Big Ten Network Taps T-VIPS for Video Transport

The Big Ten Network televises hundreds of HD live events from each of its 11 member campuses annually, and sending the video from remote venues over IP networks to network headquarters in Chicago is not always easy. Mike Wilken, chief engineer for the Big Ten Network, spent the last five months testing IP encapsulators that will smooth that transport process. He settled on T-VIPS JPEG2000-based HD Gateways TVG 430.

“We did test quite a few different IP encapsulators, and T-VIPS was very reliable,” he says. “I think their technology is superior and the JPEG2000 video was excellent. It’s better than what we are getting off our backhauls now, but we are using quite high bitrates, about 100 megabits.”

A T-VIPS encoder is installed in each of the Big Ten Network flypacks that travels around the conference schools to support HD programming.

“It allows us to get the flypack video back to us in very good-quality HD,” Wilken says, “so that we can record it and air it live.”

Wilken’s team conducted field trials on the university campuses to assess the technology, testing the wide area network through different routers and firewalls.

“We did comparison tests on video for video quality and to see what the video quality was at different bitrates,” Wilken says. “The TVG 430 has made the production of our events economical while maintaining the highest HD quality.”