Irish Government launchesdigital terrestrial televisionpilot service

Executive Summary

Traditional analogue broadcasting useshuge amounts of radio spectrum and offerslimited services. Moving to digitalbroadcasting enables a vastly richerbroadcast experience and releases spectrumfor new mobile and wireless computingapplications. Digital Terrestrial Television(DTT) is currently being rolled out acrossEurope and is already in extensive use in theUK and the US. The European Commissionhas proposed a deadline of 2012 to ceaseanalogue broadcast transmission. The IrishGovernment is responding to this challenge.

Tapping into the expertise and resources ofBT, the Department of Communications,Marine and Natural Resources has built astate-of-the-art broadcasting network topilot Ireland’s first digital free-to-airservice. The second phase of the project willinvolve the distribution of set top boxes thatwill enable 1,000 trial participants to samplethe four main Irish channels – RTÉ One, RTÉTwo, TV3 and TG4 – as well as the nationalradio channels, RTÉ 1, RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ lyricfm, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and Today FM.

The implementation of this trailblazing BTmanaged service – completed on time andwithin budget in just 16 weeks – will helpGovernment and key stakeholders to decideon the optimum way to achieve nationalrollout of free-to-air digital terrestrialtelevision. It is also set to play a wider role interms of shaping and stimulating the digitalTV market in Ireland – helping to provideincreased choice and opportunity toconsumers, broadcasters, programmemakers and other content providers.

Case studyIrish Government

BT enables the Irish Government to lay thefoundations for Ireland’s first free-to-air digitalbroadcast network – using less spectrum to facilitatemore consumer choice and market opportunity

The BT multiplexing and network solution providestotal end-to-end diversity using fibre and radiolinks to deliver exceptionally high levels ofresilience and network availability critical tosupporting a broadcast network

Clermont Carn

Transmitter

MultiplexingCentre

LocalBroadcastTV & RadioChannels

SatelliteTV & RadioChannels

NetworkManagement

Centre

ThreeRock

Transmitter

“Not only will the project createan opportunity to test a digitalbroadcasting service, but it willalso generate awareness anddiscussion among interestedparties in a full rollout of free-to-air digital terrestrial television.”Noel Dempsey TDMinister for Communications, Marine and Natural ResourcesIrish Government

Marketplace

On behalf of the Government, theDepartment of Communications, Marine andNatural Resources has responsibility forIreland’s telecommunications andbroadcasting sectors. The Department has akey role in developing a framework forbroadcasting in an environment of rapidtechnological development and convergence.

The Department’s Broadcasting Division aimsto develop policies and a legislative frameworkto facilitate the provision of quality Irish-basedbroadcasting services. The goal is to optimisethe contribution to the development of theInformation Society in Ireland of broadcasters,programme makers and content providers aswell as infrastructure operators and otherparticipants in broadcasting-related activities.

Business Opportunity

There are two key business drivers for digitalbroadcasting. The first is the developmentof a multi-channel, interactive andultimately High Definition (HD) broadcastindustry. The second is the release ofvaluable radio spectrum for new servicessuch as mobile and Wi-Fi.

To meet these objectives and the Europeanguidelines, the Irish Government started toexplore possibilities for the creation ofuniversal free-to-air nationally broadcastprogramming on digital television platformsin 2004.

To move its vision forward the Departmentdecided to run a trial – the Digital TerrestrialTelevision (DTT) pilot – to identify the issuesassociated with a transition from ananalogue terrestrial TV platform to a digitalone. As well as providing key learning, thisstrategic initiative plays an important role indeveloping the TV market in Ireland bymaking digital service available for the firsttime from terrestrial transmitter systems.

The Minister for Communications, Marineand Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey TD,commented: “The European Commission hasproposed 2012 as the date by whichswitch-off of analogue TV could becompleted across Europe and this pilot playsan important step in informing thedevelopment of Ireland’s long-termbroadcasting strategy.”

BT solution

A number of elements were required for thepilot including a managed encoding,multiplexing and distribution service. Otherkey requirements, outside of BT’s scope,included the deployment and operation oftwo new digital transmitters at ClermontCarn, in the North East of Ireland, and atThree Rock Mountain in South Dublin.

Following an extensive public tender andevaluation exercise, the Departmentawarded the contract for the digitalencoding, multiplexing and distribution toBT. In developing its solution BT was able tocombine the global capabilities andtechnical expertise of BT Media andBroadcast – a specialist unit of BT focusedon the needs of the broadcast industry –with the local delivery, transmission andservice management expertise of BT Ireland.

Kevin O’Brien, Principal Officer for theDepartment’s Broadcasting Division says:“BT demonstrated a joined-up approach toworking with us. This helped to ensure clearcommunication, which was particularlyimportant given the complexity andpioneering nature of the project. Knowingthat we could call on BT’s pool of resourcesat any time proved to be a big help.”

Designed to deliver very high availability,the solution uses sophisticated digitalcontent and data management technologyto transport and manage video, audio anddata. The fact that much of this technologyhas been developed at BT’s own researchand development facilities at Adastral Park(near Ipswich, UK) provides the companywith the confidence to meet the extremelytight service and commercial termsassociated with broadcasting networks.

Implementation, however, presented manychallenges. The first of these was to build aninput network to gather uncompressedprogramme content – via fibre circuits fromRTÉ Donnybrook as well as servicesdownlinked directly from satellites – into theBT Multiplexing Centre located in a hostingfacility at Citywest in Dublin. BT designedand erected a special steel gantry to supportsix satellite dishes on the roof of the hostingfacility. The project team also had torespond to other unforeseen requirements.

“BT demonstrated a joined-upapproach to working with us.This helped to ensure clearcommunication, which wasparticularly important given thecomplexity and pioneeringnature of the project. Knowingthat we could call on BT’s poolof resources at any time provedto be a big help.”Kevin O’BrienPrincipal Officer, Broadcasting DivisionDepartment of Communications, Marine and Natural ResourcesIrish Government

Case studyIrish Government

These included bringing forward anotherinfrastructure project to facilitate thedelivery of new equipment racks, in additionto re-locating equipment carrying livebroadcast traffic at RTÉ Donnybrook.

Next, BT had to create the distributionnetwork that will carry the compressed signalfrom the Multiplexing Centre to thetransmitters at Clermont Carn and Three RockMountain. To overcome the harsh terrain andremote locations of these sites, BT used amixture of fibre and microwave radio links inorder to establish fully diverse paths.

Finally, a dedicated state-of-the-artmonitoring system and networkmanagement suite had to be integrated atBT’s Network Management Centre inDundrum. This facility enables BT engineersto continuously monitor sound and picturequality. The solution incorporates TransportIntegrity Monitoring Systems (TIMS) placedat critical points throughout the network.These units provide the intelligence to trackand immediately identify potentialproblems, using logic tables to prioritise themost urgent from the less urgent alarms.

Behind the scenes, specially developedAsynchronous Serial Interface (ASI) sliplessswitches are used which automaticallyanalyse the video streams. Accomplished inreal time, this analysis determines which ofthe two redundant streams to use and toswitch from one to the other in such a wayas to help ensure an undisrupted experienceto the viewer or listener.

Results

The first phase of the pilot went live onAugust 11th 2006 – delivered on time injust 16 weeks – and comprises a soft trial totest the stability of the network, newfunctionality and quality of content. SusanFleming, the Departments’ DTT ProjectManager, says: “BT has done an excellentjob to get the pilot up and running. We setan aggressive schedule but it was deliveredprofessionally, on time, on budget and withregular updates.”

The second phase of the project will involvethe distribution of set top boxes to 1,000trial participants. Multiplex 1 will carry thefour main Irish channels – RTÉ One, RTÉTwo, TV3 and TG4 – as well as the nationalradio channels, RTÉ 1, RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ lyricfm, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and Today FM.Multiplex 2 and Multiplex 3 will carryadditional content and will be madeavailable to interested parties. BT has alsomade available an option for a fourthmultiplex, which could be used in the futureto trial new technologies such as HDTV,IPTV, interactive TV and data services.

During this two-year period, theDepartment intends to conduct research todetermine how users rate the digital TV

service and experience. Susan Flemingprovides further insight: “This key learningwill help Government and key stakeholdersto decide on the optimum way to achievenational rollout. It will enable us to test theimpact for users of moving from four-channel terrestrial TV to multi-channeldigital TV.”

Importantly, the trial is set to play a widerrole in terms of shaping and stimulating thedigital TV market in Ireland. The intention isthat it will provide consumers with morechoice in a similar way to how Freeviewprovides an alternative to pay-per-viewcable or satellite TV services in the UK. Earlysigns are that the trial will also help to makethe market more attractive to contentproviders. Nine applications have alreadybeen received for Multiplex ProgrammeContent Managers.

Noel Dempsey TD summarises: “Not onlywill the project create an opportunity to testa digital broadcasting service, but it will alsogenerate awareness and discussion amonginterested parties in a full rollout of free-to-air digital terrestrial television.”

Case studyIrish Government

Why BT?• BT combined international media and broadcast industry and

technical expertise with local network delivery and servicemanagement excellence

• BT was able to build a turnkey broadcasting solution supported bylocal network services and field engineering teams

• BT developed a sound understanding of the Government’srequirements and provided a joined up approach

• The Government had trust in BT’s ability to deliver and the depthand breadth of BT resources

Technology blueprint

The BT multiplexing and network solutiontakes advantage of locally based networkinfrastructure, data centre facilities, networkmanagement systems, and engineering andoperations staff. Designed with completeend-to-end diversity to provide maximumreliability, it couples resilient networkcomponents with a fault tolerantmultiplexing technology platform.

For Multiplex 1 BT will collect and deliversource signals in uncompressed format fromRTÉ Donnybrook to the BT MultiplexingCentre in Citywest. BT will also collect oringest source signals that will be madeavailable from alternative sources; theprimary feeds for Multiplex 2 and Multiplex 3being from dedicated and redundant satellitereceive antennae at the Multiplexing Centre.

Employing carefully chosen encoding andmultiplexing technology, BT processes thesource signals and injects the appropriateaudio, subtitle, teletext and serviceinformation into the Digital VideoBroadcast (DVB) stream. BT thendistributes the aggregate multiplexedsignal over fibre and radio links – using IPnetworking technology – to transmitters on

Three Rock Mountain and Clermont Carn,handing the data stream over to thetransmitter operator for onward broadcast.

BT’s state-of-the-art high performanceIntelligent Video Network Platform (IVNP)provides the adaptation and transport ofmultiple digital video streams over IP. Offeringfour or eight fully independent 270Mbps SDI(Serial Digital Interface) or ASI (AsynchronousSerial Interface) inputs, it provides all layers ofIP encapsulation in hardware, with noprocessor involvement, as well as streamanalysis, bit rate policing and separatenetwork address assignments. Ethernetswitching capability is included to police themanagement of IP traffic flow in-band.

The BT TIMS solution provides high-densityvideo and audio monitoring throughout thenetwork and management data is relayedback to BT’s Network Management Centre inDundrum. Service management is achievedusing HP OpenView and SNMP (SimpleNetwork Management Protocol) alarminterfacing. BT operations people liaise withthe transmitter operator and ultimately theset-top box vendors to sustain end-to-endongoing service integrity.

Offices worldwideThe services described in this publication are subject to availabilityand may be modified from time to time. Services and equipment are provided subject to British Telecommunications plc’s respectivestandard conditions of contract. Nothing in this publication formsany part of any contract.

© British Telecommunications plc 2006. Registered office: 81 Newgate Street, London EC1A 7AJ Registered in England No: 1800000

Designed by Westhill Communications.Produced by Ecoutez Creative Limited

Case studyIrish Government

Main BT products and services• Resilient, fully auto-redundant

transmission network

• Intelligent Video NetworkPlatform (IVNP)

• Multiplexing and networkservices including TransportIntegrity Monitoring Systems(TIMS) and Asynchronous SerialInterface (ASI) slipless switches

• BT service management andnetwork monitoring