Pay TV operators need to get their content onto more screens, which means there will be growing interest in multi-room TV as well as multi-screen viewing at home. Here, in the build-up to Cable Congress, Charles Cheevers, CTO EMEA and VP Advanced Technology at ARRIS, explains how this can be achieved cost-effectively. He says we should no longer model the connected home on the number of TVs but the number of end decoder devices in total, taking into consideration tablets, smartphones and PCs, which now account for a double-digit percentage of viewing time in most homes. When you consider all devices that need to be served, the economics favour a single gateway device that serves all video and also high-speed data and voice-over-IP, he argues.
Q: It looks like the concept of using a second or third DVR for whole-home DVR is now outdated. Is it fair to assume that the server-client approach to multi-room services is the future?
A. Yes, we will not see much of that, certainly not operator supplied. The economics for delivering to many screens work out better using either: (a) A gateway to host the HDD (hard disk drive) DVR storage for all the home screens, both QAM and IP video, or (b) nDVR (network DVR) where large storage requirements move to the network/cloud. What we are seeing is a trend by the operators to move to a single Home Gateway model with centralized DVR and time-shift buffer control initially, and then a move to remove large storage needs with network-based/cloud-based storage and DVR.
The Home Gateway device is responsible for RF to IP conversion and DVR functionality for all home client devices including set-top boxes and customer owned and managed devices like Smart TVs, tablets, etc. With nDVR, the large storage HDD is removed from the gateway and this is replaced by a cloud nDVR solution. The local gateway device typically then uses much smaller storage (probably Solid State) to perform time-shift buffer, caching and the pre-positioning of content and advertisements. The two approaches are serialized, so are not mutually exclusive in our opinion.
ARRIS has launched the Whole Home Solution comprised of the Moxi Home Gateway, with support for up to six set-top boxes and other IP end devices. This device supports high-speed data, voice and video and serves as a gateway for all home STB and video requirements. The gateway solution supports full DVR functionality for multiple tuners and video streams. With soon-to-be-launched devices it will offer gateway transcoding so IP devices like tablets can be supported from the existing MPEG QAM streams as well as directly with IP video Adaptive Bit Rate encoded streams.
Future versions of this device that will align with a move to more cloud hosted services will see the gateway de-populate the HDD and replace it with smaller Solid State storage for time-shift buffer support in the home. The gateway will also support caching of IP video HTTP fragments to maximize performance of IP video as this increasingly replaces MPEG QAM content.
Q: It is possible to introduce home gateway capabilities using both software, added to existing DVRs or set-top boxes, or by introducing new hardware to the home. Where are these different approaches applicable?
A: We do not see too many initiatives trying to turn legacy set-top box or DVR solutions into Home Gateways. We do see initiatives that are trying to leverage these legacy devices for use with a new Home Gateway, where they may have MoCA or Ethernet connections. The Home Gateway then augments these STBs with features that they could not support with their own CPU and memory capabilities.
We see software solutions being developed for these legacy set-top boxes that can turn them into IP clients to the Home Gateway. This is feasible for a small percentage of legacy set-top boxes and the usual pre-requisite is that they have some network interface. Typically you need MPEG-4 capable set-top boxes for this repurposing capability.
We also see more interest in solutions that do Remote User Interface generation for these older STBs so they can use the new UIs that may not run natively on the STB because of CPU and memory restrictions. Common approaches include RUI using HTML5, using RVU and also using full MPEG-2 TS generation where the video stream itself is the UI. These approaches all try and leverage the existing STB into the new MSO (cable operator) experience.
A new Home Gateway also supports applications that work with MSO services in at least two areas: As a pass-thru device for cloud-based applications and services; and as a host device for home-based services where the gateway hosts functions like RUI, telemetry and other headless applications like media servers, print servers, etc.
There are a combination of reasons that motive an operator to invest in a hardware upgrade. These include : A requirement to support MPEG-4 and ABR (adaptive bit rate) IP video solutions as they begin to become part of the MSO services; Increasing broadband speeds requiring potentially 20-24 channels of QAM to 1Gbs potential speeds to the home; Support for more unicast services and time-shifted TV including StartOver; Support for new home networking solutions that allow for HD video to be sent reliably to IP devices and MSO devices, particularly over Wi-Fi. As the operator continues to invest to support these growing demands, the Home Gateway approach has made its way to the top as the preferred architecture to build on for the next 10 years.
The Home Gateway provides a platform for the RF to IP conversion of services in the home. This is the base requirement of any cable CPE (customer premise equipment) solution. This never goes away even if the customer starts to use more of their own CE devices for video services. It provides a platform to host storage effectively for multiple devices and migrate this to the cloud and it is a way to reduce power consumption in the home thanks to lower power IP STB and CE devices with deep-sleep modes.
The Home Gateway acts as a demarcation point in the home and as a focus for a home networking solution covering Wi-Fi (dual band concurrent and 801.11ac), MoCA (with >400Mbs of operator owned network in the home) and other media like Powerline and Ethernet. It is a platform for home applications and means you can balance the best of the cloud services with processing in the home. Examples of this include gateway hosted transcoding services that can support cloud-based direct IP video streams. A gateway also provides a standard architecture for operators to support both HFC/DOCSIS and EPON based home devices and a way to extend the CDN (Content Delivery Network) to the home with more seamless caching directly to the home gateway device.
Q: The cable industry seems interested in the concept of processing broadcast/VOD content within the home for distribution to smartphones/laptops/tablets, as an alternative to (or complement to) pure OTT delivery via the broadband router. What is the rationale for adapting the video inside the home?
A: There are a number of reasons for supporting the ability to transcode, transrate and transcript video content in the gateway for use by IP devices/screens. First are content rights for linear broadcast. Second is spectrum, as it may not be possible with the spectrum available to simulcast DVB and IP video to the subscriber. Silicon advances mean 2-4 transcoding solutions have emerged that can fit within an operator budget for a gateway solution. Even with an ultimate network based transcode solution for end-to-end IP video delivered content, there may be resolutions and codecs that are better supported by a CPE transcode solution.
It is not a case of having to pick either network or CPE based transcoding architecture; it is likely that it will be both solutions while the networks transition to all-IP. Then the content can come from the cloud. While Adaptive Bit Rate technologies have their merits, they also require additional bandwidth to provide different profiles of video for optimal viewing on different resolution devices. This is expensive in terms of bandwidth and with advances in CPE technology for transcoding, and the cost of CPE transcoding coming down, it can be much more network bandwidth efficient to take the content from the existing linear DVB tier.
