MPEG-4 Meeting Expectations
If rich media delivery performance is to advance to the next level, AVC or H.264 has to be ready for primetime. Thus far, all signals are go as the demand for rich media content starts to soar. Our assembled panel of experts offers their insights as follows.
"As service providers expand their offerings, maximizing bandwidth usage is critical to their success," says Signes. "The increasing demand for video services over limited bandwidth positions MPEG-4 technology in the right place at the right time. Consumers expect high quality and a myriad of choices. Whether a provider is delivering broadcast video to a mobile device, educational or business content to a desktop or an HD television stream to a subscriber's home, they need a technology that will allow them to increase service offerings and quality over time. MPEG-4 is that standard and AVC is a key component of that technology."
"We see an increased interest in H.264. Thales supports open standards and is all for wider spread adoption of H.264," says Barouxis. "That said H.264 is just a codec, and to us rich media can be any format. We are primarily concerned with delivering traffic in the most efficient and economical way for our users."
"The issues in the IPTV space which uses H.264 seem to be around the real-time de-encryption and de-encoding of content which seems to be more of a struggle for the current generation of STBs, and the standardization of the user interface," says Jamieson. "The other related issue is whether it is inevitable that Microsoft will dominate this space."
Lockard indicates that Ascent Media is just beginning to look at H.264.
"Once the standard is more widely adopted it could have a very significant impact, depending on where it penetrates," he says. "The ability to send broadcast - even editorial quality material - at significantly lower bit-rates than MPEG-2 with the same quality could open up many new possibilities for distributed or collaborative production workflows. H.264, if implemented by Microsoft and Apple, could eliminate many of the cross-platform issues around proxy materials for review and approvals, dailies, etc. as well."
For any readers wondering about the Microsoft rich media agenda including the status of the VC-1 solution, we contacted Microsoft, but they elected not to participate.
Apart from the roadmap for low bit rate encoding, multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) looms in the background as an attractive option because it provides a secure and segregated virtual network environment. For example, for Ascent Media clients using MPLS VPN technology, according to Lockard, Ascent Media could deploy a single IP-based backbone, thus saving on redundant and expensive IP infrastructures.
"It could also allow us to securely extend the Ascent Media backbone right into the existing WAN clouds of our clients and business partners, with the potential to create a more streamlined flow of material for production, post-production, and special effects material," says Lockard.
"A global MPLS network can offer a single network solution for all voice, data and media solutions. MPLS networks are not just for interfacing or bridging LANs. They offer the ability to extend the support to internal and external supply chains and to deliver rich media experiences to enterprise level customers," says Jamieson. "Using a mixture of VPNs and DSL technology, the latest terrestrial networks offer new workflow solutions to the creation of content on a distributed basis using satellite as an effective infill where required."
Keep Up With Rich Media Or Perish
We try to avoid making sweeping generalizations, but when it comes to content delivery, and multimedia content delivery in particular, you can bet that the rich media savvy will survive and all others will perish.
Satellite-based rich media delivery, as noted above, is not the same game as the one played by terrestrial service providers. Latency and large footprints are a fact of life. Rich media needs to get to a lot of customers, right down to his or her screen. That screen, large or small, has room for a satellite feed. So, the big question is not who will pay, but why they will pay.
Peter Brown is Via Satellite's Senior Multimedia & Homeland Security editor. He also volunteers as a satellite technology and communications advisor to the Maine Emergency Management Agency.
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