MPEGIF Master Class

The transition to digital television is well underway in many countries across the world, and indeed some countries have already finalized this process. Reflecting on experience both from an economic as well as geopolitical point of view, international specialists will focus on how new digital technology can expand to deliver more value and increased revenue and how to plan for a successful transition to digital broadcasting.

From mobile video to HD in the living room - the very latest developments in technologies for next generation service provision will be put to the test by industry specialists who will be looking at virtually all aspects of video and television services. This panel will focus on new methods being deployed for content creation, navigation and personalization as part of new programming models leading to a multi-channel/ multi-screen digital society.

Every major disruptive change, such as the current transition to digital video, comes with significant challenges. Although the enabling technology is already in place, and is quickly maturing, the economic and legal aspects remain a very critical part of the overall chain and can and will tend to slow the adoption rate for these new services. In this session the economic and legal issues will be discussed, especially in the light of the current financial and industry climate, and various possible models will be examined.

The use of IP based technology to deliver video has resulted in an explosion in the number of ways that consumers can now receive their video entertainment content. This complexity brings its own set of challenges that is being addressed by the Open IPTV Forum. Created in March 2007 it has now reached over 50 members worldwide. Its aim is to provide an end-to-end IPTV solution enabling a "plug and play" experience for the end-users that is independent from the technology behind it. Even though there are more than 14 million households around the world receiving video using IP delivery there has not, until now, been a universal standard for the entire IPTV ecosystem. The release this year of the first IPTV specification from the Open IPTV Forum now facilitates the widespread adoption of IPTV services. In this panel members and service operators will discuss the merits of an open and end-to-end specification and how it fits their service goals and business models.