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

More IP Boxes

Manufacturers’ representatives and systems integrators say more IP-ready gear is being ordered with satellite video systems. Fred Pope, president of Satcom Resources, a global distributor and integrator of satellite communications equipment, says. “The move to MPEG-4 and HD is providing very cost effective upgrades for our operators, improving bandwidth as much as 50 percent and MPEG-4 is typically over an IP transport. For IP gear, we are seeing a lot of IP over DVB-S2. More and more equipment is being used to stuff IP traffic over DVB transport, as opposed to serial data. Although there are still a lot of traditional video encoder-to-decoder configurations, IP inputs and outputs are becoming more prevalent. Of the DVB modulators and demodulators we’re selling now, more and more have an IP interface than a serial interface or an ASI interface,” he says.
Sean Busby, executive vice president of TBC Integration, a system integrator for MPEG-4/AVC and DVB-S2 solutions and distributor of satellite video network equipment, also sees IP features shipping more. Positioning to ride the wave, TBC Integration Inc. formed a separate software division, DigitalGlue, which helps broadcasters and manufacturers create better user interfaces and GUIs to move their IP content. A common challenge we see within broadcast organizations is determining who is responsible for this IP traffic. Is it the broadcast engineers or the IT department? Most organizations have their IT department purchase and configure the routers and VLANs. Broadcast engineering may then ask IT to step away after a network has been set up, while IT views its mission as ongoing management of the IP network. If the demarcation of responsibilities is not clear when systems are set up, it can also prove troublesome when it comes time to identify the sources of network faults on an IP network that could be causing impact on live video traffic,” he says.

Embracing The Future of IP

Whatever the challenges, satellite video equipment vendors are embracing IP network architectures. Before long, it may be hard to imagine satellite video equipment without IP connections, and it is being driven by the same advantages and capabilities IP networking brings to communications LANs and WANs — cost, traffic flexibility and interoperability, plus the availability of reliable IP transport services. The good news for users is IP can mean more choice and flexibility to choose satellite communications networks and more flexibility to select among a wider variety of satellite bandwidth options.