August 2004


First HD network transmission between desktops

"The future of bandwidth-hungry video"

ResearchChannel is reporting the first successful transmission of full bandwidth High Definition (HD) 1080i video between two desktop computers using high speed networking technology.

The transmission was achieved at a demonstration at the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) conference in Cairns, Australia in July. Conference attendees were treated to three HD video clips streamed at a sustained data rate of 1.5 gigabits per second.

"The emergence of a cyber platform of performing arts, for example, has become immediate," says Dae Young Kim, professor at Chungnam National University in Daejeon, South Korea, and CEO of Advanced Network Forum (ANF), a voluntary nonprofit community for users of research and education networks in Korea.

"The demo exemplified the future of bandwidth-hungry video transmission and applications." This development demonstrates the possibility in the near future of a whole range of applications including new opportunities in telemedicine, remote sensing instrumentation and digital cinema using advanced networks at speeds of over 3,000 times those of commercial broadband networks or more than 40,000 times the speed of DSL.

"The ability to transmit uncompressed High Definition video is one of a number of exciting uses of broadband networks and brings new opportunities not only for scientists but for a wider audience of viewers around the world," says George McLaughlin, director of international developments for Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet).

AARNet is cooperating with Research Channel to implement High Definition streaming into the new AARNet 3 network, which will provide high-speed access across the Australian continent to serve the needs of the research and education community in that country.

The technology for this experiment was developed by engineers at the University of Washington, a ResearchChannel participant, and demonstrated a previously unattainable level of reliable data traffic between two Windows XP platform computers.

The uncompressed HD files for the test were stored on two PCI-X Dual 2.8GHz XEON computers donated by Intel Corporation of Beaverton, Ore. A Xena HD video capture board donated by AJA Video Systems of Grass Valley, Calif., generated the video output.

ResearchChannel is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 by a consortium of leading research universities, institutions and corporate research centers dedicated to creating a widely accessible voice for research through video and Internet channels.

It currently broadcasts a full schedule of live and streamed educational programming 24/7, with content from throughout the world, including some offerings from Canada's National Film Board. The content is open to all, at various connection speeds.

Audiences worldwide have access to ResearchChannel's continuous webcast and searchable on-demand video library of over 1300 full-length programs. These resources are available at Internet2, cable, DSL and modem bandwidths. ResearchChannel also actively tests new technologies to create robust, high-speed channels serving scientific communities.

Here in Canada, Ryerson University's Rogers Communications Centre in Toronto is emerging as a leader in research in high definition and digital video production. Ryerson, one of the institutions connecting to ORION through the GTAnet consortium, claims Canada's first systematized HD television editing facilities for use in education and the largest deployment of HDTV in Canada, with seven Panasonic AJ-HDC20A HD camcorders in the field. As a result, Rogers Centre is currently finding itself at the forefront of digital broadcast technology.

ORION is currently collaborating with ResearchChannel and others to identify potential Canadian and Ontario-based research and educational partners. ORION hopes to spark interest among partners to connect to ORION for collaborative research and to make more of educational resources and programming available over the network here in Ontario and around the world.

For more information, visit www.researchchannel.org and www.rcc.ryerson.ca


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