*CALL FOR PAPERS * *IEEE Transactions on Multimedia* *Special Issue on Smart, social and converged TV* *Important Dates*: - Submission deadline: 5-Oct-2011 (Extended Firm Deadline) - First notification: 30-Jan-2012 - Revised manuscript (for 2nd review) due: 15-Mar-2012 - Notification of acceptance: 05-May-2012 - Final manuscript due: 31-May-2012 - Tentative publication date: Last quarter of 2012 (TBD) *URL: http://www.signalprocessingsociety.org/uploads/special_issues_deadlines/converged_tv.pdf *Summary* The move to web-based television has challenged the traditional television value chain by allowing any IP-based network, wired and wireless, to deliver high quality television content. In this new paradigm for content consumption, TV-related services are expected to play a decisive role for fixed, nomadic and mobile devices over heterogeneous networks. Consequently, the rapid adoption of web-based TV applications is fueled by user demands for social and user-generated multimedia content, in addition to the traditional linear and on-demand offerings. As well, the new television is social, allowing exchange of ratings and comments between viewers; connected, with content available on many devices and via many networks; and smart, thanks to application stores and personalized offerings. As a result, TV convergence, as a significant problem for next generation networks and devices, is becoming a popular topic for network, device, content and user experience research. Significant challenges need to be addressed from heterogeneous bandwidth management, content protection and distribution architectures to visual perception and quality of experience. *Scope:* This special issue is focused on recent disruptions in IP-based and Web-based TV. According to this framework, it wants to provide avenues for future research in the emerging areas of social, connected and smart TV. The targeted audience combines researchers in the many aspects of the end to end delivery of converged TV services but also practitioners and strategic business managers who need to know “what is next” in terms of video and television services, applications and the overall value chain. The editors of this special issue solicit original and innovative technical papers that include (but are not limited to) the following topics: - Next generation converged TV architecture and performance - especially those combining heterogeneous networks and platforms - Quality of experience in social TV systems and applications over mobile and converged networks - Performance of novel approaches to TV network design including wireless Internet TV - Analysis and simulation of TV services over heterogeneous networks - Analysis and simulation of content distribution and transmission technologies - Performance of novel content protection especially for Peer-to-Peer and community TV viewing - End-to-End TV quality of experience including monitoring, measuring and user behavior - Content modeling and metadata for next generation converged TV *Submission Procedure:* Prospective authors should submit high quality, original manuscripts that have not appeared, nor are under consideration, in any other journals. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically through the online IEEE manuscript submission system at (http://tmmieee.manuscriptcentral.com/). All papers will be reviewed by at least three independent reviewers. Papers should be formatted according to the IEEE Transactions on Multimedia guidelines for authors (please visit: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/society/tmm/author_info.html *Organization:* All papers will be reviewed by at least three independent reviewers. Invited papers will be solicited first through white papers to ensure the quality and relevance to the special issue. The accepted invited papers will be reviewed by the guest editors and expect to account for about one fourth of the papers in the special issue. *Guest Editors:* - Oscar M Bonastre, PhD. Operations Research Centre, Miguel Hernandez University, Spain (Lead Guest Editor) Email: ombonastre@ieee.org - Marie-Jose Montpetit, PhD. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA Email: mariejo@mit.edu - Pablo Cesar, PhD. Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, (CWI), Netherlands Email: P.S.Cesar@cwi.nl - Zhu Liu, PhD. AT&T Labs – Research, USA Email: zliu@research.att.com - Jon Crowcroft, PhD. Cambridge University, UK Email: jon.crowcroft@cl.cam.ac.uk - Maja Matijaševic', PhD. University of Zagreb, Croatia Email: maja.matijasevic@fer.hr Please address all correspondences regarding this special issue to the Guest Editors