I did not intend to have three stories in the September issue that expressed the same theme, but by the time the writers had finished their work, articles that looked at content delivery, set-top boxes and VSATs all honed in on the same idea — users want their equipment to offer more capabilities but remain as easy as possible to use.

It’s certainly not a new idea, but this two-pronged desire seems to be taking an even larger role in purchasing decisions as phrases such as return on investment, cost-efficiency and monetizing content become the primary drivers behind many business decisions.

For players in the content delivery chain, the need for the simple, one-box solution is about adjusting to an entertainment world that has shifted in two ways. The need to provide content to all possible platforms makes the job of delivering content more difficult and also has altered the traditional ad-driven business dynamic of the market, forcing content producers and distributors to be more creative in monetizing their products. “It’s not a revolution in technology, but it takes a lot of effort to make it happen and to make it happen right. It takes a lot of effort on our part and also some effort in the industry mindset. I think the industry is changing itself in the way it thinks,” says Envivio’s Boris Felts.

While the growth in mobile entertainment and data devices is growing, that has not lessened the demand for entertainment options in the home, and set-top box manufacturers are finding their jobs are tougher because home consumers want more and more capabilities out of their set-top boxes. The demands are so great, that the term “set-top box” may already be outdated, says Neil Gaydon, CEO of Pace. “We need a new term to replace set-top box which reflects the complexity of advanced devices. It is used to refer to everything from a very basic-type box all the way through to HD PVR with broadband controlling the whole home in an IP network. That is not a set-top box; it is a media gateway.”

A change in marketing terms may also be due in the VSAT business, which is seeing growth because of the improvements manufacturers have made that make the box capable of providing more services than ever. “We support much higher speeds these days,” says Glenn Katz, president and COO of Spacenet. “In the beginning, inbound channels were only 19.2 Kbps (kilobits per second). Today, we support outbound circuit speeds up to 8 Mbps (megabits per second) and inbound speeds to 2 Mbps. … Once we reached higher circuit speeds, we began to support higher speed applications, which, in turn, drove us to develop more sophisticated and embedded routing protocols.”

More is being asked of companies throughout the satellite sector, and those companies are responding with technology advances that benefit their customers. It will be interesting to see which side — demand customers or satellite-related developments — reach their limits first, or if at all.