Deploying the long and complicated ecosystem needed to roll out telco TV shouldn’t have to be akin to doing a 1,000-piece puzzle without a picture of the final image, and with the lights out. Or does it?

From the video headend to the set-top box and back to billing and OSS, the telco TV ecosystem is intimidating. You have to ensure all the pieces work together because one weak link brings the whole effort down.

Sure, some vendors offer a number of the pieces – and they work together – but what happens when it’s time to make them work with other hardware, software, systems and processes?

And how do you ensure, or test to see, if all the pieces you’re planning to deploy embody an internal spec? What about industry group standards? Achieving a common denominator among all the pieces of the ecosystem is not for the faint of heart.

Top-tier telcos such as Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) employ huge and numerous facilities – essentially labs – where all the products face a battery of tests long before the ones that pass ever make it into the company’s network.

The carrier tests many other things and performs other related functions in these facilities. Maybe the Verizon experts at these sites consider their telco TV testing efforts to be all in a day’s work.

But what about carriers, smaller ones without the resources of a Verizon, that want to deploy TV services, or have long since and need to evolve them? I’m thinking primarily about lower tier telcos and co-ops.

Putting telco TV to the test is no small task according to those who do it/have done it. Many smaller telcos try to at least partially avoid testing trauma by buying as many of the pieces from one vendor as is humanly possible.

But then that locks you into the evolution and innovation pace and plans of the one or two suppliers you choose.

There are testing products and systems that can be brought to bear for those that seek a multivendor TV ecosystem and can’t afford to build labs.

Might this be an area where forward-thinking, economy-conscious telco execs decided to spend in times of corset-like belt tightening?

While I do believe the old saying that you need to spend money to make money, telco strategists would be hard pressed to do the former without a pretty good feel for accomplishing the latter.

These testing companies need to make a forceful, balanced, business and technology case to telco TV proponents below the tier ones ... and the sooner the better.

In a bad economy, history has proven that the vast majority of IT budgets go to maintaining the status quo. Deploying telco TV is anything but.

Carrier size aside, nobody (telcos, scientists, researchers, and sci-fi movie action stars) want to let anything out of the lab until it’s been tested.

I thought with all the technological advances over the years that some satellite TV provider would find a way to avoid losing signal during heavy rain and snow. Guess not.

My friend, against his strong-willed mother’s best efforts, is trying to convert his family cuisine restaurant into a little bit more of a destination to watch sports, at least in the bar area.

He bought a brand-spanking-new 50-something inch big screen HD TV and a boatload of framed sports photos to get the ball rolling. Got both mounted on the wall and added some other cool sports trimmings.

The guy was unhappy with the local cableco for unspecified reasons and decided to go with satellite. His place is on a strip mall, with no blockages for the line-of-sight satellite technology. No tress to cut down or anything.

The next time I visited, my buddy was losing his patience as the place of business was in mid-satellite TV install. I had to pass on lunch at the bar. He had other TVs he was adding in and there were wires hanging from everywhere, laying everywhere and looking bad everywhere. To be fair, it was a work in progress.

A few days later, I swung back. The wiring mess was cleaned up, the TVs were on and everything looked great, but only for as few minutes.

As part of the extreme weather we’ve had in Greater Boston, the skies opened up for the gazillionth time and rain poured from the skies. Low visibility. Hydroplaning for motorists ... and a lost signal from the satellite provider.

I found myself staring at all but blank TV sets. In small type on the screen was something saying “searching for signal.”

The bar area got boring. My buddy became enraged to the point I thought his head was gonna explode. He was calling customer service, as a brand-new and large customer, to get answers.

I tried to explain to him that heavy rain and snow can mess with satellite TV signals and reminded him that we get both in New England. Tried to calm him down, but he wasn’t listening.

I don’t know who would have hit harder at that point, the former hockey goalie, or his always watching mother who didn’t want to buy the 50 incher in the first place. Either way, I didn’t wanna keep talking and find out. There wasn’t going to be a happy ending for this story that day.

I couldn’t get the problem out of my head. Why couldn’t we have involved a better box or whatever so that satellite signals in situations like this weren’t soooo susceptible to weather?

We can put probes on Mars, but we can’t ensure delivery of ESPN SportsCenter via satellite in bad weather for my lunch at a local café?

That’s saddening.

So when it rains, Bob now heads to the corner sub shop. Their Italian subs rock. They don’t have big screen TVs, but they don’t have satellite either.

Works for me.

Got Commerce?

For all those operators with plenty of assets, but not a clear (enough) plan for monetizing the life out of them, hire yourself a chief commerce officer (CCO). Act now, or pay later.

I know. I know. Some companies have chief marketing officers (CMO). Marketing is thought of as fueling sales, but it’s not the same. If I’m wrong, why do titles for VPs read “marketing and sales?”

Business development is fine too, but it’s not really about maximizing the monetization opps for what you already have, asset-wise.

Judging from my years of “interaction” with service providers looking to sell me things ─ contrasted against the efforts of everyone else I buy things from outside technology ─ the CCO is a must have.

You need to have someone in C-level meetings of all types to generate ideas on how to monetize current assets, whether it’s content, connectivity, etc...

We have CIOs, CTOs, CSOs (security), some CMOs and, of course, CEOs, CFOs and COOs. Time to add to the list.

I was reminded of the need upon reading that U.K. conglomerate Virgin Media has a chief commercial officer, who’s now trying to find ways to sell more ads around the video-on-demand content they already have.

Not sure where the guy came from. However, operators should turn to consumer products companies, firms that are well known for marketing and expanding their core brand, and finding ways to win more business from current customers.

Apple anyone?

If you want to get tactical, raid a company that’s taken business away from rivals in a hugely competitive market – Under Armour?

I’d like to see a CCO who does a better job selling me carrier services and everything that goes with them. Chase’s Cash Rewards program is a big hit. Buy three VoD movies and get one free? Any permutation of the once-killer frequent air miles programs? Coupons, sales fliers, points for free magazine subscriptions, free stuff, special access to things as an “insider...”

Verizon hit on this a little over a year ago, when it offered free HD TVs, and later digital cameras, in turn for signing up for its FiOS offering. Demand (of the free stuff and the set top boxes you needed) exceeding supply. Remember?

I know what I like ... and what I don’t. I trust that’s the same for you.

A chief commerce officer need not be a genius, but he or she should be able to sell me more jeans. Right?

But wait, there’s more. At least I hope so.

Spending only stops when those selling stop finding new and innovative ways to engage you.

Nobody wants that to happen.