Ziggo innovation chief outlines benefits and downsides of cloud TV

Ziggo’s recently launched cloud-based TV service has proved attractive to subscribers and offers a number of advantages beyond reaching legacy devices, according to Eric Meijer, senior innovation manager, Ziggo.

The cloud based service enables Ziggo to deliver on-demand services to legacy set-top boxes that would otherwise not be able to support VOD. The service, supported by technology from ActiveVideo, was launched in March.

Speaking at the Multi-Network Solutions in the Real World event organised by content security specialist Verimatrix alongside the ANGA COM event in Cologne this morning, Meijer said 60,000 new users had been signed up in the first month without a marketing campaign. There are about 350,000 addressable set-top boxes in the field capable of using the service, with  new devices to be added.

The client can be integrated into a range of different devices having been developed once. “If you want to change the UI, it’s a matter of uploading a file to our web server,” he said. “From a technological point of view it’s easy to add new functions.” He said it would be easy to add network DVR functionality from the cloud. Other functions could be added centrally and delivered to multiple devices, he said.

Meijer said Ziggo had been able to use the cloud-based service to better monitor quality of, for example, VOD playout.
Meijer said there were downsides to cloud delivery. End to end delay is the biggest challenge, he said. However, he said Ziggo had made a lot of effort to improve response times for the service.

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