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A Guide to Testing IPTV: Technologies and Challenges Par...

Throughout this article series we have seen that IPTV network operators face many challenges and explained that effective test and measurement is key to overcoming these challenges. The majority of IPTV networks are still in the early stages of development and operators are therefore primarily concerned with optimising QoS parameters in order to ge...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2009

Implications of a Tapeless workflow

The rise of ‘Tapeless Workflows’ is dramatically changing the way broadcasters and post-production facilities protect the content they are working on or own. The traditional workflow relies on tapes to record and protect information, usually stored on a shelf to be used again if necessary. However, due to changes in technology and the demands of an...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2009

A Guide to Testing IPTV: Technologies and Challenges Par...

Testing IPTV NetworksThe Technology LifecycleThe deployment of new technologies tends to follow a similar lifecycle that begins with early research, development and standardisation and ends with full deployment and service management. The lifecycle diagram illustrated in Figure 5 shows a number of different technologies moving through the design an...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2009

A Guide to Testing IPTV: Technologies and Challenges Par...

Before we can go on to look at testing IPTV systems, it would be useful to provide an overview of the technologies involved. Network ArchitecturesFigure 3 shows an example of a typical IP network structure. Content is first delivered into the video headend; this can be done in a variety of formats over a number of different delivery mechanisms (e.g...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2009

Ask the experts. Eye & Jitter

Why should TV broadcast engineers be interested in adding Eye and Jitter measurement to their T & M facilities?The call for Eye and Jitter as part of overall video test and measurement lies in the widespread adoption of serial digital interface (SDI) standards for broadcast. Unlike analog transmission in which the image quality gradually degrades a...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2009

Ancillary Data Monitoring in Multiviewers

The broadcast environment has gone through enormous change over the last decade, creating challenges in the management, storage and broadcast of material. Factors contributing to these challenges include the increase in the number of channels with the move to digital, the introduction of various aspect ratio and video standards with the transition...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2009

Guide to Testing IPTV Technologies and Challenges Part 2

In Part 1 of this series we gave a background to IPTV and explained that the two-way nature of IPTV networks offers many advantages over traditional broadcast technologies, but also presents a number of technical challenges. In this part we will begin to examine some of the challenges faced by IPTV service providers, and the importance of Quality o...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2009

A Guide to Testing IPTV: Technologies and Challenges Par...

High consumer expectations have put pressure on content producers, network operators and equipment manufacturers to deliver consistently high quality audio and video to their end users. The proliferation of enabling technologies has resulted in a wide variety of formats and standards adding to the complexity of the challenges faced in establishing...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

IBC2009 set to be a successful show

IBC COO Michael Crimp is "confident but not complacent\" as he tells how IBC is building a vibrant and healthy IBC2009. How are plans for IBC2009?Exhibition bookings for IBC2009 are still very strong. Currently we are about 10% down on the final space requirement for last year, which at this time is very good. My view is that we will have an excell...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009

PHABRIX storming ahead at NAB with eye and jitter

It is not often that a product is released that encapsulates so distinctly the essence of British ingenuity but the new SxE hand held test and measurement instrument with eye and jitter functionality from PHABRIX may just have set itself in that mould. Having successfully launched the PHABRIX SxA, a three in one portable testing device at IBC2008,...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

London to Capetown, by bike part 1

South Africans are known for being to the point, so when I was told that I had done the whole thing ‘Arse Backwards’ I wasn’t unduly upset, but I did feel a need to justify the way I had approached this project. I had just arrived in Cape Town and was rather pleased with myself, having just completed a year long journey through some of Africa’s mos...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2008

Calzaghe Fight with Input Media

Sports production company Input Media faced a series of technical, logistical and creative challenges when they were commissioned by fast rising broadcaster Setanta Sports to cover one of the biggest live Boxing events ever staged in the UK. The main fight during the 8-hour long broadcast was the world unification fight between WBO/IBF Super Middle...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2008

A Cinematographers Companion, through hell and high water...

Miller Camera Support has never been more thoroughly tested than by Australian Cinematographer Wade Fairley, through Antarctic winters and summers, floods in Tuvalu, swamps in the Solomon Islands and the outback deserts of Australia. The most outstanding project of recent times for Wade was the trip for the BBC Natural History Unit, shooting footag...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 March 2008