In Broadcast - September 2017 - 52
52 www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 7 - Issue 9 | September 2017 InTech Broadcast Connected IP Contributing Editor Andy Stout examines some of the challenges and solutions for broadcast applications of IP connectivity... H aving acquired both IneoQuest and Vidcheck recently, Telestream promises the first integrated exhibit in Amsterdam that will highlight how the new technologies will extend its reach, especially into automated QC and monitoring and over networks. Over the past nine years, its Wirecast Live streaming software has amassed a user base of over 40,000 active license holders, and it is promising to showcase the latest developments in its enterprise scale solution, including Lightstream Live Stream, which adds powerful new DRM in cahoots with Unified Streaming. Security Security is, unsurprisingly, a popular subject when it comes to Broadcast Connected IP. As Friend MTS points out many content owners have distribution partners in multiple territories across the globe; all of which is undeniably great for increasing reach and building global audiences, but also an easy way to lose control of the security situation. Its software embeds robust and unique watermarks into each live or non-live distributor feed which are invisible to the end user, but narrow down any infringements to the source rapidly. And while it's slightly peripheral for IP distribution, as recent high-profile hacks and leaks illustrate, when it comes to IP production products such as Fortium's MediaSeal are incredibly valuable. Now featuring live folders Fortium MediaSeal: Recent online leaks have highlighted the importance of protecting content during the IP production process Telestream's product offering at IBC is boosted by ownership of IneoQuest and Vidcheck that encrypt on the fly, it encrypts atrest and has the benefits of being both secure and quick, and easy to ingrate into fast-paced workflows. Monitoring Monitoring is a huge part of the broadcast connected IP equation, with QA considered an increasingly vital part of the service, especially given the high rates of consumer churn for OTT services. Once video content has been encoded successfully at the headend, the task switches to monitoring network incidents and key handover points. Products such as the Agama Analyzer OTT can therefore provide an overarching solution that covers services spanning multiple countries, adaptive bitrate formats and CDNs, especially when combined with other components of a wide-ranging monitoring system. Motama heads to Amsterdam for the first time as part of Rohde & Schwarz, having been acquired by the Munichbased technology group in May. The company has a full range of IP-related broadcast products, and with R&S buying it specifically to pursue the live online content distribution market, it will be interesting to see how the tech, especially its RelayCaster server appliances for the transition of IPTV over public Internet, is folded into the R&S mix. With all things IP designated very much a zeitgeist-friendly hot topic at this year's IBC, Accedo turns up at the show with one of its projects shortlisted for one of the show's highprofile Innovation Awards. Spain's PlayRenfe is the first TV Anywhere service to operate in a high-speed rail environment in Europe, providing five channels of live TV with its own dedicated EPG alongside a large selection of library content. Distribution For distributing content, Appear TV's new X10/X20 ultra high-speed video networking solution is part of the very sensible move to HEVC, the units densely supporting 12 x UHD HEVC encoders or 48 x 1080p HEVC encoders within a single RU. An uncompressed video gateway module supports multi-channel SDI to IP encapsulation to and from the current SMPTE2022-6 standard, with the company promising that VSF-TR03, VSF-TR04 and the developing SMPTE 2110 standard will all be supported in the near future. Also on show at IBC will be Broadpeak's nanoCDN, which was one of the first of the multicast ABR solutions when it was launched back in 2012. Multicast works by effectively turning a large amount of devices - from broadband gateways to WiFi routers and STBs - into active components of a CDN. Several new use cases are going to be one show in Amsterdam, including zero latency for live video streaming as well as live HTTP TV service delivery via satellite. Edgeware recently launched an enhancement to its CDN architecture that allows users to repackage and re- encrypt TV content at the edge of their TV CDN at NAB, and it will be interesting to see how it's progressed since. The Edge TV Repackager enables distribution and caching of TV content in a single common file format, then repackages it on-the-fly, into DASH, HLS or MSS formats as required by the client device. All this reduces the backhaul bandwidth and the amount of NAS and cache storage required for most VOD services by, says the company, a factor of two to three. Anevia has developed a neat way of ensuring that operators can keep their IPTV customers serviced while simultaneously rolling out multiscreen services via a single CDN platform that accommodates both IPTV and ABR. Packaging on the edge requires a single copy of the video stream to be carried over the network. This is then repackaged at the edge of the network, meaning that the appropriate video format can then be reproduced to fit any device. This is complemented by other edge-related services, including ad-insertion and recording, all of which helps reduce backbone load. New AvediaStream e375x SDI encoders from Exterity are single and dual 3G SDI Encoders that deliver HD or SD H.264 streams from a SDI video input over an existing network, and are also designed to ease interoperability between broadcast and IPTV environments. Cloud-based solutions such as Viaccess-Orca's TVaaS promise to launch new services more quickly than ever before