Prepare now to adjust your television set

Business

Ttom.pullar-strecker@stuff.co.nz

he future of broadcast television could be decided in a mock-up living room on the first floor of a nondescript building on Khyber Pass Rd in Auckland.

The conversations taking place there might be a reason for people to think carefully about where they install ultra-fast broadband (UFB) in their homes.

In the laboratory, network company Chorus has been trialling a new service that delivers extremely high-quality television over UFB.

Chorus network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers says its trial service is a step up from anything currently available in New Zealand in terms of quality.

Freeview chief executive Jason Foden believes Chorus’ service could make digital terrestrial television (DTT), which is used to deliver FreeviewHD, redundant in perhaps 10 to 15 years.

Next to the living room is a mini studio with two ‘‘4K’’ TV cameras.

In another room is the ‘‘content delivery network’’ (CDN). That is a bank of computer servers that serve up footage from the cameras to the ultra-HD television, which also sports a high-frame refresh rate and a wide-colour gamut.

‘‘It is a fantastic picture quality and it behaves really nicely – it is faster than playing things off a hard-disk drive,’’ Rodgers says, flicking the remote to show off smooth one-second channel changes and the ability to pause and rewind.

‘‘We have had TV people through here and they would love to get that image quality into New Zealand homes. It is not really possible on the current broadcast platforms like DTT and satellite.’’

Freeview, Sky Television and the Commerce Commission are among the organisations that have visited the lab for demonstrations.

Rodgers points out that by 2022, 87 per cent of New Zealand homes will be within reach of UFB – slightly more than the 86 per cent of homes that can receive FreeviewHD through a network of transmission towers operated by state-owned enterprise Kordia.

Freeview chief executive Jason Foden says the Chorus trial is impressive. ‘‘We do see the future of transmission is ‘internet protocol’ though there is a lot of life in DTT yet.’’

One word of warning though. To get the full value out of Chorus’ service, homeowners may need to connect their television or set-top box to their UFB connection using an HDMI cable, rather than wirelessly.

A wireless connection, though ‘‘technically possible’’, was not in Chorus’ thinking at the moment, Rodgers says.

That means that if Chorus’ service is the future of live free-toair and pay television, homeowners would be wise to ensure the Optical Network Terminal (ONT) box that is installed in their homes when they get fibre installed is within cablereach of their television.

‘‘If the broadcasting industry is interested in this, it creates another reason why you definitely want to put the ONT next to the TV,’’ Rodgers emphasises.

Broadcast television over UFB could spell trouble in the long run for Sky customers in rural areas who aren’t in line to get fibre.

There is no cost saving in delivering a satellite service to only 13 per cent of the country instead of the whole country.

So, if Sky switched to Chorus’ service where UFB was available, it would greatly increase the percustomer cost of Sky continuing to deliver a satellite service to homes not on the network.

Sky chief executive John Fellet has indicated Sky intends to enter into a new contract with satellite provider Optus that is likely to mean Sky continues to support a satellite service until at least 2026. But beyond that there are no guarantees.

Chorus’ preferred solution to the conundrum would be to see UFB rolled out to 100 per cent of the country.

Its service would be delivered through a dedicated port on the ONT, meaning it could be billed for separately from homeowners’ internet service by the likes of Sky.

In fact, Foden points out that UFB television customers wouldn’t necessarily need to buy a broadband internet service at all.

The UFB network was always set up so people could buy multiple services from different retailers, Rodgers notes – for example a home broadband connection from one provider, a work broadband connection from another, and a phone service from a third.

But until now that hasn’t really eventuated, he says.

Standard UFB connections should have sufficient bandwidth to deliver good-quality live television along with other internet traffic without such separation.

The popularity of services such as Netflix and Lightbox shows socalled ‘‘over the top’’ internet

STUFF Chorus network strategy manager Kurt Rodgers, above and below, says Sky Television and Freeview have both visited its ‘‘living room’’ lab to sample its television service. The cost of the computer servers that deliver footage to the ultra-HD television...