"Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing"
The IPTV World Forum opened its doors this morning on a bright London day, and the mood was equally optimistic indoors, with the conference rooms packed for keynote presentations from Christopher Schläffer of Deutsche Telekom, Christophe Forax from the European Commission and the BBC's Richard Halton, charged with making Project Canvas a reality.
Julian Herbert, Principal Analyst at event organisers Informa Telecoms & Media, opened the Plenary Keynote Session with a Hitchcock quote: "Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing," quipped the British filmmaker. "It didn't change people's habits. It just kept them inside the house." Mr. Herbert went on to say that after its initial pizzazz, IPTV is now becoming a reality in many markets, and is "coming home", adding that those assembled within the room (and without) should be pleased with themselves for making this happen.
Then followed Christopher Schläffer, Chief Innovation Officer at Deutsche Telekom, who detailed his vision that "the future is soft", and will be based on software and service delivery rather than hardware. He also stated that content richness is "of the the essence", and that he believes the categories of Internet TV (Joost, iPlayer etc), Web video (YouTube and other on-demand video) and managed-network IPTV services such as Deutsche Telekom's T-Home Entertain will eventually converge. He also revealed during the subsequent Q&A session that mobile TV will be added to Deutsche Telekom's offering in the second quarter of this year.
Christophe Forax, Member of the Cabinet of Viviane Reding, said in his presentation that the European Commission is committed to the success of IPTV, and revealed that the Commission plans to plough ahead with its plans to force all broadband network operators to open their networks up to third parties, adding that the Commission is operating a policy of “platform neutrality” across all broadband networks.
The BBC's Richard Halton, Programme Director of IPTV, took the stage to a palpable sense of anticipation at learning more about the Beeb's 'Project Canvas' initiative. There were some fairly wide-sweeping proclamations, including the assertion that "we are putting Internet connectivity at the heart of our vision for Public Service Broadcasting". He added that the move into iPlayer and mooted Project Kangaroo and Canvas initiatives are intended to help the UK's free-to-air platforms catch up with pay-TV platforms in terms of functionality. Mr. Halton also said that one purpose of Project Canvas is to bring a standards-led approach to new delivery mechanisms, making content available without repurposing.
He also emphasised that Canvas is not an attempt to create new standards, but rather bring together existing standards from the telecoms and broadcasting industries. He added that the approach of Canvas is to be audience-focused and "we have no benefit from over-specifying the [set-top boxes] technical requirements]", but rather the BBC will play "a mutual and benign role".