coverstory_cover story 14/08/2015 09:24 Page 1
Homes
under a cloud?
Recent months and weeks have seen varying degrees
of consolidation in the CPE sector, as well as
traditional vendors enhancing their portfolio by
acquiring 'cloud' expertise. Euromedia asked a range
of industry players what role the Home Gateway and
set-top box will play in managing and securing content
distribution in the connected, multi-device home.
uromedia: What role will STBs,
Home Gateways and Smart TVs
play in an increasingly cloudbased future?
ABOX42: The TV will stay the major
Entertainment Hub in the home. Therefore a
new generation of Smart STBs from operators
will provide a whole range of TV services:
traditional Live TV, Catch Up TV and more
and more on Demand Services.
ActiveVideo: As functionality behind the
user experience is virtualised in the cloud, the
focus of STBs and other consumer devices will
shift to next-gen codecs and advanced
networking and storage functions.
AirTies: The answer is not necessarily the
same for all devices. We believe STBs and
Smart TV will act as smart rendering engines
for content mostly coming from the cloud
OTT.
Relying on quite standard and robust
interfaces is mandatory for faster introduction
of new content and innovation. Integrating
the proper level of security is also a must,
including in Smart TVs. The gateways may
E
still go in two different directions: either
super media gateways with lots of power,
security and control, or to quite simple
devices, where a large portion of the
functionality will be handled in the cloud.
Which way it goes is dependent firstly on
where the storage for PVR functionality sits:
in the cloud or in the home, which is mostly a
legal/rights issue and secondly, whether a
broadcast network is being used to deliver
content.
Albis Technologies: With more and more
FTTH roll-outs and the increasing power of
CPEs, including mobile phones, more and
more content can be streamed directly to end
devices without the need for a gateway.
Cloud-based streaming services employing
OTT technology will be reachable in-home
and abroad from the same source — without
the need for transcoding and local streaming.
When access to bandwidth is limited, in a
DVB broadcast environment, or services like
Network PVR are not an option, a Home
Gateway can still play an important role.
Alcatel-Lucent: The opportunity to harness
powerful consumer-purchased equipment,
such as connected TV, tablets, gaming
consoles, and IP media players, is irresistible.
As MSOs leverage this trend and deliver IP
video services at scale, a simplification of the
home environment will be required. This will
include migrating the intelligence and
complexity from the home infrastructure to
the edge of the MSO network. To control the
user experience, achieve greater efficiencies,
and introduce services faster in this new
home environment, MSOs are contemplating
the use of virtualisation techniques for both
STBs, as well as Residential Gateways
(RGWs). Even though consumers are
enthusiastically embracing connected devices,
it will take some time before all TVs become
smart. Service providers still need to find
cost-effective solutions to deliver their
services to regular TVs. HDMI or USB
dongles can help service providers convert a
basic TV into a smart TV.
Amino Technologies: The STB continues
to play an