With millions of potential users of IPTV, service providers are looking for opportunities to speed their time to market with a managed IPTV solution. Motive, Inc. and Thomson will be the first to demonstrate automated management capabilities that help providers accelerate and scale the delivery of new IPTV services, and simplify the user experience for subscribers. The demonstration will debut at the TELECOM '05 show on Oct. 24-26, 2005 in Las Vegas.

"Motive is working with industry leaders to not only speed the deployment of IPTV, but also to give service providers the tools to be successful in making the first experience a positive one for IPTV subscribers," said Sanjay Castelino, Motive's vice president of industry marketing. "Because IPTV services are complex, delivering the service can put a tremendous strain on the provider's customer service resources. As the first vendors to demonstrate these abilities, Motive and Thomson are helping service providers to build efficiencies into the IPTV deployment process, and increase the customer adoption and satisfaction."

Independent research firm Multimedia Research Group forecasts IPTV subscriber revenue growing from $635 million in 2005, to more than $1 billion in 2008. To realize this revenue opportunity, providers must address the challenges associated with managing the complex IPTV service ecosystem -- the devices, middleware, network hardware and software required to deliver next-generation services to subscribers.

"There is a clear need to help service providers identify and address IPTV service management issues before they go to mass deployment," said Karsten Verhagen, Vice President, IP Video Solutions, Thomson. "This demonstration will show how interoperability between Thomson, Intel and Motive solutions can help service providers accelerate their time to market and reduce operational costs by greatly facilitating installation, management and on-going support of IPTV services."

Interoperability Demonstration of the IPTV Service Ecosystem

The demonstration will feature Motive's IPTV FAST(TM) solution, integrated with the Thomson family of set-top boxes (STB), including the IP900 and the Intel-based IP1000, to show how providers can use intelligent automation to streamline IPTV activation and fulfillment and gain real-time visibility and control over STB and residential gateway devices. Specifically, the demonstration will showcase the following capabilities:

• Intuitive subscriber and customer service representative (CSR) user interfaces that reduce unnecessary support calls or provide diagnostic data to CSRs when necessary, removing guesswork and the potential for errors;
• The marriage of essential set-top identification information to other systems such as billing systems, that are important to the IPTV provisioning process;
• The use of standards such as TR-069 and TR-064 to gain visibility and control over customer premises equipment (CPE) that support the delivery of IPTV services in the home, regardless of vendor type;
• The collection of real-time diagnostic information from set-top boxes and residential gateways to compile, analyze and identify faults, and ultimately reconfigure CPE devices to resolve IPTV services problems; and

These enhanced IPTV service capabilities will provide the following benefits:

• Reduce technician time on-site during activation process by verifying that IPTV services are operating correctly before the technician leaves the subscriber's home;
• Empower subscribers to self-resolve common issues intuitively and proactively with an on-screen management interface; and
• Optimize the interaction between the subscriber and the CSR to help providers decrease average call handle time and increase first call resolution.

"Consumers already have high expectations for television and a positive consumer experience is critical for the early success of IPTV," said Kevin Cornelius, General Manager, Intel Consumer Electronics Group Strategic Alliances. "As a supplier of technology for digital set-top box, digital media recorders, and digital TV, Intel has an interest in seeing the seamless rollout of IPTV technology."

The Motive-Thomson demonstration will be located at booth #1448.