APPLICATIONS: Computer & Information Sciences Advanced Networking Infrastructure & Research

HDTV Transmission Over IP of a Cultural TV Production

To demonstrate the first intercontinental transmission of studio quality HDTV productions via Internet technology, researchers are bi-directionally broadcasting footage of the Year Gaudí 2002 events, celebrating the famous architect’s 150th birthday. The UPC produced live HDTV cultural content at 1.5Gbps (HDSDI), and is compressing and transmitting it at 270Mbps (SDTI) over IP between Seattle, Chicago, and Amsterdam using HD/IP transmission technologies. The ResearchChannel Consortium and the University of Washington, who pioneered the real-time transport of HDTV over the Internet, are demonstrating uncompressed bi-directional HDTV/IP using prototype Tektronix hardware, as well as Sony HDCAM/IP software technology developed at the University of Washington at 270Mbps. MPEG-2 multicast up to 10 Mbps, VideoOnDemand at 5.6Mbps, and AudioOnDemand at 1.4Mbps are also demonstrated. ICAIR is streaming Barcelona content at 270Mbps over IP using a technology specifically designed for high-performance digital video over IP and Gigabit Ethernet. The dual network paths supporting these demonstrations transit the Pacific NorthWest’s GigaPoP, Chicago’s StarLight facility and SURFnet in the Netherlands via Internet2’s Abilene backbone and transatlantic links provided by SURFnet, Level 3 and Tyco Telecommunications. Tyco donated long term use of an 10Gbps optical circuit to the Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation (IEEAF) for use by the international research and education community. Acknowledgment: UPC receives funding from the Departament de Universitats Recerca i Societat de l’Informació (DURSI) de la Generalitat of Catalunya and members of Internet2 a CATalunya (i2CAT) Consortium. Special thanks to the Pacific Northwest GigaPoP; NSF StarLight; Level 3; SURFnet / NetherLight; IEEAF; Tyco Telecommunications and Internet2 Abilene. Contact Sebastian Sallent i2CAT Project, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain sallent@mat.upc.es Artur Serra i2CAT Project, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain artur@ac.upc.es Collaborators Sebastià Sallent, Artur Serra, Jesus Alcober, Abel Navarro, UPC, Spain Sergi Ovide Maudet, Ovide Broadcast Services, Barcelona, Spain Jacqueline Brown, James DeRoest, Kathleen McMonigal, Amy Philipson, David Richardson, Michael Wellings, University of Washington, USA Joe Mambretti, International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR), Northwestern University, USA Leo Grebot, Starmaze, Spain www.i2cat.net www.researchchannel.com www.washington.edu www.icair.org