View Full Version : From Broadcast Engineering - Level 3 delivers uncompressed HD for CBS NFL games


Ken H
10-23-09, 05:08 PM
Level 3 delivers uncompressed HD signals from NFL game in Denver to CBS broadcast studios in NYC

Oct 23, 2009, By Michael Grotticelli

Looking to increase the quality of contribution-level transmission for sports production, Level 3 Communications is delivering Denver Broncos home games from Invesco Field in Denver to the game’s live broadcaster (CBS Sports) using an uncompressed HD video feed.

The signal is being delivered this season entirely on the company’s Vyvx national fiber-optic network. Level 3 is one of the first to enable end-to-end delivery of uncompressed HD video.

By leveraging its IP network — and the fiber-optic connection into Invesco Field that Level 3 installed to deliver the 2008 Democratic National Convention — the company is delivering an uncompressed 1.5Gb/s feed from Denver to the broadcast studio of the network carrying the game.

Typically, broadcasters take the feed from the cameras at a given sporting event and send it to a production truck; from there, the feed is compressed and delivered to the broadcast studio.

CBS, rights holder of the American Football Conference, has five Bronco home games on its broadcast schedule this season. The network has agreed to participate in Level 3’s test by backhauling the uncompressed feeds to the CBS Broadcast Center in New York. Reports said CBS was pleased with the initial results.

Level 3 was a key participant in creating the HBRAV-IP standard that is driving the delivery of uncompressed HD. The standard is being developed by the Video Services Forum, an international association composed of service providers, users and manufacturers dedicated to interoperability, quality metrics and education for video networking technologies.

According to the company, when video signals are compressed and uncompressed, the quality becomes degraded, if only slightly. However, an uncompressed video feed maintains the integrity of the original signal and allows broadcasters to deliver the highest-quality picture possible.

sneals2000
10-24-09, 03:37 AM
AIUI the World Cup 2006 in Germany also used uncompressed fibre circuits to backhaul stadium feeds to the IBC in Berlin to minimise quality loss. If you can avoid compression upstream of broadcast wherever possible you should end up with better quality pictures as you avoid concatenation effects.

John Mason
10-25-09, 02:37 PM
It would be interesting to compare video and a spectrum analysis of several scenes with lots of details at the original 1.5 Gbps over fiber with how the scenes look after compression to ~19 Mbps for OTA transmission, (and typical truck-to-CBS compression rates). Also, a comparison of the same scenes delivered OTA between stations with/without subchannels, plus delivery by major DBS and cable services. Here's a stadium crowd scene analyzed (http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5466046#post5466046) with a free/shareware PC program (see two jpegs). -- John

surf_fun85
10-25-09, 02:51 PM
Awsome thumbs up for them

ftran999
10-27-09, 02:50 PM
Thanks for the post. Any word of possible future roll out dates for other cities?

John Mason
10-29-09, 01:41 PM
Three of the 1.5-Gbps fiber-delivered games, from Denver to CBS NYC, are listed here (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/teams/schedule?team=den): (Nov.22, 4:15 pm CBS; Dec. 20, 4:05 pm CBS; Jan. 3, 4:15 pm CBS). Two other games from Denver's Invesco Field (not necessarily 1.5 Gbps to broadcasters) are slated for ESPN (Nov.9) and NFL (Nov. 26) broadcast. -- John