Project / 3543 IBM TP Vision Customer Reference
Date / November 6, 2012

3543B IBM TP Vision Customer Reference Video

As Produced Transcript

Albert Mombarg, Head of Smart TV, TPVision

Martin Kienzle, Electronics Industry Leader, IBM Research

Bruce Anderson, Global General Manager, Electronics Industry, IBM

Mombarg: If we look at the trends right now I think it’s all about…smart innovation. In the years to come you will see that TV is become even more smart and more social and more personal. The key challenge right now is that, prices are going down at a faster rate that we can actually get our cost down.

The only way we can survive is to find more cost effect to solutions, and that’s where IBM helps us tremendously for our cloud-based ecosystem.

Anderson: The trend towards connectivity of the devices has essentially changed the business model for a lot of the electronics manufacturers. The connected devices by their nature open up revenue streams to manufacturers that previously were unavailable and may not have even existed for anyone.

Kienzle: The connection allows the manufacturer a continuous connection to give additional offers but also, I think to provide services that consumers expect.

Mombarg: One of the huge advantages that we have by running everything in the cloud is that we can tune this user experience perfectly to the consumer. We don’t have to change the firmware. We don’t have to change the hardware over TV set.

Anderson: One of the things that is very good for developers is to have really a single development and then multiple deployments and making it available on a larger number of sets. The second thing is when you take a look at actually building out a SmartCloud, it’s very expensive. So, there are a lot of smaller and medium sized entertainment device companies that really aren’t going to have the wherewithal to fully build out something that a consumer can use anywhere in the world.

Kienzle: The common infrastructure underneath will actually allow us to reuse it and we can scale it and that reduces the development cost, that reduces the operational cost the consumer will never see the service delivery platform or SmartCloud Service Delivery because the whole idea is to make it easy, to make it totally transparent for the consumer. it allows the manufacturers and the service providers to offer a lot more services, a lot more quickly.

Anderson: We are seeing companies that are getting 10%, 15%, 20% of their revenues now from virtual services, essentially things delivered through that connected device. And I think it’s really just the beginning. The television in general is going through just a monumental amount of change.

Mombarg: The choice for IBM was primarily based on the expertise and because we know that this was a kind of strategic move from our end. We know how to make good TVs and that look great, but we need to have IBM’s expertise to run it in a way that it fits our consumer’s preferences.

Kienzle: The solution that we have for TP Vision is that it’s a business solution. It is not an IT solution. So, TP Vision does not have to understand how many processors that we have, how much storage we have, what kind of software we use in the Cloud. IBM takes over all of the information technology risk and then our customer, the electronics manufacturer can actually focus on the business risk.

Anderson: IBM fortunately has the advantage of having built out our SmartCloud and so now it allows us to let both the developers and the consumers leverage that platform at a very, very low cost.

Mombarg: Smart TV completely changes the TV landscape with the fact that we now directly interact with the consumer for the lifetime of a product that also means that for us there are new opportunities that we can start to explore. And that’s clearly something we are heavily investing in.

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CENTERLINE DIGITAL