Advances in Consumer Television Create New Opportunities for the Enterprise
In San Francisco, California, the CEO of a mid-sized company delivers a vision of the future. Employees in Kansas, Florida, Virginia, and Montreal watch the presentation in real time on high-definition TV monitors, PCs, and laptops, while some catch it on their cell phones. London and Munich employees will view a digitally recorded version when they start their workday tomorrow.
The world of video is changing dramatically. No longer limited to the realm of the analog television set at home, video is available almost everywhere and on a myriad of devices—iPods, cell phones, digital video recorders (DVRs), PCs, and laptops. High-definition, DVDs, home Advances in Consumer Television Create New Opportunities for the Enterprise theater systems, digital surround sound—all aspects of digital audio/ video technology—have dramatically raised the quality and sensory experience we now expect. And just as the black and white TVs of our parents gave way to color sets some 40 years ago, so will analog television broadcasting officially give way to the world of all-digital television broadcasting by February 2009.
The same technology evolution that has powered the widespread adoption of digital video for the consumer is also driving dramatic changes in enterprise markets. Once solely the venue of large broadcast networks, private television broadcasting has now become available and affordable to any business, large or small. Furthermore, advances in video encoding and compression such as MPEG4, along with transmission/modulation advances such as DVB-S2, have significantly reduced bandwidth requirements by as much as 60 percent.
The availability of private television broadcasting solutions, coupled with today’s multimedia-savvy workforce, means that business IPTV is attracting considerable corporate interest as a tool to communicate with employees, improve training, satisfy compliance requirements, and reduce travel costs. Today’s knowledge-based era recognizes employee talent as a new basis by which companies compete. Better trained employees represent a strategic advantage, and distance education using the latest audio/video technologies and broadband networks is the most costeffective means to achieve it. But many companies are neither equipped nor knowledgeable enough when it comes to the resources and experience required to operate such a private television network.
Hughes is helping to meet that challenge. Drawing on decades of experience in delivering and managing broadband networks and services, Hughes has adapted the latest IPTV technologies, solutions, and best practices to enable businesses to gain the benefits of a private IP video network. HughesNet Business IPTV delivers multimedia communications in packages designed specifically for the enterprise. In addition to standalone video network offerings, Hughes provides cost-effective options for enhancing existing private data networks, such as frame relay and MPLS, to support video applications.
Regardless of the number or types of applications supported, HughesNet offers enterprises the option to outsource the complexity of running a private television network wholly or in part. HughesNet also provides ancillary services such as content usage reporting, which enables a business to demonstrate compliance with an audit trail proving that its workforce has taken a particular type of training to comply with corporate or legal regulations. HughesNet Business IPTV supports a range of uses such as live video streaming, video on demand, and content pre-population. Enterprise DVRs enable companies to record content for on-demand playback at a later time. Such convenient access to training material dramatically increases the penetration of mission-critical knowledge throughout an organization. Further improving the return on investment, HughesNet Business IPTV can also support access continuity requirements and digital signage initiatives in addition to training and corporate communications. Scalable to large and small audiences, the HughesNet Business IPTV solution includes everything from design, integration, and installation to maintenance, operations, and customer support.
“HughesNet Business IPTV is creating new excitement as a cost-effective vehicle for distance learning and corporate communications,” said Sampath Ramaswami, senior director of services development and marketing of Hughes North America. “Its performance and flexibility also make it an important part of a corporate strategy to maintain a well-trained workforce for true competitive advantage.”
That means more employees in more companies will be watching more TV—as part of the job.