Broadcasters are clamoring for more bandwidth to expand connectivity to cable TV head-ends and satellite direct-to-home television systems. As the demand for more channels, live feeds, HD, and mobile broadcasts increases, broadcasters must balance their need for more capacity against the economic reality of high recurring service and support costs. Among broadcasters, bandwidth needs vary widely, ranging from 3 - 8Mbps Satellite SD links at the low-end, to high capacity 2.5Gbps (OC48) dedicated fiber at the high-end. In every case, high quality, reliable video transmission remains of paramount importance.

Satellite and fiber distribution solutions, although widely deployed, come with their own set of drawbacks. Ongoing monthly network charges are costly, especially for higher bandwidth connections. Long service lead times, provisioning delays, and the lack of flexibility add to the problem. Furthermore, once in place, network configurations are static and cannot be readily changed or reconfigured. In short, what the broadcast industry needs is an alternative distribution method that offers high bandwidth and reliability, greater flexibility, and a more cost-effective rate structure.

“ZiXi’s transport system enabled Thomson Reuters to dramatically improve the image quality of our videos without changing our workflow and decreased our costs by 75%.”
- Director of Operations, Thomson Reuters

ZiXi’s Solution

In contrast to conventional television distribution methods, ZiXi’s approach is innovative and game-changing. Our software-based solution allows broadcasters to reliably send multiple channels of broadcast-quality HD video over the Internet or any private IP network. Because Internet bandwidth is essentially free, it delivers an extremely cost-effective distribution alternative and generates a rapid ROI. Geographic limitations also fade away; ZiXi Video Distribution works with any Internet connected site, regardless of distance or locale. To ensure extreme reliability and low latency, our patented transport algorithm is optimized specifically for video and is designed to operate under real-world and changing network conditions.

ZiXi’s end-to-end transport service is available as either a cloud-based or on-premise solution. Our ZiXi Feeder, Broadcaster and Receiver products are transparent to the existing broadcast infrastructure and support broadcast video at any rate, up to and including 1080p/60fps. To ensure compatibility with existing broadcasting equipment, the ZiXi Feeder and Receiver products are designed to work with popular third-party H.264 encoders and decoders. Our equipment supports both MPEG TS and HLS standard inputs and MPEG TS, HLS, and RTMP standard outputs. At the source, the ZiXi Feeder takes the output from an encoder and adds a proprietary ZiXi transport protocol. This stream is sent to the ZiXi Broadcaster within the network, which distributes the stream to multiple destinations and adds NxN switching capabilities. At the studio or cable headend destination, a ZiXi Receiver delivers the stream to a decoder. The ZiXi transport system is fully interoperable with popular encoder and decoder brands such as Harmonic, Fujitsu, Sencore, Cisco/Inlet, and more. The ZiXi transport service scales incrementally to support dozens of channels as usage increases, and its demultiplexing capability gives broadcasters the ability to deliver or disable specific channels or all channels on the fly. ZiXi’s video transport platform is designed to maximize link utilization, regardless of distance, jitter, or packet loss. Video can also be delivered at predictable packet error or latency rates to meet specific application requirements such as short-length, low latency playback or long duration, high quality playback. Our transport mechanism delivers superior video quality with near-zero packet errors and eliminates video and audio artifacts, stuttering, pauses, and delays. Some of ZiXi’s advanced features include:

• Channel Switching to virtually move the destinations of channel online
• Complete end-to-end security using 256-bit AES encryption
• Elastic cloud services for increased redundancy, failover and load balancing
• Real-time monitoring and performance stats on feeds, viewable and configurable from a web browser, mobile smartphone, or tablet

Conclusion

With ZiXi, broadcasters now have a real way to overcome the high cost of conventional satellite and fiber television distribution. By supplementing or eliminating these connections, the cost savings is dramatic, compounding month after month. Whether you need to add more channels or increase capacity, ZiXi offers rapid deployment and helps users beat the long lead times associated with new satellite or fiber circuits. ZiXi is simple to deploy and works with any existing broadcast infrastructure. Using just an Internet connection, broadcasters can quickly and easily extend distribution to reach new locations and markets. With a proven customer track record for performance, reliability, and security, ZiXi is the recognized market leader in advanced video distribution solutions.

Customers Report Stellar Results

Each of these broadcasters has used ZiXi equipment in full production for extensive periods of time without a single service outage.

	Since early 2010, Thomson Reuters has used ZiXi to replace costly satellite and dedicated fiber connections. With more than 50 simultaneous inbound and outbound video feeds, Thomson Reuters uses ZiXi for field and remote live broadcasts.
	See how Ohio News Network (ONN) uses ZiXi to replaced its satellite feed with ZiXi to deliver high quality video at a fraction of the cost.    Read the Case Study
	In production for over 36 months, London-based Perform Group uses ZiXi instead of satellite or fiber to deliver live sports event broadcasts.

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