Zeebox app will connect you, your friends and TV content

Zeebox is a clever platform that, via an app, will connect your preferences, your friends viewing and ratings and augmented programme information into a smooth channel guide on your companion device.

I like the Zeebox approach here for a number of reasons:

• The Zeebox guide is available on the companion device (phone, tablet, laptop) and so doesn’t detract from the core viewing activity on the TV
• Zeebox adds useful and relevant information to the content via a number of metadata sources
• The Zeebox app adds in Social Networking elements so you can see what friends are watching and how they rate a particular programme

All very clever but will Zeebox be a winner with the consumer? I have had countless conversations with friends, family and colleagues that often expresses an annoyance over the disconnect between the content being viewed and the ability to link it to something else. For example my wife will regularly, and sometimes disingenuously, ‘wonder’ about the age of a presenter or actor on TV. This invariably results in a guess at their age and then confirmation on Google. Now I am not suggesting that Zeebox builds in an ‘auto age result’ into the feature set but it does show a link between what we watch on TV and the need to go to a companion device to find contextual information.

The need for consumers to enhance their viewing experience with contextual information and, increasingly, with a live connection to their friends via Social Networks seems to be with us and soon to be available via Zeebox.

BCi continues to provide Thought Leadership, Consultancy, Architecture, System Integration and Test services for all types of on demand platforms. Feel free to call Mark Hooper on +44 (0)2380 988606 or email him at mark.hooper@bci.eu.com.

Can we improve consumer trust of Over the Top TV (OTT TV)?

Over the Top TV platforms will continue to take many forms and in the engineering of these platforms we will need to consider how consumers rate the credibility of a platform/service. The platforms may be limited to presenting film and TV content to a TV or more ambitious systems that bring multiple content forms to multiple devices. Whichever flavour of Over the Top TV platform is deployed we run the risk of losing consumers or at least selling less if they feel it’s all ‘push’ and no ‘pull’. What I mean is many platforms rely on ‘pushing’; advertising, sponsorship, promotions, etc at the consumer to increase sales. We all know there’s a huge debate around the use Social Media to help push sales - again this is ‘push’. As soon as we present an organisation on any Social Media platform then the natural response is people become sceptical.

We need to think of Social Media as providing the backbone of independent ratings of the service, the content, etc. Some of this happens through people sharing links for content and services on Social Media sites but it’s possible to extend it to encouraging people to evangelise (or not). The collective opinions, like an ebay rating, are what give people an enhanced reason to buy in. The Internet has made this industry (and many others) near instantaneous: we expect any content, any time, any where and on any device. We will all need to be mindful that this also applies to consumer tastes and their opinions on a particular company, marketing campaign or piece of content.

BCi continues to provide Thought Leadership, Consultancy, Architecture, System Integration and Test services for all type of on demand platforms. Feel free to call Mark Hooper on +44 (0)2380 988606 or email him on mark.hooper@bci.eu.com.

New Hosted Marlin Service will need specialist integration

The new Hosted Marlin Service provides a fast, simple and scalable means to add Marlin DRM to an on demand platform. Cloud based services are proving to be a key element in the deployment and operation of OTT TV (Over the Top TV) platforms. The Hosted Marlin Service will allow OTT TV stakeholders (content owners, subscription operators, content aggregators, etc) to add DRM protection to content.

Cloud based services bring a range of benefits and many offer great interoperability to other platform components. Despite this it is inevitable that these platforms will require a level of integration into an existing system or with the components of a new deployment.

BCi is a systems integrator with unrivalled experience in the integration and testing of on demand platforms, OTT TV and Marlin DRM technologies. We can help stakeholder bring their Over the Top TV platforms into reality.

www.intertrust.com/solutions/hms

Who will steal an early lead on OTT TV platforms

Below is a sample of the contribution BCi made to a recent industry report investigating the factors influencing which OTT TV (Over the Top TV) platform is likely to be favoured by consumers.

Q - What do you think of the Google TV and Apple TV product/services?  Do either of the products present a clear competitive advantage?

BCi: Apple’s early foray into the TV space wasn’t very successful and they would have learnt from that. Through iTunes they also have vast experience in the presentation and monetisation of online content. This is likely to present them with an advantage over Google TV. There’s also a certain cache associated with Apple products and services, the same cannot be readily said about Google. Perhaps this gives a clue to how they might position it in the market; Google on no frills but very efficient and Apple leading on the look & feel and experience?

Q - Do you any of the existing OTT devices — whether it be a set-top box, connected TV, gaming console — strike you as technologically superior to the competition? Along those lines, which OTT system is best equipped to add additional applications and which has the best streaming capabilities?

BCi: Ultimately consumers will want a unified service. This doesn’t mean a single device but it seems logical that a Connected TV will be at the heart of it and it will provide the primary consumption of linear and on demand content. It may also be used as the configuration for any other devices and act as the crystallising device. A player who has a Connected TV with seamless integration of other devices and access to great content will be better placed than most.

Q - How long before we see widespread consumer adoption of OTT technology?

BCi: What’s widespread? Country by country the picture will be different. In the UK the catch up TV services from the PSB’s have, arguably, made Over the Top TV mainstream - a problem well known to the ISP’s. IT’s probably going to be more activity like iplayer and the likes that acts as the catalyst for adoption.

Q - Will consumers replace their Playstations and Xboxes with OTT set-top boxes?

BCi: Not for years, but maybe within 5. Games consoles are too specialised at the moment and trying to dump all that processing power onto the STB would result in a poor gaming experience.

Q - How significant is the OTT threat to cable/satellite providers? What can they do to compete?

BCi: This is the biggest threat they have had to face. Until now they have sat in the privileged position of owning/managing the network, creating their content deals and locking in customers with subscriptions. Net result for the consumer is a prescribed set of content with no prospect of moving beyond the boundaries of that Operator. Over the Top TV promises so much more, although they have to be careful not to follow the same pattern as the Operators. They can and will fight back though. The Operators will have to find ways to leverage the fact they have a ‘managed’ network and perhaps lead on offering service guarantees that cannot be offered over an unmanaged network.

Q - As consumer electronics manufactures continue to design OTT options directly into TVs, Blu-Ray players, etc., how significant is the market for specialty OTT set-top boxes?

BCi: There’s always a gap between technical/service innovation and the speed at which it can consumed. This is true in the TV where consumers are not willing to replace a TV simply for a enhanced feature (like OTT TV), they are likely to wait and fill the gap with an STB.

Delivery of OTT TV and Games - can the STB do both?

We’ve seen the addition of OTT TV services on the games consoles. The Xbox 360 can access Sky content in the UK, although there we a few hiccups at first. Sony’s PS3 and the Nintendo Wii also provides access to OTT TV services. But can it work the other way around - can the STB support gaming and OTT TV?

Games consoles are specifically designed to provide a rich, immersive, engaging and (perhaps most importantly) interactive environment. All of this requires considerable and well purposed hardware (think physics engines for example). On top of that they then perform the task of rendering these images for consumption on our TVs, including OTT TV.

It doesn’t seem likely that STB’s will be able to flip the situation around and double up as the means of receiving OTT TV and providing a gaming experience comparable to the leading games consoles. Many STB’s do currently provide limited gaming experiences and there’s no doubt that there’s opportunities to develop and improve these. Maybe the STB manufacturers should consider making games consoles that provide TV services?

Why does it matter? If someone solves this then it could mean the reduction of so many boxes in the home. The integration of a great games console and a great STB would tick so many of the consumer requirements that they would be able, and very willing, to pay a premium. Imagine access to all of that OTT TV, playing great games, DVD playback, DLNA, etc all through a single device.