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This is the headline of the feature DIGITAL REPORT 2021
Pioneering the Future of Video Streaming DIGITAL REPORT 2022
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VODAFONE GROUP
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VODAFONE GROUP
Wolfgang Zeller, Head of Vodafone’s Video Centre of Excellence on building Vodafone’s pioneering video business and the future of streaming
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hen Vodafone began prototyping what would become Vodafone TV in 2015, nobody could imagine that six years later it would be the core platform that drives the majority of the company’s TV business. “Honestly, when we started, we just said: ‘What can we do differently?’”, says Wolfgang Zeller, the Head of Vodafone’s Video Centre of Excellence. Until that point, Vodafone was best known as a global leader in mobile and telecommunications. Today, Vodafone serves 22 million TV subscribers and is the leading pay TV provider in many major markets. The reality is that our relationship with video has irreversibly changed. When Vodafone TV initially launched in Italy, the first of many markets it would go on to conquer, the service offered a hybrid (OTT and DTH) proposition.
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VODAFONE GROUP
“ Going into the cloud was a big advantage for us” WOLFGANG ZELLER
HEAD OF VIDEO CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE, VODAFONE
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“That platform has evolved to the point that today it’s not really recognisable,” Zeller says. “Today we serve cable networks, fibre networks, mobile networks and DSL networks. We have a hybrid solution that supports all the different network types you’ll find in the Vodafone universe.” Vodafone TV was the first service to offer consumers true freedom in how they choose to access video content, with live TV, network based recordings, video on demand (VOD) and third-party OTT streaming services accessible in one package. In many
Wolfgang Zeller TITLE: HEAD OF VIDEO CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOCATION: MUNICH, GERMANY
ways, the service set the gold standard for the TV providers of today, but the consumer story is only half the tale; it was in the backend technology that the true revolution was happening. “When we started off, we made a few big bets,” Zeller recalls. “The main one was to run everything in the cloud. Six years ago, nobody was doing anything particularly exciting in the cloud, especially in the TV space. The other big bet was we wanted to use OTT technologies, and they both paid off very well.
EXECUTIVE BIO
Wolfgang Zeller is Head of Video at Vodafone Group, where he leads and drives Vodafone’s video technology products & roadmaps and manages for Vodafone Group strategic technology programs for Video/TV. Over his +25 years working in the video/tv/ broadcast industry, Wolfgang has been working at the transition of classic cable broadcast to first interactive services and further on to full IP distribution and now at Vodafone Group driving the next generation cloud based OTT pay-tv platform that supports all types of networks (mobile, cable, ftth, dth, xdsl..) and devices, which is rolled out at global scale in Vodafone markets.
The Leading Video Intelligence Company Helping Streaming Services Grow The NPAW Suite of integrated analytics provides correlated visibility of platform performance, audience behavior and navigation, advertising and content efficiency in real-time. NPAW supports your data-driven decisions to build best-inclass media experiences that maximize revenue. For more information, visit www.npaw.com
NPAW: A holistic approach to video analytics Ruben Senor-Megias, Chief Sales Officer at NPAW, discusses the company’s video intelligence solution and working with Vodafone. Standing for “Nice People At Work”, NPAW is a video intelligence company and global leader in video analytics solutions to help over-the-top providers optimise their end-user experience. The company began by launching Wuaki.tv, its first video platform, in 2008. An online film and TV streaming service, which NPAW sold to Japanese electronic commerce and online retailing company, Rakuten. It then became Rakuten TV. Starting 2013, the company changed strategy. “We began to develop analytics and, for more than a decade, this has been our day-to-day business,” said Ruben Senor-Megias, Chief Sales Officer at NPAW. Flexibility: The cornerstone of NPAW and Vodafone’s partnership One of the major companies in NPAW’s partner ecosystem is Vodafone. The two companies are currently developing a centralised data setup for their customers. The setup allows
them to maintain standardisation while enabling different countries the flexibility to define their own dashboards and integrate additional topics according to their needs. “I think the flexibility and the advantages in terms of technology for managing video and applications is one of the key reasons why Vodafone chooses to work with us,” Senor-Megias said. It’s important for organisations like NPAW to understand their customers and their behaviours. Adopting a 360 approach with a single source of data that can be used across departments allows us to really see what is needed from the perspectives of business, operations and engineering,” Senor-Megias explained. Compared to NPAW’s competitors, most of which use an aesthetic setup, the holistic “all-in-one” approach means NPAW has full flexibility when it comes to addressing different models. By developing the most advanced video intelligence tool, NPAW is the first global provider to merge video application usage data with video analytics-related insights. “This involves matching Quality of Experience (QoE)/Quality of Service (QoS) with UI/UX and placing it in our state-ofthe-art analytics solutions in a single suite.
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“The jump to the cloud allowed us to launch into markets quite quickly. We have launched into 10 markets in the past five years, which is very fast if you compare it to the old days. We used web technologies, which allowed us to innovate faster, set top boxes to support different network types, and integrate third parties such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.” 10
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Building for the Future Vodafone TV was built with an eye on the future from the very beginning, but working within the cloud has paid off in more ways than one. "To top it off, we now have our own product that we drive, but we have a lot of legacy migrations that have all been migrated to a platform in the cloud.
Vodafone: Pioneering the Future of Video Streaming video
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Delivering today the TV experience of the future Digital has opened up the TV ecosystem and the next-generation TV experience has arrived. TV as we used to know, old linear TV, has already changed and will continue to change fast. Millennials and Generation Z are shaping the future and paving the way for new disruptive content consumption habits. It is all about WHAT customers want to watch, WHEN they watch it and WHERE they watch it.
personalisation by enhancing content discovery and allowing to explore new smart monetisation streams. In the future, Content will still be king and users will be in full control.
As a result, there are many challenges that CSP will have to address, namely service personalisation increased demand; the urge for ubiquity (TV anytime and anywhere); and intensification of Content Production & Aggregation.
Celfocus keeps a long-standing and trusted relationship with Vodafone in the TV domain, with two key initiatives worth highlighting around TV Operations Portal and AI use cases.
In addition, there are some important trends to follow, such as Voice Control as a core component of customers’ interface and experience; Machine Learning and AI adoption as key to
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“ This whole industry is going through a transformation” WOLFGANG ZELLER
HEAD OF VIDEO CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE, VODAFONE
Six years ago, nobody thought about what we were going to do with legacy platforms, but moving to the cloud allowed us to do these migrations as quick as launching markets. “The true beauty is that we now have one central platform: we develop once, it runs in the cloud, and it’s equal for every market,” he adds. “So when we deploy a feature in one market, it is available for everybody else." Going first can provide a huge competitive advantage, but leading from the front throws up unique challenges. As much as working in the cloud creates efficiencies and adds agility to everything from market launches to UI tweaks, Zeller says there is “never a definition of ‘done’”. “Going into the cloud was a big advantage for us, however the cloud itself is innovating rapidly,” Zeller says. “So every time you think you have it under control, there’s a new technology that allows you to do things quicker or smarter. It means we are continuously evolving the platform.” The video streaming space has become central to our lives. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, streaming video was on course to rapidly outstrip traditional forms of broadcast. Self-shot video and short clips from shows and movies have become central to the way we share stories about our lives on social media, access breaking news and interact on messaging apps. Under the pandemic, video dominates 14
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Accelerating Cloud TV Transformation Powering Futureproof Viewing Experiences, Serving Millions of Users Worldwide
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How Kaltura and Vodafone joined forces and brought TV to the Cloud
came from a fragmented TV user experience and a costly and unwieldy environment to manage, built through a collection of legacy infrastructures and technology solutions.'
The future of television is called 'Cloud TV'. Think about Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Apple TV+. It's the way most consume our content now – no matter what device.
Kaltura re-invented Vodafone's TV service. Subscribers now use a far more streamlined video platform to watch any content on any device anywhere. As for Vodafone, it no longer needs to run its own data centers and be wrapped up in a complex array of platforms to distribute content. Kaltura's solution takes the hard work out for them.
This is how Nuno Sanches, General Manager of Media and Telecom at Kaltura, begins to 'unbox' his vision of TV content delivery from now on. Two years of Covid constraints and living at home have played their part in the explosive demand for streaming services. But according to Sanches, this seismic change in how we consume video was inevitable. It just needed the industry to break free from the chains of linear programming. Kaltura's long-standing and ever-deepening relationship with the telecoms giant Vodafone was instrumental in forcing the video industry to embrace the change. 'Vodafone had a revolutionary vision of becoming a global and multi-device Cloud TV provider,' says Sanches. 'It was an advanced product concept, especially since Vodafone
Kaltura's robust Cloud TV platform – fine-tuned with astonishing success at Vodafone – is now used by millions of users worldwide and available to any video content provider, whether telecom, media company, or publisher. 'Our customers no longer need to worry about infrastructure or scalability servers or networks. We take on that responsibility,' says Sanches. 'They can experiment with all the content aggregation, delivery, and analytical capabilities we provide – without any "heavy lifting."
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VTV 2nd GEN HDD+STB
“To me it's crystal clear that in the future video will be everywhere” WOLFGANG ZELLER
HEAD OF VIDEO CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE, VODAFONE
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have to do a lot of lifting in the back end to make this extra activity happen”. The next big push is towards low latency streaming. Already hi-definition has become standard, with a move towards 4k resolution and, in the near future, 8k as displays and content become more readily available. Latency is the only area where streaming falls short of traditional broadcast. Live sport, one of the remaining bastions of live TV, is a prime example. “With sporting events you could really tell which customer is using which type of infrastructure when there was a goal,” Zeller says. “There was the analogue customer who got it first, then you have digital cable broadcast, and then you have IP streaming at least 20 seconds behind. So now there’s a lot of investment going into low latency and we are using our partner ecosystem to get there. We want to get back to as good as in the days of analogue TV.”
our working lives. Video calls have become the central and most effective method of communication in our professional lives. “This whole industry is going through a transformation,” says Zeller. It raises both challenges and opportunities. With the launch of increasing amounts of media applications and content providers going direct to business, Zeller’s team face a tough task of packaging them neatly for consumers. On the technology side, “we
Best in Class Partner Ecosystem This partner ecosystem is vital to Vodafone TV, and much of Zeller’s team’s work revolves around stitching those solutions together into a perfect end-to-end solution. “Key partners to our ecosystem include Kaltura, which is well known in industry, and provides most of our backend components. Another is Nagra, our incumbent and also future security provider. They went with us through a transformation from on-premises into the cloud in a giant effort that paid off massively, for us, but also for Nagra; it’s a very future-proof solution.” Velocix is Vodafone TV’s partner for video delivery including network PVR and CDN, and for encoding, important for 4k and the future of 8K delivery, is Harmonic. “With Harmonic we underwent another transformation from on-premises to hybridVodafone.com
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Helping Telcos Around the World Transform ENABLING A NEW WAVE OF SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Content Security | Content Aggregation | Home Network Security Proud to power Vodafone TV with NAGRA as strategic Content Security Partner
Learn more here
TELCO TRANSFORMATION:
Ensuring Consumers Have Ubiquity Of Access While Preventing Illicit Use
The digital home has long been a canvas onto which telecommunications providers can paint their consumer proposition. With broadband at its core, propositions also feature a comprehensive media and entertainment offering that’s designed to offer content via multiple devices and profiles through a personalized and operator branded experience. However, given the pace of change in the industry, such providers are having to quickly react to new industry dynamics. The need to react has been accelerated by the fragmentation of the content landscape as content owners who previously licensed content to third parties now offer content through direct-to-consumer offerings (e.g. Disney+, Paramount+ etc.). This has accelerated the digital transformation of the industry’s traditional players and has forced those who have previously licensed and aggregated content, to move to a different model to stay competitive. The new aggregation model seeks to keep the operator brand relevant to the proposition whilst offering aggregated digital entertainment content that extends beyond video. These services are often delivered via Android TV set-top boxes and can include third-party streaming solutions (including carrier billing where permitted), games and music. For operators who have a set-top box as part of their offering, they are able to rely on hardware security to protect their
sizable content investments – such as premium sports. NAGRA has helped its customers achieve this via its cardless solution for Android TV. Once an operator’s device portfolio extends to streaming devices, advanced security tools that include multi-DRM are provided alongside a broader security strategy to mitigate against illicit use which can be more prevalent with software-based security. For Vodafone, NAGRA is proud to secure the Vodafone TV solution across multiple types of devices. This is achieved not only via NAGRA Multi-DRM and cardless solutions to secure the content on both streaming devices and set-top boxes, but also through other advanced components from the NAGRA Active Streaming Protection framework - such as session management and device authentication. This offers a combination of different solutions and features that work together to provide a more integrated and robust security approach. With this approach, NAGRA helps Vodafone to support over 5 million Vodafone TV customers on a daily basis and looks forward to working with Vodafone further as they continue to rollout Vodafone TV around the world. For more information, contact us.
VODAFONE GROUP
“ User interface and interaction is a big puzzle to be solved first” WOLFGANG ZELLER
HEAD OF VIDEO CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE, VODAFONE
model and the cloud, which all connects nicely,” Zeller says. “And when you have all these partners all together, then you have to question how you're going to measure user experience and video quality, and for that we are teaming up with Nice People at Work (NPAW). Their solution provides us with very accurate QE reporting for us 22
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to understand where we need to improve, where we have bottlenecks in our network, and where customers might have issues with connectivity and quality.” Zeller characterises these partnerships as more than just transactional vendor relationships, with joint roadmaps, and joint initiatives to grow and develop simultaneously. “We put a lot of effort into that, because we are not just working with one company, we are working with many, and they all need to align to come together and deliver for our customers. The same is true on the client side.”
The Future of Video Streaming Beyond set top boxes and at-home streaming, Zeller is now looking to the future of video, one in which video is ubiquitous wherever we are, and whatever we are doing - even while travelling by car. “To me it's crystal clear that in the future video will be everywhere; it will be immersed in our day-to-day life even more than it is today,” he says. “Maybe it will take a different form: it isn't always going to be a game show or drama. “The user experience will change, because at the moment it is quite focused on the
TV set and the mobile device. But you will have video consumption when you're sitting in the autonomous car, that's going to be its own environment, when you use public transportation, that is going to be another different environment. User interface and interaction is a big puzzle to be solved first.” Augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and the widely touted promise of the metaverse hold further opportunities as they expand beyond novelty tech towards more integrated real-life experiences. It means improving network capabilities and leveraging computing power at the edge to Vodafone.com
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WE MAKE VIDEO
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© 2022 Harmonic Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
BRING UNPARALLELED EFFICIENCY TO STREAMING WITH THE CLOUD A surge in streaming has led to the growing adoption of cloud infrastructure by service providers in the video streaming market. Harnessing the cloud, service providers gain numerous advantages for their mission-critical live, linear and on-demand video services, including increased scalability, flexibility and reliability. Harmonic’s VOS®360 cloud streaming platform is leading the charge in helping service providers address the explosive growth in streaming. As an end-to-end, fully managed platform that runs on the public cloud, the VOS360 platform simplifies all stages of media processing and delivery and ensures exceptional-quality video experiences. Offering support for both live and on-demand streaming, the VOS360 platform enables the efficient delivery of video services across all screens, including targeted ads and FAST channels to enhance direct-to-consumer reach, boost engagement and increase monetization. Advanced targeted advertising capabilities on Harmonic’s VOS360 platform are powered by dynamic ad insertion technology. Consumer demand for personalization is growing, and through unique features such multiview and watch together, the VOS360 platform is driving the next evolution of personalized live streaming.
Moving to the cloud with the VOS360 platform also brings additional advantages to service providers, such as a pay-as-you-grow payment model that eliminates upfront investments and enables a seamless transition from appliance-based video delivery to a SaaS business model. In addition, with the VOS360 platform, service providers have the opportunity to leverage a hybrid combination of channel origination and vertically integrated playout systems to improve operational efficiency and simplify configurations, management, monitoring and deployments. Harmonic’s VOS360 cloud streaming platform has been tested and validated by telecom giant Vodafone. Wolfgang Zeller, head of video and VCoE, consumer product and service group technology at Vodafone said, “Harmonic offers a compelling cloud-based approach to streaming that opens up new, revenue-enhancing opportunities for service providers, including live events, targeted ads and personalized content, while also increasing efficiencies and reliability.” Learn more at www.harmonicinc.com
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“ We will have access
to more information and that information will be primarily video-based in the near future”
WOLFGANG ZELLER
HEAD OF VIDEO CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE, VODAFONE
ensure video can be delivered to the user. “We are toying around with a lot of this at the moment,” says Zeller. “Is it ready to launch right now? I would say no. But it will come in one way or the other.” The future of video streaming is not quite as crystal clear as the 4k video we enjoy today. There are hundreds of possibilities: theoretically anything with a display will become a candidate for video in the years
ahead, with IoT devices sending video traffic to and from the home. “This all needs to be served out of one platform to the end consumer, otherwise you have too many apps and that's not going to work. But you will again see aggregation of this in a single user experience - on different devices.” Video will become even more central to Vodafone’s business and our lives. “For us at the Centre of Video Excellence, video will of course be at the core of what we focus on. But it also requires network and infrastructure, whether we’re looking at 5g or 6g becoming ever faster and more reliable,” says Zeller. “But what it really comes down to is that we will have access to more information and that information will be primarily video-based in the near future. That’s why we at Vodafone are putting a lot of effort into making that a reality and ensuring we can achieve our goals.”
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