TV via Internet and ISPs

Stellios · 11 Apr 2006 at 01:26

As a lot of peopel know, BBC have been doing these trails of their TV via streaming on the internet.

Its got me thinking, whats an ISPs take on how this will be dealt with? A 5GB cap, or even a 50GB cap isnt going to be enough for a months worth of TV.

Did i hear the fact that TV via broadband should be becoming available within the next few years? or have i totally lost the plot?

sja360 · 11 Apr 2006 at 01:29

i wouldnt say its far fetched or made up, i mean currently NTL/BY tv/phone/net are all done via a single connection arent they? only thing is if there was TV via wires BT would have some major diggin and replacing of the current wires that are in the ground i'd have thought.

norm · 11 Apr 2006 at 05:28

TV via broadband would be totally feasible using a Multicast system. Whereby a multiplex of channels is sent to all exchanges around the country by fiber backhaul or the cheaper option of using satellite. Once at the exchange it's broadcast out individually at the viewers request. So only using up bandwidth locally.

However, the crux of the matter is there's no real need/money to do this when DTT broadcasts are already in place.

I admit though, HDTV viewing with features like View-On-Demand from a telephone line without the need to blight the neighbourhood with satellite dishes would be great. Maybe some time in the future.

saitrix · 11 Apr 2006 at 11:06

There are some trials coming out soon with a large isp provider using the net to stream programmes you have missed etc. It uses a hdd top box for it and works with freeview.

tolien · 11 Apr 2006 at 11:23

Its got me thinking, whats an ISPs take on how this will be dealt with?

How do you think it'll be dealt with? Unless there's some option to pay more to cover the increased bandwidth usage, it'll fall within your cap. Use over your cap, cough up...

saitrix said:
There are some trials coming out soon with a large isp provider using the net to stream programmes you have missed etc. It uses a hdd top box for it and works with freeview.

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2604

Whereby a multiplex of channels is sent to all exchanges

That would require a huge change to the way the BT network works just now, and Ofcom would no doubt have some input to make.

Skilldibop · 11 Apr 2006 at 12:00

Whereby a multiplex of channels is sent to all exchanges around the country by fiber backhaul or the cheaper option of using satellite.

that would be a huge traffic pattern shift. This would require reconfigurations on a big scale and probably complete upgrades in a lot of places.
All this costs money, quite a lot of it, and BT nor anyone else likes spending money unless they can make a lot more money out of it, preferably quickly.
Then there's the Ofcom effect: "Yes, BT can invest £30m in this new venture but can only generate £4m per year revenue on it." Or some such silly restrictive nonsense that will deter BT gettin of it's big behind and doing anything remotely as adventurous.

V-Spec · 11 Apr 2006 at 12:48

I went to a seminar about this kind of thing last week, its a long way off, but NTL and some other providers have been trialing 100Mbit fibre into peoples houses, running the TV and internet through it. It'll be a big change for the ISPs, I can see it taking off like wildfire.. I run a huge IP/TV network at work, although its only on a LAN it is pretty brilliant when you can watch TV on your pcs and television.

Kol · 11 Apr 2006 at 12:51

V-Spec said:
I went to a seminar about this kind of thing last week, its a long way off, but NTL and some other providers have been trialing 100Mbit fibre into peoples houses, running the TV and internet through it. It'll be a big change for the ISPs, I can see it taking off like wildfire.. I run a huge IP/TV network at work, although its only on a LAN it is pretty brilliant when you can watch TV on your pcs and television.

I'd be interested to hear how you went about setting this up, hardware/software involved?

I use IPTV at Uni and it's awesome. Simple DVB-S provided by them, fire up VLC and whack in the IP of preferred channel. Excellent sound/video quality.

V-Spec · 11 Apr 2006 at 13:40

Mikol said:
I'd be interested to hear how you went about setting this up, hardware/software involved?

I use IPTV at Uni and it's awesome. Simple DVB-S provided by them, fire up VLC and whack in the IP of preferred channel. Excellent sound/video quality.

We run basic multicast sources, which enable you to connect your sky feed into the box itself, this then connects to the network. (it also has a DVD drive)
The clients need to install a small codec and a small program which lists all the different channels currently avilable, they then select the program they want, be it sky news/itv/whatever and it fires up media player and starts playing. We uses boxes by exterity which are pretty reasonable.
In terms of hardware we run a Cisco network comprising of 6500 series switches with sup720s, 3550-12Gs and 2950s, using PIM-Sparse mode for the multicast routing, and IGMP-Snooping. basically the multicast source plugs into one of the access layer switches, when a client fires up the IP/TV app, it joins the correct multicast, and the switches in the network begin forwarding traffic for that group.

Kol · 11 Apr 2006 at 13:41

Nice one, cheers mate. I'm experienced from end user point of view, but not in setting it up. I was hoping to do something similar for my house, but I'm guessing it's very expensive to do.

edit - just done a search for some of the hardware exterity produce, ~£6k for what I would want to do! I only want to stream to computers, not TV's and even this is expensive. Looks like I'll have to give it a few years.

V-Spec · 11 Apr 2006 at 15:20

Mikol said:
Nice one, cheers mate. I'm experienced from end user point of view, but not in setting it up. I was hoping to do something similar for my house, but I'm guessing it's very expensive to do.

edit - just done a search for some of the hardware exterity produce, ~£6k for what I would want to do! I only want to stream to computers, not TV's and even this is expensive. Looks like I'll have to give it a few years.

Well from a home perspective, it can be quite cheap.. there are various software things out there which allow streaming if you can get a video card which allows composite input, you can connect your sky box to the PC, then use "software" to start a multicast stream, thing is, you'd only benefit from multicast if it was going to more than say 3-4 machines... if its a home enviroment you'd be ok with just streaming it unicast... theres loads of software which does it for cheap..

saitrix · 11 Apr 2006 at 16:36

tolien said:
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2604

Ahh i wasnt too sure whether any info had been released to public.

Im on the trial for it, just need to wait for the stuff to arrive.