Changes are coming — changes that will propel the television viewing experience to an entirely new level.

These changes are being driven by multiple service operators (MSOs) and other video service providers who want to develop and deliver advanced, revenue-producing services that will help them attract new customers, retain existing subscribers, and add to the bottom line.

Such services would significantly impact the way people and businesses interact with television. Viewers could seamlessly choose between traditional analog broadcast, all-digital, or even on-demand high-definition programming that lets them watch whatever they want, when they want, from a library of archived programs. MSOs could selectively insert advertisements aimed at individual viewers based on their programming choices. The television would become a gateway to virtually unlimited viewing options, opening a variety of potential revenue streams for video providers.

Obstacles to Progress
Delivering these services, however, requires that a number of technical challenges be overcome - challenges that stand in the way of true progress.

To meet the growing application and penetration demands, MSOs have already begun building a high-performance video delivery infrastructure utilizing low-cost, ubiquitous IP switching technologies such as Gigabit Ethernet.

The network, however, is only part of the equation. A complete solution also requires sophisticated video processing intelligence that works with the IP infrastructure to create a digital, video-aware network that offers the flexibility, scalability, management and operational efficiencies needed to support these revolutionary services.

Therein lies the challenge. Existing video processing technology lacks the performance, density and scalability required to support the emerging — and expanding — environment.

What's required is a new, scalable, highly available solution that accommodates new capabilities and services as technologies evolve — a future-proofed system that eases the transition to an all-digital world while allowing MSOs to use and manage their existing bandwidth more efficiently and cost-effectively than existing solutions

This new digital video network must be on-demand, routable, point-to-point and unicast in nature. It must be able to handle both constant bit-rate (CBR) and variable-bit rate (VBR) broadcast streams, address and route those streams to the appropriate destinations, transcode them between new advanced video codecs such as MPEG-4 AVC and MPEG-2, and adjust incoming data rates to downstream data rates. And it must switch and distribute those streams in coordination with other data using a combination of IP and MPEG transport protocols, allowing MSOs to efficiently deliver broadcast, on-demand and high-definition video using better bandwidth management and at lower costs than existing solutions.

RGB Networks: The Future is Now
RGB Networks is developing this technology today — a revolutionary video-intelligent processing platform that spans broadcast, all-digital, high-definition and on-demand environments, setting the stage for delivering multiple revenue-generating services in the future. By increasing capacity, reducing operational costs, and improving bandwidth and video stream processing management across multiple services, the video-intelligent processing solution represents the platform of choice for MSOs and other video service providers eager to make the transition and start delivering the revenue-generating services of the future.

Changes are coming. And RGB Networks is leading the way.