IBC Q&A: Christophe Delahousse, president, Thomson Video Networks

Christophe Delahousse, president of Thomson Video Networks, spoke to DTVE ahead of IBC.

What has been the most significant development in pay TV technology since IBC 1010?
Over-the-top solutions – more and more pay TV operators, including satellite DTH operators, are trialing or even deploying their bouquet on all those new mobile devices. On the other hand, 3D was over-hyped last year.

What is the greatest challenge currently facing the industry?
Multiple screen delivery and the challenge of increasing the overall Quality of Service. Generating money from those multi-screen services through targeted advertising, and the related technologies to enable monetisation. More specifically to our sector of the industry, there is a major trend for including more and more functions/features in encoder/transcoder products.

What will you be highlighting at IBC?
Our ViBE VS7000 Convergent TV solution designed for IPTV, web TV and internet TV will be launched for the European market. It combines IT-based technologies with our compression technology and a very flexible and scalable video based operating system that eases operational aspects such as redundancy, load balancing and streams management. We will also introduce a new multichannel HD encoder (ViBE EM4000) dedicated to MPEG broadcast segments. We will also focus on our DVB-T2 solution, with a built-in T2 gateway for the NetProcessor 9030 and our Sapphire Ad server solution.

What are your main goals for next year?
Our goal is to maintain our momentum on innovation for our customers, enhance our range of convergent TV solutions and new encoding solutions. Since IBC 2010, we have made quite significant changes. We are now a standalone company owned by the FCDE, a public/private French fund, which supports our growth and strategy. Our focus as a management team is to deliver quality everywhere, and through customer satisfaction.

What are your IBC survival tips?
Always take an umbrella in your luggage, wear sensible shoes and hire a bicycle to avoid traffic jams and to enjoy Amsterdam’s atmosphere.