Saving significant costs in bandwidth, Cable news channel Ohio News Network (ONN), based in Columbus, is using the Barracuda H.264 encoder from Haivision Network Video in tandem with the Zixi Media Broadcaster to replace its satellite-delivered video contribution with a voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) architecture over the public Internet to support its 16 cable headends across Ohio and surrounding areas.
The cable TV provider has relied on satellite delivery at 9Mb/s for nearly 15 years, but now with Haivision’s efficient H.264 encoding and Zixi's content broadcast and media management hub, it can deliver the same quality signal over a standard IP connection using one-third of the bandwidth, according to Pat Ingram, director of engineering at ONN.
“Without changing any part of our production workflow, we've been able to realize reliable, real-time point-to-multipoint delivery at a fraction of the cost of our earlier long-haul video delivery model,” he said.
Haivision's Barracuda low-latency H.264 encoder combined with Zixi's video transport platform provides ONN with a cost-effective and easily scalable solution for video contribution. Video from the ONN studio is encoded by two Barracuda encoders, sent to the Zixi Feeder and Broadcaster, which sends the signal over the public Internet to Zixi Receiver units installed at each of the 16 headend locations.
There, the stream is processed by a decoder, which provides SD-SDI video for cable broadcast. This new solution boasts no packet loss and extremely low jitter and provides 24/7 performance, which ONN engineers can manage and monitor through the platform’s graphical user interface.