IPTV or Internet Protocol Television offers organisations an easy, flexible and scalable way of distributing video content around a venue or number of venues – whether this is in hotel rooms, hospitals, corporate offices, universities or stadia and arenas. It is important when looking into installing or expanding an IPTV infrastructure, that you take advantage of the ever-growing possibilities a good IPTV system can offer you.
Staff Training & Inductions:
IPTV, isn’t just watching TV on a reception screen, it can be used as a key video communications tool for organisations. The traditional printed ‘work manual’ is becoming an extinct media form, with video as the preferred method of receiving information by thousands of workers today, organisations have a responsibility to deliver video content to them. This can include health & safety videos for off-site or remote workers, HR material and product or company information videos, allowing the modern-day organisation to have easier and more direct contact with its employees, no matter where they are in the world or what device they have access to.
Live Event Streaming:
There are many instances where live events can be streamed, via an IPTV solution, to many users. Some of these include:
Streaming any live event expands your audience potential exponentially, allowing more people to feel part of an otherwise ‘limited capacity’ event and receive important information, even if they are not physically in front of the speaker.
Residential & Accommodation TV:
Within hotel-rooms, dorm-rooms and hospital rooms, delivering video content via an effective IPTV platform is essential and establishments are looking for more ways to deliver media. Furthermore, the use of branded Interactive IPTV Portals installed in these environments allows organisations to create a personalised experience for guests. For example, hospitals can tailor content for patients, loading specific surgery information videos, physiotherapy instruction videos and even memory trigger clips for Alzheimer’s patients. Hotels can create film/TV libraries based on the nationality of the guests, using an IPTV platform to go above and beyond to improve customer satisfaction.
Selecting an IPTV Solution
Real-Time / Low Latency Delivery:
Having the ability to distribute live video feeds across a network to multiple end-points is an important requirement of an IPTV solution, however, if it takes a long time for that feed to be distributed to different end-points, it can be detrimental to the solution and user experience. For example, a sports stadium or arena would make customers more inclined to leave their seats and purchase items from food and beverage concession stands, knowing they can watch the match/concert on the concourse, and not miss a second of the action.
Digital Signage Integration:
Being able to have a unified system delivering digital signage and IPTV is important. For many venues, being able to run advertising campaigns alongside video, would allow them to increase revenues from sponsors and sales. It is also useful to have information on screen i.e. weather, RSS feeds or social media updates. Digital signage also allows organisations to reinforce their branding, keeping layouts, colours and graphics consistent across multiple screens and even locations.
Deliver to a wide variety of devices:
Most people today primarily view TV and video on mobile devices. It is important when selecting an IPTV solution that it has the ability to stream video securely and quickly to mobile devices. It is also important to understand whether an IPTV solution is capable of delivering to Desktop, PC and Thin Client devices in a corporate environment, and Smart TV or Set Top Boxes for wider IPTV delivery across large venues.
Looking more closely at IPTV and the many different uses and applications for the technology allow organisations to design and implement a solution that matches their business needs. Delivering video is now a necessity in many different sectors and having a greater understanding of how and where an effective IPTV platform can be used is extremely important.
