video distribution
Hello, I have a "state of the state" sort of question for you guru's out there. If I wanted to make a number of video streams available across an IP WAN network, I have a couple of options. Unicast or Multicast. Unicast isn't the most efficient method necessarily so my preference would be Multicast. Now since it's been years since I've thought about Multicast, are there any hot new technologies or methods available for video transmission over an IP network? Thank you very much for your time. Regards, Christopher J. Wolff VP CIO Broadband Laboratories, Inc. http://www.bblabs.com
If you have control over the entire network, I would suggest native multicast. This is used operationally by a number of providers and is one candidate for the next generation of "cable" TV providers. If you want to reach arbitrary people across networks, then you will need to do either unicast or application layer multicast, depending on a bunch of things. Broadcast quality TV is typically 3 to 6 Mbps of MPEG-2. You can do pretty well now-a-days with 300 to 600 kbps of MPEG-4 or H.264. Regards Marshall Eubanks On Jul 14, 2004, at 4:01 PM, Christopher J. Wolff wrote:
Hello,
I have a "state of the state" sort of question for you guru's out there. If I wanted to make a number of video streams available across an IP WAN network, I have a couple of options. Unicast or Multicast. Unicast isn't the most efficient method necessarily so my preference would be Multicast. Now since it's been years since I've thought about Multicast, are there any hot new technologies or methods available for video transmission over an IP network? Thank you very much for your time.
Regards, Christopher J. Wolff VP CIO Broadband Laboratories, Inc. http://www.bblabs.com
T.M. Eubanks e-mail : tme@multicasttech.com http://www.multicasttech.com Test your network for multicast : http://www.multicasttech.com/mt/ Our New Video Service is in Beta testing http://www.americafree.tv
I wanted to make a number of video streams available across an IP WAN network, I have a couple of options. Unicast or Multicast. Unicast isn't the most efficient method necessarily so my preference would be Multicast.
Depends on the exact nature of what you are doing and the network(s) in question. Some things to think about: -Are you going to serve a mutlicast-aware audience directly? -Are you thinking of feeding another server(farm) to retransmit? Drawing from my own experiences, multicast is great for server-server distribution. It is (can be) fantastic for large audiences IFF you have a stable multicast-happy environment. IMHO multicast enivironments just require a bit more care-and-feeding. Multicast networks frequently need a strong human proponent too. Multicast is great but is counter-intuitive for most support staffs to handle. I have to be careful here because I could really get on a soapbox. Unicast is the lowest common denominator and is far easier to deal with in terms of transport peculularities. It is the only answer the makes sense for an on-demand enviroment. (I've known of groups to make scheduled multicast retransmissions, but you'd have to be pretty serious for this in terms of the human dynamic) -John
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Christopher, 1) Are your end users using TV's or PC's to view the streams ? 2) When you refer to "WAN" is the entire IP network under your control ? 3) Are there any restrictions on conditional access or bandwidth placed upon the implementation by the content owner ? Cheers, Ben. Christopher> Hello, Christopher> I have a "state of the state" sort of Christopher> question for you guru's out there. If Christopher> I wanted to make a number of video streams Christopher> available across an IP WAN Christopher> network, I have a couple of options. Christopher> Unicast or Multicast. Unicast isn't Christopher> the most efficient method necessarily so my Christopher> preference would be Multicast. Christopher> Now since it's been years since I've Christopher> thought about Multicast, are there any Christopher> hot new technologies or methods available Christopher> for video transmission over an IP Christopher> network? Thank you very much for your time. Christopher> Regards, Christopher> Christopher J. Wolff VP CIO Christopher> Broadband Laboratories, Inc. Christopher> http://www.bblabs.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP SDK 3.2.2 Comment: "" iQA/AwUBQPWfHkNm3F1O6YPWEQLmZACfdTi5RrgJEZ/WmeVcJxyiO0hdtF8AoIVI rNTD9fhz2+g4OBLfcSTZPdZp =pZjM -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
participants (4)
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Ben Crosby -
Christopher J. Wolff -
John Ferriby -
Marshall Eubanks