In 2017, the automotive industry showed heavy investment in advanced connectivity and this year’s CES has already confirmed that there is more to come. According to the TU-Automotive “Keeping Entertained in the Autonomous Vehicle” report – which features our VP Product Management Robert Guest – “the global in-vehicle entertainment market will reach a total market value of $52.2bn by 2022”, making it one of the most attractive sides of the industry to get involved in.
For us, the show featured a lot of exciting news with these highlights to report on behalf of ACCESS:
The GENIVI showcase reception event (January 9 at the Bellagio Hotel) enabled us to share our vision for the future of connected infotainment services with some of you – and we hope to have more conversations on the topic with you all throughout the year.
Furthermore, during CES we were able to share this vision with multiple OEMs and Tier 1s by discussing how our solutions help them navigate the evolution of auto tech, including:
ACCESS Twine™ for Car (Twine4Car) combines secure media distribution technology with our flexible multimedia content service for OEMs, bridging the gap between the automotive and the content industries. It increases the safety, comfort and flexibility in content consumption for drivers and passengers. Through ACCESS Twine™ for Car, we act as the single point of contact for the OEM for all types of content to ease-up the realization of state-of-the-art streaming services for cars.
Our high performance NetFront™ Browser, a key component of the ACCESS Twine™ for Car solution which also provides support for standardized HTML5 environments for applications, streaming media and Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs).
Finally, the show was an opportunity for us to provide attendees with our new ebook “Gearing up for an IoT-enabled automotive world”, which you can download from our website.
If you’re still wondering how to tackle the connectivity revolution in the car, get in touch with us.
2017 was a great year for ACCESS. The industry has finally started to recognise that it needs to adopt a unified approach to connected entertainment, by ensuring that consumers can access all of their content via a single application from any device (including inside the car!). ACCESS has been at the forefront of this multiscreen revolution, which is exemplified by our collaborations with DTVKit, Foxxum, Hisense, JVC KENWOOD, Nintendo, Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) and Zenterio.
We kicked off the year with the announcement that Jio had deployed ACCESS Twine™ to power its multiscreen service, targeting 100 million subscribers across India. As well as providing access to Jio’s own branded content (available in the cloud), the service incorporates the user’s own personal library and a full range of external sources such as YouTube, Dropbox, Google Drive and social media content in and out of the home. We always knew that we were breaking new ground with Jio, but it was fantastic to have our work recognised through two leading industry accolades: the ‘Multiscreen TV Award’ at the Content Innovation Awards, and a CSI Award for ‘Best TV Everywhere or Multi-screen Video’.
However, Jio was just the first in a number of milestones that we announced in this ground-breaking year. In March, Nintendo extended our long-standing partnership by selecting NetFront™ Browser for its new Nintendo Switch™ game console – the seventh model to use the ACCESS NetFront Browser series. Our family of browsers also found a home with Hisense, who deployed NetFront™ Browser BE to power its new 4K TV models and offer advanced web viewing on large high-definition screens.
We are strong believers in the use of open standards and the role they will play in transforming the industry – and we showed it once again at IBC, where we showcased some results of our ongoing partnership with Zenterio to provide a seamless experience across all screens for a range of tier 1 operators. The big news for us at the show was our brand new collaboration with DTVKit to offer open standards-based solutions to the connected entertainment industry for all kinds of services. The results of these two collaborations will help operators to differentiate themselves by deploying next generation, open-standard based multiscreen services in a market that is becoming increasingly crowded.
While we have celebrated some strong successes in the home entertainment industry, consumers now want to access content both in and out of the home. Moving forward, the connected car will become an extension of our home entertainment and we are already starting to join the dots between the two with our technologies. For example, JVC KENWOOD uses our NetFront™ Browser NX for its custom in-vehicle device, which can be deployed by car manufacturers as part of their in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems. The IVI market will keep evolving and we have big ambitions for 2018, which you can discover in an eBook available for download on our website.
We look forward to continuing the transformation of the connected entertainment industry in 2018, with new partners and stronger ties with everyone who has supported us along the way. We’ll be attending the GENIVI reception at CES in January, so please get in touch if you would like to meet us at the show. Until then, from the entire ACCESS team and myself – have a wonderful time over this festive season.
The in-vehicle infotainment market keeps garnering exciting headlines and for good reason. Electric vehicles, autonomous driving and smart cities are all receiving significant investment, and the revolution towards a more automated, connected future is moving up a gear.
However, there is a lot of work to be done.
To help OEMs and Tier 1s navigate the twists and turns of today’s automotive industry, we have produced an ebook that looks at the long and exciting journey – with many technological stops along the way – that will take us from today’s reality to this vision. Starting from the current state of the market, we look at the impact in-car connectivity is already having on the market: from solving the BYOD vs. embedded conundrum, to adopting open standards and engaging the consumer. Looking ahead, we also cover the advent of the Internet of Things and how it will transform the automotive industry.
CES 2018 is upon us and, once again, will set the agenda for the next generation of in-vehicle services. Our main stop will be the GENIVI Reception at CES 2018 (January 9, Bellagio Hotel), where we will be available for discussions and demonstrations of our solutions ACCESS Twine™ and the NetFront™ Browser family. We are always interested in comparing visions for connected infotainment services and contrasting it with ours, detailed in our ebook.
If you would like to discuss the points we’re raising in our ebook, please contact automotive@access-company.com to book an appointment with us in Vegas. We’re looking forward to seeing you as we kick-start the year!
As the TV viewing experience continues to shift towards multi-screen consumption, operators have the opportunity to create content specially designed for niche audiences. The OTT realm also includes challenges to be overcome, including video piracy. Shawn Liew reports.
TV Everywhere is now a reality, and operators need to look beyond their own services to comply with evolving consumer demand, says Dr Fleming Lampi, global product director at ACCESS Europe.
With the number of connected devices continuing to grow, broadcasters and service providers are now compelled to provide content over multiple devices and platforms.
Speaking with APB, Dr Lampi cites the successful example of Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), an Indian LTE mobile network and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) operator that has seen its subscriber base growing to 100 million on the back of a new service launched earlier this year, and which combines access to multiple content sources and platforms.
Dr Lampi continues: “First and foremost, consumers want a seamless experience where various types of content and supporting apps live harmoniously within the same ecosystem. To respond to this new demand, Jio decided to offer consumers not only access to both its own branded catalogue, but also the user’s personal library stored in the cloud, and immediate access to social media platforms such as Dropbox and Google Drive.
“By using the Jio User Interface for all content sources, Jio is offering an answer to a crucial consumer challenge — remembering where and how to access a specific piece of content, and of course, with which password.”
What has been hindering traditional TV Everywhere developments, Dr Lampi suggests, is cost and its time-consuming nature due to the lack of interoperability between devices. Citing a Business Insider UK prediction that there will be 24 billion connected devices in the world by 2020, he adds that taking time to develop the “perfect app” for each platform is no longer an option.
Instead, operators can increase both flexibility and simplicity, as well as solve many technical challenges, by moving much of the service delivery into a cloud-based interface, which will enable them to serve users across a multitude of devices. “Unlike per device apps, a browser-based interface adhering to common standards such as HTML5 ensures compatibility across a wide footprint,” Dr Lampi explains. “This approach has enabled Jio to deliver a unified, readily accessible multi-screen service that works across many platforms — be it a set-top box, home gateway, HDMI dongle, Android or iOS smartphones and tablets, or Windows and Apple Mac computers.”
Online viewers today demand high-quality video streaming that operates seamlessly across devices, and which contributes to an out-of-the-box, high-quality experience, suggests Chris Wagner, EVP marketplace strategy, NeuLion, a digital video technology company.
And this may hold particularly true for live sports streaming, which is a growing and highly lucrative business. NeuLion, for instance, is powering the Sky Sports Box Office over-the-top (OTT) service and recently streamed live the highly anticipated fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor for several global rights holders, including UFC, Sky Sports, Sky New Zealand and Eleven Sports Network.
Wagner describes: “Being in a digitally connected world, viewers have access to multiple devices all day long, enabling them to no longer be confined to one area to watch content.
“NeuLion has been working with a number of big sports rights holders, such as Sky Sports, the NBA and others, to make their content readily available, both live and on-demand, and on all leading consumer devices — including Web, PC, tablets, mobile, gaming consoles, smart TVs, streaming devices, VR headsets and more — to increase consumer reach and accessibility.”
And to allow operators not only to reach the right audiences, but also to better monetise their content, NeuLion recently launched its OTT Dashboard 3, part of the NeuLion Digital Platform, and the NeuLion ACE Analytics solution.
With OTT Dashboard 3.0, the best quality video can be delivered to all viewers while driving revenue by showing NeuLion customers real-time dashboards of key performance indicators across users, content, apps, operations and detailed customer relationship management (CRM) data for each registered end-user. “The new UI widgets filter data into multiple scopes to create new correlations between different in-depth metrics,” says Wagner. “This can help traditional broadcasters get real-time metrics on viewing to drive programming decisions and marketing tactics to get and keep subscribers.”
He also points out that broadcasters need sharp insights and fast intelligence to stay competitive and grow their business in today’s data-driven world. NeuLion ACE Analytics is thus designed to provide the tools needed to leverage business intelligence and make decisions to drive growth, quality of service and quality of experience for OTT and TV Everywhere services.
“With NeuLion ACE Analytics, we can help broadcasters answer questions such as: What are my most effective and profitable marketing channels and campaigns? Who are my most valuable customers and how do I find more of them? Who is likely to cancel and how can we keep them?”
NeuLion also believes that 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) with high dynamic range (HDR) is ready for OTT delivery, and will help expand revenue for broadcasters and broadband providers. NeuLion, according to Wagner, delivers true 4K/UHD quality, at 60fps, to Internet-connected 4K/UHD HDR TVs, and which is enabled by the NeuLion CE software development kit (SDK), the company’s 4K/UHD streaming consumer electronics SDK.
For live sports viewing, in particular, 4K/UHD-quality video enhances the overall viewing experience, Wagner suggests. “We have been streaming UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) events in 4K/UHD under a transactional pay-per-view model. UFC in 4K/UHD gives MMA (mixed martial arts) fans access to every punch, kick and takedown with intense detail and stunning quality — making them feel like they are next to the action for the entire event.”
Essentially, it is all about the fan experience, he emphasises, and to provide fans with the option to watch content in both HD and 4K/UHD HDR. Constantly push the envelope with new technologies, new features and new services, Wagner advises.
Another key consideration for pay-OTT operators is security, ACCESS’ Dr Lampi highlights. Going back to the example of India, he notes how illegal redistribution of content in the country is costing the film industry more than US$3.34 billion and 60,000 jobs yearly.
A success story: Reliance Jio Infocomm, an Indian LTE mobile network and fibre-to-the-home operator, now has 100 million subscribers, as it continues to build on a new service launched earlier this year, which combines access to multiple content sources and platforms.
“Service providers already need to have end-to-end security in place to be able to discuss content rights and syndication tools,” Dr Lampi says. “In a multi-screen world, operators need to take a few technical questions into account, including the nature of the transport stream, codecs, resolutions, bitrates and end-to-end encryption. Using modern digital rights management (DRM) solutions that support multiple and interoperable DRM technologies provides the best value, and ensures the best level of content protection, irrespective of the content or device used to access it.”
Many broadcasters and content owners view Asia as the “most exciting prospect” for largely untapped OTT and video-on-demand (VoD) service revenue. Media analysis firm predicts OTT and video revenues for 17 leading countries in Asia to reach $18 billion by 2021, up from more than $5.5 billion in 2015, reports Chrys Poulain, sales director, NexGuard, a Kudelski Group company.
This growth, however, presents a double-edged sword, he cautions. “Video piracy is a common challenge in Asia, and the advent of OTT services delivered over IP is providing pirates with new potential avenues for illicit content redistribution.”
Poulain believes that when priced appropriately, OTT and VoD services are a more attractive and convenient alternative than pirated options. This is especially true for premium content such as live sports, where immediacy is a big part of the value chain. He continued: “Yet, content owners, including the major studios, are increasingly stipulating that these services must adhere to a higher level of conditional access (CA) and DRM to protect content, often as a mandatory condition before proceeding with licensing agreeements.
“Beyond these two security measures, the issue of live, high-quality content re-transmission is a major one that can only be tackled with the addition of more advocated security methods — like forensic watermarking.”
Forensic watermarking, Poulain explains, places a unique identifier within each copy of content. This “digital tattoo” can not only trace the original source of a pirated piece of content, but also be complemented with real-time anti-piracy services that can detect illegal online streaming services. This can then be brought forth to the Internet service provider to issue cease-and-desist notices to take down these illicit sites quickly.
He is also heartened that besides content owners and service providers, governments across Asia — most notably China — have launched a number of initiatives to better protect intellectual property for video content, and are educating consumers on the long-term harm inflicted by piracy on the wider industry and by extension, the content they will be able watch. “This is of particular concern in markets like India. The world’s largest production market is increasingly embracing OTT delivery in shorter windows just after the theatrical release, largely in an effort to thwart pirates,” Poulain says.
And while he acknowledges that video piracy may never truly be eradicated, it can be lessened through providing compelling and high value content services that offer a better consumer experience.
He concludes: “Technologies such as CA, DRM and forensic water¬marking are vital tools for content owners and service providers who fight content theft. This, in turn, will help studios deliver high value content for service providers in Asia, and ultimately deliver richer and more compelling services to consumers.”
At IBC 2017, multiscreen and TV Everywhere were some of the most talked about topics, although most companies in the industry are still looking for ways to address fast evolving consumer demand for content everywhere, at all times and on all platforms.
Since then, it’s become increasingly clear the industry needs to welcoming a new era of multiscreen that blurs the lines between the operator’s content catalogue, the subscriber’s personal library and external User Generated Content hosted on social media and YouTube. This is part of the reason we left the Content Innovation Awards ceremony on October 15 with ‘The Multiscreen Award’ – exactly one month after we brought home a CSI award for ‘Best TV Everywhere or multi-screen video’ for the deployment of ACCESS Twine™ for Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio)’s Jio Lifestyle service.
What is so different about this deployment, compared to all the multiscreen services out there?
Traditionally, multiscreen services have been confined to the operator’s own content. This results in end users having to remember which content to access from each service and device that they use to watch video. This fragmented experience is no longer valid as consumers expect easy access to all content everywhere and at all times – instead, operators today need to offer a one-stop solution for content consumption.
In addition, the mobile device is now the first screen for many consumers in the world. If we look specifically at India, the world’s second biggest smartphone country with 220 million users and 75% of Internet browsing carried out via mobile devices, broadcasters and content owners would struggle to enter the market via the big screen. While India is one of the world’ biggest – and mainly untapped – market, this move towards more mobile-friendly services is also present in the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
However, the operator headache doesn’t end with devices: consumers also want to be able to store and share their personal content with friends and family. To date, the challenge of meeting this consumer demand has been considered too complex to solve due the plethora of content sources vying for the consumer’s attention and a lack of robust methods to ensure seamless remote access to content.
Jio proved that these challenges could be overcome by providing its 100 million (and counting!) subscribers with a single sign-on to access premium content, store and share personal content and external sources such as YouTube, Dropbox and social media platforms. To do so, the operator used our ACCESS Twine™ 360° smart media platform for operators and content owners.
Through ACCESS Twine™, consumers can access the operator’s and personal content from set-top boxes, Android, iOS, Mac and Windows-powered devices both in-home and remotely out of the home. This is complemented by providing access to external sources such as Dropbox, Google Drive, YouTube, and social media platforms via the Jio User Interface. This way, subscribers experience a single user interface catering for all their needs.
Using the single service approach provided by ACCESS Twine™, operators such as Jio can also better understand the end-user needs and habits through a number of modules, including:
Remote Access to content at home
Aggregated content and search
“Follow-me” functionality, enabling consumers to continue watching from where they left off on another device.
By launching a single service that provides access for all media consumption to its subscribers managed by ACCESS Twine™, Jio has demonstrated that there are easy, robust ways to combine a branded content catalogue with the consumer’s personal content stored in the cloud and external sources – without ever risking losing eyeballs to the competition.
Jio is a first mover in an emerging market. However, operators in mature, highly sophisticated regions can also take note of this creative approach to multiscreen to develop the next generation of multiscreen services. In the future, content, devices and sources will all be merged for the consumer – creating an opportunity for operators to regain the viewer’s undivided attention and trust.
Soon, even more devices will enter the multiscreen mix – from the connected car to IoT enabled screens – and operators need to get ready for this evolution. Winning the Content Innovation and CSI awards enables us to show that there is more to multiscreen than simply enabling media sharing between devices. As we prepare for a more integrated future, we are proud to show the way to the next stop in the multiscreen journey to the industry.
