The iTV Doctor Is In! Don't Forget about EBIF

Dear iTV Doctor:

I just returned from a most excellent TV of Tomorrow Show (in fact, it was the best yet!). And it seems the interactive television world is dividing itself into the "set-top box" folks, and the "companion device" folks. And while I understand that a programmer or advertiser probably needs to use both (or ALL) platforms, isn't it just plain easier to interact through the set-top box? We have one basic standard--EBIF--and the deployment is just going through the roof. There may be more mobile handheld devices in use than set-top boxes, but there are probably more INTERACTIVE EBIF boxes than any single mobile platform (iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry). So why not just focus on EBIF?

Cable Guy in Chicago

Dear Cable Guy:

You're right. It was a terrific conference, and I believe it was the best-attended TVOT ever. And, as you may have noticed on my panel ("The Anatomy of Automatic Content Recognition"), we've been hearing a lot recently about linking companion devices to television programs, and a critical part of that process is the "handshake" between the program and the device. But right now we have close to 25 million interactive-enabled set-top cable boxes, and about that same number of satellite boxes. And the "handshake" is just as critical in that environment. With a mixed deployment of legacy and high-end boxes, and a physical cable plant where the delivery capability can be spotty, it can be extremely difficult for a programmer or advertiser to know if their application is performing as designed. In other words, what gets where, when, and how did it work? It simply ain't as easy as it looks.

Inasmuch as the answers to those questions are decidedly above my pay grade, I turned to the folks at S&T (Strategy & Technology) to help us understand what needs to be done to make the magic happen. I caught up with my friend Enzo D'Anna, S&T sales director, at TVOT (S&T was one of the many sponsors of the conference). Enzo has been knocking around interactive television for nearly as long as the good doctor, and he gave us his perspective.

iTV Doctor: Enzo, please tell us a little about your background and what are you doing now.

D'Anna: I'm currently in charge of sales for S&T for the Americas. I started my career in iTV in 2000 designing and implementing the first iTV applications for DISH Network on the OpenTV platform until 2004. I then started to work for OpenTV, first continuing implementing iTV applications in North America, and then I took over the application team until 2008 when I moved to sales and I started to manage OpenTV's accounts such as DISH, BellTV and Shaw Direct.

I started with S&T about a year ago. S&T is a small, dynamic and innovative company that operates worldwide in the iTV space. In North America, S&T is very much focused on the EBIF/tru2Way application lifecycle--we help MSO's and broadcasters to deliver, process, filter and monitor iTV applications. For the rest of the world we are very successful deploying our middleware, EPG and Hybrid VOD solutions.

iTV Doctor: Why do we need that kind of capability? I thought that EBIF applications pretty much run as designed (at least once the cable company has completed their "pipe cleaning").

D'Anna: Ahahahah. Sorry I can't stop laughing Rick, I love your sense of humor. I've been an engineer for 14 years and "run as designed" was our motto and our label when shipping the software to QA (Quality Assurance).

Now the problem is a lot more complex--there are multiple points of failure from the programmer to the edge and even to the user. Problems could be technical, related to the transport stream itself, but also "visual" and less detectable (i.e. wrong logos showing). Even if "pipe cleaning" will guarantee that the app gets delivered, there is no guarantee that the right application, with the right resources, is delivered--at the right time. We need ways to keep a record that the application was delivered as well. Monitoring live applications is not an easy nor a scalable task. You can't have 100 people sitting in a control room playing with 100 applications at the same time.

iTV Doctor: That sounds like a crucial step in providing a proof of performance report to an advertiser. I guess I could make a joke about a hundred monkeys, but how DO you monitor 100 live applications at the same time?

D'Anna: You need to visually test live interactive television applications--yes, the "100 applications." It's important to look under the hood of iTV apps so that all parties involved in the delivery may better understand how their applications are being rendered, as well as a wide variety of metrics important to advertisers, programmers, and operators alike. It requires application pre-viewing, automated visual testing and stream monitoring.

We really think that proof of performance will be paramount to revenue-generating iTV applications. The product from S&T that does that job is called TSMonitor.

iTV Doctor: I hear a "but" coming.

D'Anna: That's right. BUT you also have to monitor and process the transport streams that broadcast iTV content to protect multiplexors by removing over bit-rate applications to modify, remove or inject applications during certain times and conditions. And then provide reporting and delivery analysis. That's where S&T's TSProcessor comes in. It covers current and future needs of every party involved in the iTV application lifecycle, including edge insertion of applications and affiliate management.

iTV Doctor: Arrrgh--more hardware! OK, I'm obviously not an engineer, but I've been knocking around the business for a few years. I thought there were interactive television operations and management software suites to handle all that.

D'Anna: Most solutions are either specialized to analyze the stream's bits or the set-top box output. The downside of analyzing the STB output is that you are still going to need "walls" of set-top boxes. We do everything with one interoperable solution (I don't want to give away too much, since we have more in the brewer). We virtualize set-top boxes and we run visual test cases.

iTV Doctor: So where is S&T headed now? What's on the horizon?

D'Anna: We are always a step ahead of our competitors and our time to market has been crucial for the success of our products. By the time our competitors get to market we have already perfected our product. IO6 is an example--we were the first ones to release EBIF IO6 support for our broadcast streamers (TSBroadcaster). I really see S&T becoming an expert solution provider for all iTV needs. S&T definitely has the expertise and the resources to become the partner that MSO's and programmers will be looking at to meet their needs and get help in solving challenging iTV-related problems.

iTV Doctor: And we'll see you at The Cable Show?

D'Anna: You bet!

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The iTV Doctor is *Rick Howe*, who provides interactive television consulting services to programmers and advertisers. He is the recipient of a CTAM Tami Award for retention marketing and this year was nominated to Cable Pioneers. He is also the co-author of a patent for the use of multiscreen mosaics in EPG's. Endorsed by top cable and satellite distributors, "Dr" Howe still makes house calls, and the first visit is always free. His services include product development, distribution strategy and the development of low-cost interactive applications for rapid deployment across all platforms. Have a question for the iTV Doctor? Email him at itvdoctor@itvt.com