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Quality of Experience…. in a world of rapid change and convergence

Vali Lalioti

BBC FM&T

NEM Vice-Chair Liaison

The context is important as this is a time of dynamic convergingindustries with a fast pace in innovation and service development.

Digital has been both diverse and more converged in terms ofservices

Let me explain this by what it has meant for the BBC…

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The BBC has evolved into a multimedia, multiplatform, content company

(1) Fragmented audiences

• this means increase in the breadth and depth of our offerings andoverall content

Between 2000 and 2003 especially we have seen a strong growth inservice offer to address fragmentation of our TV and radioaudiences

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(2) Platform fragmentation

We used to think that digital would make life cheaper for everyone,content providers included•but the reality has been different.

Nowadays our life is made up more of new platform launches rather than newservice launches

These two results of convergence mean rising costs for the BBCBut what it means for the Quality of Experience and researchtopics for this in the future internet era?

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QoE of User/Consumer: what is it and how we measure it?

What is perceived by the user, who will consider it togetherwith the price in evaluating the value of the service

• Network operators: QoS bit-error ratio, delay, maximum throughputand service availability

• Content Providers: IPTV artefact free, no picture freezing, fast zappingtimes

• New features and applications for growth (interactivity, immersion,time-shifted TV, access to more content, 3DTV with feeling ofpresence)

… but first : who’s quality of experience are we considering here?

It is not of a general user but of a consumer who will consider thequality together with price to evaluate the Value of the service.

Key industry players in this value-chain have different ways tomeasure this quality of service.

For example, network operators think of bit-error ration, etc. whilecontent providers like to reach a similar service quality in theFuture Internet as in more traditional services, talking about nopicture freezing and fast zapping times.

However, this is not just about the network pipe or the quality ofthe media content distributed through it.

It is about these things combined and the whole experience on topof these. Let me explain it from a BBC perspective…

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iPlayer is on a multitude of platforms and we create a holistic, consistent, engagingexperience for our audiences across these protforms.

This is paramount for the BBC to remain relevant in the Future Internet era. Audiences ondigital platforms expect from the BBC brand the same consistent, rich experience thatthey enjoy in the more traditional broadcasting era. And they want more… they alreadydo more in the multiplayer games, the social networks and in content platforms likeYouTube and Hulu.

So what would this Quality of Experience when for the new services of the FutureInternet?

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QoE of User/Consumer: New services of the Future Internet

•Participation and Contribution

•Interactive, Immersive, 3D

Participation and contribution are becoming increasingly moreimportant, creating the need for a two way dialogue withaudiences. There is a fundamental shift in seeing audiences asbroadcasters,… especially from a broadcaster’s point of view thiscan be a difficult shift to make.

The BBC is among the public broadcasters in Europe that haveunderstood this. You have seen also the keynote from RosaliaLloret Merino, the Director Interactive Media of RTVE, gave greatexample of how public broadcasters across Europe are shifting toaddress this challenge.

Looking into the future we should also consider interactive,immersive and 3D services. Richer audience experience and morechallenges to define and measure quality of consumer experience.

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QoE of Consumer: Key topics for Future Internet

• How can QoE be measured, to give results that are helpful inservice development?

• How do we use these to create holistic, consistent and engagingexperiences across platforms and services?

• How do we measure QoE for the new services of the FI andcreate consistent engaging experiences (e.g. contribution,interaction, immersion)?

In this context the key topics in the Future Internet, Quality ofConsumer Experience, to take forward to the FI in Valencia, inApril 2010 are:

How can QoE be measured, to give results that are helpfulin service development?

How do we use these to create holistic, consistent andengaging experience across platforms and services?

How do we measure QoE and create engaging experienceson new services (e.g. contribution, participation, interaction,immersion and 3D)?

These are challenging Research topics for the FutureInternet and we should investigate them and fund them atEuropean level, with a clear focus on the Consumer and theinterplay between experience, quality and price that definesthe value of service for the Consumer.