Content Delivery Network (CDN) and video streaming technologies provider Broadpeak will demonstrate at TV Connect how its CDN technologies and streaming server equipment can be used by content providers and operators to support new business models.
Broadpeak will showcase a range of solutions that can be deployed in the network, in the home, or on the go.
In the network, virtualisation has emerged as the most flexible and cost-effective content delivery method for pay-TV services. Broadpeak’s software-based approach to video delivery allows operators to take advantage of the extensive benefits offered by virtualisation, including decreased hardware costs, resource optimization, increased flexibility, simplified administration, and more.
A key demonstration in the network area of Broadpeak’s TV Connect stand will be the company’s “CDN in a Box” solution, which dramatically simplifies the deployment of video streaming services by providing operators with:
• Cloud PVR capabilities, enabling operators to offer start-over, time-shifting, and catch-up TV, as well as impulsive recording, while only storing content once. This dramatically reduces operators’ storage expenses.
• BkM100 CDN Mediator v5.0, a unified CDN manager. At TV Connect, Broadpeak will showcase an enhanced GUI and new bandwidth optimisation features, which enable operators to limit the number of devices that can simultaneously access a service within the home, and to adapt the bitrate of streamed content to the type of device. These news features open up new business models for operators.
• BkA100 video delivery analytics software solution, which aggregates data from various components of the video delivery chain to provide operators with meaningful information about video consumption and service quality in a variety of formats. At the TV Connect stand, BkA100’s daily report feature will be demonstrated. This unique tool provides operators with timely reports on content, sessions, VOD and live services, alarm information, and more.
• Fast channel change technologies for live IPTV services, significantly enhancing the end customers’ QoE by drastically reducing the channel switching time.
• The umbrellaCDN™ CDN selection solution, available both as a service and as a product, allowing content providers and operators to always choose the most adapted CDN to deliver their video content.
Broadpeak Software Defined Networks (SDN) CDN technologies naturally extend into end users’ home networks and on the go for increased mobility to optimise video delivery and ensure a better QoE.
Broadpeak’s award-winning nanoCDN™ technology enables operators to extend their CDN into the home network leveraging equipment such as broadband gateways and set-top boxes (STBs). nanoCDN now supports four applications, which will be demonstrated at TV Connect:
• Multicast ABR for live multiscreen delivery: nanoCDN makes live OTT video delivery to any device truly scalable by turning millions of broadband gateways or STBs into active components of an operator’s content delivery infrastructure. Leveraging home networks, operators can cost-effectively manage the consumption peaks of live multiscreen services for millions of simultaneous viewers using only a few megabits per second from their network. This is done by implementing multicast support for most popular ABR formats.
• Video transparent caching: This application of nanoCDN allows operators to handle the growing volume of unmanaged video content on their backbones efficiently. Through nanoCDN, operators can reduce peering costs for ISPs while optimising their network resources and improving the QoE for end users. The application paves the way for new business models, enabling operators to monetize the caching capability with content owners, without the latter needing to modify their set-up.
• VOD precaching: Leveraging customer-premises equipment (CPE) and multicast technology, the VOD precaching application of nanoCDN optimises streaming capacity and end users’ QoE for VOD services. Broadpeak’s solution is installed in the equipment, enabling it to act like a cache server located near end users, since the CPE is inside the home network. Multicast is used to send video content to the home gateway during off-peak hours, improving QoE for all customers, even those not eligible for Ultra HD.
• Multiscreen over satellite: Together with Eutelsat’s “smart LNB,” nanoCDN enables cost-effective multiscreen video delivery over satellite.
At TV Connect, Broadpeak will present how the CDN can be extended to the base station of mobile networks, by deploying caching and nanoCDN technologies onto a mobile edge computing platform. This is one example of how Broadpeak’s strategic approach to a “CDN on the go” can leverage base stations in a mobile network.