Sun, Philips Collaborate on Next-Gen Video Streaming

(Telephony) Betting that streaming video will be the way video-on-demand (VOD) is delivered, Sun Microsystems and Royal Philips Electronics have signed a non-binding agreement to collaborate on developing an end-to-end reference broadband media solution based on MPEG-4 technology.

The two companies are going beyond today's use of MPEG-2 as the basis for most digital video because that standard was not developed with current Internet Protocol [IP] transport in mind, said Rob Glidden, Sun's market development manager-broadband and digital media.

"We look at MPEG-4 as the MPEG standard most tailored to IP-based streaming," said Glidden. "You can think of it as an update to the MPEG-2 standard specifically to support IP-based streaming."

Sun is providing server storage and servers and a streaming server product to interoperate with Philips' products that include an encoder, a server and end devices that are capable of handling MPEG-4 video streams.

"Philips has demonstrated MPEG-4 content on cable set-top boxes, mobile devices and PCs. This is definitely not just a PC solution," Glidden emphasized, pointing out that there is a "great deal of interest" within the mobile space for including media capability using MPEG-4 standards.

"MPEG-4 is not positioned as a replacement for MPEG-2 over MPEG-2 transport streams in set-top boxes," he explained. "It's for multiple environments that need IP-based or multiple transport streams reaching a broader range of interactive devices."

Those devices would need, on average, at least a megabit of streaming capacity but could include today's digital set-top boxes being supplied by satellite, cable, DSL and wireless providers, Glidden said, since those boxes have IP capabilities to handle MPEG-4.

"All these set-tops are coming out with download capability; think of where VOD and streaming fits with those," he advised.

The Sun-Philips collaboration aims to correct what Glidden called today's "afterthought solutions."

“You have analog TV being encoded in real-time into an MPEG-2 or proprietary format. In this case we're talking about going back and looking at the formats so they're more capable of working with these new download-cable set-top boxes [and] mobile devices that come to broadband," he said.

The pair has no customers as of yet, although interest runs high, particularly amongst network operators, according to Glidden.

"We see the industry and certainly the network operators seeking the flexibility and strategic independence that an open standard can provide them. MPEG-4 is clearly the leader in being able to do that today," he said.