Program Council

Content Distribution over IP: Options, Impacts, Opportunities

• Kathleen McMonigal

• Tim Lorang

• Gates Rhodes

Program Council

Part 1 of

The Zone series

Producer:

Tim Lorang

Production Manager

ResearchChannel

Screening

The Convergence Zone

Current Participants: UniversitiesCalifornia State Univeristy, SacramentoDuke UniversityGeorge Mason UniversityJohns Hopkins UniversityMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyNational University of SingaporeNew York UniversityOregon State UniversityRice UniversityStanford University Medical CenterTexas A&M UniversityTufts UniversityUniversidad de Puerto RicoUniversidade de Sao Paulo

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya University of Alaska Fairbanks University of ChicagoUniversity of HawaiiUniversity of HoustonUniversity of Maryland - College ParkUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Texas - AustinUniversity of VirginiaUniversity of WashingtonUniversity of Wisconsin-MadisonVirginia TechYale University

Current ParticipantsResearch OrganizationsHoward Hughes Medical InstituteInternet2National Academies National Academy of EngineeringNational Academy of SciencesNational Institutes of HealthNational Institute of Nursing ResearchNational Library of Medicine National Science FoundationNational Sea Grant College Program

Corporate Research CentersAJA Video Systems, Inc.CENICIBM CorporationIntel CorporationJohnson & JohnsonMicrosoft ResearchPacific Northwest GigapopR1edu.orgVulcan Inc. Wisconsin Public Television

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Goals for ResearchChannel• To develop a recognized national

and international media presence for research activity

• To maximize the distribution and accessibility of research resources from participating institutions to public audiences around the world

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Goals for ResearchChannel• To create accessible, high-quality

video resources for scientific communities

• To lead and partner in technology experiments to develop new, high-speed methods of exchanging high-bandwidth research information on a global scale

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Video On Demand Library• www.researchchannel.org

• 2000 hours of original programming

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U.S. Television Distribution19 Million• DishNetwork satellite system

– 10.5 Million households

• Cable systems– 9.4 Million households– 32 States

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Hours of Media Viewed per Month

16171799

23442590

30482484

3220 3228 30553598

3732

52154648

4252

48505024

6377

7131

7872

9181

0

1000

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7000

8000

9000

10000

Jan-02

Feb-02

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Apr-02

May-02

Jun-02

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Sep-02

Oct-02

Nov-02

Dec-02

Jan-03

Feb-03

Mar-03

Apr-03

May-03

Jun-03

Jul-03

Aug-03

Combined Webcast andVideo On Demand Programs

Ho

urs

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Average Viewing Time

Min

ute

s

Duration longer for VOD at higher bandwidths

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Video Library Growth

0

200

400

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1400

Average23 PremieresEach Month

Program ArchiveCumulative Total

259

381

482

593651

763

891

9711048

1158

1255

61

Pro

gra

ms

270 New Programs per year

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Program Subjects

27%

11%

8%

21%

17%6%

10%

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Internet Viewing: Live Webcast

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

Sept Oct Nov Dec J an Feb March April May J une J uly Aug

Hours viewed per month by bitrate

Cable

DSL

Modem

Audio

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Internet Viewing: Video On Demand

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Sept Oct Nov Dec J an Feb March April May J une J uly Aug

Hours viewed per month by bitrate

Cable

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Modem

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University of Southern California

USC Presents …Literary Luncheon with Michael Cunningham

Program Council

University of VirginiaUVA NewsMakers 2004Energy Policy and Politics

Program Council

University of Maryland College ParkSPJ PresentsPolitics, Ethics and Reporting

Program Council

University of Wisconsin-Madison

University of Wisconsin-Madison Presents

Dances for Television

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Virginia TechHelp Save America’s Pearly

Mussels

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Johns Hopkins UniversityPlans to Prosper:Safety Vest to Reduce Injuries

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National Science FoundationCommunicating Engineering and

Technology to the General Public

William S. HammackAssociate Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular EngineeringUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

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Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Understanding Biomedical Research Series

Research Mechanics: Putting the Brakes on Cancer

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Oregon State UniversityResearch FrontiersThe Pacific Northwest: Disaster Zone

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Objectives•Integrate and automate traditional television and streaming internet distribution.

•Develop high-quality low latency interactive systems.

•Implement meta-data and underlying architecture to make programming easily findable.

•In general, support industry and ubiquitous vendor standards.

•Provide the highest quality viewing experience.

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DigitalWell: Asset Management Infrastructure

•Middleware

•Access control

•Automated encoding

•Automated integration of on-line and television systems

•Storage and preservation

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Our Viewers…

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Audience demographics for televised ReseachChannel programs

Source: Media Audit, Spring 2003

•an age range of 25-54 years

•the achievement of an advanced degree

•registered voters

•higher than average Internet use

•employed in a professional/technical/managerial career

•business travelers

•a regular reader of The New York Times

•annual household income of $100K plus

•consumers of news and information programming on television

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Highest Quality Viewing Experience

• Factors that impact quality

• Production Techniques

• Encoding

• Computer environment

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Content Distribution Over IP:Options, Impacts, Opportunities

Internet 2Fall 2004 Member MeetingSeptember 27-30Austin, Texas

Timothy LorangResearchChannel

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Video Quality and Digital Files• How does Video Quality

Affect Digital Files?• Why should we care?• Production Techniques• Is “technical” quality the

only thing?

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Frame Sample Rates for Uncompressed Video

•Full frame = 640 x 480 pixels•640 x 480 x 30 frames per second = 9,216,000 pixels•Each pixel needs 24 bits for color•9,216,000 x 24 = 221,184,000 bits•221,184,000 bits/8 bits/byte=27,648,000•27,648,000bytes/1024bytes/KB=27000KB•27,000 KB/1024 KB/MB = 26.4 MB•26.4 MB per second of video•1.5GB per minute

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High Bandwidth/Cheap StorageWho cares about big files?

• Last mile issues• Low penetration of high

bandwidth• Network Traffic• Pocket Video or Hand Held PC

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Pocket Video=Small Files• High Speed Example

– 259Kbps– 20fps– 208x160

• Low Speed Example – 46kbps – 15fps – 160x120

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Standards are Evolving • Examples of streaming to

handheld devices at ResearchChannel web site:

http://www.researchchannel.org/demos/movingforward.asp

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Key Frames• Key frame is a

reference frame that contains information about the whole frame.

• Difference Frame contains only information about the current frame that is different from the previous frame.

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Key Frames and Movement • Key frame is a reference

frame that contains information about the whole frame.

• Difference Frame contains only information about the current frame that is different from the previous frame.

• More movement makes more difference frames.

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What affects does movement have on the digitized video?• All movement affects the

encoding• Encoders try to minimize

movement– Inter-frame compression

• Small areas of movement, such as a mouth on a talking head, are digitized, static areas are not.

– Motion Detection• Moving objects are not digitized each

frame, just moved, e.g. a boat moving across the frame.

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Some movements cause more problems for encoders

• Busy backgrounds, such as crowds or moving leaves, adds to movement.

• Unsteady cameras adds to movement.

• Zooms, pans and tilts cause more movement.

• Dissolves, wipes and other special effects cause more movement.

• Animated graphics add movement.

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Steps to minimize movement

• Use static backgrounds• Use tripods• Limit unnecessary camera

movement• Use cuts rather than fancy

transition effects• Static graphics

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•Noise is any artifact recorded in the video that was not part of the original scene. This often is seen as sparkles, black dots, graininess, blocky spots and fuzziness.

•Noise tends to be random and can last on the video for as little as one frame.

•The encoder sees noise as movement and encodes more frames

Encoders and Noise

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What adds noise to video?• Video Cameras

– Old tube cameras add a lot of noise– Digital cameras use light sensitive

“chips.”• Consumer cameras use a single chip,

broadcast cameras use three chips.• The quality and number of chips will

determine how well the camera will record in “low light” settings.

• The Gain Control helps record in low light, but adds noise.

– The lens has a big influence on light sensitivity and sharpness of the image.

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What adds noise to video?• Video Tape

– Still most cost effective storage medium.– Quality varies between brands and

formats.– Analogue formats (VHS, BetacamSP) are

more susceptible to noise.– Digital formats (DVCam, BetacamSX)

maintain the digital quality of the digital video signal.

– Amount of information recorded on tape affects quality.

• DVCam records more digital information than MiniDV but less than BetacamSX.

– Dropouts can affect any tape format.

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How to reduce noise• Use the best camera you can afford.

– 3 chips and a good lens

• Use a professional grade tape format– Use good quality brand video tape– Don’t over use the video tape– Don’t make multiple generation dubs of

tape (more of a problem with analogue formats)

• Use proper lighting techniques to bring lighting level up to camera’s recommended levels.

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Does improving the quality only have an effect on the encoding?

• Of course not, quality also affects the viewing experience for television as well as for streaming files!

Program Council

Thank you for your time…….

Copyright © 2004ResearchChannel