GlobeCast is acquiring additional switches and nodes from
Net Insight for its work at the 2010 FIFA World Cup and its media contribution
network, a move that will allow the content-management and transmission-services
provider to transport more HD content during the soccer matches.
"GlobeCast has been very successful in selling their
services in connection with World Cup 2010," said Per Lindgren, Net Insight's
vice president of business development and co-founder. "They are going to have
quite a big presence in South Africa
and they have also bought a lot of new equipment to upgrade the network to be
able to handle the increased demand for HD."
At the international soccer's biggest event in South
Africa, GlobeCast will use Net Insight'sNimbra platform,
which was designed to help companies handle a growing volume of video traffic
over Internet-protocol networks.
"The vision of the company has been that the next-generation
networks would have to handle more video media-centric traffic and be able to
cope with the quality of service and delay requirements of that type of traffic,"
said Lindgren.
The uptick in HD production has prompted a need for more
capacity for video streams, boosting the demand for Nimbra switches to handle video
traffic.
"At the Beijing Olympics, which was the first to be done all
in HD, we built a network [with more than 100 Nimbra switches] that was
handling 1,000 uncompressed HD feeds, over 1 Terabyte per second," said Lindgren.
"This corresponds to Sweden's
total broadband capacity."
Lindgren also noted that satellite operators like GlobeCast
have been building more large fiber networks to complement their satellite
capacity and to handle the increased demand for HD. GlobeCast's fiber network is
based on the Nimbra platform, Lindgren said and interconnects more than 20
major sites around the world.
Nimbra switches will also be widely used for the futbol tourney in South
Africa. "FIFA will be big for us," Lindgren
noted. "We will have close to 10 customers down there. GlobeCast is our
biggest."
Lindgren adds that the deployment of 3D services could put
pressures on networks in upcoming years. At this month's National Association
of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas,
Next Insight will also demonstrate transport of 3D video using its Nimbra platform.
One unnamed customer will use Nimbra for 3D distribution during the World Cup.
"3D is in its early phases, but we will be doing our
first 3D contribution at FIFA and some of our customers are also starting to do
their initial distribution of 3D content," he noted.
