IPTV - A new television experience

IPTV via broadband is revolutionizing television. The innovative technology provides an enormous choice of programs, great flexibility and novel, interactive convenience functions.

Technically, IPTV is based on the transmission of television signals using the Internet Protocol (IP). Modern broadband networks with data-transmission rates of up to 50 megabits per second provide the necessary transmission capacity.

On the one hand, they make it possible to transmit from the TV station to many receivers (multicast), which essentially corresponds to today's television scenario. What is new is the direct connection between a station and a receiver via the fast Internet connection (unicast).

Strong back channel
The decisive advantage is that the receiver can use a high-performance back channel via the Internet for interacting with the station. The media receiver is the interface between the Internet and the TV set. It translates, so to speak, the (digital) video and audio signals from the Internet, so that they can be understood by the (analog) devices at home. With remote control operation, IPTV convenience functions such as replaying specific scenes of a film are available. The back channel and media receiver are the prerequisite for new television formats, greater flexibility, more interactivity and a great diversity of programs. IPTV turns the viewer into a program director.

Interactive television
Entertain from T-Home makes the many different possibilities of IPTV available to the customer. Direct access to a large number of programs including special-interest channels is one example. Television then becomes interactive via broadband with on-demand services such as the TV archive and the online video library. Interactive television leads to more flexible and convenient enjoyment of TV viewing. T-Home, for example, has integrated an interactive TV format into the “Bundesliga auf PREMIERE powered by T-Home” offer. At the press of a button, viewers can play back highlights of the matches such as goals, hits against the bar, red cards or controversial referee decisions. This also includes an interactive results table with all the matches on a specific day.

Programming remotely
The option to program the digital hard drive recorder from anywhere, at any time, over the Internet offers additional convenience. Customers who have forgotten to set their favorite program to record, for example, can put this right via the Program Manager from any Internet access. Entertain thus offers customers flexibility which was up until now quite unheard of. IPTV via broadband is revolutionizing television. The innovative technology provides an enormous choice of programs, great flexibility and novel, interactive convenience functions.

Multimedia functions
As another new development, Entertain complete packages will in the future also offer the opportunity to enjoy radio over the Internet. As part of IFA, around 2,500 radio stations will thus be integrated in the Entertain platform. Thanks to sorting by musical genre and country of origin, the customer keeps an overview and can easily create his own list of favorites.