Belo has moved some stations from satellite to an IP-based video delivery system, Broadcasting & Cable reports.
“The stations can do live interviews over the system and send content between each without a satellite feed,” says David Boyd, chief engineer of Belo’s Texas Cable News channel (TXCN).
Belo has five Texas-based stations, its Washington, D.C., bureau and KING Seattle using video over IP, with up to 45 Mbps of connectivity.
Belo is shifting to save money: Satellite time is expensive, but with IP, once you pay for the pipe, each time you use it the cost-per-use goes down.
The new system can also be more efficent: “A producer or the news desk can get control of a video feed without calling an engineer,” Boyd said. “That’s a lot more efficient. They don’t have to worry about the quality of the signal. In the past, a producer had to coordinate receiving a feed with the ENG center. It’s a paradigm shift for sending and receiving video feeds.”
The company plans to introduce IP-based video delivery to other Belo stations.
The Broadcasting & Cable article has a lot more technical details about the system for those interested.
