Cloud or not to Cloud, that is the question!

Nick Fielibert

CTO, Video Technology, SP EMEAR

Cisco Confidential 2© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

The Future of TVDrivers for Change

Technology

• More devices and screens

• Ubiquitous and smarter networks

• Better video quality

• General Purpose Computing

• Elastic Compute Power in the network

• The Home gets a new focus

Business

• Content rights evolve

• Devices (and UX) lead loyalty

• Improved service agility

• New business relationships and competition (OTT)

Consumer

• The omnipresent nature of content

• Story-telling from device to device, place to place

• Make it easy for me AND fun

• Minimize the pain of paying, and protect my personal data

• Give me the best experience possible (highest ROI)

• Want new experiences faster (4K TV)

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There is a competitive sweet spot available to all players offering video services

• OTT Players have greater agility than traditional players

• Traditional players have potential to provide a broader offer/richer experience

• Need to solve offer breadth and agility trade-off to be more competitive

OfferCapabilities& Flexibility

Operational Agility

Low

Low

High

High

Service Provider

Competitive Sweet Spot

ConsumerElectronics

OTT Player

Content Owner

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Creating a consistent/Aggregated User Experience

• Consumers care a lot more about their experience with the TV service (UX)

• Increased content choice requires strong integration of brands, channels, widgets and social networks

• Unified access across all content sources:

Broadcast

On-demand

Personal

OTT

• Personalized content through search and recommendations

• Operates across all applicable devices

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Unified ServicesRemove information silos

Enable instant access to allcontent sources anywhere

Scalable EconomicsSave on CPE development

Flexible on-demand pricing

Centralized management

Scalable Infrastructure

Robust server infrastructure

Reliable and consistent quality of service

Web IntegrationSocial network integration

Personal recommendations

Targeted Advertisements

Real Time Updates

Efficient, real-time analysis

Improves insight and decision making

Faster Time-to-Market

Faster deployment of new features on more devices

Reduced development cycles

Utilizing Cloud capabilities can help operators to move to this sweet spot: offer breadth, fast time-to-market and scalability

Cloud Proposition

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Impact on platform: Traditional Approach

Serv

er

(HE/C

loud

) Clie

nt (C

E/C

PE)

VOD Metadata

Linear Metadata

Streamer

Application suite:• EPG• VOD• Search• DVR• Parental

Control• Etc.

A/V Player

RTSP, HTTP

MPEG TS

Control Plane

Data Plane

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Thin Client Architecture

Serv

er

(HE/C

loud

) Clie

nt (C

E/C

PE)

HTML5 hosted UI

Backend services

Streamer

Browser(app)

A/V Player

HTML5/CSS3…

REST/JSON JS

MPEG TS/ABR/HTTP/RTSP/…

Control Plane

Data Plane

Thin clients drive to all IP and is also the best way to converge between Cable and DSL/Fiber access

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What moves to the cloud, what stays in box?

• Service Discovery

• Based on a cloud config file download/update model

• Good simplification of stack

• UX (using Open UX)  

• Linear guide

• VOD guide

• Search

• Recommendations

• Purchasing

• Self-care, User Account/HH management

• Local and Cloud Hybrid DVR Management/scheduling

• Device and Home Network Management Remote and Self Care

• Using Cisco Home Prime WebAPIs

• DVB support

• Playback content

• Caches for various parts of control data to allow for functionality in case of loss of connectivity

• Parental control – on STBs

• Device Diagnostics – on STB

• Power Management – on STB

DC/Headend CPE

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Can a CE, unmanaged device deliver?

Continued explosion in video-capable devicesDifferent device classes following different

performance/capability trajectories

The challenges

• Fragmented market

• Fast-moving market

• CE manufacturers have a different agenda

• Security (DRM)

• Recording and distribution in the home

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So what is the solution?

• The set-top box!

• Set-top fulfills the role of providing the best possibleQuality of Experience to the subscriber

• Augmented by other unmanaged devices in the home

• Are they changing?

• Yes, greatly

• Form factor, connectivity, performance, memory, graphics, etc.

• Not to mention software environments…

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Summary

OTT providers are on the hunt!

SP’s will have to bring Opex/Capex in line with the new competitors

Service velocity by deploying Thin SW stacks with applications moving to the cloud

Control of device and device SW is the only way to guarantee QoE and Scalability

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Thank you.