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TVU Breaks the Bond of Inflexible Broadcasting with Sierra Wireless Modules for Wireless Networks

Quick Facts

Company

TVU Networks
www.tvunetworks.com

Customer Profile

TVU Networks® is a technology and innovation leader in IP-based live video solutions. TVU’s solutions help transform broadcasters’ serial digital input (SDI)-based operations – which include acquisition, transmission, routing, distribution and management – to an IP-based infrastructure. In broadcast markets around the world, TVU® is the dominant technology leader with a large majority of all news broadcast stations using its IP video solutions.

Objectives
  • Provide an uplink solution to deliver live high quality HD video from anywhere
  • Offer the most reliable cellular signal to its worldwide customers
Results
  • Broadcasters around the world can now go live with low latency HD video from virtually anywhere and at any time

Sierra Wireless Products & Services
  • TVU Networks uses multiple MC Series modules with 4G LTE Cat-6 technology to enable the TVU One device to easily switch cellular networks and provide a consistently reliable, high bandwidth connectivity

Challenge

As television technology advances, verticals and industries outside of traditional news broadcast have taken advantage of the advancements such as real-time sports, law enforcement, public safety, government, houses of worship and web streaming.

These technology advancements have also created the ability to transmit video from anywhere for mobile broadcasting environments, while HD and other high quality video enhancements have stretched the bandwidth requirements for video uplink solutions. In the past, mobile uplink solutions have attempted to tackle the bandwidth problem by using a technique called cellular bonding. However, the disadvantage with cellular bonding is that all transmission channels are bonded prior to the start of the video transmission and a fixed channel for forward error correction (FEC) is selected. Unfortunately, this approach provides little flexibility, can tie the system to an expensive connection signal such as microwave or satellite, and makes the system unable to adjust for the constant broadcast changes inherent in a mobile environment, such as bit rate, packet loss rate and latency.

However, using its proprietary Inverse StatMux Plus (IS+) technology, TVU Network’s IP video uplink solutions can use any combination of cellular, satellite, microwave, Wi-Fi and Ethernet IP connections to deliver live HD video from practically any location. To provide the most reliable cellular signal to its worldwide customers, TVU required a connectivity solution that provided the broadest coverage of 3G/4G/LTE Cat-6 networks.

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Sierra Wireless provides our customers with the broadest coverage of wireless networks around the world in a single module. In addition, Sierra Wireless SDKs and technical support make development easy, and their authorized reseller network is excellent.

Matt McEwen
VP of Product Management, TVU Networks

Solution

TVU discovered the Sierra Wireless® MC Series networking modules for 4G LTE-Advanced and LTE networks. The industrial-grade Mini Card PCI-SIG® standards-based module enables easy integration of wireless on mobile platforms. The module offers plug and play connectivity on the world’s fastest LTE networks, providing unprecedented speeds, bandwidth and network performance. Global coverage on LTE-Advanced networks, including 4G LTE Cat-6, allows TVU to provide a mobile solution that easily switches cellular networks for consistently reliable, high bandwidth connectivity.

“Sierra Wireless provides our customers with the broadest coverage of wireless networks around the world in a single module,” said Matt McEwen, VP of product management at TVU Networks. “In addition, Sierra Wireless SDKs and technical support make development easy, and their authorized reseller network is excellent.”

MC Series modules are embedded in TVU Networks’ award-winning TVU One ultra-compact wireless uplink transmitter using IS+ to guarantee a reliable signal. With IS+, a video stream is separated into small packets and the packets are then transmitted across all available connections. The transmission is then re-aggregated at the receiving end with error correction applied and without the need for retransmission. This means that when broadcasting live from the field, broadcasters can easily transmit reliable video in HD with sub-second latency and have a solution that adapts to constantly changing bandwidth environments, such as in motion, and continues to deliver a dependable, high quality, professional picture.

Additional TVU One device features include one-button operation, pioneered by TVU and designed so that anyone can go live in seconds, and dual encoding to ensure a high-quality copy of a live transmission is saved to an internal SSD for later retrieval. 

Results

“TVU Networks video uplink transmitters enable broadcasters around the world to go live with low latency HD video from virtually anywhere and at any time,” explained McEwen. “Instead of being tied to less flexible and more expensive forms of live video links to go live, broadcasters can utilize any form of IP link, such as cellular, to go live from any location without incurring the heavy costs and physical limitations of a satellite or microwave truck.”

With TVU’s advanced IP video technology providing broadcast HD quality and reliable/stable transmission at sub-second latency, the company has become a leader across broadcast, web streaming, surveillance, public safety, education and healthcare markets. Having a single cellular module for connectivity across worldwide 3G/4G/LTE networks helps keep the ultra-compact footprint of the TVU One device, enabling it to be embedded in some interesting locations. TVU devices have enabled live broadcast from the World Cup, global political elections, the London Summer Olympics, the Sochi Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl and the from the back of a motorcycle covering real-time U.S. Cycling events. In fact, TVU IP video transmission solutions are in use in over 85 countries and over 1200 stations… and growing.

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Client

TVU Networks

Location

NAM
EMEA
APAC
Global

Markets

Live Media Streaming
Mobile Computing
Smart Cities
Other

Products & Service​

MC Series Module
Smart Connectivity

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