact implementing Tiger into this Telco trials and why Apple is winning over a whole new market!

OSS through Java initiative

One of the central components referred to several times within this article as a matter-of-factly, is one simply known as OSS (Operational Support System). If you happened to take note of Highdeal’s homepage (link noted above), you’ll have noticed that at the bottom of this page that they’re a member of the OSS through Java Initiative.

About the OSS through Java Initiative: Building on the success of Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), XML and Web Services technologies in enterprise applications and e-commerce, the OSS through Java Initiative is chartered to develop functional APIs that accelerate the development of innovative OSS/BSS solutions where all applications function together. The Initiative’s APIs are standardized under the latest Java Community Process (JCP) program. The Initiative’s APIs help Service Providers jumpstart the deployment of end-to-end services on next-generation networks and leverage the convergence of telecommunications and Internet-based solutions.

The OSS/J Initiative was founded in September 2000, when Ericsson, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nortel Networks, Sun Microsystems and Telcordia Technologies decided to develop APIs for provisioning, customer care, inventory tracking, billing processes, and other carrier OSSs based on standards developed by the TeleManagement Forum, a global nonprofit organization that provides practical solutions to improve the management and operation of information and communications services. Hmm, 18 months laterthere was this.

According to Dittberner Associates, Inc., the worldwide OSS/BSS middleware market will grow to $870 million in 2008, from an estimated $728 million in 2004. Now Dittberner sees the market uniting around a widely accepted standard.

“The battle over which standard will dominate is essentially over,” says Dan Baker, Dittberner’s director of OSS research. “The J2EE environment is the clear winner with BEA’s WebLogic and IBM WebSphere being the two most J2EE popular application servers,” he adds.

Overall, Dittberner forecasts J2EE application servers will capture 78% of the OSS/BSS middleware market in 2008.

Dittberner also predicts the scaleable and standards-friendly Enterprise Software Bus (ESB) [PDF link] approach of vendors like Cape Clear and Sonic Software will gain ground, steadily displacing the proprietary Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) solutions that were popular in the late 90’s.

Here’s another interesting OSS to take a look at: Introducing Kenan FX, the evolutionary new business framework from CSG Systems that delivers the industry’s most proven and powerful solutions.

If you check out the link to CSG you’ll find an interactive illustration that will provide you with a short summary of each of their specific system services. In addition, CSG lists other interesting partners like Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Oracle and HP which of course, as a side note, just happen to be companies working with Apple. Anyways, this chapter isn’t about billing systems, though it indeed plays a role in understanding where this framework fits into the bigger scheme of things within an IP/TV network platform.

Apple and Telco-based IP/TV

This past Christmas I had a minor glitch working with iTunes and ended up with 3 copies of the same tune I downloaded. So I called Apple’s support line just to see what could be done, and lo and behold while I was on hold for a sales rep, there was this consistent advertisement from my local Telco repeating itself. Huh, why was my local Telco doing on this line while I was waiting for an Apple iTunes rep. Ah, yes – now it all made sense – Apple is working with my Telco concerning iTunes and I thought I was connecting to Apple … but I was. So what did I accidentally stumble into here?

For the record, my Telco has made it clear in the local press of late, that they’re definitely going to launch a TV offering to the public sometime this year – but it’s all hush-hush as to the details. Being that my local Telco is somehow involved behind the scenes with Apple’s iTunes…I think I it’s pretty clear as to what’s coming next.

You don’t think so? Well think back to this past January (2005) concerning a New York Times report quoting Steve Jobs:

“The problem was not that Mac TV was not a good idea, but that the cable companies are monopolies.”

So evidently the reporter didn’t ask the right questions because Apple’s Frank Casanova hasn’t been focusing an once of energy whatsoever in any of his recent keynotes in pointing to working with “cable companies.” No, nada, zip – because it’s all been about Telco’s and Celco’s for some time!

Am I stating that Apple has a Telco based IP/TV game plan? Yes! It’s not a matter of if, but rather when. The next generation of network-centric- televisions – don’t arrive until sometime in mid to late 2006 from the likes of Toshiba and Sony, so timing this roll-out is key. However, until then, we may have some very interesting surprises in store for us – shortly.

Get ready, because suddenly – the next wave of the broadband wars – will be upon us!

The Next Wave of the Internet Series
By Neo

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