Leading providers of IPTV technology today kicked off an initiative designed to educate service providers about the advantages of a standards-based architecture to rapidly and successfully deploy internet-based television services.

The initial step in this effort is the IPTV Pavilion, a "one room schoolhouse" structure at this week's Broadband World Forum, sponsored by the International Engineering Consortium (IEC). The event runs through October 6.

The IEC-sponsored IPTV Pavilion was organized by mPhase Technologies (OTCBB:XDSL), with participation by Espial, Latens, Ranch Networks and SkyStream, banding together to drive industry consensus around open platforms so that service providers have greater choice and flexibility in their IPTV deployments. The pavilion provides attendees with learning experiences ranging from hands-on deployment tutorials for Internet TV and interactive services to advanced techniques for maximum service assurance, revenue protection and expansion.

The companies today pledged to continue their outreach and build awareness of the advantages of a multi-vendor environment with common interfaces with a planned launch of a website, www.learnIPTV.com, which is envisioned as an information resource for service providers.

Built around the theme, "IPTV Means Income Potential," the educational programs at the IPTV Pavilion are designed to underscore the benefits of a carrier-class, open architecture engineered to reliably deliver revenue-generating interactive video services over broadband networks.

"If there is anything we have learned since our initial system installation eight years ago, it's that a closed architecture that limits carrier choice is a non-starter," said Ronald Durando, chief executive of mPhase Technologies, a pioneer in the delivery of television content over telephone networks. "Traditional phone companies can be successful in the new world of IPTV by learning how to repeat the success of the digital dialpad, which is a simple end user device yet initiates a host of information services and complex transactions. As a group, we are working together to create a parallel for IPTV, in which the click of a button on a TV remote is just as simple and intuitive, yet allows service providers to quickly integrate any standard Internet-driven applications that subscribers crave."

Steve Wallbank, general manager, EMEA, SkyStream: "We are showing telephone companies how to move into IPTV and create video head-end environments that are uniquely designed for telco networks and requirements rather than a copy of legacy cable headends. The underlying lesson of video history is that flexibility delivers lower cost. Choosing a video headend that is easily adaptable to future advanced services at the lowest cost will help a carrier be successful in the TV business. Our session will help carriers learn the essential considerations for designing an IPTV headend that fits their business plan as well as their technical requirements."

Latens delivers software-based Content and Revenue Protection systems to pay-TV and IPTV operators. The advantages of Latens solutions over traditional hardware conditional access, include; a lower-cost base, greater flexibility and increased security.

The other participants in the IPTV Pavilion are software innovator Espial and Ranch Networks.