Tata Communications will launch a 100G media backbone to meet the growing bandwidth demands of the industry. The backbone – delivered in collaboration with Net Insight – will enable broadcasters, sports organisations, OTT companies and eSports businesses to offer their audiences worldwide more immersive viewing and gaming experiences and transform how they operate through full remote production.
The new backbone will help accelerate industry adoption of ultra-high definition (UHD) 4K video, which requires 12Gbps of bandwidth when uncompressed – four times more than HD video. With 100G, broadcasters and eSports companies, for example, are able to offer viewers and gamers the ultra-immersive 4K viewing experiences they crave without having to worry about running out of bandwidth.
Tata Communications’ 100G backbone will also help overcome the technical complexities of eSports, with each event involving multiple cameras, cutaways, real-time reactions, commentary and intensive editing. As the global audience of eSports is expected to reach 645 million by 2022, the bandwidth boost of 100G will bring eSports fans worldwide seamless and highly engaging gaming experiences.
At major sports events, the new infrastructure will have the capacity to support up to 50 raw video feeds and the delivery of unilateral, localised feeds by different rightsholders for their regions. The combination of the 100G backbone and workflows on Tata Communications’ media ecosystem will help more and more broadcasters and rightsholders switch to full remote production to bring live events to audiences across the globe, boosting efficiencies and generating cost savings. The 100G capacity lowers the barriers for global sports organisations to move from satellite-based content distribution to fibre across entire continents too.
The new backbone, being built using Net Insight’s next-generation WAN transport platform Nimbra 1060, will underpin Tata Communications’ global end-to-end managed Video Connect network.
