The Work of ACTS in Interactive Distribution and Transmission: Towards Interoperable Interactive Multimedia Services

In this paper the work of ACTS (Advanced Communications Technologies and Services) in Interactive Distribution and Transmission is described. A large potential market for real-time interactive multimedia services to the home and small business is being addressed by telecommunications and cable television operators, satellite and terrestrial broadcasters. The services vary from one-way audio visual distribution services, through asymmetrical interactive video-on-demand and Internet access, to completely symmetrical multimedia communication services. We will concentrate on projects addressing services for viewer groups of substantial size, mainly residential. The main standardisation forum for these projects is DVB, following the traditional approach of their constituency, based predominantly on satellite and terrestrial broadcaster, cable operators and their equipment manufacturers. Work of the projects in Access via Cable, Satellite, Terrestrial and MMDS will be described, as well as the techniques used to protect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Access Control. These projects have been grouped in Sub-Domain 1.2 (SD2) within the Domain 1 of the Concertation process of ACTS. We will describe SD2, where Trial Coordination, Quality of Service, Access Control, Reference Model and Market Requirement have been identified as aspects with need of concertation. Contribution to the chain Global Service Integration — Interactive Multimedia Services (SII) and Broadband Access Networks — Satellite (BAS) are also described. Finally conclusions are extracted.