Over 200 delegates from top global telecommunication companies, regulators and government ministries will attend the seventh and final conference on Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) being hosted in Malta next month.
The International Telecommunica-
tions Union (ITU), the specialised UN agency on telecommunications, has taken the lead in the international standardisation for IPTV, which enables digital television to be delivered to consumers using the Internet Protocol over a broadband connection.
The standards agreed at the Malta conference will be adopted and approved at next year’s World Standardisation Assembly for eventual execution. The mission of FG IPTV is to coordinate and promote the development of global IPTV standards taking into account the existing work of the ITU study groups as well as Standards Developing Organisations, Fora and Consortia.
When giving details on the conference, Competitiveness and Communications Minister Censu Galea, said that Malta is playing an important role in public policy and regulatory issues related to posts and electronic communications. “The Malta conference is laying the groundwork for an area of telecommunications that could attract up to 100 million subscribers in the next three years”.
Minister Galea continued that “This event, which is gaining the support of many companies in Malta linked with ICT, will also serve as a curtain raiser to the European Conference for the Postal and Telecommunications Admin-
istrations (CEPT) general assembly, being held in Malta next June.”
A host of global ICT companies will send delegates from various Countries including China, Japan Korea, the United States, Canada and Europe. These companies include Alcatel-Lucent, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco Systems, Samsung, LG Electronics, Toshiba, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Nokia, Deutche Telecom, France Telecom, BT, Huawei Technologies, Sony and Siemens. There should also be considerable interest from the international media.
The conference of the International Telecommunications Union’s Focus Group on IPTV is being held in co-ordination with the Ministry for Competitiveness and Communications at the Dolmen Resort Hotel, Qawra, from 11 – 18 December. The conference will devote a great deal of its time to working group sessions, leading up to a final conference report on 18 December.
* * *
IPTV Overview
IPTV – Internet Protocol Television – is basically a way of getting TV transmitted over high-speed net connections.
Conventional TV that we are used to is usually sent to our sets by cable, satellite, or through the air, as analogue or digital signals.
Like VoIP (voice over internet protocol), IPTV means video data is sent across the net in packets of data. IPTV will do to TV transmission what VOIP has done to telephony – and make it universally more accessible.
It can then be stored on a server and sent to computers or straight to special set-top boxes, over ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber lines), or cable lines.
IPTV can be in the form of live TV, but more usually as stored video - sometimes known as video on demand (VOD).
Broadband connection speeds, capacity, and the number of subscribers, are climbing rapidly. Coupled with that, better video compression technology allows standard- and high-definition video to be delivered using broadband technologies.
IPTV not only provides people with more applications for their fast connections, but it also expands opportunities for telecoms companies and provides and wider choice for viewers.
The ITU conference to be held in Malta is meant to set international standards for this technology.