IPTV Out in Force at NXTcomm

Aiming to put the broad in broadband for IPTV rollouts, infrastructure vendors are focusing on breadth in product offerings to help drive deployment of video-driven bundles to the home faster and with greater flexibility.

A wide array of suppliers will be targeting virtually every component category involved in the long and complex IPTV ecosystem with product introductions at the NXTcomm conference in hopes of helping providers adapt to a fast-changing video market.

“One solution to market disorder is breadth of product line,” said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp., claiming carriers face a large number of challenges in being successful with IPTV deployment and penetration, such as changing demographics, geographies and regulation. “Telcos had a century of voice business experience. Nobody has even a decade of video experience under the conditions that now prevail in the TV market.”

Flexibility-first focused service providers will find new options in broadband access equipment, service and support systems and home networking gear – for starters – in what’s fast becoming something of a Chinese menu for video service rollouts.

On the broadband access front, Pannaway Technologies, Telco Systems, Wave 7 Optics and Zhone Corp., among others, will be introducing versatile systems designed to drive fiber closer to the home, while making more efficient use of access network bandwidth, reducing operational costs and simplifying management for services providers.

While these players are far from newcomers to the market segment, their latest announcements are designed primarily to burst bandwidth bottlenecks in the delivery of video-driven IP service bundles, while appealing to a broader range of telcos.

The makeup of their broadband access systems include common threads, such as simplified system management, easier service provisioning and support and greater flexibility in supporting changing traffic needs.

For small and often rural telcos, there’s help on the way for those seeking so-called turnkey packages, relief that’s been long-promised and met with strong interest but is late in arriving in robust form.

Satellite operator SES Americom Inc. is expected to finally announce commercial availability of its IP-Prime packaged IPTV offering for this segment of the telco market, while rival Falcon Communications will be demonstrating its system-oriented offering.

What’s most notable about these competing offerings is that they include the latest video encoding/compression technology - MPEG-4, hundreds of channels of programming and the option to have the provider manage the packages.

Also of importance from a cost perspective is that these packages obviate the need to buy a headend, the most expensive single-device capital expenditure in an IPTV deployment, by letting multiple providers share a headend owned by either the package provider.

SES’s IP-Prime has undergone extensive beta testing and trials with a handful of telco members of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association to ensure it meets the needs of the service provider segment.

On the home networking front, set-top box (STB) giant Amino Communications will be unveiling a new family of devices that incorporate MPEG-4 video encoding, among advanced communications, processing and networking features.

Amino’s earlier generation STBs are widely used in IPTV deployments in the United States and abroad and are likely available as part of turnkey IPTV packages, as well as sold separately.

Given the increasing complexity of the needs in the connected home, in part driven by evolving video viewing habits, it’s no surprise that NXTcomm will be the backdrop for the introduction of advanced home gateway systems.

Actiontec will use its products and roadmap for expanding the role of the home gateway over the next few years to support higher speed services and applications, provide greater user ease and convenience through home network control integration and management.

In addition, Actiontec will showcase its new GPON optical network terminal (ONT) for fiber-to-the-home deployments. The solution includes Ethernet, MoCA and POTS line interfaces. Other models will integrate the broadband home router and a battery backup into the ONT to reduce equipment and installation costs.

Also at the show, carriers are expected to announce higher-bandwidth services – in many cases delivered over the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks they’ve already deployed.

A case in point is Optical Entertainment Network Inc. (OEN), which is bulking up its FISION triple-play service by offering customers in its service area a symmetric 20mbps Internet access option.

In trials in advance of its recent service launch, OEN said consumers sought more than the slower and asymmetric Internet access links available from other telcos and cable operators for applications such as Internet-based video viewing and interactive gaming.

OEN already operated a FTTH network in Houston and is actively planning to extend the reach of its triple-play package through partnerships with other capacity providers and sales agents.

Beyond OEN, top executives from Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. are expected to detail their challenges and successes in deploying next-gen broadband infrastructures today and update attendees on the progress of current service bundles, with an emphasis on video offerings.

Actiontec Electronics, Inc. www.actiontec.com

Amino Communications www.aminicom.com

AT&T Inc. www.att.com

CIMI Corp. www.cimicorp.com

Falcon Communications www.falconcommunications.com

Optical Entertainment Network, Inc. www.fision.net

Pannaway Technologies, Inc. www.pannaway.com

Qwest Communications International Inc. www.qwest.com

SES Americom, Inc. www.ses-americom.com

Telco Systems Inc. www.telcosystems.com

Verizon Communications, Inc. www.verizon.com

Wave 7 Optics www.wave7optics.com

Zhone Corp. www.zhone.com

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