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.
Germany-based System integrator Broadcast Solutions GmbH has delivered four new 26-foot long Streamline S8 OB vehicles to NEP Germany for its production of German ice hockey league games.
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.
Arena TV, a UK-based broadcast production company, has upgraded its entire fleet of OB vans with Lawo’s VSM control system. The VSM system creates a familiar workflow for users, and is the only control system on the market that is able to work in a fully IP-based environment as well as with other third-party equipment.
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.
The broadcast and production industry is at the beginning of a historic shift to IP environments. The real benefits of an IP environment come from virtualizing live production technology—video production servers, switchers and camera processing. That is where we reap IP’s true benefits.
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?
