Pre-Conference Workshop Presented by The Diffusion Group
TV Platforms in the Age of OTT
*Separate Registration Fee Required to Attend*

1:00-1:15

Introductions and Overview

View Complete Workshop Agenda (Here)

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1:15-2:15 

The Future of TV Connected Devices – Part 1

2:15-3:00

The Future of TV Connected Devices – Part 2

3:15-4:00

Consumer Attitudes to PayTV and OTT

4:00-4:45

Content Delivery in an Internet World

4:45 – 5:15

Netflix - Platform Strategy

5:15 - 6:00

Set Top Box 2010 Conference Agenda

9:00 - 9:45

Castilian, Granada, Riviera Ballroom

Keynote: Internet Era of TV: Moving from Digital to Dynamic
David Grubb, Chief Technology Officer, Motorola Home - Motorola

The cable industry is in the midst of a transformation to an unprecedented era of video-centric technologies and services. This new time period is defined by the Internet’s emerging viability as a vehicle for the delivery of video content directly to consumers via their set-top boxes. We’ve reached a pivot point that’s turning us from the Digital Era of TV to the Internet Era of TV. Consumers are embracing the Internet as an always-accessible and personalized channel for content and are expecting the same level of accessibility and personalization from their service providers.

Success in the Internet Era of TV means service providers must deliver the 3 C’s that will ensure consumer satisfaction – content, community and control. One way to achieve this is implementing a multi-screen service management solution that enhances the existing video hardware and CPE ecosystem, to help providers manage and merchandise the near-limitless content necessary for this type of service model using the network resources available to them. Consumers will relish the converged media experiences offered by their service providers through all four screens – seamlessly moving content between their televisions, PCs, tablets and mobile devices.  

Motorola’s presentation will explore industry drivers in the Internet Era of TV, the pain points experienced and practical applications service providers can offer to satisfy current subscribers and attract new ones, while leveraging economies of scale.

9:45 - 10:00

Break

10:00 - 11:00

Castilian, Granada, Riviera Ballroom

Executive Panel Discussion:
TV in the Internet Era: The Intersection of Broadband and Broadcast
Moderator: Colin Dixon, Practice Manager - The Diffusion Group

Panelist: Marty Roberts, Vice President of Sales and Marketing - thePlatform
Panelist: Vern Smith, SVP Business Development and GM of ViP-TV - EchoStar
Panelist: Larry Yang, Lead Platform Project Manager Google TV - Google
Panelist: Vivek Khemka, Vice President for Customer Technology - DISH Network
Panelist: Mark Borao - Ernst & Young

TV is changing as we move from a purely linear broadcast model to connected TV models and over-the-top services. This change brings both challenges and opportunities for content owners, broadcasters, service providers and set top box / consumer electronics manufacturers. The race is one to create new and exciting TV services that blend broadcast and broadband. Who will be the winners in the new Internet Era of TV and who are the potential losers? As we fundamentally change the way consumers watch, interact with and access content, numerous questions abound. Are hybrid services the future of TV? Will GoogleTV fundamentally alter how consumers interact with TV and discover content? How can content producers and operators blend broadcast and broadband to attract and retain the next generation of users? Who will lead the charge to develop seamless three-screen services? How will connected TVs and STBs change the way consumers search, discover and navigate to content? The panelists will provide critical insights and analysis on how TV services will look in the Internet Era and how to survive and thrive in the new reality.

11:00 - 11:15

Break

11:15 - 12:15

Castilian, Granada, Riviera Ballroom

Executive Panel Discussion: Widgets, Apps and Interactivity: Is the STB the Next Big Apps Platform?
Moderator: Colin Dixon, Practice Manager - The Diffusion Group

Panelist: Mark Evensen, CTO and Co-Founder - Entone
Panelist: Russ Schafer, Senior Director of Global Product Marketing, Connected TV - Yahoo! Inc.
Panelist: Braxton Jarrett, CEO - Clearleap
Panelist: Wade Vesey, CEO of Movial North America

The iPhone and Android cell phones have proven the consumer appetite for aps. Widgets and TV-based apps running on set top boxes are now poised to become the next big apps platforms. Does the apps-store model translate to the TV, to the Set Top Box? Will the TV become the next big aps platform? Television manufacturers and operators are betting on it. Who will win out ultimately…STB or TV manufacturers? Will the aps-store approach drive STB manufacturers to adopt an open-source model? Who has the killer TV App (besides just watching TV) and what will it be? Will operators try to tightly control their own apps stores, or can an open model exist with so many disparate platforms and standards? What impact will this new functionality have on the cost of the STB? Will manufacturers have to include lots of memory and more powerful and expensive processors?

12:15 - 1:15

Lunch

1:15 - 2:00

Castilian Ballroom

The Future of Interactive TV and Entertainment
BigBand

Service providers today want to turbo-charge their market share as they offer compelling TV experiences, responding to viewers’ expectation for personalized services customized to their interests, available when and where they want them. To achieve a successful personalization of services, service providers need scalable and cost-effective platforms that enable a smooth and efficient migration from broadcast to personalized TV experience.

Thanks to advances in digital technology, consumers have more video options than ever before. The increasing demand for IP-enabled devices and personalized content requires that service providers explore and expand the use of IP in their architectures. Carriers that can deliver the large content libraries and highly personalized services with the highest possible video quality will encounter new revenue opportunities, as they gain additional subscribers and advertisers.

John will discuss the opportunities to monetize IPTV with personalized TV experience, morphing from today’s one-size-fits all approach to be more individualized and engaging. He will explore IP video and discuss the migration from today's zoned-based advertising to one-to-one addressable advertising and show a sample of personalized services that help generate revenues including personalized messages, mosaics, and more. John will additionally explore what it takes to offer a reliable, network agnostic routing and processing of video. He will compare network-based approaches with alternatives, and will emphasize the importance of video delivery rather than what platform is being used -- for best personalized TV experience.

This session will provide critical insights into the era of IP-centric video services, discussing technologies that use existing infrastructure for a seamless transition to a cost efficient IP video delivery for personalized services. The presentation will also share key insights and takeaways from deployments worldwide of personalized video services and addressable advertising – for a compelling viewer experience.
 

Granada Ballroom

Helping PayTV Providers Think Outside the Set-Top-Box
Amdocs

With the huge growth in premium online content and the ease with which customers can consume this content via broadband access, the PayTV industry is experiencing a fundamental shift in the way consumers watch video. The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver experienced over 5 times the online video views than the Beijing Olympics in 2008. And according to ESPN, over 100 million customers have accessed online video content so far to watch the World Cup.

Online content distributors are becoming a force to be reckoned with. Netflix has signed up over 14 million customers and now has revenues larger than Blockbuster. Hulu recently launched a premium subscription service and will now make content available via Apple’s iPad as well. Google is also making waves with their announcement of Google Television, promising a more intuitive “online experience” similar to using Google search to find video content.

So what does all this mean for traditional PayTV service providers?

Find the answers in this engaging session where we look at strategies that allow PayTV providers to think outside of the set-top box, embrace the online experience and bundle it with their traditional offerings.

Riviera Ballroom

GoogleTV: Changing TV As We Know It
itaas

With the threat of OTT looming for operators, the need for advanced search and discovery mechanisms on the STB is becoming increasingly important. itaas would like to discuss what operators are doing to combat the threat of losing eyes and enhance their offering to consumers and whether the benefits of GoogleTV outweigh its threats to operators?

2:00 - 2:15

Break

2:15 - 3:00

Castilian Ballroom

Delivering 3DTV to the Home
Motorola

3D movies have been big at the box office, but what about getting them to the living room? This session will highlight the history, technology basics of 3DTV including extensions of the MPEG-4 AVC standard as well as the challenges associated with broadcasting to the home. Another consideration is standards: from the creation of 3D content, to the transmission of 3D signals, to consumer devices such as TVs and glasses. Many organizations are discussing the various requirements but what has been implemented and how does that affect the delivery of 3D signals? The discussion will include the potential for backward compatibility with 2D TV sets and set top boxes to help drive mainstream adoption of 3DTV among cable, satellite and telco viewers.

The session will discuss the future of 3DTV distribution and display technologies and how that affects compatibility among existing 3D TVs and networks. The speaker will also cover why service providers are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the 3D opportunity and provide a compelling 3D experience today and an even more exciting experience tomorrow with minimal upgrades to current headend and customer premise equipment.

Granada Ballroom

Enabling Home Theater on Demand
Verimatrix

FCC has recently allowed selectable output control for set-top boxes. It means that cable, satellite and IPTV operators are allowed to offer content that can only be displayed on screens with HDMI connections protected via high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP).  The contention is that, by eliminating the “easy” piracy option of recording the signal from analog outputs of the STB, studios can now consider a new release window for their movie assets. As proposed by Time Warner Cable, it’s called “home theater on demand,” and enables operators to offer a movie for domestic consumption just 30 days after its theatrical release.
This new concept of a home theater on demand window also enables the delivery of movies to end user devices. Despite the restriction to HDCP protected outputs, there is no doubt that content released in this high value period will be subject to piracy of commercial and non-commercial flavor. While HDCP provides much better security then that unprotected analog output, it has vulnerabilities. Content owners are becoming more interested in new watermarking approaches to address these vulnerabilities. This new home theater on demand requirement takes watermarking into additional networks with specific infrastructure and legacy architecture, with new and interesting integration tasks. It also adds possibilities to make watermarking a standard solution to secure content revenues on this distribution channel.

This session will discuss different business cases for watermarking and the criteria the technology must meet to be effective in media players in set-top boxes, PCs and mobile devices.

Riviera Ballroom

Tuning Into the Connected TV:  What’s On Now and What’s Coming Up Next in a World of Thousands of Channels
Rovi

How will a guide blend programs that are available from your cable provider with programs that your connected TV can get from the internet?  How do TV manufacturers build connected TV software that works when the TV isn’t connected to the internet?  It can be difficult to find stuff to watch with 300 channels, but what happens when connected TVs can access thousands of channels from the internet?  How do you know your kids aren’t buying movies from one service that you already bought from another service?  These and many more are the questions facing TV manufacturers, service providers, and consumers.  Come to this lively session to stump the experts, discuss solutions, and long for the days of rabbit ears.

3:00 - 3:15

Break

3:15 - 4:00

Castilian Ballroom

Rise of the Connected Home
2Wire, Inc.

Jaime Fink of 2Wire will describe the factors driving the adoption of converged intelligent gateway/STB solutions as a whole-home digital strategy and define the characteristics of an effective solution that integrates applications including video, Internet, gaming, and communications.

Service providers face a rapidly changing marketplace characterized by increased competition, complexity, and, in many cases, rising support costs. As broadband saturation becomes a reality, service providers face mounting pressure on both revenue and margins. To combat this, service providers are beginning to look to the promise of broadband applications as a way to grow their business and reduce churn.

Home broadband applications allow for the creation of value from more than the underlying access services like data, voice, and even IPTV. By providing a platform for home applications, service providers can begin to tap into the potential of next generation technology – like home energy management, security and home monitoring, and backup and device management – in a way that has previously been impossible and which helps them avoid a future as a data-only provider.

A whole-home solution that incorporates STB and residential gateway technology to deliver a combined triple-play service offering allows for the flexibility to add new over the top services as they become available. These converged solutions can also enable the advanced multiroom/whole-home/home networking strategies coming online today.

Granada Ballroom

Taking OTT To The Bottom Line:  Hybrid TV & Online Video
entone

Internet television has taken hold, with billions of videos viewed online each month, and millions of movies and television episodes consumed online rather than via a managed Pay TV service.  So-called over-the-top (OTT) services create a major threat to Pay TV service operators, whether Cable, Satellite, or Telco, as they make content available online and on-demand without the monthly subscription hurdle.

This session will explore the threats and opportunities that OTT services present for today’s Pay TV service operators. The speaker will present a vision of next generation TV services that will need to embrace OTT offerings to enhance the value of a managed service offering.

Riviera Ballroom

The Fully Connected Digital Lifestyle
Digital Living Network Alliance / Samsung

Today’s families are already living truly digital lifestyles – built on a strong technology foundation that includes an array of consumer devices such as PCs, TVs, cameras, Smartphones and portable music players. Whether it’s a wirelessly connected home with set-tops, PCs, HDTVs and phone devices, or a broadband mobile device, the consumer has become connected all the time, sending or receiving information and content whenever, and wherever they want.  In recent years, DLNA has seen significant advances in technologies and services available in the digital home and as communications, broadcast media and broadband entertainment are continuing to converge, a major shift has begun in the connected home environment. In this session, Alan Messer will address how the technology, content providers and developers, as well as the digital consumer, have adapted to the evolving needs of the truly connected, digital lifestyle. Messer will also explore what it means to create and enable a fully connected universe, how DLNA is successfully promoting standards-based technology to make it easier for consumers to use, share and enjoy their digital content, and a glimpse at what consumers can expect to see in the years ahead. 

4:00 - 4:15

Break

4:15 - 5:00

Castilian Ballroom

The Real Challenge of Convergence
D-Link Systems, Inc.

So much of the discussion around bringing Internet content to the living room has focused purely on the technical difficulties of delivering high quality HD video over the web to the living.  Nonetheless, true convergence of web and TV can only occur with the creation of effective UI and interactivity solutions that match, or exceed, what consumers are used to on their computers. As we have seen, content alone will not drive adoption, but must be part of a seamless and engaging media experience.  The Boxee Box by D-Link is one of the most widely anticipated entries into the connected living room space, precisely because it promises to bring a very popular media on computer experience to the public in an inexpensive and simple form.  Dan will discuss the challenges and rewards of realizing a true convergence of web and TV, and will also preview what we can expect in this space going forward.

Granada Ballroom

A Winner in the War for the TV?
Stage Two

There are currently dozens of cool devices that want to connect to your TV: DVD/Blu-ray players, cable boxes, gaming consoles, DVR’s, HTPC’s and far more. All of these devices provide users with a great deal of choice in the media they consume and how they experience it, yet it is clear there is little desire for more boxes in the living room. Consumers have enough devices around their TV and if they are going to adopt a new media consumption device, it is likely to replace one that they already have. So what device will end up “winning” the set top box war?

Riviera Ballroom

Realizing the Promise of Connected TV
blinkx

Traditional television has evolved into a connected platform which includes Internet-derived content and services, and promises viewers a personalized, on-demand and community-driven experience. Through Internet-enabled TVs, advanced set-top boxes and enhanced content delivery systems (Netflix, Project Canvas), the old standby that is the TV set and regularly scheduled programming will share the stage with the plethora of video content available on the Web, available all the time and on demand.  

Combining broadcast and broadband TV will provide audiences with access to an incredibly rich and diverse universe of video content, but on its own, the lean-back, 10-foot viewing experience presents inherent UI challenges for traditional search behavior. Effective personalization and recommendation technology is absolutely critical in the Connected TV experience. Advanced video platforms must not only deliver content to the consumer, but present it in a way that is useful and relevant. Join Tony Montisano for a highly informative session on the convergence of the Web and TV. Tony will share his expert perspective on the importance of video search, personalization, recommendation and discovery for the Connected TV experience.

9:00 - 9:45

Castilian, Granada, Riviera Ballroom

Keynote: TV Everywhere - The Integration of Web and Mobile Technologies to Transform the Consumer Video Experience
Ira Bahr, CMO - DISH Network

The landscape of the TV industry is dramatically evolving as consumers demand and expect a fully integrated video experience on every screen they own. The only way to satisfy this demand is the creation of hybrid set-top boxes and services that deliver both paid multichannel as well as free Internet content. Bahr will share his vision for how multichannel providers can embrace the changing landscape and deploy new technologies to create unparalleled TV Everywhere experiences. DISH Network has taken a unique position in the industry by deploying set-top boxes not only capable of receiving satellite and Internet content, but also delivering the content to TVs, PCs, tablets and mobile devices. Bahr will also share key insights on how DISH Network is working with key innovation partners like Google and Sling to transform consumer video experiences. 

9:45 - 10:00

Break

10:00 - 11:00

Castilian, Granada, Riviera Ballroom

Set Top Box Platform Architecture Trends: Shaping the STB of the Future
Moderator: Colin Dixon, Practice Manager - The Diffusion Group
Panelist: Bob Ferreira, General Manager, Cable Business Segment, Digital Home Group, Intel Corporation
Panelist: Joseph Del Rio, Senior Product Line Manager, Cable Set-Top Box Products - Broadband Communications Group - Broadcom
Panelist: Jim Denny, Vice President and General Manager, Product Marketing - TiVO
Panelist: Ian Valentine, Founder and Chief Architect - MiniWeb

Dive into the strategic platform architecture decisions that will have an impact on the next generation of Set Top Boxes.  The Set Top Box of the future is more than just a tuner, it is a whole-home entertainment server, content aggregator, web browser, apps platforms, home automation center, media hub and more.  This panel will examine upcoming platform SoCs and the next gen features that will need to be supported and enabled by silicon and software.  What are the best solutions for 3D, web processing, upscaling and conversion of web video, home networking, hybrid services etc? 

11:00 - 11:15

Break

11:15 - 12:15

Castilian, Granada, Riviera Ballroom

Executive Panel Discussion: The Future of the STB in Next Gen TV Services
Moderator: Bill Nehemeyer - The Diffusion Group

Panelist: Malachy Moynihan, Vice President, Video Product Strategy -Cisco Systems, Inc.
Panelist: Chris Dinallo - VP Product Management & Technical Marketing - Advanced Digital Broadcast
Panelist: Michael Hawkey, Vice President - EchoStar Technologies
Panelist: Jim Packer, Co-President, Worldwide Television - MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer)
Panelist: Anthony Simon, VP Set Top Box and Home Entertainment Products - Zoran

The set top box as we know it will undergo a fundamental transformation over the next few years. What will it look like? Will it cease to exist? The DVR and IPTV services breathed new life into the platform. With IPTV floundering and services being transition to the cloud, is the STB really essential for future payTV services? The FCC seems bound and determined to create a retail market and increase competition. Its latest NOI proposed a set of devices which could dramatically impact current STBs. What do proposed FCC regulations mean for the future of the STB? DO consumers even want to buy them? 3DTV is on the horizon. What does it mean for the STB and operators? Are SoCs supporting 3D more expensive and do they increase the box in other ways?

12:15 - 1:15

Lunch

1:15 - 2:00

Castilian Ballroom

The Race to Personalize the TV Experience
Sezmi 

With ever-changing consumer demands for personalized,  always-on television entertainment, a myriad of disparate OTT television service providers are in the race to grab consumer hearts and loyalty.  But as new services and devices compete for consumer attention, what will it ultimately take to disrupt the status quo and deliver on the promise of this new generation of personalized entertainment offerings? What are the winning business models and how must existing ones adapt to match new consumer expectations with profitability throughout the ecosystem? 

In this session, Buno Pati, Sezmi CEO and co-founder, will discuss the critical success factors for mass market adoption of so-called over-the-top services. He will explore the path leading from a sea of niche add-ons to real market penetration of complete and wholly satisfying television alternatives. Join Mr. Pati to learn more about advancements that break the mold of traditional television and create a hybrid offering, which provides a truly complete, personalized and interactive entertainment.

Granada Ballroom

Where Does Local TV Fit in the World of STBs, Connected TVs and Over-The-Top Video?
BIA/Kesley

Local television stations currently are the most popular source of video programming among local audiences and advertisers. Live/linear programming from TV station content gets broadcast over the air but also retransmitted via cable, satellite and telco to STBs in the home via retransmission and must-carry agreements. However, what is the future role of the local television station in the file-based, network appliance world? Broadcasters are considering this question and coming up with different answers. Local stations have core strengths in local programming, local sales and branding that can leveraged in the non-linear, interactive content world in ways that could augment or compete with other business models.

Riviera Ballroom

Set Top Box in Your Hand – 2nd Screen Comes to the Living Room
Gracenote

In a world where touch-screen smartphones provide sophisticated, anywhere access to digital content and entertainment, it’s no wonder that these portable devices are quickly becoming the consumer’s media hub of choice.  As growing consumer demands call for complete access and control of their entire media collection - whether the content is on their living room TV or Blu-ray player, home computer or mobile phone – consumers are looking for unified media experiences and seamless synchronization across all personal devices.  

So, the question is how do consumer electronics manufacturers and service providers leverage this ubiquitous 2nd screen media platform and transform it into the truly connected Set Top Box of the 21st century? In this session we are going to explore all of the cutting-edge content discovery, recognition and management technologies and services that are changing the way in which video and music are accessed, managed and enjoyed in the home and beyond.

2:00 - 2:15

Break

2:15 - 3:00

Castilian Ballroom

Content Aware Advertising Coming to a STB Near You
Zeitera

TVs and STBs are now shipping with interactive application layers and high-speed broadband connections to the Internet. A multitude of video services and devices are now available on your living room TV screen, from cable and satellite, to streaming Netflix and YouTube content, BlueRay, DVD and game consoles and terrestrial digital broadcasts.  The intersection of the diversity of content and sources, high speed connections to the Internet, and new forms of social networking allow for advanced content recognition to provide new services in the STB, mobile device and TV. Zeitera will describe advanced content recognition technologies and different applications for interactive television, advanced advertising, and immersive social networking based on their field proven and highly scalable audio and video content recognition technologies.  Specific emphasis will be placed on cloud-based signature services and advanced, interactive advertising applications.

Granada Ballroom

Volume Spikes: Make Them Go Away!
SRS Labs

Generations of consumers have endured the loud and oft-painful existence of TV volume fluctuations. While companies have released so-called solutions, and governments have proposed legislating such inconsistencies out of existence…they still persist and annoy. SRS can make them go away for good, and will present compelling evidence to support why violent volume spikes occur, break down consumer sentiment, discuss whether consumers will pay and pinpoint how set top manufacturers and cable providers can take advantage of the truly effective volume leveling solutions. 

Riviera Ballroom

Bring 3DTV to the Masses
Sigma Designs

3DTV is available today, but there are thousands of titles still available only in 2D. As 3D goes mass market, how will 2D content be converted to high-quality 3D video? Some modern 2D user interfaces already have the existing infrastructure to support the capabilities of 3D technology. Finding a way to transfer content currently available only in 2D to 3D, as well as removing glasses from the 3D experience are two important factors to the success of 3DTV in the home. This presentation will discuss how this transformation will occur and what technologies will bring it to the mass market.

3:00 - 3:15

Break

3:15 - 4:00

Castilian Ballroom

The Battle of the Consumer Video Device has only just Begun
Harmonic

According to Parks Associates Web-enabled TV sets will grow to 14% of the projected 26 million-28 million TV sets to be sold in the U.S. in 2012 up from 1% last year. Indeed, iSuppli forecasts worldwide sales of Web-enabled TVs will rise to 87.6 million units by 2013, up from 14.7 million in 2009 and an estimated 60% of the total North American flat-panel TVs shipped in 2013 are expected to be connected to the Internet. Does this foretell the demise of the set top box as we know it as separate from the television display? The last mile operators are embracing content like never before and are creating their own versions of Over the Top content so as to pre-empt marginalization. They are also introducing bandwidth and usage tiers and usage limits as another tool to prevent loss of content control. What does all this mean to the reception technology (whether in a box or in the form of a client in the broadband enabled TV). There is a myriad of different angles being played out from the legal to the technological, all in attempts to gain the upper hand for control of the consumer relationship. This presentation will examine these angles and will attempt to show the path of least resistance for developers of set top boxes and other client devices and applications for receiving and displaying video content.

Granada Ballroom

Beyond the Standards:  How to Teach Your Set Top Box to REALLY Manage S3D
3ality Digital

Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) presents a whole new dimension for immersive entertainment. It also introduces something new to the TV transmission equation: Riemann geometry. Rescaling images for various TV screen sizes, presenting electronic program guides, serving closed captions and subtitles, personalizing display options (do you like a little 3D or a lotta 3D?):  all are potential problems -- and potential opportunities -- for MSO's, satellite operators and CE manufacturers. These are the questions that present themselves once the discussions about formats, standards and MPEG-4 have died down:  How you optimize the experience?  How you ensure that your customer ALWAYS sees great S3D?  3ality Digital CTO Howard Postley will demonstrate how 3ality Digital has addressed these questions -- including developing an S3D electronic program guide with NAGRAVISION--and will discuss how to integrate these capabilities into various STB platforms and other CE-focused devices.

Riviera Ballroom

Optimizing the Business Potential: Set Top Box Data and Audience Measurement
comScore 

Join comScore’s VP of TV Sales and Business Development, Joan FitzGerald as she illuminates the key issues surrounding the usage of STB data for audience measurement. This session will provide a framework for considering STB data as a unique and important tool for media and advertising measurement, as well as the capabilities that are needed to succeed and monetize the data.

• Learn how the media and advertising industry views the value of STB data, particularly in light of technological advances in TV and emerging trends in TV viewing. 

• Develop new insights about how the media industry seeks to tap the value of STB data. 

• Understand the characteristics of STB data and how STB data can provide new insights about audiences. 

• Develop a deeper understanding of STB data limitations, and the processes leading research companies are putting in place to minimize their impact

• Learn how STB data compares to the data collected via consumer panels that are the industry-standard used for media measurement today. 

4:00 - 4:15

Break

4:15 - 5:00

Castilian Ballroom

The Next Generation Home Digital Experience
ACCESS 

The next generation home digital experience is about delivering media-rich content to the consumer by giving them access to their digital life when they want it, how they want it and where they want it. The integration of the television experience with the complete power of the new end user technologies, from broadband to mobile, opens the door to not only an exclusive world of entertainment and information, it brings a next generation idea of full consumer interactivity within diverse experiences. Convergence is forever changing the consumer entertainment landscape and will open the door to a consumer with more and greater control over his or her environment. In this presentation, Alan Painter will discuss the future of the mobile and beyond-PC markets and how this will affect the consumer in the era of convergence.
 

Granada Ballroom

iVOD:  Raining Unified Search and Discovery from the Cloud
ActiveVideo Networks

As the emergence of Internet video has made it simpler to find content of interest, the limitations of discovery options using existing set-top boxes have all too apparent.  Viewers used to navigating limitless menus of content on the Web quickly become frustrated by the restrictions that are placed on them in most television environments.  While service providers have publicly recognized the value of providing vast libraries of content, the reality is that there are objectives that have yet to be met if consumers are to be able easily to find the content that is most important to them at a given time.

 These considerations include:

• The need for consumers to search across a single, consolidated “iVOD” source of content, instead of a siloed approach that includes linear channels, on-demand, Web video, user-generated content and interactive television;

• Incorporation of social networking recommendations, and perhaps even visibility into what friends currently are viewing;

• The need to allow search and discovery beyond a limited range of pre-loaded guide content; and

• The fragmentation of existing STB configurations.

 Leveraging the power of cloud-based processing, network operators can enhance the search experience to any digital STB, regardless of processing power or middleware.  This presentation would discuss the merits of this cloud-based approach, and showing how the full functionality of Web video search can be brought to the “lean back” environment of television, and can enable service providers to differentiate service offerings and generate new subscription and targeted advertising revenue.