After a
short break from Project Canvas, Five have returned! The company announced
they were leaving Canvas in July after they were put up for sale by parent
company RTL. They also were to undertake a review of their digital investment
strategy to ensure they were heading in the correct direction.
Five however have now been acquired by Northern & Shell, and one of the
first steps the company has taken is to resume their work with Project Canvas.
This is good for consumers as it will ensure that the Five content is available
when the Canvas boxes start to ship next year, and help to ensure that funding
for Canvas can continue from the joint venture partners.
“Project Canvas is set to shape the future of broadcasting and open up new
and exciting possibilities for viewers. This is important to the future of
Channel Five and having an open internet-connected TV platform fits closely
with our plans to bring brilliant new content and interactive services to
viewers. We’re delighted to renew Channel Five’s commitment to supporting
Project Canvas following a review of our digital strategy.”Richard Desmond, (Chairman) Northern & Shell
“Channel Five has already made a major contribution to Project Canvas and
we’re delighted to have them back on board. This is great recognition of how
important Canvas is to the future of television.”Richard Halton (Director) Project Canvas
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Mr Desmond will gain an extra outlet for his porn via Canvas.
Whilst not a big fan of Channel 5, I think its good news to see that the channel has rejoined the Canvas project – IMHO the more content providers the better to compete with Sky and Virgin.
sorry to ask a dumb question but i’m not that interested in canvas but… does canvas use the broadband connect or can it use aerial as well?
broadband connection only or can it use aerial as well? ***
fixed some typos.
@Legolash
To quote from the Canvas website (www.projectcanvas.info/), “Project Canvas intends to build, run and promote a platform that solves both problems: providing an upgrade for free-to-air TV, and an open platform of scale that will bring a wide range of internet services to the shared screen.”
So yeah it will use the internet, personally i dont think the UK broadband is ready for it, would prob be laggy fr alot of people.
I understand that it will offer a single platform for on-demand services, as well as far greater capacity for Freeview for streaming HD TV content.
With regards broadband, no doubt it will drive demand for FTTC where available in order to deliver sufficent bandwidth for HD TV streams, especially for larger families with multiple sets / computers.
@CB
Regarding HDTV bandwidth needs, if you multiply the typical 4Mbps needed by 4 or 5 viewers you very quickly push passed the upper limits of ADSL2+, especially if some are multi-tasking on email, Facebook, IM, streamed radio etc as only teenagers can!
Therefore FTTC or similar very quickly becomes a requirement for families.
My current speed of 6Mb, i won’t be getting it because as soon as one or two of the other people in this house go on the internet my TV would be effected if im watching anything “On Demand”
I can image alot of people complaining about its performance when trying to watch online content using their “canvas” box.
FTTC speeds are required, especially if you have someone who uses the web alot, the user watching on ondamand using canvas and then a gamer. Oh and don’t forget about contention ratio!
cont… If everyone on my streets get around 5-6Mbps, 3 Gamers, alot of internet users like facebook,1 downloads alot in the evening instead of middle of night. Now imagine if three houses for a canvas enabled TV.
Somehow i don’t think the link from the telephone pole > cabinet > exchange could do all that data because of contention.
Then if you include everyone connected to that cabinet… then we are all doomed (to put it politely).
yeah but alot of people are on slow(er) connections and it still adds up pretty quickly.
hmmm, don’t know what to reply about that. So it definitely helps if you have an truly “unlimited” usage allowance.
@CB
As you’ve indicated above, a single HD stream needs around 4Mbps, which FTTC can easily support. As you’re aware, Infinity Option 2 has a much higher usage cap, so is more suited to use with TV.
You’ve argued on the one hand that you don’t even need FTTC for IPTV, and on the other that it will not be up to the task, which is it as both arguments cannot be right at the same time?
@CB
So you DO agree that FTTC is in fact capable of supporting IPTV then. You’re now suggesting that the issue is down to usage caps, which is a different point to the one you made 3 hours ago about FTTC needing to be changed out by ISPs.
As you know, different ISPs have different fair usage policies, and there is some evidence that changes are being made for FTTC. If this is now the only problem that you can forsee, the surely you’d simply choose an ISP with an appropriate FUP and/or usage cap?
So not really a problem with broadband after all, just the commercial terms of the ISP. Which should be good news for Canvas then! 😉
@CB
Are we talking about 10 years time or today?
Assuming ten years time, not sure why you’re referring to today’s usage caps, especially when some ISPs today don’t cap anyway, others charge for the bandwidth etc?
If you are referring to ten years time, I assume you’d accept that FTTC speeds will have increased as new encoding techniques etc become available, as happened with ADSL?
Also, the FTTC architecture is well suited to swapping out copper lines for fibre as demand increases, so don’t really so that as a limitation anyway.
Good to know that you’ve come around to IPTV as the future though!
I think FTTC would be needed if you have less than 8Mb, but you will definitely use alot of usage, but they may program it where Canvas won’t count towarsd your usage allowance.
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9871/c/348,3049,4014
“BT Vision usage does not count towards broadband bandwidth usage. This means you can watch as much on-demand entertainment as you want without exceeding your broadband usage guidelines. BT Vision also benefits from a separate allocation of bandwidth that means it is not affected by congestion at peak times.”
They may do the same thing with canvas.
Hopefully BT will dump BT Vision, the adverts make it look crap, but won’t canvas be built into every tv eventually? if so then they will have to arrange something with BT.
Maybe one of the real side issues here is. The BBC is ‘frightened’ to lose or part of the licence fee. It is highly questionable that the licence fee should exist to compete with Plc companies. It is about time the BBC was sold and offered to the City. The and only then should the BBC be able to compete in a fair competitive market.
Canvas or Google TV…. i think Google TV by along shot!
@Essex
Why not go the whole hog and suggest the BBC is sold to Sky, after all they’ve already tried to buy ITV!
At least the BBC poses decent competition to Sky. With Virgin selling its unique channels, there would be very little left otherwise.
Google TV Specs
“The sleek black Apple TV-sized box will run on a 1.2-GHz Atom processor with 4 GB memory, 802.11n Wi-Fi, dual HDMI-out ports, Dolby 5.1 surround sound and a pair of USB ports. If you hook up a webcam, you can also video-chat at 720p.”
That’s a nice box, looks sexy 😛
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-05/24/logitech-google-tv-box-embarrasses-apple-tv
Anything the UK seem to do, seems to be already outdated i.e. Convas
Canvas*** I already want it 😀
What people seem to not acknowledge is that Canvas is a solution to improve content distribution and lower the strain on the network to transport data hundreds of miles around the country.
There are a fair number of ISPs supporting the implantation of Canvas because it will stop their data pipes in the core UK network from creaking.
The 2nd thing to consider is that with the mechanism to move media data streamlined then ISPs will not count the bandwidth usage against a customer since the data is moved on the edge to the customer premises.
As a final point – whilst innovation is good I think CB and others need to really consider why Canvas is being supported by ISPs and the likes of google etc is not being championed by them (so far).
IMO It comes down to the efficiency offered by the BT Wholesale Content Connect platform to deliver data from the exchange (or a content node) close to the end user rather than from servers hundreds of miles away.
Quote from wired.co.uk, ‘Google has not yet confirmed if Google TV will be launched in the UK market.’
If/when it does come to us, people will soon get disenchanted when they keep being told the TV programme they try to watch, ‘is not available to view in your region’.
Can’t reallysee the point of comparing kit and services not currently available in the UK (Google TV, Hulu etc) with kit not yet on the market built to the Canvas spec.
The former may never make it to the UK, the latter is an unknown quantity so many of the comments above are pure speculation.
Good comments from “TheGuv” though about content distribution, interesting to see whether other devices and services adopt this model.
@New_Londoner 3H ago; You have to view ALL the youtube videos that CB directed us to, especialy the CEO segment at the end. Intel, Sony, Logitech, YouTube, DISH, Best Buy, oh yer an ADOBE(flash)! not so sure about that as the way of the future? but when names like that are behind it, something will happen.
I think the talk of and about ‘open source’ was the bit that got my attention.
^^^with u CB Logitech are already (unknown) for being a major ‘remote control’ supplier to the industry.
Sorry, forgot to remind everyone. Logitech= mouse,keyboard,webcam; oh an my favourite, trackerball. I understand they do the RC’s under a brand called harmony but don’t quote me?
Open systems are great – allows for freedom of choice. I just “would not” normally expect that from Sony.
The same problems will exist for the proposed alternate system – getting real time video traffic through the networks to the end user is the big obstacle to success. Without caching a large chunk of content with the likes of Akamai (which can push up cost) then delivery of a reliable working (non buffering) service would be the biggest barrier to consumer acceptance.
To follow up on reliable delivery – Currently the alternative large scale IPTV solution in the UK is Sky Player. It is hit and miss on whether it works weeknights between 7-10pm because Sky don’t provide enough bandwidth into ISPs (other than it’s own) to meet demand (I cancelled it in June).
It would take a lot of co-op from companies (esp Sony who are notorious for non collaboration) to get it right IMO.