Despite generating ample buzz at NXTcomm and throughout the industry, IPTV is on track to have only about 63.6 million subscribers worldwide by 2011, according to Multimedia Research Group. Getting IPTV subscribership in line with the buzz was the subject of a Tuesday panel, “IPTV Experience: Overcoming the Major Challenges.”

One example of those challenges is analog broadcast TV, where viewers can change channels without lag time. Some recent IPTV deployments have had lag times of 10 to15 seconds, which annoys subscribers. IPTV providers such as AT&T initially tried to cut the lag by adding hardware, only to find it made the situation worse, said panelist John Smolucha, vice president of product marketing for Enea.

That’s why IPTV vendors must focus instead on ensuring that hardware and software aren’t fighting each other. “It’s the integration,” Smolucha said.

But there’s still room for more hardware in many places. Standard definition video requires 450 times more network capacity than Web browsing, while high def requires 2700 times more, said moderator Steve Hawley, senior analyst at Multimedia Research Group. And with IPTV enabling a wider range of content, three times more storage likely will be necessary, Hawley said.

Some of IPTV’s challenges are more psychological than technical. One example is how IPTV upends the traditional relationships between operators, content providers and consumers, with one-to-many broadcasts replaced by--or at least sharing networks with--one-to-one content such as videoconferences between family members. Those types of personalized services are key to ensuring IPTV lives up to the hype.

“It won’t be simply a different kind of TV,” said panelist Tsahi Levent-Levi, products manager and system architect for Radvision. “It will be a different kind of experience.”

The IPTV experience likely will include highly targeted advertising because the technology provides more information about each viewer’s behavior. “It’s the Holy Grail for advertisers,” Hawley said.

The quality of information doesn’t make up for the limited quantity of IPTV subscribers, which is partly a byproduct of vendors struggling to develop and launch equipment. “Time to market is crucial,” said Sven Freudenfeld, head of business development for Kontron, who sees open standards helping out by providing building blocks that vendors can quickly assemble. “ATCA, AMC and MicroTCA will shorten time to market.”