[opendtv] Re: News: LTE Tempts With Advanced Services
- From: "Albert Manfredi" <bert22306@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2012 04:38:00 -0400
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
Sorry Bert, but there are several good reasons to BROADCAST using LTE.
Sorry, Craig, but when you launch into your vague generalities, your points
never hit the mark.
2. Broadcasting works VERY WELL when there are a large number of people
who want the same content. This is ESPECIALLY important for live
programming such as sports.
No, more exactly, this ONLY matters for live sports, pretty much. On any
given week, just how many hours of live sports do you think OTA broadcasters
broadcast? Maybe a couple on Saturday afternoon, most of the year? HARDLY
enough to justify building an efficient broadcast infrastructure. Oh, and
they don't want to anyway! They are talking LTE!
And again, mobile users are even less likely to want live broadcast than
your home viewers, because on-the-go means you can't easily set aside the
right time to watch. More reason not to obsess about true live broadcast.
(Although, of course, live broadcast is doable also over a unicast network.
So don't go off on this other tangent, please. I can watch any number of
live and recorded Internet streams on my TV anytime I please, from all over
the world, literally. If I can, so can anyone on a 3G or "4G" cell phone or
tablet, since these come with web access.)
3. Broadcasters can deliver all kinds of programming to local cache in
both
mobile AND fixed receivers. This ALSO takes traffic off of the unicast
pipes.
Naw, way overstated, especially if you're talking about handheld devices.
When broadcasters build out, or more likely rent from Verizon or AT&T, this
expensive 2-way infrastructure, why on earth would they worry about trying
to make local storage in end user devices work? That local storage model
ONLY makes sense *if* your infrastructure is limited to one-way broadcast.
But it is ridiculous to think that wireless download to local storage has a
prayer of competing with content stored in "cloud servers," both in terms of
how much content can be made available, and how fast loads of new content
can be stored. I trust you will resist the urge to argue against such an
obvious point.
And these servers already exist! All this stuff is already in place. All
we're really talking about here is to change the mindset of TV networks and
broadcasters, to go all-out with Internet unicast streaming, vs broadcast.
And perhaps increasing the capacity of existing two-way wireless nets, with
some TV spectrum. That's about it.
People on handheld devices have become accustomed to VOD from any number of
places, for any amount of content. Without having to make sure that their
hand held device was turned on all of the time to receive that content, was
within good reception range, or any of that. Never mind the drain on the
battery, for all this downloading while the cell phone is in your pocket.
Just doesn't make sense, when cloud servers are there and the network is
2-way.
Oh, I don't believe the broadcast mode of LTE has been actually developed
anyway? No doubt, in large part because service providers are much more
interested in keeping track of bandwidth used by each subscriber than they
are to optimize how their bandwidth gets used, when they provide two-way
networks.
So, I think what this whole switch-over will really mean going from
broadcast to unicast. Assuming TV networks feel this imperative. Maybe a
broadcaster or two, in a market area, will create their own 2-way wireless
service. Or maybe the extra spectrum will go to Verizon and AT&T, and TV
networks (and some local broadcasters?) will piggy back off these wireless
ISPs, as they are already doing anyway.
Bert
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