Distributing content in challenging times
Mar 2, 2009 8:03 AM, By Michael Grotticelli
Control systems like Wegener’s iPump allow operators to free up bandwidth to support more channels or reduce transmission costs.
In today’s highly competitive — and economically challenging — environment, broadcast content distributors have to be more creative in how they manage their bandwidth and send content to their suppliers and on to consumers. They also are seeking more control over how and when spots are used, thereby generating the maximum amount of revenue.
The systems they are deploying or have deployed are much more intelligent, with a long list of automatic features to help their businesses grow and maintain profitability. It’s all about a new generation of multilevel software and tighter control over network components (encoders, servers, IRD receivers, etc.).
While advertisers are interested in targeted campaigns that can be directly marketed to specific regions, cities and even households, the networks are working to do so with the smallest amount of bandwidth necessary. This frees up space for either more channels or less transmission costs.
There’s no doubt cable and satellite companies as well as terrestrial broadcast networks, which all need to move files between facilities and earth stations, are facing challenging times. Advertisers are reducing their budgets while continuing to look for any way to maximize their campaigns’ return on investment. To do this operators are modifying existing one-way infrastructures with new types of software while others are building out new ones with fully interactive, two-way communication.
However, this is happening slowly as, in the current tough economic climate, most networks are delaying capital expenditures unless they can be assured of a fast ROI. That, of course, is tough for any vendor in the broadcast space to guarantee.
The value for content distributors comes in that using sophisticated store-and-forward techniques (where content is pushed to the headend only when needed), a network can give clients only the markets they want while reducing waste. This has become popular with broadcasters because, although it might reach the largest amount of viewers, many feel that the traditional “broadcast” model (even single cable channels) is no longer the best way to maximize a campaign and reach the right people.
Store-and-forward delivery
These store-and-forward systems are being deployed over satellite and sometimes use an Internet Protocol (IP) backchannel to verify program delivery, what is stored on the server at the headend and its usage. The use of IP is most common among those operators developing new network distribution infrastructures. For most of the largest media companies, which have existing investments in transponders, the satellite is still the most cost-effective way to move content around.
Conserving space on the transponder means deploying some form of compression. The current trend is toward MPEG-4 because it provides many times the space efficiency of traditional MPEG-2. However, for cable and broadcast networks, this presents its own challenges in getting content to consumers who have MPEG-2 set-top boxes in the home. Operators are currently sending video as a compressed MPEG-4 file via DVB-S2 modulation to the edge of a network (the headend), where it is transcoded to MPEG-2 at the edge, before going on to the home.
| Want to use this article? Click here for options! |  |
