IP-Based Video Distribution Looks to be the Future

The next decade could very well be the Golden Age of distributed video: great new products, lower price points, pervasive convergence, demand for video in more rooms (the typical household has more than two video displays for every occupant) and increasing consumer awareness.

Looking forward to this next Golden Age, we should be giving some thought to the best technology for making it happen. In many aspects, Internet protocol (IP) is a logical option.

IP is easily the world's most popular digital network protocol. You only have to look at the rapid rise of the Internet to grasp how an open, accessible technology standard can help in popularizing new tools and promote innovation.

In practical matters, IP may offer many advantages. Since signals travel in a pure digital domain, the problems of interference, signal loss and degradation and balance don't even come into play.

Other advantages include the low cost of Cat 5 and the ability to place content and control over the same conduit. Less cabling always translates into fewer problems and lower cost.

Let's not forget about scalability and bandwidth. With IP, there's no significant difference in working with 10, 100, or even 1,000 nodes. Digital switches can be simpler, less costly and less quirky than matrix switches. An IP network using gigabit switches can run as many simultaneous streams of uncompressed HD video and multichannel audio as will likely be used in a residence.

Open system, third-party integration is another advantage. That any IP-based peripheral can be added and be immediately accessible as a network resource should be irresistibly appealing to any seasoned installer who has burned hours trying to get different manufacturers' products to work in a single system.

Michael Braithwaite is CTO of Netstreams, a manufacturer of IP-based distributed entertainment products.