TV service is today one of the services that most operators are considering to launch or have already launched. This is the final service that makes the broadband service offering complete. The challenges with launching IPTV, however, are twofold. First, the service needs to be equal to or better than competing broadcast solutions. Second, it must bring some additional value. Since the first generation of IPTV has rolled out, several lessons learned have been made, one of which is that the operational expenditure to get the service up and running and maintained was quite underestimated.
Tilgin's IPTV solution is helping to remove this main hurdles.
To avoid the often heavy support burden for an operators first IPTV deployment, the Tilgin solution, with its full service routing capability, removes the need for a preconfigured, dedicated port for the IP STB, which is traditionally a bridged network configuration model. The advantage of the full service routing model is that few to no support calls will be realized at the time of this first IP STB deployment. The Tilgin solution includes remote configuration of the rules under which an IP STB shall be allowed to access the network. This also means that the introduction of a multi vendor IP STB strategy can be simplified, since rules can be defined to identify and configure different devices in different ways. This is achieved using the vendor class ID or MAC address for identification purposes. The very same mechanism can also be used to block a non-approved IP STB from being used in the network. Of course, a bridged network model can be used to start, but for a subsequent launch, the full service routing option is best. Also, to make the TV experience better, the Tilgin solution supports local multicast that is utilized with the built in IGMP proxy.
To add to the providers service offering, the Tilgin IPTV solution, with its full service routing capability, also enables media sharing within the home. If an IP STB or a connected PC has locally stored media, another connected device, such as a second IP STB can locally access and stream that media. All local media sharing is remotely manageable by the operator.
Lastly, IPTV services will require more capacity as TV and video services gradually become mroe distributed with higher and higher image quality. The Tilgin IPTV solution tackles this with true high speed implementations with the appropriate QoS, thus utilizing a truly future proof TV service offering.