Super Headends: Coping With Costs
While IPTV super headends may not be uniquely different from conventional cable or satellite headends, they generally are more expensive. How much more expensive depends upon who you talk to, because IPTV super headends come in many different configurations. "A super headend is a point of aggregation of the majority of TV channels," says Symonds. "Regional and local channels can be added at other points in the operator's network. An alternative to a super headend is a satellite aggregation system, which acts as a super headend in the sky (HITS)." All satellite, cable, terrestrial and IPTV headends share core components for source acquisition, encoding, multiplexing, network transmission and control, and yet, there are two distinct differences, according to Symonds. "Each video stream must be transmitted in its own self-contained single program transport stream, unlike traditional broadcast systems that use multi program transport streams. The reason for this is that the last mile delivery for IPTV usually has a bandwidth restriction that only allows a small number of TV channels -- typically from one to three -- to be delivered, he says. "These channels can be any from the full selection of channels available, and therefore, it is not possible to bundle channels together as for cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcasts."
In addition, there are limitations imposed on the bit rate for each service and so the headend needs to operate in either constant bit rate or capped variable bit rate, says Symonds. Still, control and management is no more difficult than with any other headend. "The cost may be slightly higher at this stage since advanced video encoding is often required for IPTV, whereas cable uses lower cost MPEG-2 based equipment. This difference will diminish over time and it is not an issue for most IPTV operators anyway," he says.
Other industry players have an alternative view of headends. "Due to the need for the IPTV encoding and IP-multicasting equipment, an MPEG-4 IPTV headend can cost upwards of $4 million per market, as opposed to approximately $500,000 for a conventional cable headend," says Anthony Bontrager, president and CEO of Bellevue, Wash.-based Broadstream Communications Inc. "Thus, there is tremendous cost and complexity differences between the two." Broadstream has developed an outsourced headend platform known as IPTVConnect, intended to alleviate the significant capital burden of the IPTV headend, allowing the service provider to focus on expanding its core access network, marketing its new video products and driving subscriber growth for a bundled service offering, he says. "Broadstream's IPTVConnect service offering relies heavily on satellite delivery of our IPTV content and services. Through the use of satellite technology we are able to reach any service provider in the United States who desires to offer IPTV but cannot afford to do it on their own."
On a channel-for-channel basis, nobody seems to dispute the fact that building out an IPTV headend or super headend is more expensive on the hardware side. But MPEG-4/AVC brings with it considerable savings when it comes to operating costs. "We see significant savings in terms of bandwidth; the ability to push many more channels through the same bandwidth," says Feldman. "Additionally, when operating in an IP environment, the overall access/monitoring visibility into headend systems makes the network management process more efficient, while virtual private network access provides improved remote management and troubleshooting."
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