The 26 members of the Open IPTV Forum see their job as bridging "islands of standardization" in order to accelerate the deployment of an end-to-end, interoperable IPTV specification.
The Open IPTV Forum was created in March 2007 as a result of intensive discussions between IPTV market stakeholders about what was needed to accelerate the IPTV standardization and to expand the market globally. Along with Ericsson, the founders are France Telecom, Nokia Siemens Networks, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sony Corporation, and Telecom Italia.
Monika Gadhammar, vice chairman of Ericsson's marketing work group Open IPTV Forum, says a common standard will stimulate the creation of a mass market for IPTV. "Today no consensual standards exist for IPTV," she says. "Fragmentation is a barrier to IPTV evolution and growth."
Although standardization bodies such as DVB, DLNA and DSL Forum address IPTV, they are looking only at selected parts of it, says Gadhammar, adding that "only the Open IPTV Forum is addressing the complete solution with the necessary speed."
The key to promoting IPTV market growth and maximizing the benefits of IPTV is creating open standards, Gadhammar says. "Different players in the IPTV value chain need a tool in order to develop their own products to fit into the plug-and-play solution," she says.
Requirements and architecture specifications for Release 1 are available at the Forum's website, www.openiptvforum.org. The goal is to publish Release 1 solution specifications and to develop test specifications for efficient interoperability testing in 2008.
But, Gadhammar says, that does not mean the work is then finished. As IPTV service expectations evolve, the Open IPTV Forum will revise and extend the published specifications in subsequent releases.
This week in London, more than 30 telcos and ISPs and at least 150 exhibitors will take stock of the evolution of IPTV as the city hosts IPTV World Forum, which runs March 12 to 14.
Open IPTV Forum will exhibit at booth 164. On March 14 Open IPTV Forum presents the session, "How can IPTV use interactive services to further differentiate itself from rivals?" For more information about Open IPTV Forum at IPTV World Forum, contact Gadhammar at +46 705430530.
Ericsson is participating in the event with TANDBERG Television. Miguel Blockstrand, Ericsson senior product manager, Mobile TV, will speak at the forum about meeting viewers' demands for mobile TV. Eugene Sarmiento, Ericsson director of Content and Media, will speak about the next steps in multiplay TV. Tandberg's director of IPTV business development, Alan Delaney, will speak about meeting viewer demands for seamless mobile TV.
