IP and Satellite: Communication Worlds Merging - Page 3 of 4

Low Latency MPEG-4/AVC Research Pays Off

Technologies continue to advance at a rapid pace as HD and IPTV services roll out to consumers in markets around the world. To maintain and grow market share, equipment providers need to continually invest in new features, product development and technologies. Encoder manufacturers are putting significant investments into MPEG-4/AVC, including hardware and ASIC chip development and improvements and software to improve latency, processing speed and picture quality at ever-reduced bit rates. “Thomson has been investing heavy in new technologies to deliver the added value to our customers,” says Olafsen. Thomson has about 600 research and development engineers in seven labs around the globe. The networking focus area includes developing advanced IP solutions for optimized content delivery. The company also is building its third generation of MPEG-4 set-top boxes.
Another area of research and development that is starting to pay off for equipment manufacturers is in software development for MPEG-4/AVC compression. One barrier to commercial adoption of MPEG-4/AVC in satellite newsgathering applications — despite the potential for 40 percent to 60 percent bandwidth efficiency gains compared to MPEG-2 — has been the additional processing time (latency) MPEG-4/AVC has added to links. Encoder latency with MPEG-2 is commonly available at less then two-tenths of a second for standard-definition video and less than half-a-second for HD. Until recently, with MPEG-4/AVC encoder products on the market, latency could range from more than half-a-second to a full second for HD. Adding that to the existing half-second delay of a satellite link made real-time interactive applications like live news interviews unlikely.
Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc. has reduced encoder/decoder latency with MPEG-4/AVC to 300 milliseconds, so live interviews could be conducted with acceptable HD picture quality while using less than half the network bandwidth required for MPEG-2 transmissions. Fujitsu entered the U.S. broadcast and satellite newsgathering encoder market in 2007, focusing on MPEG-4 AVC products built for transmission over IP networks. Earlier this year, the company made inroads with CBS News, which announced it would use IP9500 for satellite newsgathering as well as remote interactive news feeds.
“In Japan, Europe and Asia, many feeds are being managed exclusively through IP-based transport. In the United States, we have seen a significant increase in the last three to five years in IP-based transport,” says Dan Dalton, director of new product development at Fujitsu. “The IP market for broadcast solutions is growing rapidly, especially in satellite and terrestrial markets. There is still a large amount of satellite bandwidth that is available for such solutions,” he adds.
Scopus Video Networks Ltd. is another equipment manufacturer seeing steady growth in IP requirements from its customers. “In the last few years, a lot of what we sell has either IP input or IP output or both,” says Gal Garniek, associate vice president for marketing, who estimates about 30 percent of orders include IP options and about a 10 percent growth yearly for IP interfaces on products. “Currently, more encoders are shipping with with IP in/out than IRDs, but I think in the next few years IRDs will be selling more with IP outputs.”