HD video projects July 2005

AARNet

Andrew Howard - AARNetCoordinating Engineer Advanced Communications Services and International Liaison

Delivering Australian Research and Education to the nation and the world

Develop and deploy advanced media delivery systems capable of utilising the high capacity networks connecting Australian Universities, research and other related organisations

Create advanced services such as Voice and Video over IP, Access Grids, Content Streaming, Storage and Indexing and HD video over IP based on standard and bespoke software and hardware.

What we do …

© 2005, AARNet Pty Ltd4

Outline1. Streaming National Science and Education2. Credits3. Supercomputing 2004 4. The Press Release5. Reducing the Cost

Streaming National Science and Education

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ResearchChannel Australia

• On-demand and multiple streamed video channels delivered using the AARNet3 network

– National Science Festival– Parliamentary TV– ABC Multichannel service (ABC 2)– AARNet Training material– Recordings of presentations and conferences– Contributed material– Sponsored material– Student and special interest radio and television

stations• National media storage and streaming service

for AARNet members and related organisations

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Why are we so interested in multimedia ?

• Geography• Past experiences point the way• Astronomical events broadcast in collaboration

with CSIRO to a global audience in 2002 and 2003 using Telstra streaming infrastructure

– Solar Eclipse from Ceduna 20,000 viewers– Transit of Venus 40,000 viewers

• Size of the Internet doubled between events• Telstra streaming infrastructure collapsed under

load• Requests from AARNet members to provide a

storage and streaming solution

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World Population

Asia/Pacific

Europe

North America

Latin America

Africa

Total 6,071 Million in 2000

3711M

728M

316M

520M

796M

Asia/Pacific

Europe

North America

Latin America

Africa

Total 6,071 Million in 2000

3711M

728M

316M

520M

796M

© 2005, AARNet Pty Ltd9

APAN Regional Groups

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Delivering Australian content to the region

Credits

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Partners

• University of Washington• Pacific Wave• AARNet NOC

Supercomputing 2004

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The Plan

• Uncompressed High Definition video running live at 1.5Gbs between Canberra, Seattle and Pittsburgh for 4 days

• Serious planning begins 11-Oct-2004 for an 8th to 11th Nov 2004 event

© 2005, AARNet Pty Ltd15

The Logistics

• Engineer a 10Gb light path between the AARNet Canberra office and Pacific Wave (Seattle) using the northern segment of SXTransport

• Construct a temporary TV studio and set– Lighting– Audio– HD equipment – Minimise daily “film industry” rental rates

• Encoding and Decoding systems • Content

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10Gb Light path - Australia

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10Gb Light path - TransPacific

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10Gb Light path - Fibre

• Start connecting fibres– Canberra

• ICON – Cisco 6509 at AARNet office to secondary ACT PoP TransACT

– ACT PoP to Sydney GigaPoP– Sydney GigaPop to Seattle via northern

segment of SXTransport – Seattle to Pittsburgh

• First use of SXTransport path

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10Gb Light path - Equipment

• Cisco 6509 transported to Canberra office and setup to route to Procket 8810 in Sydney

• Procket 8810 shipped to PacificWave in Seattle to act as the termination point for Northern SX circuit– Procket held in transit due to customs

clearance paperwork– Heroic effort by Jan Evelith, Bill Marr and

other PacificWave staff to clear equipment from customs and install in Seattle

– Activated 24 hours before “go live” time

© 2005, AARNet Pty Ltd20

TV studio

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TV studio

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Encoding and Decoding systems

• Intel dual Xeon PCI-Express bus systems• 10Gb network cards not available so dual port

Intel GbE adaptors used • AJA Xena HD capture and display card

– HD-SDI used to connect camera and displays

• Capture and display software by Matt Hodge @ University of Washington

© 2005, AARNet Pty Ltd23

Content

• How do you fill 4 days of live TV ?

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Content

• The usual suspects

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Content

• Representatives from our Government funding agency DEST (Department of Education, Science and Training)

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Content

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Content – The B-roll

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The view from Pittsburgh

The Press Release

© 2005, AARNet Pty Ltd30

Super Computing 2004 Conference

• At the exhibition floor of the Pittsburgh SC 2004 conference, AARNet and ResearchChannel demonstrated high definition real-time video interaction between Canberra Australia, Seattle and Pittsburgh

• ~2million pixels per frame; 60 frames per second interleaved; using 1.4Gbps for each stream; video quality amazing

• During the 30 hours of demonstration, 20 Terabytes of data were transmitted in each direction

• No custom equipment involved, all off-the-shelf components

Equivalent to one DVD being transmitted under the Pacific in both directions every seven seconds

Reducing the cost

© 2005, AARNet Pty Ltd32

Reducing the Cost

• Since the SC04 event the cost of HD capture equipment has fallen significantly

• HDV• Blackmagic Design

© 2005, AARNet Pty Ltd33

Conclusion

• Don't try this at home• More time probably wouldn't have helped• Customs clearing equipment always takes

more time and paperwork than you anticipate• Filling days of airtime is really difficult • International co-operation and people networks

are essential for achieving events like this• Thanks for your time

© 2005, AARNet Pty Ltd34