The Broadband World Forum conference in Paris will see the launch of BroadbandSuite 3.2 - the Broadband Forum’s latest release of technical work. Building on the well established TR-069, the de facto remote management standard for world-wide broadband, this release provides a new level in remote management flexibility and dynamic application allocation-ensuring the industry can address the exponentially growing device and smart gateway requirements of next generation broadband.

Customer Premises Equipment and especially residential gateways are becoming more sophisticated and complex. As the number and types of devices grow, service providers are looking for ways to roll out new applications, achieve better revenue per user and reduce churn by offering new compelling services. They need to be able to manage gateways in new ways; downloading, installing and activating new software/applications. That is where BroadbandSuite 3.2 tools empower provider solutions.

The OIPF is pleased to announce the addition of four new members, further enhancing its role and reputation as a significant and influential force in the global IPTV market.

Yun Chao Hu, President of the OIPF, emphasized the significance of the continued growth and development of the organization - “The OIPF has already established industry specifications which have a high level of industry recognition, credibility and momentum, giving us confidence that our ambitious goals are achievable. Each announcement of new members reinforces this confidence, and it is therefore a pleasure to welcome the addition of Coship Electronics, Gemalto, KDDI and Testronic Labs to the ranks of the Forum. We look forward to the valuable and relevant contributions each of them will make to our work.”

The Open IPTV Forum has published the detailed system and protocol specifications – Release 1 IPTV Solution Specifications – which will enable the widespread deployment of IPTV services.

IPTV – digital television received through the same technologies used for computer networks, using Internet Protocol – will revolutionise the way people experience television. IPTV will provide new interactive services; in addition to the ability to interact with scheduled programmes, such as voting with their remote control, IPTV also provides Content on Demand, where users select content items they want to watch at a time of their choosing. IPTV can be integrated with communication services such as presence and text messaging, allowing users not only to see if their friends are online, but also to chat or share information about the show that they are watching on TV, or receive on-screen notifications about incoming calls or requests for video chat. IPTV will also allow the integration of mobile and fixed TV.

Opera Software has joined the Open IPTV Forum. This global organization is comprised of key IPTV and TV stakeholders working to produce end-to-end specifications to take the next generation of IPTV services into the mass market.

As a part of the Forum, Opera will team up with other members, such as Samsung, Ericsson, Sony and Philips, to help create an end-user mass market for IPTV by developing specifications. These specifications will ease the creation, integration and deployment of compelling solutions and services.

Underscoring its commitment to open standards in emerging technologies and media platforms Thomson, has become a full member of the Open IPTV Forum.

The aim of the Forum is to promote IPTV by making it easy for consumers to experience and enjoy it, ensuring interactivity between all devices, networks and technologies. Leveraging its expertise in end-to-end IPTV solutions including network platforms and home devices, Thomson joins forces with other telecom industry leaders in defining standards for delivering new advanced multimedia services and shaping the future of the broadband market.

DSL Forum's announce the approval of its latest Technical Report, TR-135 Data Model for a TR-069 Enabled STB and the amendment of the industry recognized TR-069, which is set to expedite IPTV rollouts and change the way operators manage their IPTV offering.

Closely following the release of BroadbandSuite Release 2.0, these new specifications are cornerstone to the pending Release 3.0, which will raise the bar to address triple-play augmented via VDSL2, GPON and bonded DSL over a QoS-enabled Ethernet architecture. Release 3.0 will also provide support for multicast to enable IPTV streaming as well as integrated remote management of Set Top Box and attached storage devices. The full release is tentatively scheduled to complete late 2008.

The opening session of this year’s Telco TV helped bring IPTV standards to the forefront, by bringing together representatives from leading industry bodies in one place for the very first time.

The roundtable discussion panel on emerging standards in IPTV included:

• Dan O’Callaghan, Chair of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions IPTV Interoperability Forum, (ATIS IIF)
• Virginia Williams, Director of Standards at Consumer Electronics Association, (CEA)
• Scott Smyers, President and Chairman of the Digital Living Network Alliance, (DLNA)
• Robin Mersh, Chief Operating Office of the DSL Forum
• Ghaseem Koleyni, Chairman of the International Telecommunications Union Focus Group IPTV, (ITU-T)

Chaired by Graham Finnie, chief analyst with Heavy Reading, the panel provided an overview of the various bodies and work that is underway to equip the telecom and consumer electronic industries with the tools they need to optimize the potential of IPTV. All panelists uniformly recognized the need for a set of standards that Telcos and the consumer electronics industry can refer to.

AT&T, Ericsson, France Telecom, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Siemens, Sony, and Telecom Italia announced yesterday the founding of the Open IPTV Forum, an industry consortium that will work to define an interoperable end-to-end specification for delivery of IPTV services. But as many have said, where is Microsoft and Alacatel-Lucent? Both them are key suppliers in many of the rollouts mentioned above.

Initially the Forum will consist of the founding member companies mentioned above, but will be open for other companies at a later date.

The group will focus on development of open standards that could help to streamline and accelerate deployments of IPTV technologies, and help to maximize the benefits of IPTV for consumers, network operators, content providers, service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and infrastructure providers. While the industry is definitely in need of more cooperation, this will be a lofty goal for the above mentioned parties without the participation of other companies.

ZDNet Asia reports the progress made by the Beijing Organizing Committee and IT services vendor Atos Origin in preparing for the 2008 Olympics. The two organizations will be using several new technologies for their IT systems including open source and RFID technology. However, the Beijing organizing committee clearly stated that Mobile TV and IPTV will be left off the list of technologies used due to the lack of national standards in China.

Motive Inc. has announced its Home Device Manager (HDM) product is now interoperable with 33 customer premises equipment (CPE) vendors, including IPTV set-tops from Motorola, Inc. The support for these additional CPE devices demonstrates how Motive can help service providers deliver seamless triple-play services including voice, high-speed Internet and television services.

The Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) has begun work on a new specification addressing instantaneous and reliable channel tune-in and continues to solicit industry input on the topic. Fast channel change was identified as a vital Quality of Experience issue potentially affecting consumer adoption of IPTV at the recent Summits that ISMA held to discuss the state of open standards in the industry.

Companies that are not currently members of ISMA are invited to participate in the development of the new channel change specification as one-time auditors at the ISMA 23rd Member Forum, to be held Dec. 6 and 7 in Cupertino, Calif., at Apple Computer.

As telecommunications providers begin to launch video services for consumers nationwide, AT&T, BellSouth, Verizon and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) today announced a series of principles designed to ensure the commercial availability of devices that attach to Internet Protocol (IP)-enabled video networks. The companies joined CEA in unveiling the principles at a press conference held during CEA's "Entertainment Technology Policy Summit" running March 15-16 in Washington, D.C.

The Internet Protocol Detail Record Organization (IPDR.org), a collaborative industry consortium and recognized leader in next-generation IP service usage and exchange standards worldwide, announced it will host an open, industry wide meeting to focus on accounting and settlement standards for IPTV services. This would be applicable to telephony service providers, voice operators, broadband network providers, cable operators, entertainment content partners, support vendors, media and analysts. This meeting will allow all interested parties to influence the direction of this IPTV initiative.