英特尔公司(Intel)计划进军家中客厅领域的野心早已不是什么秘密了，但根据英特尔新成立的Intel Media部门总经理Erik Huggers所描绘的愿景，英特尔全新的电视计划显然超越了原先被视为只是另一个Google TV的连网电视(Internet TV)平台。
英特尔的计划不仅针对终端消费用户的视频转换盒设备，同时也囊括了相关的服务业务。Huggers指出，该公司的目标是在2013年推出一种基于网际网络的全新电视服务及其机顶盒设备，以实现“直播电视”(live TV)与“随看电视”(catch-up TV)等具连贯性且无缝的用户体验。
虽然Huggers并未透露英特尔电视服务的实际名称与细节，但他指出该公司将带来更“适合用户的电视体验”──一种更简化且基于单一输入设备的体验。相形之下，Huggers解释，当今的连网电视太过于复杂了，用户必须安装有线电视机顶盒(才能收看电视节目)、开启 DVR (才能搜寻录制的节目)，同时还得设定 Roku (才能观看连网电视)。
如同广播电视由免费播放节目发展出有线电视、卫星电视与电信业者提供的多项服务一样，Huggers希望英特尔的新电视服务也能获得电视业者的认同，被视为一种全新的电视服务平台。
Huggers 表示，英特尔的“随看电视”服务类似BBC iPlayer 连网电视与音频服务。Huggers先前曾任职于BBC， iPlayer 为用户提供一个可重温 BBC TV与广播服务过去七天节目标机会，而不必再激活DVR的预录功能。这些节目均储存于云端，并可根据用户的需求随时提供。
随着用户的整个电视观看体验快速地转向一个多平台的世界， “英特尔公司为连网电视服务及机顶盒带来一个更简便的架构，”Envisioneering Group总监Rick Doherty解释。“在这个IT世界中，大多数的人现在可从平板计算机、PC和电视上收看到视频节目。”
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
本文下一页：机顶盒整合摄影镜头与HEVA技术
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机顶盒整合摄影镜头与HEVA技术
Huggers认为，现在正是英特尔推出这项服务的好时机。他强调，“宽频性能已经到位，而一代视频编码技术HEVC也达到了比 H.264 更高50%的视频压缩效率。”
这款机顶盒采用英特尔的芯片，并配备一个摄影镜头，以便“知道”谁正在看电视节目以及用户所喜欢的节目类型。透过在电视上搭载摄影镜头来改变用户接口，这是松下(Panasonic)在CES上提出的类似想法。然而，英特尔更进一步落实这个概念，为电视观众提供更具吸引力与客制的电视节目。
相较于目前的电视节目指南，Huggers认为英特尔提供的节目服务更像是一种“电子表格”(spreadsheet)。
除了强调更先进且直觉的用户界面以外，英特尔宣称其连网电视平台服务的另一项优势是一种经规划的配套方案(curated bundle)。然而，英特尔的连网电视服务是否真的能让用户自由选择所想观看的节目？用户又能拥有多大的自由度？或者，采用了英特尔的电视平台后，能让 用户目前的有线电服务帐单节省多少钱呢？Huggers回复，“这并不是一场有关价值多少的竞赛。”
由于无法真的了解英特尔连网电视平台的更多细节，也就难以判断该公司如何得以深耕这一市场。特别是该公司面对的一个问题是：有鉴于先前的电视计划以失败告终，英特尔如何证明这一次将有所不同呢？
Huggers的答案十分简洁。他说：“一切取决于人。”
Intel Media已经成立一年多了，Huggers说，这个独立的单位主要由一批“新血”所组成，其中包括一名来自苹果公司的销售主管，她在过去12年来负责苹 果公司i系列商品的上市营销。这支全新的团队还包括来自开发蓝牙耳机的Jawbone以及微软等公司的人员。
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
编译：Susan Hong
参考英文原文：Intel outlines Internet TV service plan，by Junko Yoshida
相关阅读：
• 可升级电视：天才想法还是异想天开？
• CES2013：微软禅位高通，各大厂商秀绝活
• 传英特尔进军虚拟有线电视及机顶盒服务eCIesmc
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Intel outlines Internet TV service plan
Junko Yoshida
NEW YORK--Intel Corp’s naked ambition to move into the American living room is hardly a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention. But Intel’s new plan--sketched out this week by Erik Huggers, the head of Intel Media--apparently goes far beyond what was originally viewed as just another Google TV-like Internet television platform.
Intel's plan involves not just the end-user consumer box but the service business. The company's goal, according to Huggers, is to launch in 2013 a new Internet-based TV service and box, designed to offer both “live TV” and “catch-up TV” as one coherent and seamless experience.
While declining to reveal a name for the service, Huggers, speaking at a media conference this week, called it “a proper TV experience.” It will be a much easier, one-input device experience, compared to today’s Internet TV, which often involves a lot of “hard work” on the part of users, Huggers said, since “viewers need to cobble together” a cable set-top (for watching live TV), turning on a DVR (to search for recorded programs) and setting up Roku (to watch Internet TV).
“Not many… no, nobody … has cracked this yet,” Huggers said.
Just as broadcast TV has evolved from free-to-air to cable, satellite and telcos, Huggers hopes Intel’s new Internet TV service will be viewed as “a new distribution platform” that programmers will embrace.
By “catch-up TV,” Huggers means something similar to BBC’s iPlayer, an Internet TV and radio service. BBC, Huggers' previous employer, offers viewers an opportunity to catch up on the last seven days of BBC TV and radio programs without using a DVR. These programs are stored in the cloud and made available on demand.
With the whole TV viewing experience rapidly moving to a multi-platform world, “Intel has a narrowing time window” for this [Internet TV service and special box for it], explained Rick Doherty of director of Envisioneering Group. “The majority of the IT universe now watches video on pads, PCs and TVs.”
Box featrures camera and HEVC
Huggers believes the time is right for Intel to roll this out, noting that the “broadband capability is already here; and HEVC [high efficiency video coding] can now achieve video compression that’s 50 percent more efficient than H.264.”
Intel’s box, powered by an Intel chip, will feature a video camera so that it “knows” who is watching the programs and the programs he/she prefers. Featuring a camera on a TV to change the user interface was something proposed by Panasonic at its press conference during the Consumer Electronics Show last month. But Intel will take that idea a step further, in an attempt to offer a much more attractive and tailored programming to viewers.
Huggers drew a comparison to today’s electronic programming guide which, he said, looks more or less like a “spreadsheet.”
While stressing a more advanced and intuitive user interface as an advantage for its Internet TV platform, the “curated bundle” is another feature Intel is pitching for its service. When pressed about whether Intel’s new Internet TV service will finally allow viewers to pick and choose what they want to watch, Huggers demurred. “I don’t think the industry is ready for pure a la carte.”
He said, “I think there is value in curated bundles.” However, Huggers declined to say how much more freedom the company’s new service may allow consumers. Asked if viewers will be able to make their current cable bills cheaper by going with Intel’s new Internet TV platform, Huggers said, “This is not about a value play.”
Without actually knowing more details about Intel’s Internet TV platform, it’s hard to judge how deep an inroad Intel might be able to plow. One question dogging Intel is this: After failing with its previous TV initiatives, what proof does Intel have now that things are different this time around?
Huggers' answer was simple. “People,” he said.
Intel Media, which has been in existence for about a year, is a unit separate from Intel, housed in a separate building. It consists of a “new type of people,” said Huggers, including a female marketing executive who joined Intel Media from Apple, where she spent her last 12 years launching i-products. Also on the “new people” team is someone from Jawbone, famous for its Bluetooth headset, and an escapee from Microsoft, Huggers said.
责编：Quentin
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