Broadcast International Announces Video Encoding Breakthrough

Broadcast International announced a new MPEG-4 H.264 encoding technology that it says will cut MPEG-4 H.264 encoding rates in half for both HD and SD content. It has developed a software encoder that will operate on IBM BladeCenter servers. It calls this product CodecSys and it is able to operate multiple codecs simultaneously, each based on different image assumptions, to identify the most efficient encoding. The company stated that its encoded MPEG-4 H.264 output can be rendered by most MPEG-4 IPTV set-top boxes.

While CodecSys running on a BladeCenter is expensive for a single stream, Broadcast International stated that it is competitive with hardware encoders for four streams and significantly less expensive for 20 streams.

Broadcast International has been providing systems for satellite video networks for 25 years. It demonstrated CodecSys at NAB in April 2008. The product will be in beta test in the summer of 2008 and will have its formal announcement at IBC.

Encoding rates are a key issue for broadband delivered IPTV. Cutting rates in half will have a significant effect on ADSL and VDSL delivered IPTV, especially where HD and multiple streams are involved. ATT should find this product to be quite interesting.

Sun Defines New Approach to IPTV Networking

Sun introduced its Sun Streaming System, a video delivery system that supports both on demand and broadcast content. This system was designed to enable service providers to offer a highly personalized set of services based on delivering all traffic using unicast techniques.

IPTV broadcast channels are typically delivered using mulicast which allows viewers to share the same set of packets, thus significantly reducing network loading for this broadcast content. Of course, there is not personalization with these broadcast services since all viewers are seeing exactly the same thing.

The introduction of video on demand followed by NPVR and advanced advertising will push more and more IPTV traffic into unicast. Sun's system addresses this increased network loading by pushing the IPTV connections down to the optical layer.

The Sun Streaming System consists of the following elements:

• Supervisor nodes
• Controller nodes
• Session controller nodes
• Content acquisition nodes
• Media storage
• Ethernet switch

The Ethernet switch included in the Sun system is connected to a set of optical links that terminate in the video serving office with the access systems and DSLAMs that terminate the subscriber broadband connections. This approach bypasses a Layer 2 Ethernet network or Layer 3 IP network to transport video traffic to the edge.

You can get more information about the Sun Streaming System at

http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/streamstar/

I have been quite concerned about how IP or Ethernet transport networks would be able to cope with the increasing loads of video traffic as IPTV services become more popular. It looks like the optical approach that Sun is offering is the right way to go.

TelecomView will release a report next week that compare IP, Ethernet, and optical approaches to IPTV networking. It will conclude that an optical will be best in the long run as the amount of unicast traffic on the network increases.

Arris and Tandberg to Merge

Arris will acquire Tandberg for $1.2 billion. Arris provides cable modem and VoIP systems to cable service providers. Tandberg is one of the leading IPTV video headend system providers.

This merger will put Arris into the video business and into the IPTV business. It did not seem that Tandberg's acquisition of Skystream last year would not inoculate it from acquisition. Given the pace of acquisition in IPTV today, it will be interesting to see if this merger inoculates Arris.