availability and cost .” “ Real-life trials and deployments of V- Nova PERSEUS have proven that coverage of events in 4K / UHD can be done extremely cost-effectively alongside premium HD services without the need to invest in expanded connectivity while maintaining the near-lossless quality and lowlatency these services demand . Examples include the first live 4K broadcast of the El Clásico football match late last year and the recent announcement of the Eutelsat deployment of PERSEUSpowered P . Link 4K equipment to cover Euro 2016 matches in 4K ,” he notes . BURDEN . Will aspects such as graphics rendering , video and audio decoding and processing reside at the point of media consumption rather than in the network in the future , easing the burden ? “ I think that we will continue to see high power graphics rendering in the hand of the end user . Or in his living room ,” says Ciocirlan . “ That ’ s how you deliver these very fluid user experiences that subscribers are becoming accustomed to when they use their smartphones or tablets . The networks of today can ’ t provide this zero lag interaction without significant penalties .”
“ At same time , that power will be assisted increasingly by cloud processing and cloud-based streaming . That will provide a complete user experience that people are looking for . The intelligence of the cloud , the ability to stream anything in any format you might need , regardless of where you are , from your library or subscription service – those types of cloud services will continue to evolve . Operators have to evolve their User Experience in order to remain competitive – otherwise more and more people will take the path of least resistance and use their smartphone / tablet to search and play content … with the ‘ big screen ’ becoming just a player . Operators have to deliver great user experiences in order to stay competitive , and that will require having
“ This new multiple in bandwidth consumption is hugely compounded by the trend from ‘ multicast ’ to ‘ unicast ’ traffic .” – Richard Brandon , Edgeware
powerful rendering and processing capabilities on the device itself ,” he advises . “ There is a difference between doing something and doing something well . In order to do something well , if its computationally complex ( and might change over time ) you typically need to avoid trying to do that in consumer electronics , where the emphasis is keeping costs down and volumes up ,” observes Wilson . TENDENCY . “ The tendency today is to move towards just-intime packaging , putting all the content together at the point it is requested by the receiving device ,” says Bringuier . “ While it is possible for the device to call for each element separately , it does raise significant quality of experience challenges . The server providing one part of the content might have a longer latency than the rest , or might deliver content in a different codec or bit budget , resulting in a jump in quality .”
“ When adding advertising to video streams , in particular , by making the insertion on the server side all content arrives at the consumer ’ s device from the same source . This provides a consistent user experience with no freezes or glitches . It makes sense , therefore , for all content to be tailored at the point of delivery from the service provider , to achieve a single stream . The just-in-time packaging software will select the appropriate elements as required . Those might include stereo or surround audio tracks ; different language versions , either in subtitles or in dubbing ; and graphics appropriate for the specific consumer as well as advertising targeted to the demographic or even the individual .” “ Further , the just-in-time packaging could deliver a complex , rich output stream which would in turn use the power of the home network and the receiving device to tune into the appropriate set of parameters . What flows from the content delivery network to the home could be 4K and surround sound , encoded with HEVC and delivered as MPEG- DASH , which could be viewed on the main television . But it could use processing in the home to trans-package it into 4K and HLS for
an iPad Pro , or 1080 and HLS for a phone , and so on ,” he suggests .
“ That involves just a single connection from the source through the CDN and the last mile , minimising bandwidth requirements while giving the consumer a great deal of flexibility . At present there are no real standards for home network processing which would make this practical , but all of the technology elements are there and ready to be deployed . Whatever the application , softwaredefined workflows ensure all content owners , broadcasters and network operators meet their customers ’ expectations of consistent delivery at a quality and resolution appropriate for the viewing device , while at the same time ensuring revenues are protected and optimised .” TRADITIONAL . “ There is no one-size-fitsall answer to this scenario ,” admits Trow . “ Topologies will vary depending on legacy infrastructure , type of service contemplated and channel funding mechanism . The idea of format-independent delivery has been an aspiration of video providers and aggregators for some time . The limiting factor has frequently been addressing the numerous playout profiles expected , not only for multiscreen , but also catch-up and OTT variants . Another factor is the trend to concentrate on content production and distribution in a mezzanine format , relying on downstream transcoding to handle conditioning for the target distribution format . Of particular relevance to pay-TV is the rise of targeted advertising , which has a significant pull on functionality to reside close to consumption . So while centralising processing within a network has obvious appeal , there are plenty of operational reasons to pull functionality downstream ,” he adds .
“ In traditional approaches to TV delivery , the processing capabilities of the point of media consumption ( the set-top box ) have been kept purposely limited , principally to reduce cost . However , new video-capable connected devices come with higher-processing power and graphic processing units ( GPUs ) that provide a lot more functionality including graphics rendering previously only available to powerful games consoles . This will certainly increase the possibility for more creativity in service provision ,” concludes Murra .
22 EUROMEDIA