Ciena Corp. is delving into the broadcast video space – a new area for the network specialist. Lightower Fiber Networks, a leading metro fiber network and bandwidth service provider, is using Ciena to provide a native video transport solution for a leading global entertainment content and broadcast company.
The solution is earmarked to replace a time-consuming and quality-compromising process of compressing and decompressing video signals at multiple sites. The end user needs to connect numerous live broadcast studios to a separate major production studio with a reliable, low-latency network, so Lightower turned to Ciena for optical transport technology to build a high-capacity, adaptive network with the ability to support current and emerging video bitrates and interfaces.
The native video transport solution that Ciena is providing supports standard and high-definition uncompressed video signals such as 3gbps HD-SDI. It automatically adapts to the signals being transmitted to multiple studio locations, delivering the right capacity in the right format at the right time. In addition, Ciena’s video solution allows real-time monitoring and management.
“The ability to deliver uncompressed digital video in its native format offers our customer a tremendous cost and operational advantage over competing solutions," said Jason Campbell, executive vice president of operations & engineering at Lightower.
The Ciena-based solution includes the ActivSpan 565 Advanced Services Platform, a metro WDM platform that enables a variety of video, data and storage services to be efficiently aggregated onto an optical wavelength-based network or service. Along with the members of Ciena’s ActivSpan 5000 Series, ActivSpan 565 supports video circuit packs that offer flexible and highly reliable video interfaces in addition to a complete set of diagnostic and monitoring tools specifically adapted to the broadcast industry.
“As the use of video continues to increase, so does the need for high-capacity native digital video transport solutions that can deliver the highest quality and superior speeds with real-time monitoring and management," said Chad Whalen, vice president and general manager, North America field organization at Ciena. “Our partnership with Lightower and this project with a leading multimedia and broadcast company is a testament to the value of our innovative technology."
Lightower is a Managed Service Provider partner within Ciena’s BizConnect global partner program.
