Eliminate the Coax-Or Else! David Allred, Systems Design Engineer Paul Hardin, Senior Project Manager Craig Malquist, Network Design Engineer PCH

BYU Demographics 33,000 Undergrads and Grads

BYU Demographics 33,000 Undergrads and Grads Employees – 4,000 F/T – 1,300 P/T – 14,000 P/T Student Employees

BYU Demographics 33,000 Undergrads and Grads Employees – 4,000 F/T – 1,300 P/T – 14,000 P/T Student Employees Church Sponsored – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

BYU Physical Plant

Brief Technology History at BYU <1970 Campus TV Cable Installed Mid-1980s TV Cable first used for data Early 1990s First fiber optic cable installed for data network 2001 last major data network upgrade (for IP Phones) 2011/2012 Major data network upgrade planned for data/voice/video convergence DA

WHY the Mandate to Abandon Coax Main Driver – TV industry direction to move from analog to digital television over the air wakeup call for change

WHY the Mandate to Abandon Coax 40 year old campus TV cable plant; losing amplifiers

WHY the Mandate to Abandon Coax

Possible Directions Build a digital coax system on campus Contract out services to CATV cable provider Go with IPTV and do it on our ownwe THOUGHT it would be cheaper (we chose this one) Decisions, Decisions, Decisions! PCH

HOW Weve Implemented IPTV To-Date Began upgrade of network infrastructure in 2001 to accommodate VOIP By 2005 we recognized the need to upgrade additional network equipment (primarily edge switches) to deal with multicast Prepared multicast for implementation Implemented 24 SD channels in 2006 Built our own portal/web page using VLC

HOW Weve Implemented IPTV To-Date

Later, we bought a portal, but because of web browser/OS incompatibility problems, we rebuilt our own over 2-3 months in 2010

WHAT the Challenges Have Been Watching the Computer Over Air Channels DA

WHAT the Challenges Have Been NAC (Network Admission Control) – We didnt want to burden the NAC servers with streaming traffic load – Had to develop separate multicast path into Campus Housing

WHAT the Challenges Have Been

Watching at computer – Done in conjunction with developing the web portal (2010)

WHAT the Challenges Have Been Developing IPTV Administration Application – Done in conjunction with developing the web portal (2010); Source listing for web portal, STBs, and dynamic play list for VLC

WHAT the Challenges Have Been Redeveloped interface for computer IPTV portal When new channels were introduced, we found old interface hard coded Wanted more flexibility with a dynamic channel lineup and interface that accommodated that flexibility We can control which channels are displayed in different parts of campus (based on IP address)

WHAT the Challenges Have Been

Transcoding Problems – Transmit with different resolutions throughout the day; changing resolutions as broadcasters first started digital broadcasting – E.g. commercial would be in different resolution from program content – Resolved through firmware upgrades

WHAT the Challenges Have Been

Getting people to use IPTV (instead of campus cable) – Cable turned off to only two existing buildings; new buildings dont get coax – Put more content on IPTV to get people to use it; Housing especially complained about lack of content Some of Housing has CAT3 cable - outdated Edge Switches were outdated - have been upgraded We update network as buildings are updated

WHAT User Reaction Has Been Users dislike Standard Definition – Looks pretty bad when blown up BIG – Flat panels especially exacerbate the digital artifact problem when scaling up image to fill display Users compare picture quality with viewing experience at home PCH

Pixelated image in SD on Large LCD display (simulated) Same image in HD on Large LCD display (simulated)

Some SERIOUS pixelization… Even High Def wont help this!

WHAT User Reaction Has Been High Res vs. Standard Res – HR consumes more bandwidth » SD: 2 MB/Channel x 48 channels ~~ 100 MB » HD: 4-6 MB/Channel x 48 channels ~~ MB

WHAT User Reaction Has Been High Res vs. Standard Res – Bandwidth restricted by policy; no room to send HD signal into residence halls; trying to prevent bandwidth hogging

WHAT User Reaction Has Been High Res vs. Standard Res – HD Encoders costlier – HD Content cost higher

WHAT User Reaction Has Been Sports – High motion content results in lots of digital artifactingblah!

WHAT User Reaction Has Been

Able to watch content on computer at desk or in roomusers like anyplace access

WHERE We Plan to Go From Here Removing coax is not a high priorityits still functioningStandard definition analog – As coax & amplifiers get less reliable, we will pull it out; death by attrition over next few years – We will eventually schedule shutdown to campus buildings DA

WHERE We Plan to Go From Here Not expanding cable plant in new construction or remodels

WHERE We Plan to Go From Here IPTV is reasonably good enough for SD to replace analog in some peoples opinion – BUT Big screens produce big pixels – BUT we are considering adding one HD channel for sports in Fall 2011 ($8-10K) – BUT we are adding local, isolated, single-building HD » If customer use requires it » If building network architecture can handle it

WHERE We Plan to Go From Here Latest addition has been 4 HD internal channels in new BYU Broadcasting Building

WHERE We Plan to Go From Here Implementing internal IPTV channels in campus buildings to replace in-building modulators – We have six foreign language channels – Library has 15 internal channels Already have several portable IPTV encoders for live campus events Need to add HD Channels when politically or financially viable

WHERE We Plan to Go From Here

Conclusion Eliminating coax costs $$ --What are the benefits? Long term recovery of costs maintain single infrastructure Keep pace with user interests