Virgin Media to rollout new IPTV platform

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Then the plot thickens - I was informed, perhaps misinformed, that the new Cisco Edge QAM equipment was being used for an SDV deployment.

It's between headends. Or to be more precise between the superhead and local ones. It enables them to update VOD faster and simultaneously to multiple sites.

Personally I can't see SDV being deployed to homes for many years yet, why would they need to? VM have huge capacity and with upgrades to existing technologies (docsis3/mpeg4/dvb-c2) vm can increase capacity to a much greater magnitude without deploying sdv to the front end.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Verizon

Personally I can't see SDV being deployed to homes for many years yet, why would they need to? VM have huge capacity and with upgrades to existing technologies (docsis3/mpeg4/dvb-c2) vm can increase capacity to a much greater magnitude without deploying sdv to the front end.

Err.

The Edge QAMs that are going in as part of the IPTV project are SDV capable and all that's needed for the STBs is software. Tad more viable than replacing every set top with one that can do MP4 / dvb-c2 don't you think?

DOCSIS 3 doesn't address the issue of RF networks being under stress - US companies that already run SDV aren't going to 1GHz networks for their health.

I believe you are wrong about the masses of capacity. There's still a not inconsiderable part of the network which runs on 550MHz networks which are rather full and will need either SDV or plant upgrade in the not hugely distant future.

[Buffalo2102]

I can't really say what is definitely happening on the 550MHz networks but there are a few options.

1. First and most obvious is to change some or all of the current 64QAM carriers to 256QAM. That would give an immediate 30% increase in capacity.

2. Just because the network is rated to 550MHz doesn't mean you can't exceed that. I have seen QAMs up to 635MHz being used successfully on a 600MHz network.

3. DVB-C2 would also give a bandwidth boost but would obviously take time as DVB-C2 set-tops would be needed.

4. Changing from mpeg2 to mpeg4 would also give a bandwidth improvement but also needs new set-tops. This could be done in conjunction with DVB-C2.

5. SDV, as you say.

6. Upgrade the 550MHz network.

Short-term, I doubt that it will be any one particular thing but a combination of 1 and 2.
Long-term, it will depend on the strategic view. Since set-tops naturally have to be replaced anyway, 3 and 4 may well come into play at some point, but not now.
Depending on timing, SDV may be an option but I think it's probably the least likely, given the expense and complexity of doing it.
Upgrading the networks would be very expensive but it would at least standardise things - may be done but over a long period?

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Buffalo2102

1. First and most obvious is to change some or all of the current 64QAM carriers to 256QAM. That would give an immediate 30% increase in capacity.

Can the lasers that are powering these networks handle such a move?

2. Just because the network is rated to 550MHz doesn't mean you can't exceed that. I have seen QAMs up to 635MHz being used successfully on a 600MHz network.

Appreciate that some kit is underspecified and I've seen carriers just over 550 also but not a lot above.

Short-term, I doubt that it will be any one particular thing but a combination of 1 and 2.
Long-term, it will depend on the strategic view. Since set-tops naturally have to be replaced anyway, 3 and 4 may well come into play at some point, but not now.
Depending on timing, SDV may be an option but I think it's probably the least likely, given the expense and complexity of doing it.
Upgrading the networks would be very expensive but it would at least standardise things - may be done but over a long period?

Given the Cisco edge QAMs are SDV compatible would it be so expensive to just add some more? From that the only other expense I can think of would be the STB software.

I would hope there will be no more huge network upgrades from the not too distant future on the HFC side apart from deep fibre, node + 1, and then RFoG / DPON.

[Buffalo2102]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Can the lasers that are powering these networks handle such a move?

Yes. Most of the lasers will cope but there will probably need to be some network re-alignment.

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Given the Cisco edge QAMs are SDV compatible would it be so expensive to just add some more? From that the only other expense I can think of would be the STB software.

If only it were that simple. There is a whole system required to handle the request/tuning traffic to and from from the set-tops and also to manage the switching and modulation of the video on the edge QAMs.
The software for the set-tops would not be simple either as there are about 8 different set-top variants at the moment. Each performs differently and has a different, finite amount of memory. I'll bet there would need to be many months of development and testing involved before there could be any confidence that SDV would work reliably with all set-tops.
There are a lot of other considerations to take into account too. For instance, at the moment if you have a flaky return path connection, it doesn't affect your broadcast services at all. If SDV were introduced, a flaky return path could cause a number of heartbeats from the set-top to be missed and you could lose your channel. SDV can't tell the difference between SD and HD so the customer has to select the correct channel. If they don't they might not get a picture or end up watching SD on their nice new HD TV set.