IPTV
How to connect IPTV home gateway and IPTV set-top box?
IPTV services have entered worldwide households, especially in Europe which has taken the lead in this market. The service gets to the IPTV gateway, and then IPTV provider needs to provide the best solution to connect the IPTV gateway to the IPTV set-top box.
Using a cable is fine if the IPTV gateway and IPTV set-top box are next to each other; but what happens if both are not located in the same room, which is the typical situation ?
The IPTV provider needs to solve this issue if it wants to gain or retain customers; it can even strongly differentiate from its competitors by providing an innovative and cost effective solution.
Install new wires? Go wireless?
Cabling a home with RJ45 cables is tricky and costly for the IPTV provider. It implies truck rolls , man hours and there is no flexibility for the end user: he cannot change the location of its TV.
Wireless technology, in theory, could be the ideal solution. However, reality is different as end-user experience can suffer from flickering images or interruptions in the streaming because of concrete walls, too big distance, interference and so on. It implies numerous calls to the IPTV provider support service and a lot of frustration…
Use existing electrical wires!
Using electrical wires is the most blatant, easy, effective and cost competitive solution for IPTV service providers.
It offers numerous benefits, among them:
- The electrical infrastructure is always there (contrary to coaxial cables for example), so there is no need to install new cables,
- There are several electrical sockets in every room, compared to one or two phone sockets per household and two to three coax outlets,
- Flexibility: the end-user can move its TV inside a room or from room to room, he is not limited by the location of an outlet.
Use SPiDCOM HomePlug AV solution over existing existing electrical wires!
SPiDCOM has developed a HomePlug AV compatible SoC that is best adapted to make the connection between the IPTV gateway and IPTV set-top box:
- It has plenty of bandwidth available for several HDTV and SDTV streams, so it perfectly supports the services offered by the IPTV provider,
- It is plug-and-play so there is no truck roll and no calls to the IPTV provider call center,
- It is based on HomePlug AV standard, backed by the strongest worldwide PLC alliance with more than 80 members.