CALIENT Technologies Supports Sports Industry With Optical Circuit Switching

The Sports Video Group is pleased to welcome CALIENT Technologies as a mobile/integrator sponsor. Headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA, CALIENT is a leader in pure photonic optical circuit switching with systems that support software-controlled reconfiguration of the optical network in data centers, software-defined networks, and media-production studios. 

PrintBased on 3D-MEMS technology, CALIENT’s S-Series switches allow production-facility operators to manage complex fiber networks and dramatically improve utilization of expensive resources, which account for a high percentage of facility investment. Examples include sharing of camera-control units (CCUs) and media servers across multiple studios and sharing of CCUs between sports arenas or large numbers of cameras at sports events.

A key benefit of pure optical circuit switching is that it is completely protocol- and bitrate-independent, meaning that it is ideal for the multi-protocol switching environments typical in media production. Live camera feeds, digitized audio, KVM, and IP-network traffic can all be managed on a single switch, and the technology scales as facilities upgrade to 4K/UHD and beyond. The technology is also considerably less expensive than current switching fabrics that rely on electrical switching with optical transceivers.

“The sports-production and broadcasting community is leading the way in the evolution to optical-fiber–based infrastructure in production studios, stadiums, and mobile vans, and it’s a market where our optical-circuit-switching technology delivers tremendous value,” says VP of Marketing Daniel Tardent. “We’re excited to join the Sports Video Group and look forward to working with, and learning from, their community of sports-video professionals.”

During MLB Network’s upgrade of its video- and data-switching infrastructure in 2014, the network deployed CALIENT S320 optical circuit switches. The S320 also provides MLB Network with protocol-independent switching of any video format at any data rate, including 4K/UHD video and beyond. CP Communications also selected S320 optical circuit switches for its HD21, a 53-ft.-long transmission and master-control truck to be used at major sports events.

CALIENT designs and manufactures its systems using the state-of-the-art MEMS-fabrication equipment at its corporate headquarters.

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