e3 IPTV Services Overview
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is a system through which digital television service is delivered 
using the architecture and networking methods of the Internet Protocol Suite over a packet-switched network infrastructure, e.g., the Internet and broadband Internet access networks, instead of being delivered through traditional radio frequency broadcast, satellite signal, and cable television (CATV) formats.
On a yacht, this means that you will need a high speed internet connection via VSAT to receive clear on screen live TV pictures.
IPTV services may be classified into three main groups: live television, time-shifted programming,
and content (or video) on demand using store and forward systems.
We have been, and will carry on, monitoring the development of IPTV services for maritime use. We have worked alongside a couple of companies developing systems with 2-3 live, time dependant, feeds for news and live sport with the rest of the programming as a store and forward service. Both of these developments have come to a halt due to licencing issues.
Some cruise ships have a small number of channels live such as Fox News provided via their VSAT services onboard.
The best service we have for IPTV is by using The Jetstream service which is an IP media delivery mechanism. The Jetstream uses leased data lines rather than the public internet and data houses to provide and guarantee a high quality, data delivery service. Thus it is possible to place shift the content from one or more satellite TV decoder boxes in different locations worldwide to a vessel.
This is a challenging technology but it is compulsive when you see live TV running on a vessel mid Atlantic or the ability to watch home TV on the other side of the world.
There are other systems in development and we will review them in time and if we recommend any we will list them here.
