IPTV Enhances Operational Efficiencies Across the Broadcast Sector

ATLANTA - Nov. 1, 2022 - PRLog -- The introduction of IPTV technology radically improves the broadcast sector's ability to harness the power of video technologies to access more dynamic content and enable more interactive applications. Most major news brands in the largest broadcast sector markets have already switched from RF technologies to IPTV. However, there is a significant opportunity for broadcasters in smaller media markets to follow suit. IPTV can manage small stations with five video streams delivered to 20 viewers as efficiently as it can manage thousands of streams to thousands of viewers.

Video technology is evolving at a breathtaking pace in the broadcast sector. A little more than a decade ago, almost everyone in the industry still had radio frequency (RF) infrastructures for viewing video content. This required conventional coaxial cable connections to cable boxes, linked to a handful of television screens scattered across facilities. While this was state-of-the-art at the time, it enabled only limited functionality because offices needed to establish hard wire connections for every television screen. There was little flexibility in managing content, which still required remotes to change channels.

The introduction of IPTV technology radically improved the broadcast sector's ability to harness the power of video technologies to access more content in a dynamic manner and enable more interactive applications. IPTV provides access to a vast array of content over the internet—and easily delivers external feeds coming to the news center via satellite by converting traffic to an internet protocol (IP) stream.

IPTV Evolution in the Broadcast Market

VITEC's first customer for IPTV was a broadcaster located in Rockefeller Center in 2008. Since then, IPTV has been deployed in every major news organization—from CNN and Reuters to Fox News, NBC, and NBC Sports. Many of the larger broadcasters utilize IPTV in multiple facilities and link them together.

The story is different for stations serving smaller markets. Many, if not most, in this category have not yet made the transition. For these news organizations, the largest hurdle is their internal enterprise network. It is difficult to deploy IPTV effectively when organizations lack a strong IT infrastructure.

The situation, however, is beginning to change. Organizations across industries—including broadcasting—are making investments in technology to address the challenges–and opportunities–of our increasingly digital economy. As they modernize their systems by adopting cloud services and embracing new collaborative platforms, they are making infrastructure upgrades. In so doing, video traffic is a workload for which they are planning.

In fact, VITEC research has shown that video traffic is the fastest growing category of content flowing through enterprise networks today. Broadcasters have consequently concluded that RF networks are no longer feasible–or necessary–abandoning RF in favor of IPTV over enterprise networks.

Indeed, once broadcasters invest in enterprise network upgrades to support other corporate priorities, adding IPTV is a simple and relatively inexpensive add-on. Moreover, IPTV scales incredibly well. It can manage small stations with five video streams delivered to 20 viewers as efficiently as it can manage thousands of streams to thousands of viewers.

When IPTV technology is paired with the latest compression algorithms, broadcasters can experience very high-quality video streams without overwhelming network resources. This is especially true when Multicast-to-the-Edge™ technology–a solution developed by VITEC–is applied. It removes the need for a dedicated network to support video applications.

It is a technology that has received critical acclaim. This year at NAB, VITEC received an Engineering Emmy Award because of the solution's ability to manage IPTV streams in a technically effective, cost-efficient manner.

Moving into the Future with IPTV

When IPTV technology is combined with Multicast capabilities, broadcasters can accommodate a wide array of streams—regardless of their format—and then convert them to whatever configuration is needed to work, transform, or simply consume video in a manageable environment. IPTV allows this to occur in a very cohesive manner.  It ensures that the right people can easily access the right content in the right format at any time in a very secure manner.

Security is a critical priority for the broadcast sector. Integrating systems can sometimes introduce vulnerabilities and open the door to threats. This is why VITEC has developed an end-to-end solution that incorporates military-grade advanced encryption standard (AES) technology to protect the intellectual property of broadcasters.

As IPTV technology matures, the level of functionality available to small and medium broadcasters is rising while the relative costs remain stable. It is now a proven and established technology that can be deployed with existing IT staff without overwhelming network resources. It is democratizing access to sophisticated and convenient services that are enabling the business transformation initiatives of the broadcast sector across all markets–large and small.

[Editor's Note: For more information visit:https://www.vitec.com/]

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