Written by Janko Roettgers
Posted Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 2:53 PM PT

 

EU Sponsors P2P TV With 14M Euros

The European Union has invested 19 14 million euros in a research project aimed at using P2P for Internet television. The project, called P2P Next, is a cooperation among almost two dozen European academic institutions, broadcasters and electronics makers. The BBC, the European Broadcasting Union and Pioneer are some of its better-known members.

The goal of the project is to build an open-source solution that would include video-on-demand functionality as well as community features for a range of devices. Who knows, maybe this is even going to power the next generation of the BBC’s iPlayer?

P2P Next will work on this solution over the next four years. “Plans are underway to test the system for major broadcasting events,” the project’s press release reads, and although it doesn’t mention any specifics about the use of P2P, there are indicators that BitTorrent will play a major role. The Delft University of Technology is part of the project as well; Delft’s Dr. Johan Pouwelse is its scientific director.

Pouwelse is also the head of the Tribler team at Delft University. Tribler is a social BitTorrent client that offers its users collaborative filters to download content matching their taste very much the same way Last.fm selects music for its personalized streams. Some of Tribler’s functionalities will likely find their way into the P2P next system.

According to a description of the project on the Tribler web site: “It will be an academically pure architecture: no central servers will be needed, combined with BitTorrent backwards compatibility.” The system is also going to feature P2P playlists that will be analogous to RSS feeds in the web world, a reputation system that makes sure users won’t get spammed and something the Tribler site is describing as “wiki-style moderation.”

The BBC is currently using the closed P2P content delivery system Kontiki for its iPlayer, but the broadcaster has been experimenting with more ambitious P2P setups in the past. One project included terabyte DVRs that were recording multiple channels at the same time and then swapping these shows over a device-to-device P2P system, allowing users to access years worth of TV programming from multiple channels.

Update: An earlier version of this story stated that the project got 19 million - the number was based on an erroneous press release. 

 

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Topic: Money Power, P2P
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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. At the P2P-Next web site they say it is 14 million euros (see news)

    Gonzalo Martín on February 19th, 2008 at 3:20 pm - Permalink

  2. Gonzalo, that’s odd, thanks for catching it. The Tribler website features the very same press release with 19 million. We’ll check back with them to figure out where this discrepancy comes from …

    Janko Roettgers on February 19th, 2008 at 5:18 pm - Permalink

  3. [...] Who knows, maybe this is modify feat to noesis the incoming procreation of the BBC’s iPlayer? Continue datum at Newteevee.com. Tags: tribler, eu, bbc, newteevee, [...]

    EU Sponsors P2P TV With 19M Euros | Fresh Web 2.0 News on February 19th, 2008 at 7:26 pm - Permalink

  4. This is great news for a number of reasons. Best to go read my Blog entry on it if your interested.
    http://www.crafted.com.au/blog/2008/01/11/evolution-of-file-copy-cp-ftp-http-p2p/

    James

    James Gardiner on February 19th, 2008 at 9:46 pm - Permalink

  5. EU has funded P2P television before. Just have a look at projects like Share-It!. I can’t tell what is different this time around, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt. At least BBC has some hands on experience and their R&D people kick butt.

    fideocam on February 19th, 2008 at 11:01 pm - Permalink

  6. [...] The European Union has invested 19 14 million euros in a research project aimed at using P2P for Internet television. The project, called P2P Next, is a cooperation among almost two dozen European academic institutions, broadcasters and electronics makers. The BBC, the European Broadcasting Union and Pioneer are some of its better-known members.EU Sponsors P2P TV With 14M Euros « NewTeeVee [...]

    EU Sponsors P2P TV With 14M Euros | tommaso.tessarolo on February 20th, 2008 at 3:52 am - Permalink

  7. [...] [fonte] The P2P-Next: la televisione europea del futuro ? by Luca Palli, unless otherwise expressly [...]

    P2P-Next: la televisione europea del futuro ? - Video Monte Ceneri on February 20th, 2008 at 12:20 pm - Permalink

  8. [...] newteevee.com http://newteevee.com/2008/02/19/eu-sponsors-p2p-tv-with-19m-euros/ [...]

    DigitalTelevision.gr » Post Topic » AHT Releases open development set-top-box with Tribler on February 24th, 2008 at 1:06 pm - Permalink

  9. [...] Vía NewTeeVee. Nada menos que 14 millones de euros. En la web del sitio explican que, aunque el P2P tiene una reputación dudosa por las prácticas de piratería (es decir, Kazaa), todo el mundo lo considera como una tecnología eficientísima. Rasgo importante: open source. Pregunta que hago al aire pues requiere de ingenieros bien conocedores de estas cosas (¿Antonio, tal vez?): ¿hace falta que lo financie la UE? ¿Es reinventar la rueda? ¿O hay mucho que hacer? Mírense en el sitio la cantidad de universidades que participan. [...]

    .::.Crea tus Blogs.::. » Blog Archive » La UE financia la investigación en P2P para televisión con la BBC en medio on May 21st, 2008 at 9:33 pm - Permalink

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