IPTV blog provides information about systems and services that provide television and video services through IP communication networks. We regularly interview companies and their leaders to identify new challenges and ways to solve them and new opportunities and ways to take advantage of them. IPTV Blog is part of IPTV Magazine http://www.IPTVMagaizne.com.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Network Based Audio System Simplifies TV and Film Sound Production Setup
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
TV and Film Production Using High-Quality Zoom Lens Instead of Multiple Fixed Focal Length Lenses
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Absolute Camera Position Control System Enables Rapid Set Deployment and Reshooting
Automating camera control for TV & film production (robotic
camera systems) can be essential to production. Jake Dodson from Vitec Group
explained to me at the NAB show that controlling the camera position on a set
can be critical to ensuring reshoots. There is a difference between relative
positioning (learning where it has been from its original position) and
absolute positioning (knowing the exact location). If a camera pedestal has
been moved (set changed), relative positioning systems can result in different
camera angle reshoots resulting in unusable shoots. To solve this challenge,
Vinten Radamec (a division of Vitec) has created a camera pedestal with an absolute
positioning system (APS). APS uses laser based measurement systems with
reflective targets to determine distances to fixed locations. Using fixed
reference points provides positional accuracy regardless of set movement and
can integrate with other robotic pedestals. This can dramatically reduce the
amount of time used for targeting operations (robotic camera setup) and avoid
unwanted changes in camera locations during reshoots. Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Broadcast Production Intercom Console Provides Better Production & Talent Management
Coordinating production staff and other talent at film shoots can be difficult. Gordon Kapes, president of Studio Technologies explained to me at the NAB trade show that producers and directors need to give direction to specific people on the set. Without good talent communication, delays in production can occur increasing costs. Worst case scenarios can be inability to complete the shoot do to time delays or the inability of staff to coordinate the shoot. The communication process needs to be an interactive with multiple people requesting and responding to instructions. To solve this challenge, Studio Technologies created the m240 intercom, a 4 channel talent cueing intercom system. It is a simple to use audio communication system that combines a shared audio system (party line) with an audio connection priority assignment system (cueing).
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Mobile Service Providers can Offload Customers to WiFi Hotspots - HotSpot Owners Can Earn New Access Revenues
Mobile phone companies can have difficulty getting mobile phone coverage into urban buildings. Kevin Morgan from Adtran explained to me at the TelcoTV trade show that mobile phone companies can use WiFi Mobile Offloading to provide mobile telephone service inside buildings. When customers experience no service in key locations such as convention centers, airports, or hotels, this is a key motivator for changing service providers. Even if the mobile service provider has radio coverage, users commonly access high-bandwidth services while inside buildings which can overwhelm the nearby cell sites. The solution is to allow mobile service providers to connect and manage access for their customers to wifi hotspots. The mobile service provider pays a small access fee for each call to the wifi hotspot owner which can be much less than the cost of adding additional cell sites for coverage and capacity.
Managing multiple WiFi hot spots (such as inside a convention center) requires additional management capabilities (such as transferring calls between WiFi hotspots as the user moves through the building). To solve this challenge, Adtran has setup a data center that allows mobile service providers and businesses to control user access control functions including authentication, security, and service policy control. This allows communication service providers to setup cloud based management for additional wifi access options.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Graphic and Logo Insertions Directly into MPEG Transport Streams
Adding graphics or logos directly to MPEG transport streams can be complicated for TV service providers. Laslo Zolton, Vice President of DVEO explained to me at the TelcoTV trade show that broadcasters want to insert graphic logos and other media into broadcast transport streams. This typically requires decoding and modifying the transport streams which requires costly equipment and can be complicated, especially to provide many local graphic insertions. The solution is to use a server that can directly insert the graphics and media directly into transport streams.
The DVEO Ad Serter system can automatically insert graphics and text into real time IP, ASI, or SDI single or multiple program transport streams - MPTS. This includes original slates, crawls using Unicode language commands. This is a great solution to provide SuperPosition ads on mobile apps, EAS alerting messages, or news feeds for the bottom of the screen.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Transparent Video Caching Reduces the Overwhelming Growth in DSL Network Traffic
Network operators are being forced to add capacity to meet the tremendous growth in network demand from video services (e.g. YouTube), file sharing, and software updates. Josh Adelson of Peerapp explained to me at the TelcoTV trade show that inserting smart video storage and distribution services (transparent caching) into DSL networks can dramatically reduce the capacity needs on the network. Without video caching, network operators will have excessive cost and complexity of adding capacity or provide a poor quality of service resulting in higher support costs or customer churn. The solution is to add transparent caching servers that can automatically identify and store popular video content.
Transparent caching helps to reduce network capacity load, minimizes the capacity need (and cost) for Internet transit links, and increases customer satisfaction (higher video quality levels).
Transparent caching automatically identifies popular content and stores the content as close to the subscriber as possible. The PeerApp Ultraband Transparent cache can be inserted almost anywhere within the IP portion of a DSL network. When caches are placed close to the edge, the network capacity savings increases because the transport is reduced over larger parts of the network. Transparent caching is simple to install and additional caching servers can be installed as the need increases (easily scalable).
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Adding Smart Video Servers to Existing Telecom and Mobile Networks for More Efficient TV Services
Telecom and Mobile Network operators need to efficiently and reliably provide a mix of broadcast and unicast video services. Thomas Fuerst with Alcatel-Lucent explained to me at the TelcoTV show that mixing TV and IP networks can result in some key challenges for the network operators. These include poor quality of service reliability (especially for paid viewing), slow channel changing, distorted ad insertion (media processing for splicing), and inability to provide service to multiple types of viewing devices. To solve these key challenges, Alcatel-Lucent has developed a smart video processor and server. This server includes video packetization, rapid buffering, and smart video processing. Because these video servers are shared by many users, they can be extremely cost effective.
Reliability - Buffer stores segments of each video stream (about 5 to 10 seconds) being delivery by the network (typically 100 to 500 TV channels). STBs can signal the video server when packets have been lost to enable retransmission. One to two second buffer in the STB means highly reliable video content.
Fast Channel Change - on channel change request, video processor speeds up providing rapid delivery of the new channel. Viewers will not notice delays in channel changing time.
Ad Insertions - commercial media segment can be rapidly modified (frame structures) so they can be integrated (spliced) into the main broadcast signal seamlessly. This process also allows for the insertion of personalized ads without modification to the STB.
Transcoding and Transrating - allows for the conversion of media to the many additional formats and rates (e.g. lower rates for mobile video). This process can involve fundamental analysis and reconstruction of the media including motion vector sharing, re-quantitizing coefficients, and reducing bit rates.
The smart video servers can be integrated into existing equipment and networks or it can be added as a separate element to existing networks. Alcatel-Lucent has develop a set of algorithms and protocols that enable the setup and management of these smart video processing servers.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Video Metadata Service Enables Content Discovery for Viewers on Social Media Platforms
Monday, December 17, 2012
How Small to Mid-Size Telephone Companies Can Maintain and Repair IPTV Systems
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Hotel MDU Networking - Getting Over 500 Mbps of Ethernet Over Coax
Friday, December 7, 2012
Automating IPTV Home Wi-Fi Quality of Service Management
Monday, November 26, 2012
Television Asset Management Requirements – Expanding and Simplifying
Monday, November 19, 2012
Increasing DSL Distance for IPTV by Using Retransmission Video Servers
Some subscribers cannot receive IPTV services over DSL because they are too far from the central office. Joachim Roos, CEO of Edgeware explained to me at the TelcoTV trade show that while the DSL service may acceptable for Internet service, the packet loss is too high for IPTV. Even a 2% packet loss can result in poor IPTV quality. This makes both the subscriber and the service provide unhappy. The good news is that there is an open standards retransmission process (RFC 4588) that allows lost IPTV packets to be retransmitted by a cached video server. This allows a service provider to extend the maximum distance of IPTV service for subscribers. It can be better to retransmit IPTV video through a distributed video delivery network.
This video shows the distortion that occurs when 2%, 10%, and 20% packet errors with and without retransmission:






