This piece,  from London-based Fearghal Kelly, is the first in a series of posts from KIT’s international team focusing on more technical issues.

Introduction

It’s easy to get distracted by the glossy black shells and colourful interfaces of the many thousands of video platforms in existence today.  As consumers and users, we often lose sight of the advancements that get us here. KIT digital is right in the middle of building these platforms and we are fortunate enough to work side by side with the key technology enablers.

Underneath the usual 3LAs (Three Letter Acronyms) like Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Content Delivery Network (CDN), there are some less familiar names.  In this post, we’d like to celebrate an unsung hero – the Graphics Processing Unit or GPU.

Not only is the GPU at the heart of the video revolution, but while you read this, the world’s GPUs are acting in tandem to disentangle the proteome and create novel medical treatments that will eventually directly impact your life.*

A little background

In a nutshell, the graphical interfaces we love to use on our smart-phones, PCs and games consoles are computationally complex.  To display a beautifully crafted and animated ‘swipe,’ ‘drag,’ or ‘zoom’ is demanding on chipsets.  Watching video is even more demanding with up to 120 screen refreshes every second.  We expect our devices to run an Operating System (OS), applications (apps) AND give us this beautiful graphical experience… all at the same time.

Standard Central Processing Units (CPUs) just could not cut the job of being visually stunning and running the farm, so to speak.  Over the years anyone who has experienced jittery video playback on their desktop has likely seen this processing limitation in action, even from something as seemingly simple as an email arriving in the background.

Make My Player Work!

The engineering approach to address this problem has been to segregate display-based processing from the more mundane, and less computationally expensive, OS processing. The common approach is to build the GPU into the video card of the PC/MAC.  These cards are dedicated to high power graphics display at rates up to and beyond 1080p.  Alternatively, CPU designers frequently include a separate ‘Graphical Processing Unit’ on the CPU itself, operating almost independently, yet in parallel, with the main CPU cores.  No more jitter.**

Got It!  So What?

The GPU is an extremely powerful computer in its own right, designed to address the mathematical problem of displaying 24 frames of video at 1080p in full color.  That’s a lot of data transposition.  This video data can come from a movie file or from the animated display of your interaction with Windows Aero or the iOS Retina display.

That’s also a lot of raw processing power – power that sits there doing nothing a lot of the time while you write a document or read an email.  On a server in a data center, with no video display requirement, the GPU is doubly idle.

The video processing industry realised that if they could tap into the GPU, they could use it for tasks such as transcoding and transrating video on a commercial scale.  Because the GPU is dedicated, the conversion throughput is frequently faster than real time – faster than a human could watch it back on a VCR.  An added bonus is lower costs, as these CPUs and graphics cards are significantly less money than dedicated HD-SDI cards, for example.  The caveat, of course, being that we are working with files here and not tape decks.  Cloud based transcoding was an awakening, but video processing continued to be device specific.

Around this time, academics and medical researchers also realized that this latent processing power could be pooled for social good.

GPU and You

Those of you who used SETI to try and find ET in the 90s will appreciate this more useful application of the GPU.  The Folding@home initiative was set up in 2000 to harness the latent power of CPUs and lately GPUs.   Using grouping technology, the project uses internet connections to access the GPU in your home PC and data centre server when its not required for anything else. By combining all these GPUs, researchers effectively have a supercomputer that is used to accelerate modelling of diseases such as Alzheimers and various cancers. One of the program’s many goals is the creation of personalized medical care, through understanding of the unique proteome sequencing in each and every human being.  The focus is on GPUs again because of the vast data (frame) transposition required for proteome cycles to be modelled.  The project has even created an application to harness the Playstation 3 GPU, which is capable of 3D processing, and therefore vast data transposition.

KIT and the GPU

A large part of our focus here at KIT, is the workflow management and orchestration of not just one video file, but the tens of thousands we handle each day for people like AT&T, Liberty Global and BSkyB.  Every one of these videos will start off life on a tape and progress through tens of transcode and QA steps before you watch them on one of the many playback platforms we have built.

Many of these steps are processed using our partners’ software talking to a GPU somewhere in the world.  Our job is to coordinate these steps to create an experience for a consumer that is as flawless and seamless as watching TV.  By the time you watch a video at home, it’s been through multiple GPUs, including the one in your Set Top Box (STB) or Connected Digital Television.  The GPU can facilitate work and entertainment and when it’s not needed, its processing power can be used to fuel medical breakthroughs.

One of the more interesting side effects of the rapid growth of Netflix and other OTT services is the equally rapid growth of devices made specifically for watching OTT services on your big screen TV.

Roku is the biggest indie player, followed by Boxee. Roku gets less PR than Boxee, which seems to be constantly adjusting what exactly it is they do, while Roku has remained a straight up connection device.  I have owned a Roku device for about six months now and there’s a lot to recommend about it: it’s cheap (around $50 for the entry level) small (about the size of my fist) and has an impressive array of big league content options: Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBOGO  – plus a number of interesting smaller channels like the TED conferences and Crackle. In addition, there are dozens of minor league channels, most of which feel like a small step above local access– not a whole lot of production value, a lot of very niche content. There are also hundreds of so-called “private channels” on Roku: channels that are not listed publicly, but which are easily accessed via URL. The private channels, which run the gamut from the BBC to porn, are easily found via search. The list can be deceiving at first, as many of them are broadcast networks: but rather than an actual live stream of CNN, you get a series of “best of” clips, with no guarantee of recency.

Setting up the Roku is fairly idiot-proof – big screens with large type- but it’s still a bit time-consuming and requires you to remember all your various user names and passwords, including your home WiFi (never an easy one.)

Once you are set up, Roku is very simple to use – you don’t get the nest of screens you get on the typical pay-TV site. While the remote control is quite functional, you can get a fancier version with lots of social bells and whistles by downloading the Dijit app.

Apple has been rumored to be coming out with an actual Apple TV set for a while now, but in the interim they have the the Apple TV, an unsurprisingly stylish box that is easily set up via your Apple ID, something every iPhone and iPad owner knows by heart.  AppleTV gives you access to the entire iTunes store, with it’s impressive library of rentable/downloadable TV shows and movies. You also get Netflix

But that’s about it.

Apple’s walled garden means that only the select few get in. So Amazon doesn’t. Neither does Hulu. Or Vudu (conspicuously missing from Roku as well.) Apple TV does give you access to a dozen or so other networks, heavy on professional sports leagues, but that’s about it. You also get 1080p playback (same with the higher-level model RokuHD), but since most of the HDTVs out there stop at 780, that’s mostly just puffery.

And then there’s AirPlay

The new Apple TVs big new trick is that it can mirror your iPad on the TV screen, which can make watching family slide shows extra fun. But– and this is a huge flaw– you can’t watch a lot of the bought-from-iTunes video content from your iPad on your TV due to some sort of nebulous rights issue. Take “Mad Men” for instance. You can buy the whole current season via iTunes on your iPad, but you can’t then use Airplay watch that on your 55-inch TV: you get a none-too-friendly error message telling you “your Apple TV is not authorize to play that content.”

Which kind of defeats the whole premise of multiple screen viewing.

iTunes content is primarily download-only too: they have promised streaming, but it’s not happening yet in any significant way. So you need a lot of bandwidth and a lot of storage. For things you’ll likely never watch twice

Smarter TVs and smarter set top boxes should make these devices redundant in a year or two, most likely by buying and using their technology, but until that happens, a complementary device can make your life a whole lot easier.

I love Apple products – I’m writing this on my iPad– but given the differences, I’d spend my money on a Roku. Especially once you factor in the $50 price gap.

We spend a lot of time thinking about how people watch TV now, how they’ll watch it in the future and what the best way is to get them to watch more of it. One of the questions that we wrestle with, as a global entity, is how much regional preferences play into the equation.

For instance, while Americans and Europeans take the iPad for granted, local import taxes can triple the price for viewers in other areas, who turn to Xoom and other Android devices. We’re also cognizant of the different habits of Western viewers who grew up with “57 channels and nothing on” and those viewers who grew up with a single, state-supported station.

Just to give you an idea of how personal the viewing experience is, I asked three KIT digital employees from different parts of the world, to write about their own personal preferences. As you’ll learn below, they each have a unique pattern of where, when and what they like to watch. Which is why we continue to focus our attention on creating experiences that will allow just that in the most advanced and most efficient ways possible

First off is Jon McKinney, Vice President of Client Services – Tier 1 Online Video Strategy at our Solana Beach, California office. A native of Maine, Jon is a true digital techie who can all but build his own multi-terabyte home theater.

Certainly a much more complex scenario than TV of 25 years ago, but today content of all types is consumed all of the time and our lives are more complex from it.

For me, I’ll enjoy sports on a big screen with friends, or on my phone while playing with my children. I’ll watch a movie on a lightweight and travel-convenient tablet on a plane, but gather my colleagues around my laptop for a funny Youtube clip.

My news comes in a Starbucks cup sizes, watching short-form clips on my smartphone while I finish off a Grande Mocha.

I do still enjoy kicking my shoes off and catching up with my favorite series with my wife on the sofa when the kids go to bed.

The TV, the DVR and movie discs have blended into a consumption ecosystem designed around me as the central figure, rather than the living room – call it Me-TV

Eaon Pritchard is a transplanted Brit who’s been living in Melbourne, Australia for many years, most recently as Director of Innovation, at KIT’s Sputnik division.

While the idea of the ‘second screen’ is now a popular and mainstream notion, there’s still some dispute as to which screen qualifies as the ‘second’.

I’m increasingly convinced that the second screen is the TV – the big screen in the corner. The occasions when the TV is the ‘first’ screen are certainly becoming less and less frequent.

In fairness I think there are – in most households – a minimum of 3 screen types in constant jostling for position. The mobile, the tablet and the TV – and often a fourth, the laptop computer.

Our house is typical in that respect; however perhaps less typically we do not have a cable or satellite subscription nor even free-to-air (broadcast) TV.

To give some context, we recently moved to a house in a country area with no analogue reception and basically elected not to subscribe to any Australian pay TV and see how we got on.

Would it be possible to live without scheduled broadcast or time shifted TV?

Quite easily, actually.

In effect our big TV screen has predominantly become a more ‘occasion’ based home cinema, used for watching DVD movies or for content downloaded from the internet by both fair means or foul. Yes, we will routinely go and find current British and American shows on the bit torrent networks.

However the ‘first’ screen absolutely is the iPad.

The BBC iPlayer International app has been a revelation. Thousands of hours of streaming archive BBC shows across all genres for $80 or so a year subscription.

We recently binged on five seasons of ‘Ideal’ the cult BBC3 comedy starring Johnny Vegas, completely on the iPad.

We’ll also use the free ABC (Australian Broadcast Corp) catch-up TV app for local bits and pieces.

And of course the iPad pings to the big screen over Apple ‘s AirPlay if required.

So, to conclude, analyzing our own behavior I would surmise that the mobile device is predominantly the ‘discovery’ device, mostly the ‘first’ screen – finding, searching for info, socializing.

There’s not a great deal of actual viewing of TV type content there.

Next the laptop computer, which does the grunt work in terms of downloading and formatting tussling with the TV for ‘second screen’ status.

But the number one media and entertainment device or platform, in our house anyway, is the iPad for sure. It’s the TV, and of course also the record collection, the bookshelf, the games centre.

The next take is from Daniel Grüderich, International Key Account Manager in our Cologne office. Daniel is half-Peruvian and half-German which gives him a truly international perspective.

When I introduced MobileTV on the Nokia N92 smartphone back in 2005 for my first employer Nokia, we named the devices “Multi Media Computers” aiming to establish a standard for watching TV while on the move via DVB-H(andheld).

We were sure we were setting the pace for the industry and planned to use the World Soccer Cup 2006 as our platform for introducing the technology.

In 2008 I switched to LG HB620T using a “funny looking” extractable antenna watching TV on a ridiculously small screen. But we soon came to realize that just pushing TV content onto mobile devices was not working for all genres.

I must admit that since then, I enjoy watching Sports and News on all my mobile devices. But now with both an Android tablet and an iPhone in my pocket I also like watching TV on a treadmill in the gym. I enjoy watching series like “Family Guy” or even “Mad Men”, on my 7″ screen: it just feels great being entertained while doing my morning exercise before I head toward the office and start my day.

Of course I have also tried watching 90 minute action blockbusters on my 7″ tablet, but the result is frustrating and has not given me real joy. I believe these are genres that one should enjoy with drinks and chips along with my buddies watching a large screen HDTV from a couch or at a movie theater along with a crowd.

And as always, the host  (a native New Yorker) will have the final say:

I am amazed at how small and fuzzy the 13” Sony Trinitron I’ve owned for at least 20 years now seems. When it was new, the picture seemed exceptionally crisp and clear.

I watched 2 full seasons of “Lost” on my iPhone two years ago. It was fine, especially if I held the phone close.

I’ve had an iPad for about two years now and it’s made watching video on the iPhone unbearable. I love watching TV on the iPad. Especially at night, in bed, with a pair of headphones on. The picture quality is great and I never lose the remote. This is more important than it may sound, because being able to touch the screen means I can pause and rewind at will. (I constantly forget where I put the actual remote on most of my devices).

I like watching YouTube and similar short-form videos on my laptop, but don’t like it for anything longer than a few minutes: it’s too bulky and you can’t get as up close as you can with the iPad.

I still like to watch movies in a theater with a really big screen where I can feel the vibe of the audience reaction. That’s not something you can really do at home.

Final observation: I only watch shows I really like on the iPad. Other shows, the kind that I keep on for background noise, I watch on the big screen

It may be completely illogical, but there you have it.

Let’s hear from you guys: where do you like to watch TV? Are you consistent in your choices or it mostly situational? Let us know.

Lost Remote, the white-hot Social TV site, was first out of the box with a lengthy article by lead writer Natan Edelsburg, who cited the ability to instantly see the which friends are watching which shows as his favorite feature.

Beet.tv, whose Andy Plesser has made a name for himself as the tech world’s leading interviewer, filmed a great in-depth with KIT Global COO Alex Blum, where they discussed the social program guide and KIT near term roadmap.

Mari Silbey reviewed the app for ZatzNotFunny, the ultimate TV industry insider blog. Silbey, formerly Chief Blogger at Motorola, was impressed by the SPG’s ability to provide unique accounts for each family members and the option to limit social activity to a companion second screen device.

To see it in action, check out our demo video.

For more details, visit our Social TV Solutions page

Video management software provider KIT Digital expects to end 1H13 with 11 commercially active OTT or IPTV projects in Latin America, executives told BNamericas.

“We have 10 large infrastructure projects going on now, apart from [already active] Telecom Argentina,” said Charlie Deane, KIT Digital’s OTT solutions director for Spanish-speaking markets. “Some are very advanced, already in internal beta-testing today. There are others that are going live in 2-3 months, and others for which we’re discussing terms, with no agreements finalized yet. We can expect them to be happening by year-end or in the first and second quarters next year.”

The company established its client footprint in the region during 2011, gaining such names as The Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas (ZNS Network), Merville Lynch Productions, Telecom Argentina (NYSE: TEO), Clarín, Hosanna Visión, Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God), Victory in Christ Ministry and Avivamiento.

This led to the installation of offices in Miami and Buenos Aires, and the hiring of Alvaro Gazzolo as sales VP for OTT video solutions in the region.

Telecom Argentina is the most prominent of these clients, launching its OTT service in October 2011 with expectations to attract 40,000 subscribers over the following 12 months. At present, Telecom has 1.6mn broadband clients.

Asked whether this type of offering could force the Argentine government’s hand, to allow telcos to offer true triple play, KIT Digital lead global analyst Alan Wolk pointed out that technology itself could present this opportunity before the government makes the change.

“We recently acquired a company called Sezmi that pioneered the use of over-the-air HD signals, repackaging them in a more consumer-friendly format,” Wolk said. “Technologically it would be possible for Telecom to offer something like that.”

Deane said: “This would allow them to do live linear digital TV, but there are internal considerations as to how they would deploy it. When offering live and on demand, it’s much more efficient to have a hybrid solution using the airwaves for the live portion by compressing and splitting the available UHF bands, whilst keeping the broadband pipes open for video on demand.” He added that the desire to watch whatever you want whenever you want is very potent in Argentina.