Features

The future of the media in a wireless world

The telecommunications industry, after massively investing in more fiber optics, is realizing that the problem is not about the bandwidth, it's about traffic. What new industry will emerge from these findings?

The future of media is just around the corner, and it ain't the Internet. It's a completely new viewing diagram where you pay for the experience and control, and you see whatever you want, whenever you want, on whatever device you want, anywhere in the world.

Picture This

It's 9:20 Sunday morning. You are sitting on your couch and turn on your TV to see what's happening. You want to watch soccer, but your team is playing in Brazil and last night's game won't be shown for hours. You could watch the new Monsters Inc. movie, but your cable company isn't willing to pay the royalties until next year, even though your friends in Germany saw it last night. You know you can pick it up off the web, but you will have to wait hours for it to download. Besides, you would have to watch the movie on your computer, in your office (no couch), by yourself, without your kids.

After nearly half a century, the broadcasters are still controlling what you can see, and when and where you see it.

Look What's Coming

TV, cable, telephone and cell phone technologies already let you see, hear and call from anywhere to anyplace, anytime at all. People think these technologies are already “good enough†as separate islands – now if only they could be “bridged†together ...

Connecting this diverse group of products and services will be no small task, but it is inevitable with the convergence of technology, an over-supply of bandwidth (which has driven traffic load utilization down from 10-15% to 2% for most networks) and the new “bridge†technologies now being developed.

As the convergence of cell phones, digital TV, cable distribution and the Internet become increasingly common, coupled with a “super†PBX, they will morph into Enhanced Communications where family get-togethers, with unlimited numbers of participants, can be broadcast to every family members' TV; where Internet video games and music merge into one stream of digital content enhanced with participants communicating from any part of the world; and where you really can order any movie in any language at any time on any communications device (watch your favorite movie on your cell phone while riding the train home, perhaps?).

The first carrier (see Fig 1) does not know the nature of the content it is transporting. Then it loses control of the service as it is passed on to the second carrier which, in turn, does not know what terminal to render the content to.

The content provider cannot validate that the movie was indeed downloaded and watched by the end-user. The financial transaction is neither guaranteed, nor secured.

The new “new†media will be delivered with the “bridged†distribution channels for multiple transport pipes and can be viewed on your TV, your PC, or your cell phone in one continually-widening, broadband open-pipe to your home, office, and throughout your enterprise.

What's missing is a commercial platform – the “SuperPBX†– for controlling the transport pipes and software that will let you receive the applications and digital content, interacting with, and displayed on, any device.

Your cell phone, even with 3G, won't be powerful enough, your powerful terabyte router from Juniper or Cisco will not be able to receive the necessary data from the cable network to deliver the enhanced media products.

The solution delivered by a new SuperPBX “bridge†platform creates a massive opportunity for innovation. A new industry, composed of next generation start-ups, media giants and major carrier suppliers, is emerging to deliver high traffic, Enhanced Communications products and services for that "bridged" platform.

The platform itself could be advanced PBX, multi-channel wireless, video recorder, display cell phones or a global enhanced game. And what of the new “bridge†– the SuperPBX platform? Once the SuperPBX arrives, will we need our computers, TV's and cell phones?

This is a Test ... of the SuperPBX Broadcast System

The technology push for the SuperPBX services, nicely matches consumers for media. In the past, we bought our TV's and PC's to get free entertainment. Later, for enhanced entertainment experience and for overall “better viewing,†we bought cable services, VCR's, DVD's, and hi-speed broadband lines. We knew better and faster meant paid subscription. We weren't willing to pay by the minute, but we would pay for the overall quality of the entertainment experience.

Today we have more devices and receive more “channels†than we can use. We have cable TV hookups with 250 channels, yet we have to wait months to view a new release movie or wait hours to download one from the Internet. We have to pick up the cell phone to make a call and use a separate remote device to change a channel.

What we really want is customized “enhanced†communications to view all of the media entertainment and other value-added services we want, whenever and wherever we want it, and in whatever form we choose. We're moving from pay-by-the-minute and device-dependent models to a subscription usage model for global media.

Manufacturers tell us we need to buy just one more cell phone, digital TV, faster PBX or router – if we spend enough money we can have the future of media entertainment now. But will the next advanced new product pass the test, or will it give us just a slightly clearer telephone call or TV screen?

Do these new products deliver the football game now, online family reunions with unlimited callers at one flat rate – globally? They have impressive packaging, bigger screens, but do they deliver what we really crave – Enhanced Communications? Test failed.

Even if you had a 3G cell phone and a Digital TV, you would still be limited to the services and programming from your local service providers. Gaining access to every media channel all the time requires enhanced media and communications service technologies that would “bridge†all media – enabling you to access specific movies, TV shows, phone services and interactive services so that you could display what you want, appropriately, on any screen of your choice – TV, PC or cell phone.

The race to replace existing local communications services and to deliver enhanced products and services began in 1999 with the rapid decline of long distance services and the ever-accelerating de-utilization of system networks. The wireless services provided by cell phone operators have been unable to deliver the media to absorb existing bandwidth, yet the race is on to deliver 2.5G and 3G, which will dramatically increase supply at an astonishingly high network cost.

Digital TV and WAP, though interesting, have not created media products with high enough demand to balance network supply or created a value proposition in the supply prices or profitable revenue models.

TiVo and Replay TV have personal video recorders, which enable the viewer to watch the TV show of their choice at anytime, but not anywhere, only on your TV, and of course, only from a single distributor. Again creating demand, but not sufficiently shifting to other media channels to absorb bandwidth. Viewers crave the opportunity to watch an isolated, stored, football game from their cell phone or PDA and are willing to pay for the service.

This increased traffic – through streamed video with enhanced phone services (make a call while you see your favorite player score or just store it on your PC) – could dramatically increase demand and absorb supply.

Take Me to the Bridge

Or, the bigger possibility exists that eventually you could bypass your local telephone or cable company completely. You could tell your local cable company to “bridge†your recorded TiVo shows or voicemail to your cell phone, or search “digital archives†(Sony, Time Warner, AOL or MSN). You could use your “bridge†SuperPBX supplier to search, maintain, download or broadcast all sorts of shows, phone calls, emails and enhanced products and services from a wide variety of broadcasters. The SuperPBX could function as a central controller directing security, telecommunications, cable TV, computers and remote wireless devices. Sony, Time Warner, AOL and Microsoft (MSN) as well as others, hold tremendous content and distribution networks.

All that is missing for Microsoft is a SuperPBX. Microsoft has started with FMSN to bring Internet services, such as instant messenger and email to the television, including on-screen program guides, which could provide part of the Enhanced Communications, but lack the “bridging†hardware.

Sony has plenty of entertaining content, including Sony music, Sony pictures as well as wireless hardware and software. Sony Entertainment has attempted to form strategic alliances to gain distribution over AOL/Time Warner. Sony has also, working closely with Cisco Systems, developed software to provide broadband Internet access to their Play stations as well as plans to provide uploading capabilities to video camera users where they could retrieve and watch them. Sony claims that you can even develop and broadcast your own live shows or create new video games online.

Sony's marketing (to provide Enhanced Communications and entertainment) moves the user to new products and services, such as games, music, movies and broadcasting, but questions regarding the bridging technology have not been answered.

Sony has entertainment competency and exciting products but seems to be missing the links to provide multi-network Enhanced Communications.

The SuperPBX bridges distribution and integrates content with a platform, enabling the user to finally have custom access to TV shows, music, movies, gaming and voice providing a gateway to global communications. The bridge accepts broadband and narrow band for everything digital to the home and office controlling peripherals providing a central control, directing security systems, home appliances, heating and air conditioning, desktop computers and all sorts of wireless devices.

One of the first real world trials of such a system began in Sophia, France with the development of the Odisei advanced iPBX system. The iPBX networking platform made phones, computers, and other devices work together providing enhanced services to each other. Odisei won the battle – delivering not just bandwidth capacity, but custom broadband experiences we could enjoy from any device anywhere.

We Interrupt This Programming ...

The latest development in the quest for Enhanced Communications' “Holy Grail,†is the bridge being developed by SigEx with its SuperPBX project. SigEx is focused on bridging cell sites, hub sites, switching centers, digital TV and cable broadcasters and streaming data warehousing facilities to provide voice and data service connectivity and high traffic aggregation to deliver Enhanced Communications.

This bridge will enable you to connect it to your wireless and wired business and home networks via your cell phone, PC, PDA, or other device of your choice.

For maybe $25 a month, you may be able to tap into your business and home digital communication grids, enabling you to download your favorite show, email messages, or phone calls from any display device.

Now, it is 9:20 Sunday morning, you are comfortably watching the soccer game in Sao Paolo. During the commercials, you go to the kitchen to get a drink. You then “ask†your television to show you emails and order the latest release of Apocalypse Now as well as the latest Jewel album which you wish to listen to on your stereo.

Since the game is not that exciting, you decide to pause it to view it later and resume your networked Doom game on your big screen TV, or on your cell phone while you are out walking the dog.

You may wonder, will anyone ever again want to use their TV only as a TV and their cell phone only as a cell phone, their PC as only a PC?

Maybe, the Future ofMedia is Enhanced Communications, with exciting new global experiences.

A complete version of this article, with illustrations and case studies, is available from SigEx in Adobe Acrobat form. The authors, Chris Cantell and Frédéric Artru are CEO and President of SigEx respectively.