Move likely to boost adoption of 4k, Esports and remote production
Tata Communications is to launch a 100G media backbone to meet growing bandwidth demands in the broadcasting, sports and esports industries.
Delivered in collaboration with Net Insight, the 100G backbone will help overcome the technical complexities of esports, with each event involving multiple cameras, cutaways, real-time reactions, commentary and intensive editing.
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 move is also likely to hasten broadcasters and rightsholders’ switch to full remote production, 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 is also likely to accelerate industry adoption of 4K video, which requires 12Gbps of bandwidth when uncompressed – four times more than HD video.
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.
Dhaval Ponda, associate vice president for media and entertainment at Tata Communications, said: “Viewers, sports fans and gamers increasingly expect immersive, high-quality content – delivered live from the other side of the world or on demand – on a range of different media platforms. This 100G backbone and our managed video services will help our customers innovate with agility and become more competitive.”