Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is a system through which Internet television services are delivered using the architecture and networking methods of the Internet Protocol Suite over a packet-switched network infrastructure (such as the Internet or other access network), instead of being delivered through traditional radio frequency broadcast, satellite signal, and cable television (CATV) formats.

IPTV services may be classified into three main groups:

live television, with or without interactivity related to the current TV show;

time-shifted television: catch-up TV (replays a TV show that was broadcast hours or days ago), start-over TV (replays the current TV show from its beginning);

video on demand (VOD): browse a catalog of videos, not related to TV programming.

IPTV is distinguished from general Internet-based or web-based multimedia services by its on-going standardization process (e.g., European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and preferential deployment scenarios in subscriber-based telecommunications networks with high-speed access channels into end-user premises via set-top boxes or other customer-premises equipment.

Definition

Historically, many different definitions of IPTV have appeared, including elementary streams over IP networks, transport streams over IP networks and a number of proprietary systems.

One official definition approved by the International Telecommunication Union focus group on IPTV (ITU-T FG IPTV) is:

"IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as television/video/audio/text/graphics/data delivered over IP based networks managed to provide the required level of quality of service and experience, security, interactivity and reliability."

Another more detailed definition of IPTV is the one given by Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) IPTV Exploratory Group on 2005:

"IPTV is defined as the secure and reliable delivery to subscribers of entertainment video and related services. These services may include, for example, Live TV, Video On Demand (VOD) and Interactive TV (iTV). These services are delivered across an access agnostic, packet switched network that employs the IP protocol to transport the audio, video and control signals. In contrast to video over the public Internet, with IPTV deployments, network security and performance are tightly managed to ensure a superior entertainment experience, resulting in a compelling business environment for content providers, advertisers and customers alike."

One definition for consumer IPTV is for single or multiple program transport streams (MPTS) which are sourced by the same network operator that owns or directly controls the "last mile" to the consumer's premises . This control over delivery enables a guaranteed quality of service (QoS), and also allows the service provider to offer an enhanced user experience such as better program guide, interactive services etc.

In commercial environments IPTV distributes live TV, video playout channels and Video on Demand (VOD) material across LAN or WAN IP network infrastructures, with a controlled QoS.

History

In 1994, ABC's World News Now was the first television show to be broadcast over the Internet, using the CU-SeeMe videoconferencing software.

The term IPTV first appeared in 1995 with the founding of Precept Software by Judith Estrin and Bill Carrico. Precept developed an Internet video product named ''IP/TV''. IP/TV was an MBONE compatible Windows and Unix-based application that transmitted single and multi-source audio/video traffic, ranging from low to DVD quality, using both unicast and IP multicast Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) and Real time control protocol (RTCP). The software was written primarily by Steve Casner, Karl Auerbach, and Cha Chee Kuan. Precept was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1998. Cisco retains the IP/TV trademark.

Internet radio company AudioNet started the first continuous live webcasts with content from WFAA-TV in January, 1998 and KCTU-LP on January 10, 1998.

Kingston Communications, a regional telecommunications operator in UK, launched KIT (Kingston Interactive Television), an IPTV over DSL broadband interactive TV service in September 1999 after conducting various TV and VoD trials. The operator added additional VoD service in October 2001 with Yes TV, a VoD content provider. Kingston was one of the first companies in the world to introduce IPTV and IP VoD over ADSL. In 2006 the KIT service was discontinued, subscribers having declined from a peak of 10,000 to 4,000

In 1999, NBTel (now known as Bell Aliant) was the first to commercially deploy Internet Protocol Television over digital subscriber line (DSL) in Canada using the Alcatel 7350 DSLAM and middleware created by iMagic TV (owned by NBTel's parent company Bruncor). The service was marketed under the brand VibeVision in New Brunswick, and later expanded into Nova Scotia in early 2000 after the formation of Aliant. iMagic TV was later sold to Alcatel.

In 2002, Sasktel was the second in Canada to commercially deploy Internet Protocol (IP) video over digital subscriber line (DSL), using the Lucent Stinger(R) DSL platform. In 2006, it was the first North American company to offer HDTV channels over an IPTV service

In 2003, Total Access Networks Inc launched its IPTV service, comprising 100 free IPTV stations world wide. The service has been used in over 100 countries world wide, and has channels in 26 languages.

In 2005, Bredbandsbolaget launched its IPTV service as the first service provider in Sweden. As of January 2009, they are not the biggest supplier any longer; TeliaSonera who launched their service later has now more customers.

In 2006, AT&T launched its U-Verse IPTV service in the United States, comprising a national head end and regional video-serving offices. AT&T offered over 300 channels in 11 cities with more to be added in 2007 and beyond. In March 2009, AT&T announced that U-verse had expanded to 100 or more High Definition channels in every U-Verse TV market. While using IP protocols, AT&T built a private IP network exclusively for video transport.

In 2010, CenturyLink - after acquiring Embarq (2009) and Qwest (2010), entered five U.S. markets with an IPTV service called Prism. This was after successful test marketing in Florida.

Promise

This technology was restricted by low broadband penetration and by the relatively high cost of installing wiring capable of transporting IPTV content reliably in the customer's home. However, residential IPTV was expected to grow as broadband was available to more than 200 million households worldwide in the year 2005, projected to grow to 400 million by the year 2010. Many of the world's major telecommunications providers are exploring IPTV as a new revenue opportunity from their existing markets and as a defensive measure against encroachment from more conventional Cable Television services.

Also, there are a growing number of IPTV installations within schools, universities, corporations and local institutions.

In December 2009, the FCC began looking into using set-top boxes to make TVs with cable or similar services into network video players. FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake had said earlier that TV and the Internet would soon be the same, but only 75 percent of homes had computers, while 99 percent had TV. A Nielsen survey said 99 percent of video viewing was done on TV.

Markets

[[Image:IPTV-Countries.svg|thumb|401px|right|Map of IPTV countries of the world. ]]

The number of global IPTV subscribers was expected to grow from 28 million in 2009 to 83 million in 2013. Europe and Asia are the leading territories in terms of the over-all number of subscribers. But in terms of service revenues, Europe and North America generate a larger share of global revenue, due to very low average revenue per user (ARPU) in China and India, the fastest growing (and ultimately, the biggest market) is Asia. The global IPTV market revenues are forecast to grow from US$12 billion in 2009 to US$38 billion in 2013.

While all major western countries and most developed economies have IPTV deployments, the world's leading markets for IPTV were Germany (by Deutsche Telekom) France (led by Free, then Orange, then Neuf Cegetel (now SFR) ; total of over 4 million subscriptions), South Korea (1.8 million subscriptions), United States (by AT&T), Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Switzerland and Portugal (with meo, Optimus Clix and Vodafone Casa).

Services also launched in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pakistan, Canada, Croatia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Georgia, Greece, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Turkey, Colombia and Chile. The United Kingdom launched IPTV early and after a slow initial growth, in February 2009 BT announced that it had reached 398,000 subscribers to its BT Vision service. Claro has launched their own IPTV service called "Claro TV". This service is available in several countries in which they operate, such as Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua. IPTV is just beginning to grow in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America, and now it is growing in South Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and especially India. but significant plans exist in countries such as Russia. Kazakhstan introduced its own IPTV services by the national provider Kazakhtelecom JSC and content integrator Alacast under the "iD TV" brand in two major cities Astana and Almaty in 2009 and is about to go nationwide starting 2010. Australian ISP iiNet launched Australia's first IPTV with fetchtv.

The first IPTV service to launch on the Chinese mainland sells under the "BesTV" brand and is currently available in the cities of Shanghai and Harbin. In India IPTV was launched by Airtel and the government service provider MTNL and BSNL and is available in most of the major cities of the country . In Pakistan IPTV was launched by PTCL, brand name Smart TV which is available in most of the major cities of Pakistan.

In Malaysia, various companies have attempted to launch IPTV services since 2005. Failed PayTV provider MiTV attempted to use a IPTV-over-UHF service but the service failed to take off. Hypp.TV was supposed to use an IPTV-based system, but is not true IPTV as it does not provide a set top box and requires users to view channels using a computer. True IPTV providers available in the country at the moment are Fine TV and DETV. In Q2 2010, Telekom Malaysia launched IPTV services through their fiber to the home product UniFi in select areas.

In Turkey, TTNET launched IPTV services under the name IPtivibu in 2010. It was available in pilot areas in the cities of Istanbul, İzmir and Ankara. As of 2011 IPTV service is launched as a large scale commercial service and widely available across the country under the trademark "Tivibu EV" Superonline plans to provide IPTV under the different name "WebTV" in 2011. Türk Telekom started building the fiber optic substructure for IPTV in late 2007.

IPTV for hospitality

Besides targeting the homes, vendors target IPTV services to the hospitality sector. IPTV is a natural progression from the pay-per-view and video on demand offerings. Some players such as Select-TV, VDA have actually started offering IPTV to the hotels before moving into the homes.

Architecture of IPTV

Elements

TV Head-end: where live TV channels are encoded, encrypted and delivered in the form of IP multicast streams.

VOD platform: where on-demand video assets are stored and served when a user makes a request in the form of IP unicast stream.

Interactive portal: allows the user to navigate within the different IPTV services, such as the VOD catalog.

delivery network: the packet switched network that carries IP packets (unicast and multicast).

home gateway: the piece of equipment at the user's home that terminates the access link from the delivery network.

user's set-top box: the piece of equipment at the user's home that decodes and decrypt TV and VOD content and displays it on the TV screen.

Architecture of a Video Server Network

Depending on the network architecture of the service provider, there are two main types of video server architectures that can be considered for IPTV deployment, centralized, and distributed.

The centralized architecture model is a relatively simple and easy to manage solution. For example, as all contents are stored in centralized servers, it does not require a comprehensive content distribution system. Centralized architecture is generally good for a network that provides relatively small VOD service deployment, has adequate core and edge bandwidth and has an efficient content delivery network (CDN).

Distributed architecture is just as scalable as the centralized model, however it has bandwidth usage advantages and inherent system management features that are essential for managing a larger server network. Operators who plan to deploy a relatively large system should therefore consider implementing a Distributed Architecture model right from the start. Distributed architecture requires intelligent and sophisticated content distribution technologies to augment effective delivery of multimedia contents over service provider's network.

Home networks

In many cases, the residential gateway that provides connectivity with the Internet access network is not located in close proximity to the IPTV Set-Top Box. This scenario becomes very common as service providers start to offer service packages with multiple Set-Top Boxes per subscriber.

Traditional home networking technologies such as Ethernet and 802.11 do not provide a good solution to provide connectivity between the Gateway and each Set-Top-Box. Most homes today are not wired with Ethernet cable in every room, and installing new Ethernet cables is expensive for service providers and undesirable for consumers. Wireless technologies like 802.11 are optimized for data transmission, but they usually don't provide the Quality of Service required by IPTV applications.

Networking technologies that take advantage of existing home wiring (such as power lines, phone lines or coaxial cables) have become a popular solution for this problem, although fragmentation in the wired home networking market has limited somewhat the growth in this market.

On December 2008, ITU-T adopted Recommendation G.hn (also known as G.9960), which is a next generation home networking standard that specifies a common PHY/MAC that can operate over any home wiring (power lines, phone lines or coaxial cables).

Groups such as the Multimedia over Coax Alliance, HomePlug Powerline Alliance or Home Phoneline Networking Alliance advocate their own technologies.

IMS architecture for IPTV

There is a growing standardization effort on the use of the 3GPP IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as an architecture for supporting IPTV services in carriers networks. Both ITU-T and ETSI are working on so-called "IMS-based IPTV" standards (see e.g. ETSI TS 182 027). The benefits of this approach are obvious. Carriers will be able to offer both voice and IPTV services over the same core infrastructure and the implementation of services combining conventional TV services with telephony features (e.g. caller ID on the TV screen) will become straigthforward. The MultiService Forum recently conducted interoperability of IMS-based IPTV solutions during its GMI event in 2008.

Protocols

IPTV covers both live TV (multicasting) as well as stored video (Video-on-Demand, or VoD). The playback of IPTV requires either a personal computer or a set-top-box connected to a TV. Video content is typically compressed using either a MPEG-2 or a MPEG-4 codec and then sent in an MPEG transport stream delivered via IP Multicast in case of live TV or via IP Unicast in case of video on demand. IP multicast is a method in which information can be sent to multiple computers at the same time. H.264 (MPEG-4) codec is increasingly used to replace the older MPEG-2 codec.

In standards-based IPTV systems, the primary underlying protocols used are:

Live IPTV uses IGMP for connecting to a multicast stream (TV channel) and for changing from one multicast stream to another (TV channel change). IP multicast operates within LANs or VLANs so other protocols, such as Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM), are used to route IPTV multicast streams from one LAN segment to another.

VOD uses UDP or RTP protocols for channel streams and control is done using the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP).

A network personal video recorder, like VOD, uses UDP or RTP for IPTV streams and RTSP for end-user control communications.

A telecommunications company IPTV service is usually delivered over an investment-heavy walled garden network.

Local IPTV, as used by businesses for audio visual AV distribution on their company networks is typically based on a mixture of: # Conventional TV reception equipment and IPTV encoders # IPTV Gateways that take broadcast MPEG channels and IP wrap them to create multicast streams.

IPTV via satellite

Although IPTV and conventional satellite TV distribution have been seen as complementary technologies, they are likely to be increasingly used together in hybrid IPTV networks that deliver the highest levels of performance and reliability. IPTV is largely neutral to the transmission medium, and IP traffic is already routinely carried by satellite for Internet backbone trunking and corporate VSAT networks. The use of satellite to carry IP is fundamental to overcoming the greatest shortcoming of IPTV over terrestrial cables – the speed/bandwidth of the connection.

The copper twisted pair cabling that forms the last mile of the telephone/broadband network in many countries is not able to provide a sizeable proportion of the population with an IPTV service that matches even existing terrestrial or satellite digital TV distribution. For a competitive multi-channel TV service, a connection speed of 20Mbit/s is likely to be required, but unavailable to most potential customers. The increasing popularity of high definition TV (with twice the data rate of SD video) increases connection speed requirements, or limits IPTV service quality and connection eligibility even further.

However, satellites are capable of delivering in excess of 100Gbit/s via multi-spot beam technologies, making satellite a clear emerging technology for implementing IPTV networks. Satellite distribution can be included in an IPTV network architecture in several ways. Simplest to implement is an IPTV-DTH architecture, in which hybrid DVB/broadband set-top boxes in subscriber homes integrate satellite and IP reception to give near-infinite bandwidth with return channel capabilities. In such a system, many live TV channels may be multicast via satellite (IP-encapsulated or as conventional DVB digital TV) with stored video-on-demand transmission via the broadband connection. Arqiva’s Satellite Media Solutions Division suggests “IPTV works best in a hybrid format. For example, you would use broadband to receive some content and satellite to receive other, such as live channels”.

Hybrid IPTV

Hybrid IPTV refers to the combination of traditional broadcast TV services and video delivered over either managed IP networks or the public Internet. It is an increasing trend in both the consumer and pay TV [operator] markets .

Hybrid IPTV has grown in popularity in recent years as a result of two major drivers. Since the emergence of online video aggregation sites, like YouTube and Vimeo in the mid-2000s, traditional pay-TV operators have come under increasing pressure to provide their subscribers with a means of viewing Internet-based video [both professional and user-generated] on their TVs. At the same time, specialist IP-based operators [often telecommunications providers] have looked for ways to offer analogue and digital terrestrial services to their operations, without adding either additional cost or complexity to their transmission operations. Bandwidth is a valuable asset for operators, so many have looked for alternative ways to deliver these new services without investing in additional network infrastructures.

These trends led to the development of Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Boxes that included both a traditional broadcast tuner and an Internet connection – usually an Ethernet port. The first commercially available Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box was developed by Advanced Digital Broadcast, a developer of digital television hardware and software, in 2005. The platform was developed for Spanish pay TV operator, Telefonica, and used as part of its Imagenio service, launched to subscribers at the end of 2005.

A hybrid set-top allows content from a range of sources, including terrestrial broadcast, satellite, and cable to be brought together with video delivered over the Internet via an Ethernet connection on the device. This enables television viewers to access a greater variety of content on their TV sets, without the need for a separate box for each service.

Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Boxes also enable consumers to access a range of advanced interactive services, such as VOD and catch-up TV, as well as Internet applications, including video telephony, surveillance, gaming, shopping, e-government accessed via a television set.

From a pay-TV operator’s perspective, a Hybrid IPTV Set-Top Box gives them greater long term flexibility by enabling them to deploy new services and applications as and when consumers require, most often without the need to upgrade equipment or for an engineer to visit and reconfigure or swap out the device. This minimizes the cost of launching new services, increases speed to market and limits disruption for consumers.

The Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) consortium of industry companies is currently promoting and establishing an open European standard for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast and broadband digital TV and multimedia applications with a single user interface.

An alternative approach is the IPTV version of the Headend in the Sky cable TV solution. Here, mutilple TV channels are distributed via satellite to the ISP or IPTV provider’s point of presence (POP) for IP-encapsulated distribution to individual subscribers as required by each subscriber.

This can provide a huge selection of channels to subscribers without overburdening Internet trunking to the POP, and enables an IPTV service to be offered to small or remote operators outside the reach of terrestrial high speed broadband connection. An example is a network combining fibre and satellite distribution via an SES New Skies satellite of 95 channels to Latin America and the Caribbean, operated by IPTV Americas.

While the future development of IPTV probably lies with a number of coexisting architectures and implementations, it’s clear that broadcasting of high bandwidth applications such as IPTV is accomplished more efficiently and cost-effectively using satellite and it’s predicted that the majority of global IPTV growth will be fuelled by hybrid networks.

Advantages

The IP(Internet Protocol)-based platform offers significant advantages, including the ability to integrate television with other IP-based services like high speed Internet access and VoIP.

A switched IP network also allows for the delivery of significantly more content and functionality. In a typical TV or satellite network, using broadcast video technology, all the content constantly flows downstream to each customer, and the customer switches the content at the set-top box. The customer can select from as many choices as the telecomms, cable or satellite company can stuff into the “pipe” flowing into the home. A switched IP network works differently. Content remains in the network, and only the content the customer selects is sent into the customer’s home. That frees up bandwidth, and the customer’s choice is less restricted by the size of the “pipe” into the home. This also implies that the customer's privacy could be compromised to a greater extent than is possible with traditional TV or satellite networks. It may also provide a means to hack into, or at least disrupt (see Denial of Service) the private network.

The economics of IPTV

The cable industry's expenditures of approximately $1 Billion per year are based on network updates to accommodate higher data speeds. Most operators use 2-3 channels to support maximum data speeds of 50 Mb/s to 100 Mb/s. However, because video streams require a high bit rate for much longer periods of time, the expenditures to support high amounts of video traffic will be much greater. This phenomenon is called persistency. Data persistency is routinely 5% while video persistency can easily reach 50%. As video traffic continues to grow, this means that significantly more CMTS downstream channels will be required to carry this video content. Based on today's market, it is likely that industry expenditures for CMTS expansion could exceed $2 Billion a year, virtually all of this expenditure being driven by video traffic. Adoption of IPTV for carrying the majority of this traffic could save the industry approximately 75% of this capital expenditure.

Interactivity

An IP-based platform also allows significant opportunities to make the TV viewing experience more interactive and personalized. The supplier may, for example, include an interactive program guide that allows viewers to search for content by title or actor’s name, or a picture-in-picture functionality that allows them to “channel surf” without leaving the program they’re watching. Viewers may be able to look up a player’s stats while watching a sports game, or control the camera angle. They also may be able to access photos or music from their PC on their television, use a wireless phone to schedule a recording of their favorite show, or even adjust parental controls so their child can watch a documentary for a school report, while they’re away from home.

Note that this is all possible, to some degree, with existing digital terrestrial, satellite and cable networks in tandem with modern set top boxes. In order that there can take place an interaction between the receiver and the transmitter a feedback channel is needed. Due to this, terrestrial, satellite, and cable networks for television do not allow interactivity. However, interactivity with those networks can be possible by combining TV networks with data networks such as the Internet or a mobile communication network.

Video-on-demand

IPTV technology is bringing Video-on-demand (VoD) to television which permits a customer to browse an online program or film catalog, to watch trailers and to then select a selected recording. The playout of the selected item starts nearly instantaneously on the customer's TV or PC.

Technically, when the customer selects the movie, a point-to-point unicast connection is set up between the customer's decoder (Set Top Box or PC) and the delivering streaming server. The signalling for the trick play functionality (pause, slow-motion, wind/rewind etc.) is assured by RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol).

The most common codecs used for VoD are MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and VC-1.

In an attempt to avoid content piracy, the VoD content is usually encrypted. Whilst encryption of satellite and cable TV broadcasts is an old practice, with IPTV technology it can effectively be thought of as a form of Digital Rights Management. A film that is chosen, for example, may be playable for 24 hours following payment, after which time it becomes unavailable.

IPTV-based converged services

Another advantage of an IP-based network is the opportunity for integration and convergence. This opportunity is amplified when using IMS-based solutions. Converged services implies interaction of existing services in a seamless manner to create new value added services. One good example is On-Screen Caller ID, getting Caller ID on your TV and the ability to handle it (send it to voice mail, etc.). IP-based services will help to enable efforts to provide consumers anytime-anywhere access to content over their televisions, PCs and cell phones, and to integrate services and content to tie them together. Within businesses and institutions, IPTV eliminates the need to run a parallel infrastructure to deliver live and stored video services.

Limitations

IPTV is sensitive to packet loss and delays if the streamed data is unreliable. IPTV has strict minimum speed requirements in order to facilitate the right number of frames per second to deliver moving pictures. This means that the limited connection speed/bandwidth available for a large IPTV customer base can reduce the service quality delivered.

Although a few countries have very high speed broadband-enabled populations, such as South Korea with 6 million homes benefiting from a minimum connection speed of 100Mbit/s, in other countries (such as the UK) legacy networks struggle to provide 3-5 Mbit/s and so simultaneous provision to the home of TV channels, VOIP and Internet access may not be viable. The last mile delivery for IPTV usually has a bandwidth restriction that only allows a small number of simultaneous TV channel streams – typically from one to three – to be delivered.

Streaming IPTV across wireless links within the home has proved troublesome; not due to bandwidth limitations as many assume, but due to issues with multipath and reflections of the RF signal carrying the IP data packets. An IPTV stream is sensitive to packets arriving at the right time and in the right order. Improvements in wireless technology are now starting to provide equipment to solve the problem.

Due to the limitations of wireless, most IPTV service providers today use wired home networking technologies instead of wireless technologies like 802.11. Service Providers such as AT&T (which makes extensive use of wireline home networking as part of its U-Verse IPTV service) have expressed support for the work done in this direction by ITU-T, which has adopted Recommendation G.hn (also known as G.9960), which is a next generation home networking standard that specifies a common PHY/MAC that can operate over any home wiring (power lines, phone lines or coaxial cables).

Latency

The latency inherent in the use of satellite Internet is often held up as reason why satellites cannot be successfully used for IPTV, but in practice latency is not an important factor for IPTV. An IPTV service does not require real-time transmission, as is the case with telephony or videoconferencing services.

It is the latency of response to requests to change channel, display an EPG, etc. that most affects customers’ perceived quality of service, and these problems affect satellite IPTV no more than terrestrial IPTV. Indeed, command latency problems, faced by terrestrial IPTV networks with insufficient bandwidth as their customer base grows, may be solved by the high capacity of satellite distribution.

Satellite distribution does suffer from latency – the time for the signal to travel up from the hub to the satellite and back down to the user is around 0.25 seconds, and cannot be reduced. However, the effects of this delay are mitigated in real-life systems using data compression, TCP-acceleration, and HTTP pre-fetching.

Satellite latency can be detrimental to especially time-sensitive applications such as on-line gaming (although it only seriously affects the likes of first-person shooters while many MMOGs can operate well over satellite Internet), but IPTV is typically a simplex operation (one-way transmission) and latency is not a critical factor for video transmission.

Existing video transmission systems of both analogue and digital formats already introduce known quantifiable delays. Indeed, existing DVB TV channels that simulcast by both terrestrial and satellite transmissions, experience the same 0.25s delay difference between the two services with no detrimental effect, and it goes unnoticed by viewers.

IPTV Bandwidth Requirements

Digital video is combination of sequence of digital images, and they are made up of pixels or picture elements. Each pixel has two values, which is luminance and chrominance. Luminance is representing intensity of the pixel; on the other hand chrominance is representing the colour of the pixel. 3 bytes would be used to represent the colour of the high quality image for a true colour technique. A sequence of images is creating the digital video, in that case, images is called as frames.

Movies are using 24 frames per second; however, the rate of the frames can change according to territories electrical system. So that there are different kinds of frame rates, for instance, North America is using approximately 30 frames per second where the Europe television frame rate is 25 frames per second. Each digital video has dimensions; width and height, when referred to analogue television, the dimension for SDTV is 650×480 pixels, on the other hand, numerous HDTV requires 1920×1080 pixels. Moreover, whilst for SDTV, 2 bytes (16 bits) is enough to create the colour depth, HDTV requires 3 (24 bits) bytes to create the colour depth.

Thereby, with a rate of 30 FPS, the uncompressed date rate for SDTV becomes 30x640x480x16, in other words, 147,456,000 bit per second. Moreover, for HDTV, at the same frame rate, uncompressed date rate becomes 30x1920x1080x24 or 1,492,992,000 bits per second. With that simple calculation, it is obvious that without using a lossy compression methods service provider’s service delivery to the subscribers is limited.

There is no absolute answer for the bandwidth requirement for the IPTV service because the bandwidth requirement is increasing due to the devices inside the household. Thus, currently compressed HDTV content can be delivered at a data rate between 8 to 10 Mbps, but if the home of the consumer equipped with several HDTV outputs, this rate will be multiplied respectively.

The high speed data transfer will increase the needed bandwidth for the viewer, at least 2 Mbps needed to use web based applications on the computer. Additional to that, 64 kbps required to use landline telephone for the property. In minimal usage, to receive an IPTV triple play service requires 13 Mbps to process in a household.

Privacy implications

Due to limitations in bandwidth, an IPTV channel is delivered to the user one at a time, as opposed to the traditional multiplexed delivery. Changing a channel requires requesting the head-end server to provide a different broadcast stream, much like VOD (For VOD the stream is delivered using Unicast, for the normal TV signal Multicast is used). This could enable the service provider to accurately track each and every programme watched and the duration of watching for each viewer, broadcasters and advertisers could then understand their audience and programming better with accurate data and targeted advertising.

Vendors

A small number of companies supply most current IPTV systems. Some, such as Imagenio, were formed by telecoms operators themselves, to minimise external costs, a tactic also used by PCCW of Hong Kong. Some major telecoms vendors are also active in this space, notably Alcatel-Lucent (sometimes working with Imagenio), Ericsson (notably since acquiring Tandberg Television), NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks, Thomson, Huawei, and ZTE, as are some IT houses, led by Microsoft. California-based UTStarcom, Inc., Tennessee-based Worley Consulting, Tokyo-based The New Media Group, Malaysian-based Select-TV and Oslo/Norway-based SnapTV also offer end-to-end networking infrastructure for IPTV-based services, and Hong Kong-based BNS Ltd. provides turnkey open platform IPTV technology solutions. Global sales of IPTV systems exceeded 2 billion USD in 2007.

Many of these IPTV solution vendors participated in the biennial MSF Interoperability 2008">Global MSF Interoperability 2008 (GMI) event which was coordinated by the MultiService Forum (MSF) at five sites worldwide from 20- to 31-October 2008. Test equipment vendors including Absilion, Codenomicon, Empirix, Ixia, Mu Dynamics and Spirent joined solution vendors such as the companies listed above in one of the largest IPTV proving grounds ever deployed.

Service bundling

For residential users, IPTV is often provided in conjunction with Video on Demand and may be bundled with Internet services such as Internet access and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telecommunications services. Commercial bundling of IPTV, VoIP and Internet access is sometimes referred to in marketing as ''triple play'' service. When these three are offered with cellular service, the combined service may be referred to as ''quadruple play''.

IPTV Regulation

Historically, broadcast television has been regulated differently than telecommunications. As IPTV allows TV and VoD to be transmitted over IP networks new regulatory issues arise. Professor Eli M. Noam highlights in his report "TV or Not TV: Three Screens, One Regulation?" some of the key challenges with sector specific regulation that is becoming obsolete due to convergence in this field.

See also

Comparison of streaming media systems

Comparison of video services

Content delivery network

Grid casting

Internet television

List of music streaming services

List of streaming media systems

Multicast

P2PTV

Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations Treaty

Software as a service

Streaming media

Webcast

Web television

References

Securing Converged IP Networks, Tyson Macaulay, Auerbach 2006 (ISBN 0-8493-7580-0)

"Does Video Delivered Over A Telephone Network Require A Cable Franchise?" AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies

External links

ITU IPTV Focus Group

Ars Technica: An Introduction to IPTV

IPTV over IMS

Internet-connected TVs finally arrive

Category:Digital television Category:Film and video technology Category:Internet broadcasting Category:Internet television Category:Video on demand services Category:Television terminology

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Paul Bergen is an Olympic swimming coach from the United States. He has coached in the USA and Canada, winning coach of the year honors in both countries in different years. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Coach in 1988. He has coached swimmers to 21 World, 24 USA and 13 Canadian records.

Among the athletes he has coached are: Deena Deardurff,. Tracy Caulkins and Inge de Bruijn. He has coached with the Cincinnati Marlins in Ohio, Nashville Aquatic Club in Tennessee, the University of Texas, Tualatin Hills in Oregon, and Etobicoke in Ontario, Canada.

He served on USA coaching staffs to World Championships in 1975, 1978 and 1982, and with Canada in 1986. He was an Olympic coach in 1980, 1984, 1988 and 2000.

References

External links

Category:American swimming coaches Category:Year of birth missing

name	Bobby Jarzombek
alias	Bobby Jarzomek
landscape	Yes
born	September 04, 1963San Antonio, Texas, United States
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
instrument	Drums
genre	progressive metal, heavy metal, power metal, hard rock
years active	1986–present
associated acts	Riot, Sebastian Bach, Halford, Spastic Ink, Fates Warning, PainMuseum, Demons & Wizards, Iced Earth, Rob Rock, Juggernaut
website	BobbyJarzombek.com }}

Bobby "Wire" Jarzombek is a heavy metal/progressive metal drummer and best known for his work with Halford, Sebastian Bach and Riot. He has also recorded and toured with Fates Warning, Arch / Matheos, Iced Earth, Rob Rock, Spastic Ink, and Juggernaut, among others.

Biography

Bobby Jarzombek was born and raised in San Antonio, TX and grew up in a very musical family. Picking up the drums at age 10 after his mother bought him a 14 dollar kit from Sears for Christmas, Bobby soon started jamming with his two brothers, Ralph and Ronnie, and eventually hit the club scene by the time he was a high school senior.

Quickly developing into one of the hottest drummers in town, he then joined local up-and-comers, Juggernaut, with whom he made his official recording debut, aptly titled ''Baptism Under Fire'', in 1986. A second album followed but by then Bobby had already been tapped to join seminal New York metal band Riot for their CBS comeback release, ''Thundersteel'', a power metal milestone that also yielded the MTV video 'Bloodstreets.'

As a member of Riot, Bobby toured throughout the US, Europe, and Japan and recorded a total of 5 studio and a pair of live albums, including ''The Privilege of Power'' (1990), an eclectic semi-concept album featuring the Tower of Power horns and guest vocals by Joe Lynn Turner, ''Nightbreaker'' (1994), and 1998's ''Shine On!'', recorded live in Japan. Bobby took leave from the band early into the ''Brethren of the Long House'' sessions but was persuaded to rejoin in time for 1997's ''Inishmore.''

In 1993, Bobby also reconnected with his younger brother, noted guitarist Ron Jarzombek of WatchTower fame. Joined by Riot bassist Pete Perez, the duo formed madcap tech/prog metal outfit Spastic Ink whose 'anything goes'-approach owed as much to the spirit of Frank Zappa and cartoon music icon Carl Stalling as it did to the brothers' early prog heroes such as UK and Rush. The band went on to release two highly acclaimed albums, ''Ink Complete'' (1997) and ''Ink Compatible'' (2004).

In the fall of 1999, Bobby was asked to submit a package to former Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford whose new project was deep into the pre-production phase for their debut album. Halford was duly impressed by what he later described as ''"seeing a videotape of the sickest drum solo I've seen in my life. It takes a lot to impress me 'cause I've been around the block! I knew Bobby from Riot but had never seen him play live. He's like an illusionist on the drum kit. It's effortless and entertaining, and he's just brilliant."''

Bobby became the drummer for Halford and was subsequently part of every recording - ''Resurrection'' (2000), ''Live Insurrection'' (2001), ''Crucible'' (2002), and the ''Fourging The Furnace'' EP (2003)—and tour, highlighted by an appearance in 2001 at the massive Rock In Rio III festival in Brazil in front of a quarter million fans. Halford went on indefinite hiatus when Rob Halford rejoined his former band, Judas Priest, in 2003.

In 2004, Bobby was asked by future Howard Stern sidekick Richard Christy to take over his drum duties with Iced Earth who were in the middle of their U.S. tour in support of ''The Glorious Burden''. The following year, Bobby recorded ''Touched by the Crimson King'' with Iced Earth off-shoot Demons & Wizards and was also approached by former Skid Row vocalist Sebastian Bach who was in need of a touring drummer. With Iced Earth on hold due to guitarist Jon Schaffer's persistent back problems, the Bach gig became permanent. In 2006, Bobby toured worldwide with Bach supporting Guns N' Roses whose frontman Axl Rose put in a guest appearance on Bach's 2007 album, ''Angel Down''.

Bobby also filled in with long running progressive metal outfit Fates Warning at their 2007 'Evolution Festival' appearance and was the drummer on the band's European tour later that same year. In September 2009, Bobby sat in the drummer's chair for the Progpower USA Fates Warning performance. In May 2008, it was announced that the members of Riot's classic ''Thundersteel''-era line-up - Mark Reale, Tony Moore, Don Van Stavern, and Bobby Jarzombek - would reunite for a new studio album which is currently slated for a late 2009 release.

In 2009, he was a session drummer for several vocal tracks of Sega's video game Sonic and the Black Knight. His drumming can be heard on "Through the Fire" and both versions of "With Me", the final battle version and the Crush 40 "Massive Power Mix" exclusive to the original vocal soundtrack: Face to Faith.

Drum Instructional DVD

In 2003, Bobby released 'Performance & Technique', his first ever drum instructional VHS/DVD. It was initially available as a self-released VHS tape but was soon picked up by Warner Bros. Publications and released on DVD with additional content in 2005. It was slightly re-packaged and issued again by Alfred Publishing in 2006.

Acclaim

Bobby was voted '#1 drummer 2000' by the readers of Japanese metal magazine, Burrn!, in recognition of his work on Halford's ''Resurrection''.

Endorsements

Bobby is currently endorsed by Drum Workshop (DW) / PDP (Pacific Drums and Percussion), Paiste Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks, and Evans Drumheads.

Discography

with RIOT

(1999) Sons of Society

(1998) Shine On

(1997) Inishmore

(1997) Angel Eyes EP (Japan only)

(1995) The Brethren of the Long House

(1993) Nightbreaker

(1993) Greatest Hits '78 - '90, aka Star Box (Japan only)

(1992) Riot In Japan - Live!! (Japan) / (1999) Live In Japan!! (US)

(1990) The Privilege of Power

(1988) Thundersteel

with HALFORD

(2010) Halford IV: Made of Metal

(2009) Halford III: Winter Songs

(2008) Live At Rock In Rio III DVD

(2006) Metal God Essentials Vol. 1

(2003) Fourging The Furnace EP (Japan only)

(2002) Crucible

(2001) Live Insurrection

(2000) Resurrection

with Sebastian Bach

(2011) Kicking & Screaming

(2007) Angel Down

with PAINMUSEUM

(2006) You Have The Right To Remain Violent EP

(2004) Metal For Life

with SPASTIC INK

(2004) Ink Compatible

(1997) Ink Complete

with JUGGERNAUT

(1987) Trouble Within

(1986) Baptism Under Fire

Session Work & Guest Spots

(2011) Arch / Matheos - Sympathetic Resonance

(2009) THOMSEN - Let's Get Ruthless

(2009) TIM 'RIPPER' OWENS' - Play My Game

(2009) Various - Sonic And The Black Knight - Tales of Knighthood OST

(2008) ROB ROCK - Garden of Chaos

(2005) DEMONS & WIZARDS - Touched By The Crimson King

(2005) ROB ROCK - Holy Hell

(2002) JOHN WEST - Earth Maker

References

External links

Bobby Jarzombek official website

Bobby Jarzombek on MySpace

Bobby Jarzombek Musician's Profile on Facebook

Bobby Jarzombek Vic Firth artist page

Bobby Jarzombek Evans artist page

Bobby Jarzombek on Drummerworld

'Performance & Technique' review on Modern Drummer

Bobby Jarzombek drum setup

Category:American people of Polish descent Category:American musicians of Polish descent Category:American heavy metal drummers Category:Living people Category:1963 births

it:Bobby Jarzombek pl:Bobby Jarzombek pt:Bobby Jarzombek ru:Яжомбек, Бобби sv:Bobby Jarzombek