Uncompressed high definition video transport over optical networks for TV content providers and production companies.
Need
Broadcast and entertainment providers are expanding their capabilities to deliver more high definition (HD) content to satisfy the growing hunger of viewers for high quality HDTV programming.
Broadcasters have been upgrading their networks to broadcast more channels in HD but to complete this picture, the broadcasters themselves need to access HD content from studios, live events (sports, news and political conventions) and post-production companies.
Although transporting SDI and HD-SDI can be achieved by compressing these signals, the quality is enhanced when these video signals are transported in their uncompressed format. Transmission of uncompressed HD video content creates a new market for service providers, serving customers with the need for very high transport capacity. Increasingly, content providers and production companies are looking for transport of uncompressed digital video signals, regardless of format, over long distances without degrading the original quality.
Production companies are now starting to digitally transfer SDI and HD-SDI content over fiber for purposes of pre- and post-production, editing, and distribution, live or otherwise.
The key to addressing this market need is a solution that eliminates the need for compressing video signals before transport and provides the necessary flexibility for transmitting over short and long distances for local, metro, regional, and wide area distribution.
The growth of HD video demand is creating new challenges to service providers looking to serve the video industry. Meeting these challenges requires significant increases in bandwidth and transport over greater distances without signal degradation. The major issue, however, is to ensure original quality. Whenever signals are compressed during transport, signal quality suffers.
Satellite transmission is today’s most common transport medium for digital video signals over long distances, although these services usually carry a higher price tag and are less secure than wireline services. Microwave transmission offers a less expensive alternative, but often lacks the necessary capacity over longer distances. Weather conditions can also impact both satellite and microwave options.
As a result, service providers are seeking less costly, more secure, and highly reliable transport solutions. Still, the predominant concern is signal quality. Because the bandwidth of the original signal cannot be sufficiently reduced to fit traditional telecom/datacom transport formats, until now there has typically been a signal quality trade-off over distance.
Ekinops has developed a solution that can efficiently transport uncompressed video content over long distances, eliminating signal degradation due to pre-transport compression. This new solution – a first for the industry – provides efficient, low cost, reliable, multi-reach, multi-protocol digital transport that achieves the highest quality of service.
The Ekinops PM 1004V module offers the ability to transport uncompressed digital video signals over long distances (300 km or more without signal amplification, or 2000 km with intermediary amplification), regardless of video protocol (SDI, HD-SDI-PAL, HD-SDI-NTSC). The new module is extremely compact, low power, affordable, and fully integrated with the Ekinops 360 optical transport platform.
The PM 1004V leverages Ekinops’ revolutionary T-Chip® (Transport on-a-Chip) technology to transport all video signal formats. It can aggregate HD-SDI or SD-SDI signals with one GbE and one FE on a single 10-Gbits/sec wavelength. Multiple wavelengths can be multiplexed together using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and transported across fiber. Video ports auto-sense between SDI, HD-SDI-PAL, HD-SDI-NTSC signals and are individually configurable.
The Ekinops PM 1004V module provides numerous benefits to service providers transporting video or individual companies building their own video transport network. It eliminates the need for network edge devices traditionally required for native video transport, such as SDI encoders and ATM switches. It can aggregate four HD-SDI signals or up to 24 SDI signals (using the PM 123V module) over just one wavelength. The carrier’s network becomes less complex and more cost-efficient.
The PM 1004V, unlike other solutions, allows the multiplexing of complementary traffic over Ethernet on the same wavelength as the video traffic using Ekinops’ DynaMUX® (Flexible Dynamic Protocol Muxing) capability. This dramatically decreases valuable wavelength usage in a service provider’s network.
In addition to the direct values provided by the PM 1004V card, customers also can take advantage of the market-leading capabilities of the Ekinops 360 platform. These include the ability to transmit at distances of 300 km or more with no inline amplification, reducing the initial investment costs in deploying video services by as much as 30% and reducing the power consumption by as much as 40%. Finally, the Ekinops 360 allows for transmission of video over a single fiber (as opposed to a fiber pair as is required by many systems) allowing for extremely economical video distribution.
The new PM 1004V application module uses Ekinops’ revolutionary T-Chip® technology that encompasses all transport functionality in a single programmable device. This technology has enabled Ekinops to bring new application technologies, such as the PM 1004V module, to market in record time. Consolidation of transport capabilities into a single chip provides for a cost effective solution and brings about manufacturing simplicity allowing Ekinops to deliver product to customers faster.
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Video Transport
