[140199] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: How do you put a TV station on the Mbone?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeff Young)
Wed May 4 18:15:33 2011
From: Jeff Young <young@jsyoung.net>
In-Reply-To: <4DC18474.2080902@ispalliance.net>
Date: Thu, 5 May 2011 08:15:15 +1000
To: Scott Helms <khelms@ispalliance.net>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
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On 05/05/2011, at 2:53 AM, Scott Helms wrote:
> On 5/4/2011 12:26 PM, Tim Franklin wrote:
>>> I think that George's POV -- which is also mine -- is that as the
>>> world shifts, the percentage of video distribution which is
>>> amenable to multicast, and not well served by unicast, is likely
>>> to grow, and it would be a Good Idea to be ready for that
>>> situation already when it arrives.
>> Really? If anything, I'd say quite the opposite. Watching media in =
the time-slot that someone else has decided on is *so* 20th-century - I =
can't remember the last time I sat down to actively watch a programme in =
its original transmission slot. (As opposed to having the TV on as =
background, e.g. 15 minutes of breakfast news in the morning). I guess =
multicast to a recording application (or appliance) might work - but =
essentially my requirement is strongly skewed towards video-on-demand.
>>=20
>> I have absolutely zero interest in sport of any kind though - I'm =
given to understand there's quite a high demand for live viewing of =
that.
>>=20
>> Regards,
>> Tim.
>>=20
>>=20
>=20
> I agree, I think less and less content will be multicast with live =
events (like sports) being the notable exception. Having said that I =
think that multicast will increase in importance as more live events =
move into the remotely viewable venue. There is a huge market for =
concerts, live pays, comedy, and other content that just isn't available =
right now. The viewing market will continue to fragment requiring more =
sources of content than are available today. In short the percentage of =
video sent as multicast will decrease (IMO) over time but the overall =
volume will increase as total video content as IP greatly expands.
>=20
>=20
> --=20
Many years ago I was the MCI side of the Real Broadcast Network. Real =
Networks arranged to broadcast a=20
Rolling Stones concert. We had the ability to multicast on the Mbone =
and unicast from Real Networks caches.
We figured that we'd get a hit rate of 70% multicast (those who wanted =
to see the event as it happened) and
30% unicast (those who would wait and watch it later). =20
The data we got back was the exact opposite of what we'd expected (30% =
multicast, 70% unicast) with an=20
average skew being around 30 minutes (on average unicasters started =
viewing less than 30 minutes after
the event began). =20
Events like these formed my opinion that while multicast wouldn't be a =
ubiquitous transport, it would be a very=20
important (our Real Networks caches picked the event up off the Mbone) =
tool for providers to use. =20
The most ambitious use of multicast I'm aware of is AT&T's UVerse =
network which multicasts (SS) from two
head-ends all the way to the set top box in a home. But this is =
confined to the AT&T network and UVerse is
arguably a "me-too" offering to compete with Time Warner Cable and =
others.
jy
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