Game changer

In an exclusive interview with Vijaya Cherian, Intigral’s team shares the reasons behind adopting an IP-based infrastructure and adaptive bit rate technologies to deliver content across multiple platforms in the Middle East

The rules of content delivery are changing. IP-based content delivery is quickly gaining favour with broadcasters worldwide and those that embrace the change will shape tomorrow’s media landscape. In the Middle East, Saudi-owned content provider Intigral has taken the lead by not just developing an IP-based delivery platform but by also forging the long-awaited alliance between telcos and broadcasters in the region.

Intigral, which is best described as a digital media content provider that customises, manages and delivers content across multiple screens is already working closely with telco operator Saudi Telecom Company (STC) in the Kingdom. In fact, it enabled STC to launch Invision, Saudi Arabia’s first interactive TV service based on its IPTV capabilities. The service also delivers live TV, Catch-Up TV and video on demand to the TV screens of STC’s broadband customers.

In fact, Intigral’s VP of IPTV and operations Mike Sneesby, says the company was established “to specifically work with telecommunications operators”.

“We are set up to work across the three screens – Web, IPTV and Mobile, but I think this terminology will disappear very soon with these screens diverging and converging and a whole array of different devices becoming available for people to consume content. So from our perspective, our technology strategy is designed basically to support the delivery of content across multiple platforms and multiple networks for telecommunicat-ions operators.

“If you look at our business today, we have our broadcast headend in Dubai and are just about to expand from 50 to 180 channels. The broadcast headend has always been completely digital but is also specifically established to deliver video content in IP format,” explains Sneesby.

Intigral’s IPTV operations are controlled from Dubai, where it has a state-of-the-art broadcast, editing and post-production centre. Thus far, Intigral’s content package to STC has been limited to 50 TV channels, but it is now in the process of undertaking a massive upgrade that will enable it to deliver 180 channels, 30 of which will be HD.

Along with the upgrade, Intigral’s 45 plus technical team in Dubai, will swell to almost 80 to cope with its IPTV operations. The expansion has been contracted to Dubai-based systems integrator Glocom, who successfully designed and integrated the headend for Intigral the first time.

“In the initial build of our headend technology here, we worked in partnership with Glocom as our systems integrator. In the expansion going out from 50 channels to 180 channels, we went through another comprehensive vendor selection process; we trialled a number of different technologies and the engineering team looked at a whole range of factors. In the end, we decided to extend our relationship with both Glocom and Harmonic again to expand our headend so today, we’re running Harmonic’s latest generation of encoders,” explains Sneesby.

IPTV and managed TV services including operational strategy, Graphical User Interface (GUI) management, product management and marketing are only a part of what Intigral does. The company also has two technical teams that take care of content delivery to mobile devices and the Web.

“Our mobile business is based out of Riyadh and we also have a platform for the Web. From a technology perspective, it is all about how these platforms talk to one another, and we have a plan already in place for a number of interfaces between our platforms that will allow us to deliver video content to our mobile consumers and deliver mobile content onto our web consumers.

“The idea is to be able to share content across those delivery platforms but also share data across those platforms. Someday, in an ideal world, we hope there will be a single platform that can deliver to every device. But the reality is that it doesn’t exist today. So what we have instead is an IPTV headend and an IPTV content management system; a mobile content management system and a web content management system. The challenge today is sharing content as well as data between those systems, which we are doing for STC with a number of initiatives,” adds Sneesby.

One reason why Intigral’s method of content delivery is remarkable is because it is both futuristic and opens up a whole segment of the market that has, thus far, remained out of reach for most operators.

Intigral employs broadband whereas most other traditional players rely on satellite to broadcast content.

Here, it could be argued that bandwidth is a huge challenge for IPTV over managed networks. But Intigral has addressed this by adopting adaptive bit rate (ABR) technology, an alternative to providing content over unmanaged networks, where bandwidth is low and inconsistent.

“Adaptive bit rate (ABR) streaming of video over unmanaged networks is an OTT technology that is being implemented in Europe but has not been implemented in this region as yet,” explains Sailesh Saxena, senior engineer at Intigral.

“This technology allows the consumer to watch live streaming content over the internet with a low bandwidth connection. Both Video on demand and linear channels can be broadcast. The most popular is HTTP live streaming on Apple devices.”

Another reason why Intigral chose ABR is because it helps in monetising content, which is one of the company’s key goals.

ABR technology enables people to view video even where a WiFi or 3G connection is available irrespective of bandwidth.

“The concept is TV anywhere,” adds Tony Saab, general manager of broadcast operations at Intigral.

“A key benefit of adaptive bit rate is that the content never resides on the customer’s set top box (STB), as it is streamed. This removes the need for local storage capacity in the STB, thus reducing the total cost of the STB for the end user and the operator. It also results in faster start times, extremely low buffering, and a great experience that is tailored to the user’s broadband connection speed. For the content owners, it is a secure way to deliver content that significantly reduces the piracy worries of our content partners; it is device independent and can be streamed to any device. Eventually, content owners and operators will be able to stream HD without worrying about excluding low bandwidth users. It is a win-win for all of the stakeholders with whom we work, namely, the consumer, the operator, and the content owners.”

Sneesby explains that in a region like the Middle East, where broadband speeds are still hugely questionable, ABR offers a huge “competitive advantage”.

“This is an opportunity that is going to develop in the region because adaptive bit rate streaming allows us to access the lower end bandwidth part of the consumer market. The other component you want to look at is covering the gap between devices because you want to have the capability to deliver to as many people as possible, and open up as much of the market as you possibly can. Obviously mobile networks again have a less reliable bandwidth capability in terms of delivering to mobile phones. So adaptive bit rate not only overcomes some of the fixed line limitations in delivering, say TV and broadcast kind of services to consumers, but they enable you to get to more devices as well. This means that you can serve video content and a much better user experience to a mobile phone, to a tablet device or anything.

For us, in the convergent world, it’s about maximising the market that we can access and giving ourselves technological capability to run across multiple platforms,” adds Sneesby.

There are several other benefits to using broadband as well.

For instance, broadband eliminates the need to hire a satellite transponder. The costs of servicing a customer are more reduced as the set top box (STB) can be accessed online for troubleshooting. In addition, with the launch of Internet TV, IPTV allows the usage of internet and TV technology on the same network, reducing costs for the vendor in troubleshooting and monetising content by reducing piracy. Moreover, international studios would be more comfortable knowing that their content is safe thereby making theatrical releases a possibility in the home.

But the biggest benefit Intigral enjoys today by adopting this technology is zero piracy. Here, senior engineer Saxena points out the number of STC Invision STBs that are lined up inside the racks at Intigral’s central apparatus room (CAR) and their role.

“In an IPTV system, the set top box will not boot up until it has been authenticated over the network by the encryption system. As such, without network connectivity to the content management and the encryption, the STB would be rendered useless. Thus only legitimate subscribers can access content over the network with an STB,” he explains.

One other unique feature that Intigral has incorporated at its facility is live censorship, where it can undertake various kinds of live censorship for telcos based on their respective guidelines.

Although Intigral has addressed most of the technical challenges in the region with young technologies, there are other factors that make the Middle East a very complicated market, according to Sneesby. 

“The Middle East is a very complicated market. I, for instance, wear two hats as the vice president of IPTV operations. I am the business head and also oversee the technology across the company. If you look at it from that perspective, there’s no easy model to go and look at around the world and say we should follow what this country did because we have a very similar situation here. The reality is because of the difference in broadband penetration and the difference in the demographic of the marketplace and by this, I mean age as well as populations and nationalities, this is a very complicated market for TV.

“The challenge, therefore, for us is finding the right business models and making sure we make the right investments in technology because not only is it about the capital that we put into a technology decision but as you know, once you commit time in a particular direction, it’s like a ship you cannot turn around. So this is a market that needs you to understand it specifically without copying somebody else. It’s about understanding the market, making the right decisions and the right investments.”

No doubt, the technologies the company is deploying are young and still relatively new. However, it is also a clear indication that Intigral is willing to take calculated risks and forge ahead to become a market leader.

As Sneesby points out, “broadband access is still a challenge in this region so adaptive bit rate and the technologies we are employing and trialling fill the gap and give us significant competitive advantage for the interim five to 10 years before broadband speeds catch up.”