NSIGHT TURNS A TRIPLE PLAY

Nortel rounds out Nsight's offerings with an end-to-end IPTV solution, bringing greater TV programming options to the upper Midwest

This season, diehard “Cheeseheads” won't have to pay exorbitant ticket prices to brave the crowds at Lambeau Field. They can watch their beloved Packers from the comfort of their own homes thanks to an IPTV entertainment solution from Midwestern telecommunications provider Nsight Telservices and its partner, Nortel.

Nortel's solution, available to Nsight's subscribers in northeast Wisconsin in September, constitutes the third segment of the provider's triple-play service delivery strategy. Television programming and local content will be provided over a broadband DSL network, in addition to Nsight's existing telephone, Internet and mobility service offerings.

Nsight's broadband network includes a Nortel Ethernet routing switch 8600, Nortel application switch 2424, Nortel virtual private network router 600, middleware from Minerva, content protection/digital-rights management from Widevine Technologies, and Avail Media Connect and Edge platforms for content provisioning.

“The initial offering will have local content that the other cable providers and dish networks in our territory don't have in terms of what customers have access to,” said Brad Hansen, vice president and chief operating officer of fixed operations for Nsight. “They will also have the opportunity to have bundled Internet and telephony services.”

Hansen said that Nsight's size and relationship to the community allows it to meet localized needs more than any of its larger competitors. His desire to limit the number of vendors the company worked with, as well as to keep costs down, brought them to a partnership with Nortel.

“[Nortel] approached us and said they were going to work with an integrated solution, which really brings with it two major benefits: one vendor and a vendor that has a track record of bringing a product that is stable that they will stand behind and make work,” Hansen said.

Grant Hall, head of marketing for video solutions at Nortel, said that forming a partnership with Nsight made sense from Nortel's perspective in light of its overarching strategy of hyper-connectivity. The company's objective was to start in the Tier 3 market, where it could increase its experience and expertise and work its way up from there.

“Nortel's view is that everything that can be connected will be connected,” Hall said. “Specifically, we are seeing a huge uptake in not only people being connected to people, but also people to machine. The existing experience is the starting point. Nortel is building applications that broaden that experience and allow you to view content at any time in any place.”

From Nsight's experiences in IPTV, Hansen warned any incumbent carriers and telecommunications-based companies rolling out IPTV to be aware and careful when setting up their offerings.

“The most important thing is to be absolutely certain you know what your contracts with vendors are saying and what you are getting and not getting,” Hansen said. “The other part is do not underestimate how difficult it will be to acquire content.”

He was surprised to find that Nsight had to have channels — paid for on a per-channel, per-sub basis — forced into its lineup, which increased overall costs. “We did not anticipate that and will end up passing [that cost] to the consumer — and it is being driven by the content provider,” Hansen said.

His other advice to incumbent telecommunications providers is to make sure your product works: “If I could give anybody any critical advice, it would be to fight the temptation to roll out early. You absolutely have to have the product nailed down technically before going public with it.”