By announciung an integration deal this week, US DRM supplier Secure Media has brought our attention to a new view on IPTV, from Austrian company Ocilion IPTV Technologies
Ocilion does IPTV in a rather strange way with a very thin client, that appears to do little more than the DRM authentication and decryption. Multicast streams go to edge servers close to the DSLAMs in the access network, where they are converted into unicast streams, and run like a VoD service even when delivering the broadcast content.
Ocilion has a few local customers for IPTV and now has integrated this centralized system with SecureMedia Ecryptonite One DRM.
Ocilion has all the middleware commands dealt with by this edge server, even channel change requests and claims lightning channel change, somewhat like the Microsoft system, except it never reverts back to the multicast stream and stays unicast throughout, with the multicast stream just feeding the edge server. The system also offers networked DVR, something that is not legal in many countries.
It also supports all wireline last-mile access-technologies including DSL, FTTx, cable, and edge QAM.
The system comes with a customizable user interface, and a variety of interactive services. It seems we get more solutions for delivering IPTV rather than less each year, despite the fact that everyone thinks of IPTV suppliers as being in consolidation mode.