A CASE STUDY OF:
DEVELOPING A TERRESTRIAL NETWORK FOR
BROADCASTERS AND PROFESSIONAL MEDIA
The Company
Broadwing Media Services (BMS)
is a suite of products designed
specifically to address the Media
Marketplace for Broadwing
Communications. Broadwing
provides data, voice, and video solutions to enterprises
and service providers, including major telecommunications carriers. Broadwing Communications’ all-optical
network is the newest generation in fiber optic cable,
transmission and switching equipment.
With Broadwing Communication’s abundance of optical
capacity and faced with increasing competition in its traditional business areas, they decided to leverage their optical
network and reputation by providing a unique solution for
media companies. Broadcasters and professional media
companies faced an increasing need for an inter-city network, which was able to transport rich media, such as HDTV,
large video files, and both compressed and uncompressed
video transmission on an occasional basis. Existing terrestrial
and satellite solutions did not have the bandwidth capability
or flexibility to deliver these services with the 100% QoS
required by this very demanding marketplace.
The Issue
Should Broadwing Media Services create and implement a terrestrial inter-city network to transport
rich media that required 100% Quality of Service?
Broadwing Communication’s optical network could
provide the strong backbone for this new type of network. However, the existing network could not provide
the managed on-demand (occasional services) at 100%
QOS required for the advanced video services such as
live HD sports broadcasts. Therefore, Broadwing Media
Services needed a solution that could provide scheduled
on-demand capacity with no possibility of contention
or delays as a Level Two network platform on the
Broadwing Media Services Network.
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A CASE STUDY OF:
DEVELOPING A TERRESTRIAL NETWORK FOR
BROADCASTERS AND PROFESSIONAL MEDIA
The Solution
Through extensive market evaluations with major
media networks, Broadwing Media Services decided to
compliment their terrestrial optical network with a
media core based on Net Insight’s Nimbra™ platform.
Broadwing Media Services evaluated available alternatives through in-lab testing of leading suppliers and by
discussing necessary applications with network customers. Their choice was - the Nimbra platform. Net
Insight has shown unmatched success in deploying this
platform in networks for major broadcasters in the U.S.
and Europe.
The Nimbra product portfolio includes a complete
range of multi-service network equipment compliant
with Next Generation SDH/SONET and GMPLS standards. The platform enables a mix of real time video,
file transfer, LAN connectivity and voice in the same
switched network ensuring100 % QoS even in a network with full load.
Designed with professional media applications in mind,
only Net Insight’s solution delivered the capacity, scalability, and reliability required for this rich media network. Broadcasters and networks demand the highest
reliability, even for demanding applications such as live
news and HD sports broadcasts. Competing platforms
designed for telecom applications (MPLS/ATM) do not
perform to this standard.
The Nimbra solution guarantees a bandwidth utilization
of 95% even with real time TV traffic. It offers automatic
topology discovery and re-routing features that eliminate labor intensive operations in network management.
Therefore customers benefit from both significantly
reduced bandwidth and operational costs.
The Results
Broadwing Media Services has established a 15-city
media service network. This network currently serves
major U.S. News & Sports markets.
Broadwing Media Services’ initial 15-city network
implementing the new Nimbra based platform, covering
New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles,
Houston, Cleveland, Detroit, Denver, San Diego, San
Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Minneapolis, and
Memphis, is up and running. The network is carrying
live traffic for professional media customers such as
Ascent Media Services.
The focus of this service is to offer both retail and
wholesale media transport services to the broadcast TV
and media producer market. The network allows broadcasters to send content from contribution through
distribution on a single network. BMS has constructed
a new Television Operations Center (TOC) in Columbia
Maryland to properly support the needs and operation
of this 24/7 media transmission service business.
BMS has plans for future expansion of additional cities
covering the U.S. The Broadwing Media network will
run over Net Insight’s platform and include ASI, SDI
and Ethernet based services for TV transmission and
data communication. It includes efficient multicast services as well as pre-defined routing, network protection
and re-routing mechanisms.
Net Insight AB • Phone +46 (0)8 685 04 00 • sales@netinsight.net • www.netinsight.net