Broadband still not reliable for broadcasters
April 23, 2007 at 12:15 pm
BT will permanently retire its Business Highway, Home Highway, ISDN2 and ISDN30 products on 31st July 2007, highlighting the diminishing importance of ISDN in today’s world. Now regarded as an “older technology”, ISDN is losing out to broadband as costs continue to fall and connection speeds increase. A BT spokesman explained that consumer ISDN was being withdrawn because “the demand for it has dived with the availability of cheap, fast broadband”. Is this a bad thing? Well, maybe not for the home internet user, but possibly if you are a broadcaster.
Back in the day of dial-up modems, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), became popular with remote workers who needed to upload and download large amounts of data quickly and reliably. ISDN used the existing digital public telephone network to enable transfer of high-quality voice and data files. Simultaneous voice, video, and text transmission was a breakthrough for broadcasters, especially journalists filing reports remotely.
But with standard ISDN speeds of 64 Kilobits per second (Kbps), compared to broadband speeds of between 256Kbps and an ultra-fast 24 Megabits per second, surely broadband is now in a position to do a better job? Not so, according to Gavin Davies, who heads up a specialist manufacturer of ISDN equipment and claimed “there’s nothing that can replace it”. The reason for this surprising claim is that ISDN provides the same upstream and downstream connection speed. Broadband, on the other hand, uses an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) – ‘asymmetric’ because it allows data to be downloaded much faster than it can be uploaded. This may be ideal for domestic broadband users, but not for journalists wanting to upload data files, hi-res imagery or video interviews. So, while broadband is the choice for surfing and intermittent data transfers, ISDN is far preferable for broadcasters, who send large amounts of data on a regular basis.
There are also problems surrounding the way that internet protocol (IP) deals with data traffic jams. Gavin Davies claims that “for outside broadcast-type work IP just does not work”. It is difficult to estimate how long data will take to arrive if it’s sent over the internet and, moreover, packets of data may not arrive at the same time, a scenario that is just too unreliable for broadcasters. ADSL broadband effectively means sharing the connection infrastructure with other users, and the extent of this sharing, known as contention, means you never quite know how long your upload might take.
“ISDN is extremely useful to us because, unlike IP, it doesn’t use contention – the bit rate on the tin is the bit rate you get,” says Rupert Brun, of BBC Radio, adding “compare this with IP where the connection gets slower as the network gets busier”.
So can’t data streaming technologies be improved to avoid these problems? Some internet-based broadcast equipment delays the transfer of data, to try and ensure data packages arrive simultaneously. This is known as latency, and anyone who has watched a reporter and a newsreader struggling to communicate via a videolink will be familiar with its disadvantages. “Latency becomes a real issue for live broadcasts where we need to send output back to a journalist of presenter,” said Mr Brun, “if the feed back to their headphones is delayed too much it can be very difficult for them to speak.”
When you consider the technological advances of the last decade, it’s unlikely that this state of affairs will remain for long. Telecoms experts will surely come up with a solution for the broadcast industry, probably in the form of short-term, high-quality, bi-directional IP circuits. For the moment though, the latest technology is not necessarily helping to bring us the latest news.
UK broadband is too slow
April 19, 2007 at 2:52 am
The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), an industry-government strategy group for broadband issues, has warned that the UK is falling behind on Next Generation Access (NGA) networks. The warnings are stark – if the UK cannot keep pace with industry innovations, the British economy could slow as a result. Existing infrastructure, and the network products currently being rolled out, will soon be too slow to meet the demands of both domestic and business consumers. How soon? BSG believes as early as 2012.
European competition
Everyone seems to have broadband these days – whether living in London or, like me, a welsh village. Yet despite the current status quo, the UK is far from being at the cutting edge of telecoms technology. In the next few years, experts predict that the UK will start to seriously lag behind EU peers. France Telecom, No.1 in the European ADSL access market, is already trialling broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps in the french capital. Meanwhile Deutsche Telekom, provider of Germany’s high-speed network, is gradually introducing download bandwidths of up to 50Mbps. Currently available in 10 cities, there are plans to roll out the high-speed network to 40 more towns and cities.
High-speed benefits
NGA networks really could revolutionise the way we do business, and provide substantial social and economic benefits. Home working, a concomitant reduction in emissions and transport congestion, and the possibility of remote medical and government services are just some of the positive effects of ultra high-speed broadband. Policies must safeguard all our future possibility of a “digital divide” between urban and rural areas. While telecoms companies may be drawn to the densely-populated, business-rich cities, e-capability is vital to rural communities.
Government backing
The UK government needs to act quickly to put in place a regulatory framework which encourages the necessary innovation and expansion. The British broadband market is hugely competitive, with over thirty providers vying to supply our homes and businesses. With profit-margins squeezed through competition, none of these companies are likely to invest heavily in the next generation without some government backing. Installation of optical fibres, so-called fibre to the home (FTTH) technology, is just one cost of bringing the UK up to speed and will require an outlay of at least 14 billion Euros. Time for Gordon Brown to get out the Treasury chequebook? The BSG is pushing the government to put policies in place by the end of 2009 at the latest, to ensure a market-led transition to next-generation broadband. If it fails to do so, and to back it up with a financial commitment, the UK risks losing its position as a key player in the global marketplace.
