Background info
Telecommunication and electronic media are now moving fast from narrowband towards broadband. This process involves faster networks and faster data processing; broadband is now the next big opportunity in e-communication. Users are now able to access web pages ever faster. This will consequently result in the production of more and richer content but this is not the only effect. At the same time, computing is evolving to the concept of IP Anywhere and the broadcast world is moving from analogue to digital. The likely effect of this combination of circumstances is that the Internet would become multi-tiered and is already converging with the broadcasting world. Broadband will, therefore, significantly change the roles that different operators in the market play nowadays. The growing diversity of broadband networks means that most customers and companies in urban areas in the industrialised world can be offered several different broadband communication solutions, and broadband is becoming somewhat of a commodity a
The diversity in the devices that can receive IP-based content is also highly increasing. There are already millions of Internet connected PC-type devices and set top boxes (digital televisions) with IP addresses. But the future will also bring increasing numbers of other objects with IP addresses. Objects such as cars, mobile phones and personal digital assistants may be obvious candidates, but there have been suggestions that this could be extended to slot machines, games consoles, electronic toys and general household equipment.
While this growth in the number of items connected to the Internet is increasing, the broadcast business is undergoing a rapid transition from analogue to digital. One of the core advantages of digital broadcast is that content can be compressed before transmission and de-compressed by a decoder at reception so that service providers can offer a greater number of programmes in the same bandwidth. The decoder, or ‘set-top box' that is used to de-compress the digital broadcast content is a rather simple computer. Second generation versions are just starting to appear that allow users to do such things as accessing and browsing through programming information and previews, ordering goods via the Internet, accessing web pages and sending email. The really exciting outcome is that any content delivered through digital broadcast will be able to reach IP devices of any kind through broadband pipes of any kind.
The Internet in its current form is still growing very rapidly, but there are already signs of a latent demand for capabilities that it cannot deliver. Web publishers and web designers are struggling to make Internet content richer through the use of audio and video and through the use of rich, animated graphics. Also, the end users are very keen to download this kind of content despite the long download times and a media quality that is still very different from what they are receiving from their radio and televisions sets. There is, therefore, a need for a real broadband concept for the Internet that can be used for very fast broadcast of rich multimedia of any kind via reliable bandwidth to any kind of IP device.
The TCP/IP protocol enables reliable delivery of media from any place to any place, but in such a way that the content provider does not know which transmission speed will be available to each end user. UDP/IP is a protocol that enables very fast one-way transmission simultaneously to everyone, provided that the underlying infrastructure offers fast, reliable transmission. Broadcasting, however, also requires a real QoS (Quality of Service) like it is in traditional broadcasting media.
The Internet is to some degree a distribution-free medium, where anyone can set up a server anywhere and people can access the content form anywhere. Traditional broadcasting is different: a television network has to ensure basic access to the content that it wishes to retail to its customers.
Telecom network operators are investing heavily in broadband network infrastructure with the revenue from multimedia broadcasting IP devices expected to provide the return on this investment. The demand for content creation is expected to outstrip supply creating a major opportunity for solution providers who can develop their competence in broadband multimedia distribution.
