IPTV : Watching Bits and Bytes
By Dave Pheteplace, Bishop & Associates Inc.

IPTV is defined as the digital transmission of high-quality multimedia material utilizing IP (Internet Protocol) to transport the content. The service is delivered to your television utilizing a broadband cable or DSL modem that connects to a set-top box that decodes the signal. Content can include live television, reruns, and video on demand. As opposed to the analog transmissions that were recently taken off the airwaves, these shows are delivered in digital format in bits.

The number of households receiving IPTV is relatively low. Informa Telecoms and Media reported that, worldwide, 26 million homes subscribed to IPTV at the end of 2009. That number is expected to grow to 70 million by the end of 2014, with most of that growth occurring in the Asia Pacific. Currently, the largest market is Europe, with France representing half of the subscribers. The largest providers in the United States are AT&T U-verse and Verizon. Apple and Google, however, are entering the market. Their influence and Internet presence could accelerate the market growth.

From an adoption standpoint, there are three issues IPTV must overcome. First, it will be difficult to pull viewers away from traditional television, satellite, and cable services, particularly where these services are good and relatively inexpensive. Second, the viewer's broadband service needs to be good and the set-top decoding capable of providing stutter-free service for video and audio. Third, with a much smaller viewing audience, it will be difficult to attract advertising dollars. The biggest advantage of IPTV is the potential for an interactive exchange and on-demand programming.

As pictured in Cisco's Content Delivery System for IPTV, there are several components involved in an IPTV system. The content for the systems can be delivered from the Internet or from Satellite Service Providers. It is processed by the IPTV Service Provider and then streamed to IPTV set-top boxes. The equipment needed by the Service Provider includes gateways, storage systems, IP routers, and TV/Internet streamers. Interconnect in these systems cover a broad range of connector types.

Let's take a look at the interconnect at the front end and back end of the IPTV system.

From an encoding standpoint, loading the original content, the Visionary Solutions Inc. AVN441HD product is a good example of the impact of this technology on connectors. Their blade format product utilizes several connectors (right), including three BNC connectors for component RGB analog video input, an HDMI connector for digital audio/video input, two RCA jacks for audio input, two shielded RJ45 jacks, and a backplane connector. The blades are ganged together in a chassis (below) to build up the required system capacity.

At the other end of IPTV system is the set-top box. The set-top box from SysMaster is fairly typical. The Tornado M55 interconnects with one RJ-45, two USB 2.0 ports, one HDMI port, one composite port, three RCA RGB connectors, and a left/right audio port.

The Tornado M55 is a high definition system capable of Video On Demand, digital music and Internet radio, and online web browsing, and can be connected to a PC for media library management.

The other potentially significant impact of IPTV is for increased capacity to transmit all of this material on cable, telephone lines, and wireless networks. Wireless Smartphone IPTV will require deploying the advanced 3G or 4G systems. The equipment used in these systems is interconnect rich, so this trend will bode well for our industry.

David Pheteplace Bishop & Associates Inc., Managing Director - Cable Assembly Division David Pheteplace joined Bishop & Associates Inc. in 2008. As the managing director, he is establishing a new division for Bishop & Associates focused on the cable assembly industry. Pheteplace is also the market segment director for telecom. He has more than 20 years of experience in the interconnect industry, including managing divisions of Amphenol, Cinch, and Robinson Nugent. Pheteplace can be reached at dpheteplace@bishopinc.com.