Web TV

Today, the user is usually confronted with a lot of different multimedia- and telecommunication services in his home environment. These services are delivered on different networks, have different user-interfaces, have different billing-systems and are running on different devices. Furthermore, the services are only used separately and can not be combined.

Not until these services have uniform user interfaces, one billing-system are delivered on a unified IP-based network, these would not lead to an advantage for the user as well as for the network operators and service providers. Because value-added services are supporting interactivity and personalization; they are providing a way to converge entertainment- and communication services either which would result in a rich experience to the user, for which he would have to pay.

On the side of the client the motivation is to have a unified application integration different entertainment- and communication features like VoIP, Chat, Presence, IPTV, Voting, personalized-TV. All these services can be combined to develop more complex services, have unique user interfaces and can be used from any device positioned in the environment of the user in his home. Moreover, a running session can be switched between available appliances seamlessly. Further a recommendation system makes recommendations to the user. These can include the current TV program but also the recordings and media-file uploads of other users. Initially, this recommendation system uses the preferences and settings of the user as basis. On the side of the backend these services are based on the IP Multimedia System (IMS) providing true converged network allowing the development of voice-, video- or data-service on any device. At the same time it integrates QoS, Billing and AAA.