Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) January-February 2017 Volume 34, Issue 1 | Page 22

PANELLISTS
22
January-February 2017
SpeedCast-Roshan backhaul service deal
SpeedCast has been awarded a multi-year service agreement by Roshan , an Afghan telecommunications provider , to upgrade its cellular backhaul network to support 3G services over satellite in the Zabul province in south-western Afghanistan . Roshan has more than 6.5 million active subscribers across 287 districts and cities in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan . SpeedCast ’ s first 3G backhaul service deployment in Afghanistan , said PJ Beylier , CEO of SpeedCast , will provide a “ strong foothold ” for the company in the growing cellular backhaul market in the Middle East , where mobile operators and service providers are upgrading their service capacity to meet the surging data adoption in both the enterprise and consumer markets .
FTTH APAC ’ s 2017 agenda : To build smart cities and digital economies
The FTTH Council Asia-Pacific will be holding its annual conference this May in India , where it will strengthen its vision and agenda for 2017 , which includes building smart cities and digital economies . Peter Macaulay , president of the FTTH Council Asia-Pacific , said : “ Given the continued growth and development of FTTH and the ever-growing importance of digital infrastructure to national economies , the FTTH industry as a whole is at an important juncture . With more than 100 million subscribers in Asia-Pacific , the FTTH Council Asia-Pacific can play a leading role in defining the next steps for the industry .”
Next Month @ Distribution
Digital Terrestrial TV

PANELLISTS

Martin Coleman
Executive Director Satellite Interference Reduction Group
Amitabh Kumar
Director , Corporate Zee Network
Christopher Slaughter
CEO CASBAA

Is fibre building a pipeline to broadcast IP ?

Having outpaced copper as the pre-eminent delivery platform for broadcast transmission , fibre is also poised to play a starring role as the IP transition gains momentum . Shawn Liew reports .
Fibre is serving as the backbone for MediorNet — Riedel ’ s primary distributed routing system . With MediorNet , instead of running copper cables from a centralised router , users “ can put a
MediorNet frame near each piece of equipment and connect them with local patching . Then , simply connect the ‘ backplane ’ of one MediorNet frame to the next , and the next , and so on ”, describes Cameron O ’ Neill ( right ), director , APAC , Riedel Communications .

In an interview with APB early last year , Cameron O ’ Neill , director , APAC , Riedel Communications , was steadfast in his belief that IP networking is the future ; equally important that fibre will be a key component in the IP ecosystem , he suggested .

As broadcasters begin to usher in the new year with a mixture of optimism and caution , O ’ Neill ’ s stance remains unchanged . As to where fibre fits into Riedel ’ s IP strategy in 2017 , he , however , offers a different perspective : Where does IP fit into Riedel ’ s fibre strategy ?
He tells APB : “ At the data rates our customers are looking at now , copper is simply no longer an option . A lot of manufacturers , Riedel included , are already on 10Gbps connections .
“ Also , if you look over the fence at the IT / telecom world , you ’ ll see that those vendors are already at 25Gbps for serial ( single-wavelength ) connections . These speeds are exclusively fibre-based .”
Fibre is also serving as the backbone for MediorNet — Riedel ’ s primary distributed routing system — which can serve as a large video router for SD , HD or 3G native signals , plus audio and signal processing functions such as embedding and frame syncs .
O ’ Neill elaborates : “ In other words , instead of running copper cables from a centralised router , you can put a MediorNet frame near each piece of equipment and connect them with local patching . Then , simply connect the ‘ backplane ’ of one MediorNet frame to the next , and the next , and so on .”
He goes on to reveal how customers have looked at MediorNet or IP routing and asked questions such as how a signal gets from points A to B when they are not directly connected , and how the required bandwidth can be calculated .
“ For answers , you need to adopt a new dimension of thinking , literally , when moving to distributed or networked topologies . In this world , routers are no longer about inputs and outputs but instead are defined by twodimensional matrix calculations .”
This argument makes moving through MediorNet to an IP solution a no-brainer , suggests O ’ Neill . Having the ability to connect existing SDI-based equipment to a network-based system helps broadcasters become accustomed to designing and planning IP-based topologies , he explains . Then , it becomes a matter of when broadcasters become ready to swap SDI gear for IP-based gear .
To provide more options , Riedel is now offering a SMPTE 2022-6 converter software for MediorNet , which runs on a standard MediorNet MicroN frame . Users can build a system out of MicroN units today for transporting SDI , and when the need for an IP gateway arises , all