Fox Sports Net
Apr 1, 2001 12:00 PM, by Steve Lewis
The new ATM network, the Fox Video Network (FVN), includes 20 regional locations connected with the main FSN facilities in Los Angeles and Houston. Flexible peer-to-peer communications arrangement enables the FSN partners to share programming material without direct and constant intervention.
Unabashed enthusiasm for sports programming, with all its variety and action, has propelled the Fox Sports Network (FSN) to the attention of most sports TV viewers. FSN is distributed through a network of regional cable channels and is currently building on a base of 62 million homes in the U.S. and over 8 million homes in the Latin American market.
In response to the demands for additional programming and the desire for a digital redesign, the network has expanded its existing operations by implementing an innovative network communications scheme and incorporating new digital television interconnection solutions. Driven by the national production needs of The Regional Sports Report, FSN evaluated numerous technical strategies to create a new content distribution network. This broadcast project goes beyond the usual digital upgrade description because FSN decided to build its national network around ATM architecture. In fact, it is the first customer-controlled ATM/Switched Virtual Circuit (SVC)-based system in the U.S.
Using their groundbreaking networking capabilities, the network and its regional affiliates are now equipped to better leverage their collective regional and national sports programming to satisfy sports-hungry viewers everywhere.
Introduction to FSN
The Fox Sports Net main properties include national production and origination facilities located in Houston and Los Angeles. Paired with those facilities are 20 regional FSN affiliate sports bureaus. These include joint ownership arrangements with industry players such as NBC, Cablevision, and Comcast. A new program, The Regional Sports Report, is a twice-daily half hour show produced in nine regions and aired in all 22 regions that comprise FSN.
After Fox considered several approaches to create and support a collaborative, production process, a TCP/IP network emerged as a viable and cost-effective solution. FSN team decided on the new networking and communications architecture to share program information among the far-flung group partners and facilities including regional sports channels in New York, Washington, Chicago, Miami and San Francisco. The completed ATM network and operation enables, manages and transfers programming services among its distributed partners around the country.
The turnkey engineering design tasks included the development and delivery of new signal and control systems at each bureau location. The substantial origination operations at the main locations in Houston and Los Angeles were engineered to meet the 24/7 operational requirement incorporating fault tolerant considerations. The new network design is also equipped with effective signal management solutions to address its mission critical communications requirement. Redundant DS-3 and OC-3 circuits are utilized to keep potential telecommunications interruptions to an absolute minimum.
FSN transitions to the Fox Video Network (FVN)
Driven by the fault tolerant nature of broadcast designs, an exhaustive analysis of telecommunication and broadcast alternatives was conducted to evaluate a prospective broadcast-ready and cost effective solution. The key cost component of the FSN digital upgrade, beyond investments in new digital broadcast systems, centered on the utilization of a 500Mb/s guaranteed bandwidth solution built around a national ATM network. Older cost structure models for telecommunications circuits were giving way to this new aggregate bandwidth and pricing model.
It was determined that using TCP/IP protocols would be adequate for delivering MPEG file transfers but FSN also needed to use the network for multiple live streams mixed with the other less time-dependent video traffic. An analysis showed that ATM's Quality of Service (QoS) offerings could support various kinds of simultaneous network traffic. ATM can prioritize signals such as high priority live video streams that use a CBR connection alongside simple MPEG-2 file transfers that use ABR (Available Bit Rate) connections. ATM's time-based guaranteed delivery capability along with its ability to integrate the local regions' OC-3 and DS-3 circuits provided FSN with an end to end networking solution that met all its communications needs.
The provisioning of a guaranteed bandwidth solution was pursued through national telecommunications vendors. FSN finally chose the ATM architectural component based upon the long-term trends and selected a cost-effective aggregate offering through Williams Communications. The new ATM network, the Fox Video Network (FVN), includes 20 regional locations connected with the main FSN facilities in Los Angeles and Houston. FSN's leading edge approach and its cost-effective underpinnings are bolstered every day by the phenomenal bandwidth expansion of the IP-based networking that continues unabated, everywhere.
The FSN plan to create a comprehensive design and to build new facilities at selective Fox locations proceeded. This project effort included a comprehensive solution to be integrated at each of the regional sports bureaus. FSN worked closely with a team of vendors to develop important design and technical functions and to solve critical management and control problems associated with the new digital operation.
The design process
Fox selected Communications Engineering, Inc., (CEI) to design, engineer and integrate the FSN facilities including the main Network Operations Center (NOC) in Los Angeles. Each of the 20 FSN regional affiliate locations also received an integrated ATM-based MPEG-2 system solution. FSN's new ATM-based network enables peer-to-peer connections between all locations in the country and supports simultaneous, bidirectional transfer of program content and control signals. The major technical and vendor solutions used in the FSN network are Tandberg's comprehensive MPEG compression/decompression systems and Marconi ATM and TCP/IP network switches.
FOX Sports Net approached Tandberg Television as a key component of the national video over ATM network due to Tandberg's turnkey solution for live streaming MPEG-2 video over ATM. Tandberg's comprehensive solution, which included sophisticated software management tools, was attractive since it enabled FSN to work with one vendor as opposed to several, therefore eliminating a number of potential incompatibility issues. The compression and decompression processing of program material is delivered through a series of encoders, decoders, and ATM network interface cards. Marconi (formerly Fore Systems) was chosen due to its carrier class ATM experience and extensive networking product line. FSN also desired to manage its own telecommunication network and Marconi's control software enables FSN to monitor and control its network of ATM switches located throughout the country. Communications Engineering Inc. (CEI), at its facility in Newington, Virginia, integrated the Tandberg and Marconi systems along with other broadcast technologies such as routing, monitoring, communications, and test & measurement solutions. A self-contained system was designed and built for each of the 20 FSN regional affiliate locations.
In the initial phase, FSN deployed 40 of Tandberg Television's E5610 encoders and 85 Alteia decoders. At each of the regional sites, original analog or digital program material is passed into an E5610 encoder, an MPEG-2 DVB compliant compression engine, which produces a DVB ASI transport stream. With a built-in ATM Network Interface Card, the E5610 encoder converts the DVB ASI transport stream to ATM packets through the encoder output, which feeds directly into the Marconi switches. The stream passes through a FVN connection link to another location's ATM Network Interface Card where it is converted from ATM packets back to a DVB ASI signal. The DVB ASI signal then becomes an input to the Alteia decoder, which outputs the original broadcast quality audio and video into a server or tape device. The FSN network is designed to pass professional contribution quality 4:2:2 audio and video at an average bitrate of approximately 20 Mb/sec. The high compression quality achieved with the E5610 encoder when paired with a 20 Mb/sec. transmission bitrate supports FOX Sports requirement to maintain exceptional video quality through multiple generations of encoded program material.
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