The diagram below illustrates a variety of work flows typical for major news organizations. Video input is captured, compressed, and transported over IP or satellite networks using, for example, the Streambox Portable Video Transport System or the award-winning Streambox SBT3-7500 System. At the News Studio, the video and audio stream is decoded via Streambox decoders for on-air broadcast.

Some broadcasters also deploy one or more Streambox Distribution Servers which receive, manage, and deliver multiple video/audio streams from geographically dispersed encoders/locations to several Streambox decoders either for on-air broadcast or off-line editing. The Streambox IFB Server and Client provide real-time, low-latency talkback capabilities between the TV anchor and field reporters over the back channel network connection.

Newsgathering Components

UDcast brings high performance to satellite IP communications, effectively closing the gap with terrestrial access technologies, such as DSL. More importantly, UDcast enables satellite communications to function using full IP networking, while optimizing bandwidth utilization. UDcast uses TCP acceleration and state-of-the-art compression/caching mechanisms, and has developed specific application acceleration, like http and CIFS. The objective is to provide a wide range of highly advanced features that enable service providers and end users to get the most out of their satellite IP links.

Bandwidth: the cost of bandwidth dramatically affects the OPEX of satellite IP networks. Until now, terrestrial ADSL connections have been preferred because of their considerably lower cost than connections over satellite. Satellite bandwidth is the key issue in the SSP business model. The huge bandwidth savings provided by the UDgateway allow the SSP to add more users within the same amount of bandwidth, resulting in more competitive prices that are very similar to those of DSL connections.

Security: security is increasingly important for enterprise networks and government projects, which want to obtain the same level of security as they would if the remote networks where physically located at their headquarters. As data is transmitted over the air, an encryption mechanism is necessary to ensure the required level of security. UDcast’s solutions bring unparalleled end-to-end security to satellite IP communications. Based on the IPsec standard, they are fully transparent and entirely manageable by the enterprise, while still accelerating all applications.

UDcast's satellite IP solutions address the above issues so that satellite service providers can offer LAN-like services, and end users are able to forget that they are connected to the Internet through a satellite network. The benefits are listed in the chart below, and include amortization of the equipment in only a few months.