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Denying that the video and content distribution industry is evolving at an astounding pace, is like trying to convince someone that the earth is flat. While this evolution is creating significant distribution challenges for content owners and distributors, it is also providing some exciting opportunities for those who embrace it. We recently hosted a roundtable discussion with industry leaders to explore just how evolving video consumption impacts distribution, and what is going to happen over the coming years and decades.
At its most recent meeting, The DVB Steering Board approved initial specifications for the Commercial Requirements for ABR (Adaptive Bit Rate) Multicast. It also approved the latest specification for Ultra High Definition Television, called UHD-1 Phase 2.
For the past two and a half years Belgian broadcaster VRT—in partnership with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and iMinds (a digital research and incubation center)— has hosted an in-house R&D testing lab called VRT Sandbox. The project allows broadcast engineers and product vendors to test new IP-centric ideas and workflows.
For many OTT video distributors, rights management is a challenge. Given the alternative of lacking rights to manage, this is a good problem to have. But slow-paced integrations and makeshift solutions are creating costs and risks that competitive OTT players can ill afford.
Broadcasters around the world need to engage with mobile standardization efforts around the 5G banner to ensure their interests are represented in emerging technologies for converged networks combining fixed broadband with Wi-Fi and cellular transmission. This was a key takeaway from the annual EBU (European Broadcasting Union) state of the industry conference called Forecast, held at its Geneva headquarters late November 2016.
Thanks to a grant from Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), schoolchildren in Asmat, Papua now have access to reliable high-speed broadband. Local systems integrator Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN) selected Newtec’s Dialog platform to deliver Internet access to the underserved rural population and surrounding areas.
From headend to backend, passing through contribution and distribution networks, IP is now almost everywhere in broadcast infrastructure, with its use only increasing. On the production and playout side of the business that’s also now set to dramatically increase. This is due to the flexibility of IP-based systems, their relatively low cost and their high performance: they are increasingly prevalent across digital video technologies and installations. However, transmitting data over IP networks is not an easy task. Transmission channel capacity isn’t infinite but a huge amount of data can be required to be sent simultaneously. Even if broadcast networks are properly structured and with enough capacity, IP packets still undergo a lot of challenges to reach their destination. Additionally, the different appliances used in a system can also be the cause of erroneous data in a transmission that operators need to detect and manage adequately.What are the sources of errors in an infrastructure?
Ericsson has extended its relationship with Australian public service broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) by enabling automated digital delivery of international content. Under the contract, which followed a competitive tender process, Ericsson will aggregate and prepare material from multiple international content owners and distributors through its broadcast and media services hub in London.
