Finnish IPTV operator bets on OTT quality

Finnish digital television and broadband services provider Maxisat has chosen a video quality assurance solution from Agama Technologies to support its nationwide HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)-based video service to connected TV sets.

Maxisat is an IPTV provider that launched a fixed bit-rate HTTP service in mid-2010 as a way to extend its reach beyond a 200,00 homes-passed ADSL network footprint. From the start, the company faced a challenge common to IPTV operators that adopt HTTP in shifting into additional over-the-top (OTT) video services.

“We try to be cautious when using the term OTT, since we are running a managed, high-quality service with (Motorola’s) SecureMedia CA (conditional access), which shouldn’t be confused with terms like ‘Internet TV’ or ‘Web TV,’” said Maxisat Business Director Hannu Impola, in an interview following last year’s IBC. The perception is that OTT is inferior to IPTV, even if set-tops are involved in the HTTP-based OTT service, as is the case with Maxisat.

According to a Motorola spokesperson, in addition to SecureMedia, clients in the Maxisat set-top include an HTTP boot client that can download and update the KreaTV software stack, the HTTP streamer element, and the Ekioh scalable vector graphics (SVG) portal browser.

In the case of Maxisat’s use of Agama, announced at this week’s IPTV World Forum, the service provider is using Agama’s automated QoE and QoS monitoring and testing technology for adaptive bit-rate (in this case, HLS) services delivered not to set-tops, but to connected TVs. The benefits, however, could be wide-ranging.

“For our pioneering nationwide OTT service to connected Samsung TV sets, we found a perfect match in Agama’s solution and know-how,” said J-P Hela-Aro, Maxisat Development Manager, in a statement. “It will support us in ensuring the service is available 24/7 with reliable quality to all our customers.”

According to Agama, Maxisat has chosen an analysis engine that performs QoE and QoS monitoring of OTT services. It also offers alarms, dashboard widgets and service status overviews, along with a range of drill down features. Agama’s overall service assurance solution also includes verification, enterprise server and embedded monitoring applications.

As of last September, Maxisat was approaching 10,000 OTT customers.  Maxisat also had nearly a dozen small telco customers taking its OTT service, which it had re-sold to one of the country’s main satellite providers, as well.