Broadcasting in the era of disruptive technology

As audiences demand more than ever, content owners are under increasing pressure to deliver exceptional viewing at less expense.

In recent years, several key factors are converging to permanently change the traditional broadcasting landscape. Satellite capacity is becoming more costly, and the overall demand for ​​capacity is growing, leading to an increasingly competitive environment. As a result, spectrum congestion has become a significant issue, and new LEO constellations pose a threat to the GEO satellite business model.

The widespread deployment of fiber optic networks offers reliable, high-bandwidth connections that can compete with satellite broadcasts, challenging the status quo. Alongside the rollout of 5G networks to enable high-speed data transmission, broadcast IP has matured and offers increasing technological sophistication. The combination of these pressure points puts disruptive solutions at the forefront of customers’ minds.

Embracing a collaborative future

Success hinges on effectively leveraging the strengths of both IP and satellite technology. Hybrid models that combine these technologies can help balance capacity, manage budgets, and optimize latency. This approach involves implementing the right technology for each specific use case, ensuring high-quality broadcasts without the need to redeploy networks for every event.

Collaborative relationships between IP technologists and satellite experts are essential for identifying the unique advantages of each technology for live delivery. Content owners, often operating with limited resources, need comprehensive solutions that guarantee the optimal implementation of broadcast technology to meet their needs.

A balanced approach for global coverage

Satellite infrastructure is essential for planning widespread coverage for global broadcasts, reaching vast audiences across continents. However, areas outside its footprint can be effectively covered using IP-based broadcasting, which allows for scalability and cost-effective expansion to varying audience sizes and geographical locations. This agility makes IP broadcasting particularly valuable for filling gaps where satellite coverage is insufficient.

Live sports broadcasting, which demands minimal latency for real-time viewing, benefits significantly from maximizing IP’s capabilities. Combining satellite’s reliability in delivering high-resolution content with IP’s efficient distribution strikes a perfect balance between high-quality, low-latency delivery. In regions prone to extreme weather conditions, using both IP and satellite ensures uninterrupted content delivery for high-value events. Developing redundancy plans that incorporate both technologies guarantees continuity of service, as one system can serve as a backup for the other in case of disruptions.

The digital advantage of IP delivery

IP delivery, designed for a digital world, excels in providing interactive, on-demand, or personalized content experiences. It enables interactive features and viewer engagement tools, along with detailed analytics and audience measurement functionality. Broadcasters can gather data on viewer behavior, preferences, and engagement to support content customization and targeted advertising.

Advertisement

In many cases, IP can be a perfect complement to the main feed, enabling broadcasters to leverage ancillary content opportunities that will help drive engagement. This is especially true for live sports, as fan’s explore beyond main match coverage, to interact with supplementary behind the scenes content and shoulder programming.

Managing change in the satellite spectrum

Satellite technology has revolutionized TV by delivering a wide range of content to global audiences. However, space is evolving and the GEO satellite industry is currently facing fierce competition from disruptive technologies. LEO projects have deployed vast constellations of star architecture satellites to provide high-speed internet access at much closer altitudes to the Earth’s surface, therefore offering much lower latency and RTT as opposed to VSAT links with GEO satellites.

Satellite operators are investing in spectrum efficiency technologies, using advanced modulation techniques and signal processing methods to transmit more data within the available spectrum. Collaboration with regulatory bodies and other operators has also been essential to coordinate frequencies and participate in spectrum-sharing arrangements that reduce interference. To further combat congestion, satellite operators are developing more advanced systems capable of performing in narrower frequency bands or utilizing higher frequencies. Next-generation satellite systems now feature flexible frequency reuse capabilities and adaptive resource management techniques, dynamically allocating resources based on demand to optimize spectrum capacity.

A bandwidth revolution

LEO satellites are transforming the landscape for internet-based content delivery by enabling access to high-speed internet in regions previously lacking traditional infrastructure. Simultaneously, the widespread adoption of fiber optic networks is providing more consumers with reliable, high-bandwidth connections that can compete with satellite broadcasts. With the addition of 5G networks, traditional satellite operators are under increasing pressure to innovate.

The growing demand for high-definition and 4K/8K content is escalating bandwidth requirements too. But combining satellite’s broad coverage with the bandwidth capabilities of 5G networks can help alleviate this pressure and this is another example of where collaboration is key. IP delivery has gone from strength to strength and now uses broadcast-quality transport protocols to deliver secure, low-latency video content across bonded networks. More sophisticated software-defined video networks allow for dynamic scaling to multiple stream destinations without compromising the quality of a single stream.

By embracing complementary workflows between traditional satellite broadcast and evolving IP delivery technologies, the broadcasting industry can create a more robust and adaptable ecosystem. This approach meets the demands of consumers and content owners alike, ensuring a resilient future for global content delivery in the era of disruptive technology.

Paul Calleja, GlobalMPaul Calleja graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with a diploma of Audiovisual systems in 2003. Upon graduation, he worked in outside broadcast and at Sky Channel Australia as an engineer. In 2005, Paul relocated to the UK and after briefly working on contracts with Ascent Media and Technicolor Network Services in systems engineering roles. Paul joined the BBC in 2006 working as a senior broadcast systems engineer at BBC Television Center London. In 2008, he joined the EBU, designing and project managing many different technical projects, for both sports and news applications. In 2019, he took the role as CTO and CEO of GlobalM, a distributed network technology that supports premium transmission services for news, sports, and events.