IBM Cloud To Deliver New Home Entertainment Services For Philips Smart TVs

BERLIN, Aug. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled a new cloud platform for consumer electronics firms and announced it will power the Philips Smart TV platform for Internet services, which will deliver greater interactive services to millions of TV viewers in more than 30 countries in Europe, as well as Brazil and Argentina.

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Through their broadband connections, smart TVs provide consumers with innovative, on-demand access to an unlimited array of entertainment options throughout the Internet. In addition to standard, linear TV, they provide two-way interaction and personalized content, enabling new "intelligent" consumer services. 

Today's announcement at the IFA consumer electronics event in Berlin provides IBM cloud services on a pay-per-use basis to TP Vision, an Amsterdam-based joint venture between Philips and TV manufacturer TPV responsible for the development of Philips Smart TV.

TP Vision needed a cloud computing environment resilient enough to support unexpected service demands at any given time when millions of TV units access a variety of services on its network. 

"IBM's cloud platform allows us to place the service and application intelligence into the cloud, and reduces the complexity of managing software in the TVs for our consumers," said Albert Mombarg, head of Philips Smart TV at TP Vision. "This provides an economic, more flexible way to create new services for our viewers. By engaging with IBM on a cost-per-device basis, we obtain a new business model with predictable costs, and great flexibility to expand our services and grow our user base. We expect it to transform the way we offer new services and drive ongoing business innovation."

The new IBM cloud platform opens up paths to new revenue. The data stored within the cloud can provide new insights about consumer needs and behavior for the media and entertainment industry, such as recommending TV shows based on past selections. Service providers, chief marketing officers and advertisers can use Big Data analytics to deliver more personalized entertainment options and targeted advertisements. Marketers can generate collective consumer knowledge derived from the aggregation of data from a population of homes, in addition to an individual TV.

"As the Internet and smart devices continue to infiltrate home entertainment, today's consumer electronics manufacturers are looking to deliver new interactive entertainment services," said Bruce Anderson, general manager of IBM's global electronics industry. "Televisions are about to become the next open application platform, similar to the application platforms on mobile devices.  Organizations are turning to the IBM cloud as the channel for their innovation."

IBM Launches IBM SmartCloud Service DeliveryToday IBM unveils a cloud-based platform managed by IBM global cloud data centers, for subscriber and device management, service life-cycle management and more.  IBM's new service delivery platform, called the IBM SmartCloud Service Delivery for Electronics, provides consistent management of millions of different connected consumer devices, provisions services, interfaces with third parties, and acts as a collector of customer intelligence. It bundles services, software, hardware, network and third-party services in a single integrated service, for an all-in price, with per active user pricing, making smarter TV services more cost effective for manufacturers and consumers.

Examples of live solutions demonstrated at IFA include the Philips Smart TV and service portal, and a smart home proof-of-concept, with home management and monitoring, as well as home energy management.

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