The Company - Telenor owned company Norkring
Norkring AS is Norway's largest distribution company for terrestrial network operators, delivering infrastructure and network services to premier broadcasters. The company, fully owned by Telenor ASA, strives to operate the best contribution and distribution network for digital terrestrial television (DTT) and radio broadcast with maximum network utilization and flexibility. The leading Norwegian broadcasting distributor has nationwide transmission networks for television and radio with an extensive infrastructure consisting of 7,000 transmitter units installed at 47 main stations and 2,700 smaller stations.
As video technology advances, many countries throughout the world are switching to DTT to migrate away from analog television. The Norwegian terrestrial network is claimed to be one of the largest DTT infrastructures ever built in Europe. Norway began the transition process in 2006, and Norkring was chosen by the license holder NTV (Norges Television AS) to build and operate the nationwide DTT network in Norway.
The Challenge
Challenged with building one of the largest DTT networks in Europe, Norkring evaluated its needs for a successful DTT platform. This included reviewing network infrastructure requirements, meeting customer expectations and overcoming geographical challenges.
To maintain customer expectations, Norkring was required to offer multi-service transport capabilities to its various customer segments, made up of the national television networks NRK, TV2, TV Norge and local TV stations. Additionally, to offer the highest-level digital television, Norkring's network needed to handle distribution of high-definition (HD) and standard-definition (SD) video along with FM radio channels and digital audio services.
In addition to meeting customer needs, Norkring was faced with the demanding topography of the mountainous country and its widely spread population, which posed a challenge to network planning and construction Norkring already uses radio links throughout the countryside, making cost-efficiency and quality of service (QoS) highly important factors in choosing network equipment.
For distribution purposes, NTV and Norkring have pioneered the use of MPEG4 in its deployment from the very beginning. MPEG4 saves capacity compared to MPEG2 and is ready for HDTV distribution. Even if the distribution is done in a compressed format, there is a large demand for uncompressed video between the broadcasters and their production sites to avoid quality degradation. However, uncompressed video requires more bandwidth than compressed video. Norkring needed to implement necessary, yet cost-effective solutions to support the large uncompressed digital files being developed by broadcasters with enough bandwidth and QoS guaranteed to ensure the end result necessary.
The Solution
After an extensive search for flexible, reliable network infrastructure products, Norkring chose Net Insight's Nimbra platform as its preferred solution. The Nimbra offered multi-service transport capabilities, a highcapacity backbone, plug-in modules for IP video and data, unique Time Transfer capabilities, the highest possible QoS and highest possible level of network utilization at a low cost.
Since Norkring needed to offer its customers the ability to distribute and contribute real-time audio and video, the low latency and jitter offered with the Nimbra was crucial.
Norkring has deployed more than 600 Nimbra nodes, consisting of both the Nimbra 360 and 680 switches, during a three-year period.
The Nimbra 360 was especially designed for digital terrestrial networks and offers a flexible and cost-effective solution for delivering advanced multimedia services in broadcast and media networks and for IPTV/CATV distribution. Net Insight's Nimbra 680 is a next-generation switch that provides the industry's lowest cost-per-bit switching. The Nimbra 680 includes high switching capacity, end-to-end provisioning and restoration, full topology support and unique multicast support.
The Nimbra product line works with three unique access modules that add additional capabilities for any application. The 8 x Video Access Module adds asynchronous serial interface (ASI) to support MPEG streams ranging from two to 212 Mbps for both SD and HD video. The 8 x 3 Gbps Video Access Module enables transport of full uncompressed 1080p HD video in studio and contribution networks. The 8 x Gigabit Ethernet Access Module allows for the seamless integration of IP/Ethernet data within contribution and distribution networks. The Nimbra platform also supports audio interfaces in the format of AES/EBU, Ethernet and E1 to support radio distribution and contribution services with the same infrastructure.
The unique multicast feature found in Nimbra switches makes it easy to distribute both digital TV and radio. Adding a higher-speed backbone and plug-in modules for uncompressed video and audio services turns the network into a very powerful media contribution platform. The built-in Gigabit Ethernet interface and Ethernet multicast features make the Nimbra solution very suitable for IPTV distribution or WiFi/Wimax aggregation. The same platform can also be used for mobile TV whether distributed over IP or ASI MPEG.
DTT often requires a single frequency network (SFN) where the transmitter stations must be synchronized to send their signals at exactly the same time. Nimbra 360 has a unique Time Transfer capability that allows highly accurate distribution of real time synchronization codes over the same network that carries the video signals. This eliminates the need for costly and potentially vulnerable GPS synchronization receivers in the network.
The Results
Norkring began installing the Nimbra platform into its network during the second quarter of 2006, and has since expanded deployment throughout Norway. Throughout the massive equipment rollout and installation phase, Norkring has remained satisfied with Net Insight's technology, expertise and professional project management.
”We have found Net Insight to be very customer-oriented and 'best in class' in terms of project management, delivery precision and knowledge,” says Frank Aarhus, Manager Transmission Network Department at Norkring. ”They have an ability and flexibility to match our tough rollout schedule and we enjoy a uniquely good client/supplier relationship.”