Answer one question for me: How do you currently prefer to
watch television?
As it comes, either over the airwaves or via a cable based
system? Perhaps instead you like to record your favorite shows to watch
at a later date after they first broadcast?
How about
on-demand, by way of a download process, via good ol’
Internet
Protocol?
The last scenario is likely to be the least favored by the
average individual. Nonetheless, it’s
the model put forth as the soon-to-be “next big
thing” by Google’s Vint Cerf.
Yep, one of the guys responsible
for getting the Net up and running in the first place.
And Mr Cerf’s putting an emphasis on soon.
An iPod Moment In Television
Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, speaking to a
conference
in the
UK, claimed that the world would witness in the near future something
of an “Apple iPod moment” in the realm of
television.
He went on to say that other than
a necessary continued reliance on “traditional”
broadcasting methods
for up-to-the-minute news and live sport, media companies and new
distribution channels (iTunes, Joost, YouTube, etc.) would grow more
and more attuned to delivering content for use in a myriad of
applications.
These would range from the home-based to the mobile. Of
course,
this would, I presume, be done rather simply, in Cerf’s view.
Hence the man’s reference of the iPod.
But what about all the talk of bandwidth limitations and the
widespread assumption that IPTV is not a viable solution in any mass
consumer space? Won’t the Net’s backbone crumble
under the weight of
all those bits of high-def goodness?
Cerf says not to worry, telling
the public that the world is “far from exhausting the
[Internet’s]
capacity.”
Golden Age Of IPTV
I fall straight in line with this kind of thinking. IPTV will
see a
golden age of its own in the coming years. The signs are
clear.
Podcasters are putting out better and better quality stuff
(not just in
terms of photography, but content as well) all the time, and big-name
professional media groups and organizations have taken serious notice
of the trend.
They have worked quite feverishly to match the new set of
independent creators, even attempting to stay ahead of them; some
successfully, some not.
Put that competitive market together with
consumer-friendly solutions (iPods, set top boxes, etc.), and
you’ve
got yourself a digital recipe ready for massive growth. And
that’s not
growth on top of existing, dated services and solutions.
That’s growth
resulting from a trend away from the old-media business model
that’s
dominated the television sector for decades.
Fiber Optic Cable
And the Net’s not going to fall as a result of this
trend. The
backbone’s a mightier one than many suspect. Think about it.
Fiber
optic cable has the capacity to deliver what can practically be
considered an unlimited number of bits.
Residential fiber solutions
alone (which I myself enjoy) can ideally offer gigabit-plus data
streams, if the providers of those solutions so chose to such speeds
and rates.
The networks essential to the existence of the World Wide Web
are
exponentially larger in terms of pipe sizes and data caps.
Unless ISPs stupidly
choose to erratically throttle data transmissions so as to upset IPTV
users, I’ve no worries about the future of the budding
industry. It’s
going to be a good one.
Paul Glazowski is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com
