News Letter

HQME™ Blog

Robert Khedouri, VP SanDisk

This past quarter we saw massive moves by major players in the digital media mobile ecosystem which validate and strengthen the direction of HQME:

• Apple – Announced iCloud, which includes too many features and services to detail one-by-one. Perhaps most notable is the way that iCloud uses the cloud to move copies of content automatically to the local storage of the device. A great example is photos – the iCloud will deliver copies of your last 1,000 photos to all of your iOS devices. Another is Newsstand, which automatically pushes new editions of magazines and periodicals in the background overnight so they may be consumed immediately and offline.
• Google – Launched an Android movie service that allows offline viewing within 30 days after rental, as well as a cloud-based music service that automatically locally caches any song played from the cloud. A prominent “pushpin” feature allows users to manually cache their favorite songs.
• Amazon – Launched a cloud-based music service that also offers offline use of content.

These examples and others strongly illustrate how the optimal user experience in any mobile environment blends the best of both worlds – with the growth of mobile video and rich media, we are increasingly seeing attention turn towards a solution that smartly takes advantage of both the network and local storage to provide the best user experience possible.

With 81% of users dropping off a video when seeing a re-buffering wheel (Online Video Delivery Still Nowhere Near TV-Quality, TubeMogul, Dec 2009), mobile data usage continues to grow. And with better devices and networks continually coming to market, the case for HQME has never been stronger. We're excited about the direction HQME is taking to address the opportunities with content in the mobile space and look forward to advancing the improved rich media experience users are increasingly coming to expect.

Standards Update

David Koren, Director, System Design, SanDisk

P2200 is an IEEE working group that was formed at the beginning of the year. The working group consists of representatives from all parts the mobile ecosystem.

The working group is a collaborative industry effort to standardize a method for high quality delivery of content using time-shifted caching to mobile devices. The purpose of the caching is two-fold:

• Provide a high-quality experience delivering the content
• Relieve congestion on wireless networks caused by streaming

The basics

Huge amounts of content are being streamed today.

• User-generated content. Many of these clips are viewed over and over and re-streamed every time.
• Hollywood episodic content and feature films. Utilize a large percentage of network capacity.

The impact on network performance is significant.

• Severe imbalance between peak and off peak network utilization.

P2200 deals with a number of types of content

• User-generated content. Predictive engines and repetitive viewing of same content make this a prime candidate for caching.
• Film/Television content. Device configuration, data collection and predictive engines make this a good candidate for caching.
• Applications
• Games
• Music

The ecosystem

P2200 specification development is being driven by relevant industry segments.

• Mobile network operators. Seek to time-shift utilization from busy to non-busy times of day.
• Content providers. Seek to provide high-quality on-the-go access to content for mobile devices.
• Handset manufacturers. Want to optimize user experience and power management on the device.
• Storage providers. Produce storage optimized for caching.
• Baseband/App processor makers.
• Entertainment software industry

Security and DRM

P2200 is intended to be transparent to specific security schemes. It requires that any content protection or DRM associated with the content be preserved. P2200 is intended to be compatible with both online and offline consumption of DRM-protected content.

Currently the working group is in the midst of P2200 spec development. In addition, the working group is focusing efforts in the area of collaboration with other standard organizations to ensure wider adoption of the standard within the mobile industry.

For more information visit http://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/2200.html.

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In pursuit of true anytime, anywhere mobile experiences

Jonathan Laor is the CEO of Applicaster Ltd. Pioneer mobile publishing platform,
providing end-to-end solutions for direct-distribution mobile products & properties.

The Media Industry has been long dealing with ‘the transition to new-media’ and ‘over-the-top services’ (OTT). In turn, we have been creating technologies for OTT delivery. Where in fact, most interesting to look at over the past two years was not the transition into mobile, but rather the direct distribution approach many content providers began to engage in. This was mainly facilitated by iOS, that was the first ecosystem to create meaningful mobile consumption volumes without an MNO for a distributor.

As a result, the video-content supply & demand point of equilibrium is constantly growing — along with the demand for innovative services, social tools and second-screen experiences. Quality of Service on such a scale becomes a complex task. Through its platform, Applicaster has been supporting broadcasters, cable companies, content/rights-owners and acclaimed TV formats claim a leadership position in this field. The elastic and scalable platform includes all required service elements and infrastructures, and harnesses cloud computing to offer low/no capital investments. The architecture of the technology stems from the understanding the market is extremely volatile and solutions that require infrastructural investments seldom create ROI.

Through this experience, I have learnt most broadcasters would define a wholesome 360 deg. offering as: TV, Internet and Mobile. Of course, this is true but a bit simplistic; it does not tap into the core of the 360 deg. environment of the consumer. The consumer is porting around with various devices, on each or any he/she might wish to consume content. The main transition throughout the day is the one between connectivity environments: broadband Internet, limited connectivity and offline. Roaming between these creates the biggest inconsistency in consumption.

The HQME initiative has become a context for Telco operators, consumer-electronic manufacturers, content-owners and software developers to discuss this important challenge. The initiative has already highlighted important service-architecture dilemmas in the pursuit of true ‘any-time, any-where’ experiences. How a video service-provider, employing the direct distribution approach, hands-off a user between the three connectivity environments should be the most important issue to consider in today's competitive landscape. We believe this requires a lot more than just content caching, but an intelligent, adaptive content caching to gap between these environments. I'm proud to recognize Fox International Channels' BabyTV as the first-mover on this technology, and also to share we have several leading cable companies and broadcasters already upgrading their services that we manage - to feature our HQME360 suite. It is exciting to see how this ecosystem evolves, as users are empowered to consume video truly anywhere, and at anytime.

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