Software Defined Networking- A New Networking Technology

Posted by Michael Gonzalez on in Broadcast & Management Systems, Broadcasting Networks, Content & Asset Management, Content Delivery, Network Management, Transmission And Distribution

As the industry moves towards towards an IP-centric facility, Evertz’ Software Defined Video Networking (SDVN) will make a niche and shall require content providers to make the transition to IP without bargain. Using Evertz’ MAGNUM for control and the versatile 3080IPX, SDVN can be applied throughout the facility in production, playout, and WAN distribution.

Sofware Defined Networking (SDN) has emerged from just a new technology that only could be understood only by the highly technical to a new ingredient for making network configuration and service management more efficient.SDN controllers, the main nerve centre of such emerging networks were earlier attributed to OpenFlow- the network control protocol that manages central traffic. The role of SDN controllers have evolved from low-level data switching and routing to to an integrated management of security policies, application settings and physical and virtual network configuration.

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SDN is also a foundation stone for building up cloud infrastructure and a software data-center. The SDN has become the face of either a big strategic architectural change to networking from the time Ethernet came into the picture, or a bogus hype of sorts trying to belittle existing patterns of operational networking. There is a level of confusion though, in the SDN architecture like any other new phenomenon that grasps technological evolutions.

SDN as an architectural model is indeed groundbreaking, however for enterprises the most compelling SDN features don’t involve low level manipulation of traffic patterns, but rather operational automation, service orchestration and network programmability. In contrast, the SDN is bunk, “still does nothing”, crowd view the term as synonymous with OpenFlow and see little value in replacing perfectly useful network fabrics, whether using the alphabet soup of alternative standards like MLAG, SPB, TRILL or a proprietary equivalent, with dumb OpenFlow switches and flow controllers.

“The industry has moved past the SDN equals OpenFlow debate. “SDN has gained a more expansive meaning: It’s now about creating platforms for applications and gaining configuration control that enhances network automation and agility, hopefully lowering operational costs.” Indeed, at last fall’s Open Networking User Group (ONUG) meeting, attendees prioritized topics for proposed vendor RFIs or RFQs in the coming year. The top three were: integrated layer 4-7 network services, virtual network overlays, and branch software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs). Others areas identified for work included traffic monitoring and visibility, white box networking, automated network segmentation, Linux-based automation, an abstract policy to define applications and IT Infrastructure dependencies. Outside of white box hardware, none of these had anything to do with software control over physical layer network flows, the raison d’etre for OpenFlow and the first wave of SDN controllers.”

So what new will SDN mean for the businesses is yet to see.

Global Broadcast and Standardisation

Posted by Michael Gonzalez on in Broadcast & Management Systems, Digital Broadcasting, Wireless Trasmission

The International Standardization of broadcasting: transition to digital, on-demand content services and the like are markers of gradual developments that the media sector have been witnessing for quite some time now, more rapidly so in developing countries where cutting-edge technology has seeped in post the onset of the millennium.

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Digitization continues to open up myriad opportunities for newer types of services, business models, collaborative synergies and consumer relationships for organizations across the whole industry sector. Due to continual innovation in devices, delivery methods and pricing, there have been rapid advances in the TV advertising sector and the way broadcast takes place.

Developing nations, especially like India, with its new Information Technology regulations, have begun exploring technologies that have penetrated in the developed nations long back. The immense rate of growth in television advertising, rise in disposable incomes, need for better media software, etc have been significant worldwide in posing opportunities for transnational media corporations to invest.

Global TV advertising expenditure will reach $219 billion in 2018 much ahead of 2012’s $53 billion mark. Global Broadcasting and Cable TV market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.28 percent over the period 2012-2016.Also, television advertising brings in new customers as young adults are less likely to avoid an ad on TV than on the social media: these are all set to boost overall broadcasting equipment consumption and also that enables broadcast on a single device like antennas & transmission equipment for access to terrestrial broadcast.

Information Retrieval in Broadcasting – What’s Lacking?

Posted by Michael Gonzalez on in Archiving & Storage, Broadcast & Management Systems, Content & Asset Management

What you see is as good as what you hear in broadcasting. Well, almost!

Digitization has given broadcasting a home run. Almost everything you see, is bound to be archived somewhere. And a portion of that is aired as news, fiction or made into a video documentary.

Broadcasting companies such as PBS and BBC have made radio programs available and various types of public records have also been archived. Furthermore, research indicates that such records are extremely valuable.

Despite the potential importance of such speech archives, they are relatively under-utilized due to the lack of useful tools for accessing and browsing such speech archives.

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One natural starting point for identifying techniques for speech access is in the information retrieval literature. Current information retrieval techniques do not support other types of information seeking behavior that require users to find local information i.e. extracting facts from within a document. Consistent with this focus on search, user interfaces to information retrieval systems present a relevant ranked set of documents in response to a user query.

They assume that for more detailed information, users can easily visually scan and browse through textual documents when they are looking for information contained within a document.

Given the sequential nature of speech, it is difficult for one to quickly scan through long speech stories to obtain an overview of the speech.

It is therefore, both inefficient and inappropriate to listen to multiple lengthy stories in their entirety, when relevant information may be located in one part of an extremely lengthy story.

This indicates that in addition to search, interfaces for accessing speech need to support local navigation specifically: story navigation and information extraction.

The solution to this is simply to transcribe.

All things considered, transcription helps the user interface support a new principle that lets them decide exactly what they want to see or hear. By depicting speech in the form of text, we allow visual scanning that lets the user decide and filter what part of the discourse he wants to focus on, and skip to that part saving lot of time and patience.

Improving the user experience on the whole is what every business ultimately sets out to do. For a satisfied consumer is a returning consumer.

Understanding what the buyer wants, is as good as selling a product. Broadcast technology today needs to focus on such important tools that are oft overlooked, to create a wholesome experience for the buyer and to keep them coming back for more.

Broadcast Filters and Combiners

Posted by Michael Gonzalez on in Antennas Masts & Towers, Articles, Broadcast & Management Systems, Broadcasting Networks, Cable, Connectors & Conductor Machineries, Content & Asset Management, Studio Production, Transmission And Distribution

Broadcast sector is a very wide and dynamic industry. Not only in terms of delivering or broadcasting information through different media, but also the technical infrastructure behind the screen plays a very vital role for its successful deliverance. Filters and Combiners are the components that connect the technical infrastructure at studios, stations and even at domestic broadcast equipment like video, audio, data transformation service systems, etc.

Broadcast Filters and Combiners

In the recent years a lot of innovations evolved and came in availability to the industry. One of the major technical advancements in combiner and filters for broadcast industry is through the entrance of the modules. The combiner units forms the backbone of media set network. Shively Labs, a broadcast equipment designing and manufacturing company came up with balanced combiner modules that allow any number of stations to be combined into a common antenna. Systems have been designed to handle up to 21 analog stations, along with their digital counterparts. The frequency spacings as close as 0.8 MHz are routine, even on large systems and the design allows stations to be added in any frequency order without the need to reconfigure the existing combiner chain – making them ideal for sites where future expansion is planned.

Many industry events like NABSHOW are venues for companies to showcase and introduce their new products. Filters and combiners presented at NABSHOW 2012 attracted attention of the market. Radio Frequency Systems has added technology innovations and new models to its line of filters and combiners with the introduction of PeakPower+ at the event.

Trend of Combining Units

A lot of scope is recognized by the manufacturers for the combiners and filters. The evidence is the evolution ofCombining Units, which is a replacement for lot of technical material surrounded by the broadcast equipment.

The PeakPower+ line of filters and combiners is specifically aimed at safely sustaining the very high peak power of digital television, and represents a major breakthrough in coaxial filter technology.

By removing the peak power handling limitations imposed on digital transmitter filter & combiner systems, PeakPower+ TM allows broadcast operators to safely run their systems without fear of interruptions, and boost revenues by adding digital channels and services to their existing infrastructure, without having to upgrade to waveguide technology.

Features

  • Very compact for easy integration into equipment.
  • Very low insertion loss for filter size, (lowest IL for each size).
  • Highest power rating for size/class of filter.
  • Tunable over full UHF band (470 – 862 MHz)
  • Adjustable bandwidth, available for 6, 7 & 8 MHz channels for ALL global applications.
  • Symmetrical response characteristics.
  • External, non-invasive coupling adjustment
  • Tunable for both ETSI and ISDB-T critical and non-critical, and ATSC applications.
  • -5 to 55 degree ambient temperature operation.

DSL line combiners are from Pace plc that subscribers get “splittered” service, where DSL and telephone service are terminated into the home on separate lines. This has 2 types. Line Inline Filter with Giveback Jack and Line Inline Filter with Giveback Jack are the types available in this product.

Bandpass filters and Transmitting Combiners from Com-Tech Italia SpA are 4 types each.

  • UHF TV Filters / Combiners
  • VHF B.III TV Filters / Combiners
  • VHF B.I-II TV Filters / Combiners
  • VHF B.III DAB Filters / Combiners

The Bandpass Filter is a terrestrial broadcasting of the television signal for Analog TV (ATV) and Digital TV: DVB-T, DVB-H, ATSC (DTV), needs a high degree of linearity by the output amplifiers. So, the more an amplifier is pushed in power, the more it generates products from distortion within and outside the transmitted channel.

The Com-Tech Transmitting Combiners and Multiplexers are devices that can able to sum various inputs with different frequencies on a single output and this is a suitable application in television broadcasting as transmission of various channels take place on a single broadband antenna.

AISG/3GPP- compatible DC connections of Spinner Atlanta’s is a model that allows the transfer of control signals and power supply to antenna pre-amplifiers. The core advantage is that all the frequency combiners are suitable for indoor and outdoor installation.

While, in broadcast applications multi-channel combiners are used to combine the signals of two or several channels on to one antenna. Depending on the channel spacing Spinner has solutions for combining.

  • When the channels are close together or when retuning is required filter combiners are used mainly.
  • The starpoint and manifold combiners are usually designed as 2- or 3-way combiners.
  • The strechline combiners are 2-way combiners when spacing is larger than three channels.

The broadcast industry market scope and demand is there at every corner of the globe. The quality and robustness of its products and services from the industry players would build up an enviable reputation for the manufacturers.