In Broadcast - November 2014 - 40

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 37 - NOVEMBER 2014

N E W S

InPREVIEW

Applying Point-To-Point Streaming For
Live Content Delivery
By John Naylor
VP of Global Sales and Distribution,
Streaming Products, PESA

Y

40

our content is here, but you need
it over there. It's a challenge
that is all too familiar for many
organisations that create, consume,
and repurpose live content.
Broadcasters deliver sports and
other live event coverage from an
increasing number of venues - and
the standard answer for transmission
is to roll a satellite truck. Legislatures
want to be more accessible and
transparent to their citizenry by
televising proceedings - and the
standard solution is a long ﬁbre run
from the chambers and committee
rooms to the control room.
Corporations, universities, houses
of worship, and other organisations
also have a growing need to share
video across continental or global
distances, and often rely on these
same standard solutions.
The challenge, however, is cost.
Pulling just 1km of ﬁbre can cost
US$1,600 (1,250), even before the
necessary converters are installed.
A satellite truck can cost close to
US$3,000 (2,300) a day, not including
personnel travel and satellite time
expenses. As a result, streaming is
becoming an increasingly attractive
option, especially in situations where
the required network connectivity is
already available or can be made
available with the same or better
convenience as sending out a
satellite truck.
Point-to-point streaming is
created by pairing a streaming
decoder with a matching encoder.
Streaming appliances such as the

Fibre and satellite can incur high costs

compact PESA XSTREAM C22 can
also be used to monitor the stream
on a PC or tablet. Only streaming
solutions have the flexibility to
address the challenge of delivering
your content from here to there, as
well as delivering it to a number
of locations.
Is streaming a viable option for
your content? Maybe. Simple needs
can be met at surprisingly low costs
using readily available products and
services. However, it's important to
consider some of the obvious and
not-so-obvious requirements of a
point-to-point video link.

Bandwidth
First, let's talk bandwidth. Any
video link being built today needs
to support "3G" or 1080p video to
deliver HD video that is compatible
with broadcast standards. UHD or
even 8K could become common
production formats in the future,
and some applications such
as command and control and
medical facilities may require higher
resolution. Today, however, 1080p
support is sufﬁcient for almost all
broadcast applications, provided
the video and audio have no
obvious image and sound quality
breakdown due to the link.
For audio, a stereo pair is usually
sufficient for most applications,
though multiple language
broadcasts will require more audio
tracks. Some streaming transport
mechanisms can be easily extended
to allow multi-channel audio. Any

effective streaming system must
also include the ability to equalise
the delays between audio and video
to avoid lip sync issues.
Another factor to consider
is latency - how long it takes
for a signal to travel across the
distribution system. Low latency
is highly desirable in two-way
communications between a news
anchor and a ﬁeld journalist, as
well as in applications such as
live sporting events where viewers
can see both the live event and
the video coverage. Content
also needs to be secure, and
many streaming solutions offer
encryption technology that should
be used if the signal is in the public
domain at any time.

Deploying the PESA XSTREAM C22

170ms locally or 250ms globally.
Satellite has a 250ms delay for one
hop and a 500ms for two hops - and
more if video compression is used.
Both satellite and streaming are 3G
ready, but some ﬁbre architectures
may struggle to support 3G.

Streaming Solution
With these requirements in mind,
what trade-offs are involved when
you choose streaming over ﬁbre
or satellite? Each solution delivers
acceptable video and audio with
no obvious degradation of quality;
it is lossless for uncompressed
video via ﬁbre, very transparent
for satellite, and transparent for
streaming with H.264 at 10 Mbps.
All three also offer solid security
protocols. Fibre and satellite
support SMPTE ancillary data,
while streaming has protocols
available to support closed captions
and other data requirements.
Fibre has a range of up to 4km
in multimode and 60km in single
mode, while satellite can support
intercontinental
(one hop) or
global (two hops)
transmission.
Streaming
is
available
wherever your
private network
goes, including
virtual private
networks (VPNs),
and global, lowlatency private
n e t w o r k s a re
available on an
hourly use model.
Fibre
has
negligible delay,
while streaming
delay is roughly

Live content - streaming is an
increasingly attractive option

Arguably, one of streaming's least
favourable comparisons is audio.
Fibre and satellite deliver up to 16
channels of uncompressed audio,
though neither has native delay EQ.
Streaming is generally limited to the
stereo quality of a portable media
player, but can provide delay EQ and
extra channels with some offerings.
When it comes to live
transmission, there is no one-sizeﬁts-all solution. Fibre, satellite, and
streaming each have advantages
and disadvantages. It is unrealistic
to think that broadcasters will
embrace streaming as an exclusive
transmission platform in the near
future, but it is far more cost
effective than ﬁbre or satellite.
Streaming can be an ideal
solution for linking remote
reporters and news bureaus to the
main studio, or for establishing a
permanent transmission path for
government meetings or local live
sports venues.

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In Broadcast - November 2014

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