Reliance tie-up makes India testing ground for next-generation Internet TV

By Anand Parthasarathy


Bangalore Oct. 12. New technology to provide multiple-channel television content over the Internet that Microsoft will unveil on Monday may have its first airing in India.

The software giant's Chief Executive, Bill Gates, is scheduled to demonstrate a prototype of this next-generation TV solution when he gives a keynote address to the ITU Telecom World 2003 conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva. The `IPTV' solution uses the Internet Protocol (IP) to deliver live television programming as well as a variety of video content over broadband cable networks.

Microsoft claims to have developed an advanced technology to compress the TV signals so that they occupy one third of the bandwidth currently used in Cable-based TV delivery systems.

Microsoft will be joined by two partners in giving practical shape to this technology: Bell, the major telecom provider in Canada, and Reliance Infocomm in India. Reliance will "jointly create, test and deliver" television services, here using Microsoft's IPTV solution over the 60,000 km of fibreoptic cabling that the company has installed in India.

A technical note at Microsoft's web resource on its TV initiatives states that the IPTV system will allow live TV channels as well as video-on-demand and other value added services to be delivered over networks at an average rate of around 1 megabit per second.

The service provider can use Internet Protocol-based Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers (DSLAM) to route the rich video content through a special DSL modem to a subscriber's TV set via a set top box. (see diagram). DSL or its latest "asynchronous" avatar ADSL, is technology that allows TV, telephone and Internet traffic to coexist on the same cable. Reliance's early teaming up with Microsoft will give it an edge in leveraging all those coloured fibre optic cables lining the roads in major cities and motivate Cable TV operators to make the switch to this broader-band alternative.

The company is building up its own development muscle, centred round the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Navi Mumbai and this will come in handy to customise the Microsoft IPTV technology for `desi' application.

For the Indian consumer, the good news is that this country is now at the global cutting edge of Internet-based infotainment solutions: the huge entertainment market year — the world's largest — makes this an ideal testing ground for developers like Microsoft, of new delivery technologies.

The not-so-good news is that IPTV will join the growing list of options dangled before harassed customers: first there was the half-baked Conditional Access Systems (CAS). Then came Direct to Home (DTH) — the satellite-to-TV set solution.

Soon apparently, we will be encouraged to dive into cyberspace to get our daily quota of TV soaps. Astute citizens might just sit back and do nothing, saying: "Let the shakeout begin. We'll go for the technology that is finally left standing."

Chemistry, Economics Nobel

Stockholm Oct. 8. Two Americans today won the 2003 Nobel Chemistry Prize for showing how water flows across cellular membranes and how cells communicate, achievements that provide glittering insights into the molecular pathways of disease.

``Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon have contributed to fundamental chemical knowledge on how cells function. They have opened our eyes to a fantastic family of molecular machines,'' the Nobel jury said.

Robert F. Engle of the United States and Briton, Clive W.J. Granger, won the 2003 Nobel Economics Prize for their work in analysing economic time series, the Nobel jury said.

Physics Nobel for three

Stockholm Oct. 7. Alexei A. Abrikosov, Vitaly L. Ginzburg and Anthony J. Leggett have won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said today.

The trio was awarded the prize for their work in quantum physics concerning superconductivity and superfluidity. Superconducting material is used, as an example, in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the academy said in the citation. Abrikosov (75), and Ginzburg (87), hail from Russia. Leggett (65) is a British national.

Two share Medicine Nobel

STOCKHOLM (Sweden) OCT 6. American Paul C. Lauterbur and Briton Sir Peter Mansfield won the 2003 Nobel Prize for medicine on Monday for discoveries leading to a technique that reveals images of the body's inner organs.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI, has become a routine method for medical diagnosis and treatment. It is used to examine almost all organs without need for surgery, but is especially valuable for detailed examination of the brain and spinal cord.

Mr. Lauterbur (74), discovered the possibility of creating a two-dimensional picture by producing variations in a magnetic field. He is at the Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Laboratory at the University of Illinois in Urbana.

Mr. Mansfield (70), showed how the signals the body emits in response to the magnetic field could be mathematically analysed, which made it possible to develop a useful imaging technique. Mr. Mansfield also showed how extremely fast imaging could be achievable. This became technically possible within medicine a decade later. Mr. Mansfield is at the University of Nottingham in Britain.

"Well it's, I suppose, every scientist's hope (that) one day that they maybe singled out for such an honour but I must say that in my case I did think about it a few years ago, but then dismissed it," he told Swedish radio. MRI images "have an enormous impact on health care in the developed part of the world today," said Dr. Hans Ringertz, a Swedish specialist in diagnostic radiology.

Worldwide, more than 60 million investigations with MRI are performed each year, the Nobel Assembly said.

MRI represents "a breakthrough in medical diagnostics and research," the Assembly said. Essentially, MRI turns hydrogen atoms in the body's tissues into tiny radio transmitters. Hydrogen atoms are plentiful because they're found in water molecules, which are very widespread in the body.

By tracking where those atoms are, an MRI machine can build up a picture of internal organs.

The award for medicine opens a week of Nobel Prizes that culminates on Friday with the prestigious peace prize, the only one revealed in Oslo, Norway.