NTT DATA and Sky together for innovation and quality in the broadcast area. 28/7/2013
Italian NTT DATA has developed a solution called "NRT Encoding" for SKY Italy that by applying innovative processes on the compression of linear channels broadcast via satellite, can reduce up to 40% bandwidth consumption required, with the same quality.
Since the bandwidth consumption is directly proportional to the cost of a channel, it is clear that such a solution is potentially able to apply big savings for a broadcaster which has aired nearly two hundred satellite channels, such as Sky Italy.
NTT DATA, provides professional value, from consulting to systems development, to outsourcing, combining global approach and local attention to a long-term commitment with its customers.
Sky Italy, for its part, is the Italian pay-TV 100% controlled by News Corporation.
Riccardo Ferrari, Senior Manager, NTT DATA in Italy says: "The debut of NRT Enconding - with the first channel on the Sky platform transmitted thanks to new technology – was achieved by June and by December 2013, the solution will be extended to other channels.
We have been partners of Sky Italy for several years and, just based on the experience made in the development of VoD encoding, used to offer Sky On Demand on all screens (PCs, smartphones, tablets and TV), was born the idea of exploiting the encoding techniques to process an offline linear signal.
The basic idea is very simple: in fact, as NTT Data had in the past already developed and provided to SKY Video On Demand a system of encoding / transcoding offline receiving in input files ready on different formats, generating the encoded version on different types of rendition for various devices.
The system core is the same, based on AVC H264, with two different codes that share a large part of the initial encoding process, then depending on the device that request them there are slight differences in the packaging final.
This product encoding on demand for their services has proved extremely effective in SKY and after selecting it in the face of benchmark with some important competitors, SKY itself asked us to develop a different coding system that was also used in linear systems.
Note that the file transmission for non-linear VOD has a physical beginning and an end well-defined, it is captured in full batch mode, and processed offline.
The new encoding solution instead is to be able to handle a continuous channel entry in linear mode and create an encoded version in output.
The linear flow input is segmented into small segments based VOD few seconds, each encoded in single mode, while a final component of the software makes a "merge" of these segments in the correct way, then managing the output signal. And realizing just what you wanted to get.
All this process causes an important delay in the process of linear encoding from the moment the incoming stream arrives to that in which it is streamed in output.
This delay is configurable, however, and preset by the broadcaster so they could set up a near real time of 5 to 10 minutes or as pleased, and so everything is manageable in a concrete way by the playout systems.
The basis of this system of linear encoding by NTT Data uses very advanced techniques for encoding in H264, which also integrates open source libraries mixed with advanced techniques of adaptive encoding, rather than psycho visual techniques.
The "core" of the system of encoding thinks in terms of multi step process even with very small segments.
In fact, with a first passage are identified the complexity of the file and a number of useful features to better describe it, while the second coding operates on the basis of the data that the first passage has provided. So you can manage a trade-off between the quality and the size of the stream. The above-mentioned basic segment is a configurable value, in fact nell'NRT for SKY has been set to 10/15 seconds so at the end of the process, the transmission of a channel full HD SKY bandwidth savings also leads to the final 40% .
This process is applicable to channels that do not broadcast live events sensitive, for obvious reasons.
