special report IPTV@IBC2010
and removed the need for an engineer visit or hardware upgrade. “This decision has proved to be a prudent one,” continued Faltner. “By simply completing a software upgrade our subscribers’ set-top boxes they were able to access this new multimedia service after a reboot of the aonTV set-top box, which is now named Media Box. Meine Medien was the first service to offer Austrian consumers with the ability to view content, stored on PCs or on a dedicated A1 Telekom Austria online storage space, on their television sets via aonTV or their mobile phone - and was launched in under one year, from concept to rollout.”
ADB’s solution enabled A1 Telekom Austria to deliver a range of pioneering services. Because it is based on open-standards such as DLNA and UPnP, the solution lets A1 Telekom Austria’s subscribers access content from any compliant device, rather than being forced to integrate different software for each device. Via Meine Medien, A1 Telekom Austria subscribers were also the first in Europe to be able to view videos encoded in DivX format on their television sets via their aon Media Box.
“Our customers were asking for this functionality,“ explained Gerhard Faltner, “so we decided that we should develop it as part of our new Meine Medien service. There are a lot of DivX files stored on our subscribers’ hard drives and we wanted to enable them to watch these files on TVs, rather than smaller PC monitors. It is about providing our subscribers with the TV experience they want.” Meine Medien also offers a virtual media storage facility that A1 Telekom Austria’s subscribers can use to upload their digital memories without the need to invest in separate external storage. Subscribers can access their virtual storage via their Media Box at all times, even when their PC is turned off. The service also extends to mobile phones, enabling subscribers to access their virtual storage from their mobile handsets, view photos, music and video. The uploaded digital media files are automatically converted in the formats optimised for viewing on a television set or a mobile phone thanks to an integrated transcoding process. “The beauty of Meine Medien is that it is enabled via a simple software upgrade, rather than
requiring us to make complex changes to the middleware or even hardware exchange at consumers’ homes,” continued Faltner. Simon Cothliff, business
development at ADB, explained that the approach taken by A1 Telekom Austria provides a blueprint for other operators looking to deliver compelling digital pay TV services: “Consumer expectations are constantly evolving and the example set by Meine Medien highlights how operators can deliver new, advanced services to consumers without requiring costly, and often complex, technical development or hardware upgrades,” he said. “The key success factor is to have a solution partner, such as ADB, who can shield the operator from the complexity of the platform implementation. Rather than worrying about hardware and software integration, operators can then stay focused on delivering compelling new services that do what television should do - create an environment where consumers can sit back and enjoy the content.” But, continued Cothliff, delivering a platform for an innovative service like A1 Telekom Austria’s Meine Medien is not as easy as it sounds. “It’s a bit like golf - everyone thinks they can do it, but very few people can do it well! ADB has proven time and again that it is one of only a handful of companies that have the expertise to
Above, aonTV. Below, the aonTV media box.
Photos courtesy of A1 Telekom Austria.
optimise the entire complex software stack required for advanced pay-TV services. Our work with A1 Telekom Austria is just another example.” While Meine Medien has given Austrian aonTV viewers an attractive new television experience, A1 Telekom Austria is continuing to invent this area. “We’re already working on the next evolution of our service,” explained Gerhard Faltner. “People have invested a lot of money in their large screen TVs and would like the opportunity to share all of their digital content on these devices. We are continuing to work on delivering a range of new services that will evolve our subscribers’ TV experience further and help us to maintain our market leadership.”
“The beauty of Meine Medien is that it is enabled via a simple software upgrade, rather than requiring us to make complex changes to the middleware or even hardware exchange at consumers’ homes.”
www.ibeweb.com l OFFICIAL GUIDE TO IPTV@IBC2010 september/october 2010 l ibe l S23
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