20 IBC OTT SHOWCASE Rohde & Schwarz
LIVE OTT DISTRIBUTION NO LONGER A PIPE DREAM At IBC, Rohde & Schwarz will show off its RelayCaster technology which provides an economical alternative to CDN’s
n today’s multi-platform OTT-mad world the question of how to support live content contribution and primary distribution has
The RelayCaster appliance enables optimised contribution and distribution of live IP streams. FREEDOM FROM CDN s At IBC, Rohde & Schwarz will introduce the latest version which features integrated SDI/HDMI input and encoding. Among its claimed benefits are significantly improved reliability of contributing and distributing live content via unmanaged networks. Packet loss issues are efficiently resolved, says Lohse. “RelayCaster enables the replacement of expensive, dedicated links or contracts with CDN service providers,” he explains. “In contrast, RelayCaster is not limited to certain regions or data centres. It enables distribution of content across any distance, to any place that is reachable by Internet infrastructure. With optional encryption, data streams will be protected between all senders and receivers.” PUBLIC INTERNET PATHWAYS Dutch company MediaChoice is using the tech as the operating platform for a new service for local broadcasters. This service allows regional broadcasters to bring their live signal to a central data centre, which acts as a ‘media-hub’, allowing programming to be made available to telecoms providers, ISPs and other operators to add new channels to their IPTV and Internet/OTT offering. “All contribution and distribution is carried out over inexpensive consumer- level public Internet links, such as DSL or
DOCSIS,” says Lohse. “To enable reliable and secure transmission of the live stream, RelayCaster builds a fully redundant service with independent data centres.” Some 120 local broadcasters are being supported by the system and MediaChoice now plans to extend the service. “Consumers’ ability to access the content they wish, where and whenever they want is creating a technological revolution,” he adds. “RelayCaster is a good example of technology that is fuelling that revolution. It empowers users to create flexible and scaleable do-it- yourself content delivery networks, and by doing this it offers unbeatable levels of OPEX using internet capacity in such a creative way.” RELAYCASTER ENABLES THE REPLACEMENT OF EXPENSIVE, DEDICATED LINKS OR CONTRACTS WITH CDN SERVICE PROVIDERS
become a massive issue. The solution according to companies such as Akamai Technologies and Amazon CloudFront is a commercial Content Delivery Network (CDN). However, the new multi-platform distribution business model has, some argue, also created significant growth in operating costs. That’s because content owners such as media companies and e-commerce vendors pay CDN operators to deliver their content to their end users. In turn, a CDN pays ISPs, carriers, and network operators for hosting its servers in their data centres. For broadcasters, the whole issue of CDNs has become a major cost generator and can have a significant impact on operating costs and consequently their profitability. That’s the argument anyway from Rohde & Schwarz, a stalwart broadcast engineering company which is trying hard to turn the tanker in the direction of more fluid software waters. According to the firm’s Dr Marco Lohse, Director of R&D IP Gateways, the ideal solution for many broadcasters would be the ability to operate live content contribution and primary distribution over the public internet. “For many years this has been nothing more than a pipe dream, but now RelayCaster offers a new and radically different approach to commercial CDNs,” he says.
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