A recent IPTV tender for a major international group stated that channel zapping needed to be under two seconds. So, let’s do a quick calculation- 100 channels to zap through is a full 200 seconds or 3.20 minutes. That is a long time if you consider that Alberto Contador just won the grueling 3642 KM Tour de France with a 39 second advantage over Andy Schleck. According to the analysis report that’s equivalent to 19.5 channel zaps!

The provision of TV over IP has had to face many challenges. I recall one of the first consumer deployments in 1999 actually had the equivalent of an egg timer during channel switching to ensure the viewer knew something was going on. Scary isn’t it? Actually for those of us who stay in hotels, that is still often the case. Hotels that have spent a fortune on upgrading to IP technology are seeing the simplest of activities frustrate the guests, especially with channel surfing and GUI navigation happening about as fast as paint drying. So rather than provide multiple interactive gadgets, which guests often never use, hoteliers should look at the basic must have functionality.

Acentic’s Panorama over IP has addressed these issues with a sub one second channel changing time. In fact, in many cases it’s even faster than the old analogue channel changing. Add to that an intuitive program guide and incredibly fast flash based interface and Alberto Contador could have zapped approximately 39 to 45 channels whilst waiting for Andy to catch up.