ANGA COM preview event highlights importance of IP

The growing importance of IP as a complement to cable distribution was the key highlight of German trade show ANGA COM’s preview event last week.

Jürgen Magull of M7 Deutschland, which last year acquired the Eutelsat-owned Kabelkiosk platform, opened the event with an overview on the development of TV usage, using market data to show that TV usage via tablets and smartphones has gained in importance. He told attendees that IPTV was not only an alternative as first screen offering, but also complemented DVB-C to serve the second screen devices.

Daniel Hesselbarth of Liberty Global-owned Unitymedia KabelBW, presented the latest version of the Horizon platform which includes DVB-C as well as IP services, while Gernot Jaeger of Zattoo highlighted the OTT providers strategy of providing third party operators with white label offerings for the TV and as a second screen complement to established television offerings.

Other presentations included that of Heiner Meyer of alternative carrier EWE TEL, who highlighted the company’s delivery of television using traditional cable technology (LWL TV) via fibre networks and IPTV via DSL connections. DSL customers can choose between online TV via PC and the TV App for tablets and smartphones.

“IPTV is rapidly gaining importance for TV provisioning. This was also reflected by the great interest in the ANGA COM workshop. When introducing IPTV in addition to existing DVB-C services the consumer’s Quality of Experience may not be compromised,” said Carsten Engelke, of ANGA.

“Before launching concepts with unicast and multi-cast solutions these have to be thoroughly examined to ensure the economic success of the service implementation. The trend towards All-IP with DOCSIS 3.1 is advancing. Cable networks are ideally positioned for this.”

The ANGA COM exhibition and congress will take place from 9 to 11 June 2015 in Cologne, Germany.