Lightower Fiber Networks selects Ciena digital video transport for major broadcast company
Lightower Fiber Networks, a metro fiber network and bandwidth service provider, has selected Ciena Corp., a network specialist, to deliver a native video transport system for a leading global entertainment content and broadcast company.
The end-user sought to replace its current process of compressing and decompressing video signals at multiple sites, and required a reliable, low-latency network to connect its customers’ numerous live broadcast studios to a separate major production studio.
Lightower turned to Ciena for optical transport technology able to deliver a high-capacity, adaptive network and to support current and emerging video bitrates and interfaces. Ciena’s native video transport system supports standard- and high-definition (HD) uncompressed video signals, such as 3 Gbps HD-SDI. It automatically adapts to the signals being transmitted to multiple studio locations, delivering the right capacity in the right format at the right time, according to a spokesperson. Ciena’s video product also allows real-time monitoring and management, enabling protection of the broadcaster’s investment as bandwidth needs increase with the proliferation of HD content.
“The ability to deliver uncompressed digital video in its native format offers our customer a tremendous cost and operational advantage over competing solutions,” says Jason Campbell, executive vice president of operations and engineering at Lightower. “We evaluated a number of platforms and concluded that the Ciena solution, which allowed us to leverage much of our existing network infrastructure, provided both the best solution for the customer’s immediate needs and also future scalability.”
The Ciena-based system includes the ActivSpan 565 Advanced Services Platform, a compact and cost-optimized metro WDM platform that enables a variety of video, data, and storage services to be aggregated onto an optical wavelength-based network or service. ActivSpan 565 supports video circuit packs that offer flexible and reliable video interfaces, in addition to a complete set of diagnostic and monitoring tools specifically adapted to the broadcast industry.
“As the use of video continues to increase, so does the need for high-capacity native digital video transport solutions that can deliver the highest quality and superior speeds with real-time monitoring and management,” explains Chad Whalen, vice president and general manager, North America field organization at Ciena. “
Lightower is a Managed Service Provider partner within Ciena’s BizConnect global partner program.