Amsterdam video trial proves Ethernet capabilities

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Apr 18, 2006

Pleora Technologies and Fabchannel.com have completed the first stage of a technical trial to stream live SD-SDI video and audio across Amsterdam over a standard Ethernet network.

Pleora Technologies and Fabchannel.com of Amsterdam, Netherlands, have successfully completed the first stage of an ambitious technical trial to stream live SD-SDI (Standard Definition - Serial Digital Interface) video and audio across Amsterdam over a standard Ethernet network.

In early April, Fabchannel used Pleora's PL1453A EtherCast Video IP Engine to transmit an uncompressed video/audio feed from an SD camera at Amsterdam's famed Paradiso music hall to another city location.

The SD feed was streamed in real time over a standard, fibre-based Gigabit Ethernet link.

Stage two of the trial, scheduled for May, will simultaneously multicast live SD footage from the Paradiso to several Amsterdam destinations across a multihop gigabit Ethernet LAN (local-area network).

"We film most of the performances at the Paradiso and we want to send live feeds of the events to other venues in Amsterdam".

"We also have an immense archive of high-quality video that we would like to distribute to digital broadcasters".

"By bridging video and the Internet, Pleora's EtherCast engines deliver a unique and cost-effective solution to our problem", says Bauke Freiburg, Fabchannel's Head of Product Development.

"The trial with Fabchannel further validates the ability of our EtherCast IP Transport solution to transform standard Ethernet LANs and WANs into lossless, high-performance video conduits", says George Chamberlain, President, Pleora Technologies.

"By leveraging the widely deployed Ethernet platform, our EtherCast products are giving leading-edge production companies like Fabchannel a new-generation solution to video distribution that costs less and is easier to implement than satellite links".

During the Fabchannel trial, one of Pleora's PL1453A EtherCast Video IP Engines was deployed at the Paradiso and another at Fabchannel's production facility several hundred meters away.

The engine at the Paradiso efficiently converted the video/audio output from an SD camera to IP and sent it over the GigE link to the second engine.

The receiving engine returned the feed to its original SD-SDI format for real-time display on a high-quality plasma screen.

The video quality was excellent and the transfer was lossless.