Minibar November: IPTV

Last month’s Minibar was all about the exciting merger of the television and the PC, aka IPTV. Entertainment and how we are entertained is going to be revolutionized. There will be Brave New Gadgets! We had three varied start-ups giving dynamic presentations, each vying for position in the new marketplace.

Alex Nunes and Nick Greig from YouView kicked off the evening – they think Open TV should be communal, personal and simple for the consumers.  They believe providers should have control of the content so they developed a single User Interface in the form of a Linux run, 300 gig box that brings content from your computer onto your TV. They want people to generate their own portals and their own applications, which can be layered over the broadcast, so that people can interact with the TV. Thus a more compelling viewer experience will be created.

Bill Scott says Easel TV aims to enhance the user experience. Theirs is a specialised TV application builder that can be used by services such as YouView and also hardware manufacturers such as Samsung.  They overcame challenges such protecting content, creating a compelling UI to create a “smart” application that can generate content suggestions based on user profiles and viewing history. Easel TV is working with content makers such as Channel 4 and Virgin Media to bring entertainment with choice into the living room.

Next was Chris Jackson from metabroadcaster Atlas, who was featured here last month in a minibar interview.. Atlas is everything in one place. Geared to make powerful, diverse and specific searches on a huge video and audio index by using, you guessed it, the metadata of the programs. As a single index API, many types of content can be accessed. So – for example – whatever is trending on twitter, or even what the BBC is broadcasting. You can receive program recommendations by email, which can be refined by your preferences gleaned from your social media presence.

All of tonight’s speakers were sure that the typical TV experience of sitting and experiencing together will remain, regardless of the technology.  People will still own TVs after all. These platforms are going to facilitate the revolution of the television into entertainment of choice. Watch this space.