DNA of IPTV middleware

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Some of the Telco trade media have made it a numbers game to determine who is the best provider of middleware for IPTV deployments –  but no one is defining the significance of those numbers and if they mean anything. They don’t. Most middleware out there was meant to scale – it just was built that way – no one builds anything today that doesn’t have the capacity to serve as many subscribers as possible. The issue that is long been overlooked is who is actually deploying an IPTV service and what are they giving their end users.  It’s not that there is a potential for 1 million subscribers maybe, sometime in the future, we all know what the market stats are, that is all we read about.  But what it should be about is what the end user is actually using and adopting in his /her quest for TV services — what is it that the end users really wants and which operators are giving it to them? The numbers game is not about what will be, but what is. And that game is being won by middleware companies that don’t have huge brands behind them. What about open standards or services like MMS via your TV or voting via your TV or scheduling your TV shows remotely – and what about open standards or independence from an ecosystem that is rigid in its set up and deployment? Middlware providers like Minerva Networks or Dreampark are clearly that last two remaining independent middleware vendors in the market today and they have active and profitable deployments and a long list of operators that use them  – in both emerging markets, the US and EMEA. The other issue surrounds the different ways in which middleware is created – this is something that the industry ignores repeatedly – it is not one size fits all  – there are different approaches and technological advantages for the different methodology each bring value and a downside for every operator – open standards, SVG v. HTML, browser based, the list goes on. We think this industry is more exciting than you read about – so many issues and deployments that are considered next gen in Spain, Georgia, Slovenia, Utah, Norway – the list goes on — we just don’t get to hear about them because everyone is wearing the same dress to party.

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