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in this environment. The best opportunity for
network service providers is to provide fast
tracks to HTTP / CDN distribution,” he
advises.
Fisher says that differing video standards
cause problems in that the industry is
fragmented. “There are multiple choices for
service providers and each has some
advantages and some disadvantages. Having
a clear winner would allow the industry to
streamline and focus on improving one
format, rather than splitting the effort
amongst several different formats. It’s very
likely that one flavour will become dominant,
but what that will be remains to be seen.
Apple holds a lot of power, and so its HLS
format is popular.”
POPULARITY. “Different streaming
formats do cause problems as both the
content provider and device manufacturer
need to support them,” says Tullemans,
adding that there always be dominant
flavours. “At the moment it is HLS, because
all content providers have just invested in it
to be available on the Apple platform. At the
same time we know from experience that new
techniques arise and grow in popularity.”
According to Viaccess-Orca’s Leporini,
user experience should be the cornerstone of
TV Everywhere solutions. “With the objective
produces globally-applicable
standards for Information
and Communications
Technologies (ICT),
including fixed, mobile,
radio, converged, broadcast
and Internet technologies.
Officially recognised by
the European Union as a
European Standards
Organisation. ETSI is a notfor-profit organisation with
more than 700 ETSI