At the Online TV And Video Forum today in London, the managing director of portal at Virgin Media, Alex Green, spoke about his company's role in IPTV and why Virgin is ready for Web 3.0.
Speaking about the substantial growth Virgin Media has seen in the last year alone, Green made some impressive claims, including that "Virgin Media accounts for one-third of all iPlayer views" and the service houses "over 4,600 hours of online content".
But perhaps the most striking is that Virgin is ready for Web 3.0, which is predicted to be just three years way.
Green explained: "Cisco [Systems, the leading internet network supplier] are predicting a quadrupling of IP traffic in 2011. That's eight exabytes of data. This is when Cisco believes Web 3.0 will begin, where online video will be at the forefront."
He also championed the UK for its web video consumption, saying: "The UK is the leading market for internet video per internet user. We're way ahead of the US."
Cable-to-home access the future
But when it comes to how we receive internet-based video, Green – unsurprisingly given the upcoming launch of its 50Mb broadband – sees cable as the future.
"SlingBox and Apple TV aren't a genuine consumer proposition, when it comes to IPTV – there is still a little way to go with these devices," explained Green.
"The future, as Virgin Media sees it, is cable-to-home access, which will deliver entertainment to every screen in your household – whether it is on a PC or TV."
But how long will it take for this all-encompassing cable-to-home access to become a reality? "We're still a few years off," says Green. "The consumer is getting increasingly sophisticated, but that development will take two to three years."
Just in time, then, for Cisco's predicted debut of Web 3.0 in 2011.
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popper
December 9th 2008
1. "managing director of Virgin Media, Alex Green"
LOL, old Alex is having a laugh, he and his team can even be bothered to pay for the existing IP to allow network streaming to and from the current antiquated Mpeg2 only samsung and V+ STBs... NEVR mind putting Virgin media in a position to become a good multiroom streaming content provider.
for that Alex and Co , need to start listening and acting on the VM http://www.cableforum.co.uk tech users idea's and requests for for more veratility and openness in the Hardware and services they provide, NAD GET RID OF THAT more than antiquated "LIBERATE" middleware ASAP....
its pritty simple, commission a moden STB that can decode AVC/H.264/Mpeg2 and even VC-1 for maximum effect that 3rd partys could take advantage of later in the UK IPTV cable marketplace.
in this STB ,alongside the usual 3 DVB-c tunners etc, you place a real 3D chipset and a dual CPU, not the usual OEM CPU thats got even less CPU power than your mobile phone, even they have real 3d chips intigrated today ;)
but something far better, a E600 PPC SOC or even better for the long term expandability and profitability, a real full blown "SpursEngine"
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/10/video_cards_featuring_spursengine_cell_processor_coming_soon-2.html
and 512Meg of ram, internal HD,and active usable E-SATAx2 ports,11N wireless chipset, and all the trimmings to make it usable from the upscreen pages.
and most of all pay for and install that required LAN streaming into and out of the VM STB so you can stream all your personal AVC/H.264/Mpeg2 and perhaps even Divx video content sat on your PC drives to your HDTV through the VM STB....
this then becomes a valid hardware AVC baseline for the long term future to grow from
and expand, these STBs are after all going to be in service for a very long time, so the current policy of VM to buy in the cheapest end of line antiquated STBS shiped from the US and far east that cant even handle the current AVC/H.264 world and especially EU standard of DVB-* transport streams is a bad joke on alex's part and its just no way to convince the paying customers they are loking to the long term future and viability for growth....
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