European research project to shape next generation internet TV

Brussels, 19 February 2008

P2P-Next, a pan-European conglomerate of 21 industrial partners, media content providers and research institutions, has received a €19 million grant from the European Union. The grant will enable the conglomerate to carry out a research project aiming to identify the potential uses of peer-to-peer (P2P) technology** for Internet Television of the future. The partners,* including the BBC, Delft University of Technology, the European Broadcasting Union, Lancaster University, Markenfilm, Pioneer Digital Design Centre Limited and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, intend to develop a Europe-wide “next-generation” internet television distribution system, based on P2P and social interaction.

P2P-Next statement:

“The P2P-Next project will run over four years, and plans to conduct a large-scale technical trial of new media applications running on a wide range of consumer devices. If successful, this ambitious project could create a platform that would enable audiences to stream and interact with live content via a PC or set top box. In addition, it is our intention to allow audiences to build communities around their favorite content via a fully personalized system. This technology could potentially be built into Video on Demand (VOD) services in the future and plans are underway to test the system for major broadcasting events. The project has an open approach towards sharing results. All core software technology will be available as open source, enabling new business models. P2P-Next will also address a number of outstanding challenges related to content delivery over the internet, including technical, legal, regulatory, security, business and commercial issues.”

AG Projects obtained funding of 240,000 € over the 48 months period of the project for development of real time communications software that allow end-users to communicate with each other using open Internet standards and protocols.

Press Contacts:

The complete list of Partners:

• AG Projects - Haarlem, Netherlands http://ag-projects.com

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) - London, United Kingdom http://www.bbc.co.uk/

• DACC Systems - Taby, Sweden http://www.dacc.se/index.html

• Technische Universiteit Delft  - TU Delft - Delft, Netherlands http://www.tudelft.nl/

• FABChannel - Amsterdam, Netherlands http://www.fabchannel.com/

• Institut für Rundfunktechnik - IRT - Munich, Germany http://www.irt.de/

• Josef Stefan Institute - Ljubljana, Slovenia http://www.ijs.si/ijsw/JSI

• Kendra Foundation - London, United Kingdom http://www.kendra.org.uk/

• Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan - KTH - Stockholm, Sweden http://www.kth.se/?l=en

• Markenfilm - Wedel, Germany http://www.markenfilm.de/

• Norut- Tromsø, Norway http://en.itek.norut.no/First Oversi - Petach Tikva, Israel http://www.oversi.com/

• Pioneer Digital Design Centre Limited - London, United Kingdom http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/body.html

• RTV Slovenia - RTVSLO - Ljubljana, Slovenia http://www.rtvslo.si/

• STMicroelectronics - Geneva, Switzerland www.st.com

• The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) - Geneva, Switzerland http://www.ebu.ch/

• University of Klagenfurt - Klagenfurt, Austria http://dia.uni-klu.ac.at/univ_e.htm

• University of Lancaster - Lancaster, United Kingdom http://www.lancs.ac.uk/

• University of Rome - Rome, Italy http://www.uniroma1.it/

• University Politehnica of Bucharest - Bucharest, Romania http://www.pub.ro/English/eng.htm

• VTT – Technical Research Centre of Finland, Tampere, Finland http://www.vtt.fi/index.jsp?lang=en

What is Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology:

P2P provides an alternative to the traditional client/server architecture of computer networks and signifies the next big step in the evolution of internet media delivery. While employing the existing broadband networks, each participating computer, referred to as peer, functions as both a client and a server for a given application. A P2P network enables the sharing of content files or streams with audio, video and data content. Today it is considered increasingly as a potentially efficient and reliable mechanism for distributing any media to the general public worldwide.

P2P-Next in a nutshell:

P2P-Next will develop an open source, efficient, trusted, personalized, user-centric and participatory television and media delivery mechanism with social and collaborative connotations using the emerging P2P paradigm, which takes into account the existing EU legal framework.