Questions & Answers
What do we mean by IPTV?
There are many definitions of IPTV, but in general it stands for Internet Protocol Television, where television services are delivered using the Internet Protocol (IP) over a broadband network. Evolving IPTV Services have many potential advantages over traditional broadcast TV services because they can provide more personalization (such as building a personal TV channel by selecting programs from broadcasted TV channels), interactivity (such as interacting with applications linked with the watched program) and integration with communications services (such as chatting whilst watching TV).
What is the mission of the Open IPTV Forum e.V?
The mission of the OIPF is to support providers and suppliers of the IPTV ecosystem by driving a consistent global IPTV market for both managed and unmanaged services in ongoing iterative stages to provide a quality IPTV consumer experience
The OIPF will deliver specifications, profiles, testing, interoperability and certification in promotion of the Forum's mission
Who are the Open IPTV Forum e.V members today?
Today the Open IPTV Forum has grown considerably, and now has 58 members that have joined to collaborate in the effort to develop common interoperable IPTV specifications.
Members include network operators, service/content providers, consumer electronics, mobile and home device providers, public network infrastructure providers and technology providers. The membership is growing steadily over time. Open IPTV Forum e.V. Members can be found at http://www.oipf.tv/members.html.
The founding members of the Forum were Ericsson, France Telecom Group, Nokia Siemens Networks, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sony and Telecom Italia.
Is the Open IPTV Forum e.V open to new members?
Yes. The forum is fully open to participation across the communications and entertainment industries by companies that share the goals of the Forum and are willing to actively contribute to specification development. Please find the details under the membership tab on the website.
Why has OIPF been so successful in being a focal point for IPTV standardization?
The OIPF has been supported by key members in the different constituencies (Network Operators, CE & Mobile /Home device providers, Public Network Infrastructure Providers, Content Providers, Technology Providers) comprising the IPTV value chain. These members are committed to seeing interoperable implementations of the OIPF specifications. In particular, the presence of almost all the world's major TV manufacturers ensures that implementations based on the Forum's specification will become a commercial reality.
What are the challenges to ensuring that it remains focused on delivering timely relevant solutions given its increasing popularity?
The constituency structure of the Forum enables it to meet the challenges of a growing increasing popular organization.
How do other standards initiatives fit with OIPF?
The Forum does not duplicate the work done in these Fora but makes use of standards developed elsewhere and uses them to construct its end-to-end interoperable specifications.
Is Open IPTV Forum e.V. a global organization?
The Open IPTV Forum is a pan-industry initiative with members worldwide, and expects to increase its global representation further. Its specifications will have world-wide applicability.
What are the main deliverables of the Open IPTV Forum e.V.?
The Open IPTV Forum creates interoperable specifications for providing IPTV services across both managed and unmanaged networks. When implemented in home network and network infrastructure equipment, the specifications will result in end-to-end interoperability.
To develop such specifications, the OIPF works in a phased approach, first creating requirements, then a functional architecture for the home as well as service provider networks, and finally the detailed specifications that describe how to implement the various interfaces defined by the architecture.
Where needed, the Forum also specifies one or more profiles for equipment that implement the specifications.
The Forum also provides test specifications that will enable interoperability testing for equipment built to these profiles.
OIPF Release 1, including the requirements, architecture and protocol specifications, is publicly available on the OIPF web site. Work is underway on the profiles and test specifications for Release 1.
The requirements and architecture for Release 2 are also available. Work is underway on the Release 2 protocol specifications.
What is the status of the Open IPTV Forum e.V?
The Forum is a registered industry association within EU with the number VR 202474 under the German Civil Code.Will the Forum work only with certain kinds of access networks such as wire line?
The Forum will define an end-to-end IPTV solution across multiple access technologies. While the Release 1 specifications focus on wire-line access, additional access methods are also possible. Release 2 work covers mobile access and the availability of IPTV services on any capable device such as a TV, a mobile phone, a PC or a PDA.
How do we ensure interoperability of the end to end solution?
A certification program is being defined and will create a process that ensures that equipment & software from the different Open IPTV Forum member companies can interoperate.
How do we ensure compatibility with external standards?
The functional blocks of the solution are derived from existing external standards, and co-operation agreements and liaison activities are in place with external standard bodies to ensure future system compatibility.
Which standardization bodies are working on IPTV and what's the status today?
There are many standards development organizations (SDOs) and industry fora that address IPTV and related areas such as; ATIS IIF, Broadband Forum, CEA, DLNA, DVB, ETSI TISPAN and MCD, HGI, ITU, Marlin Developer Community, OMA, SCTE, UPnP and 3GPP. Some of them have already finalized their work or are working on specifications that are of relevance to the Open IPTV Forum. They often focus on specific parts of the overall solution (e.g. home network, content protection, browser technologies) or specific deployment scenarios (e.g. managed networks). The Open IPTV Forum combines appropriate specifications from such bodies for its overall solution. Common members between the OIPF and these bodies have allowed us to ensure that the specifications are aligned. With some of them we have already established liaison relationships and exchanged documents. Now that the Forum is a legal entity we are in the process to establish liaison relationships with the ones that are important for our work. For the detailed status of work in other standardization bodies, please contact them directly.
With which standardization bodies is the Open IPTV Forum already collaborating?
The Open IPTV Forum is already collaborating with CEA R7 WG9 on CE-HTML (CE2014) and DVB on various IPTV and MHP related issues. We have established an official liaison relationship with CEA R7 WG9 and are in the process to establish official liaison relationships with ETSI (TISPAN, MCD and Broadcast), DLNA, Marlin Developer Community, HGI and ITU. Furthermore we have contacted OMA and SCTE on specific issues and to setup liaison relationships. We will continue to collaborate with other bodies in the future as needed to provide the technical solutions for service requirements defined by the Forum and to promote the Forum's specifications.
When will CE devices compliant to the Forum's specifications be marketed?
It is expected that devices conforming to the Forum's specifications will be marketed after the certification program is in place. It is not the intent of the Forum to define roll-out plans for any products. Each company should comment on its own product plans.
What is the difference between ATIS IIF and Open IPTV Forum?
ATIS IIF is a regional standardization body primarily focused on the North American market while the Open IPTV Forum has a world wide scope. While ATIS IIF is also working on interoperability specifications for an e2e solution, they do not, as yet, cover the Open Internet scenario.
IMS technology is used in the OIPF specification, why is that important for IPTV?
We expect IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based infrastructure and services to be broadly deployed by network operators. Since IPTV will be part of the multimedia services offered over these networks, it was natural for the Forum to consider IMS technologies in its specification for operator managed networks.
IMS already offers solutions for key enablers in the Forum's scope, such as the blending of communication and entertainment services, QoS delivery, a common transport control layer which enables TV & Video services over hybrid access networks and a converged platform for mobile and fixed services to interact. These functions will play a key role in enhancing the end user's personalized and interactive IPTV experience, help increase customer satisfaction through convergence of fixed and mobile services, and increase the value of products and services to users.
How is DLNA important for next generation of IPTV? Should we really pin-point only a few or not?
Home Networks are an important part of an end-to-end IPTV solution. The specifications by DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) address interoperability of mobile, PC and consumer electronic devices in seamlessly sharing digital media services across a home network. With more than 250 members ranging from manufacturers, software and application developers, hardware vendors, and retailers to content providers, DLNA is broadly supported by industry. It is thus natural for the Forum to consider DLNA technologies as candidate elements of its specification, when it comes to specifying the delivery of IPTV services over home networks.
Has there been co-operation with other organizations to perform e-2-e interoperability testing based on specifications from the other standard bodies?
The intent of the Open IPTV Forum is to do interoperability testing based on its own test specifications. The Open IPTV Forum specifications are based in large parts on specifications and work done by other standard bodies and Fora. Where such bodies have specified their own tests, we will of course not redefine these and shall expect vendors to use relevant specifications and test facilities. However, there are a number of areas where such test specifications do not exist, and the Forum's Interoperability Working Group has started creating test specifications and initial plans for an OIPF Interoperability event.
Will the certification process be made public?
The Certification Task Force is in progress, and there are many open areas of discussion focusing on the scope, methodology etc
How can you state that you are faster to market than the other standard bodies that have been working in this area for so long?
We are not starting from the scratch; instead we are leveraging work already done in other standardization bodies. Furthermore we are focusing on specific technology choices and profiles that narrow the overall specification effort. The Forum has frequent Face to Face meetings (once every two months) and telephone conference in between and work is done in parallel in several task forces. Last but not least our members are highly committed to supporting and contributing to the work.
Can you explain why your solution refers to managed networks and open internet?
The possibility to access both Managed Network and Open Internet services (the term Open Internet refers to IP services provided outside of the managed IPTV network). Integration of these services via the same end user device makes the overall solution more attractive to the user, and also to service providers. While managed network services provide the QoS for an excellent end-user experience, the Open Internet approach allows for a wide range of existing and new services available over the Internet.
What role does IMS play?
The initial OIPF Managed Network solution is based on IMS. IMS provides authentication and session management, resource and admission control and a common user data base not only for the IPTV solution but for voice and messaging for any multimedia services, allowing for a variety of integrated services.