AV Technology - February/March 2009 - (Page 49) On the network, some people believe that digitized video, voice, and data are all the same, but the increasing demands of video on a network deserve a closer look. hink your network is already crowded? Cisco recently published a series of white papers about the increased volume of video traffic that is likely to be seen on networks in the near future. Some of the surprising results included: ➤ By 2012, nearly 90 percent of all IP traffic will be video content. ➤ Already, video is one-quarter of all consumer traffic and will double every T two years through 2012. ➤ Video traffic has exceeded P2P file sharing traffic such as music sharing. ➤ The amount of video traffic in 2012 will be over one-half of a zetabyte, which equals over 500 billion gigabytes. If these rather amazing projections are correct, will our networks be able to support the traffic? Will new architecture be needed? What will be the impact on the data traffic that has always been business critical? The future’s not that far off either. Many laptops are available with factory-installed webcams, or they can easily be purchased for about $30. YouTube, once a “social networking” novelty, is now becoming a bona fide viral marketing vehicle for entrepreneurs and established businesses alike. ComScore, a Reston, VA-based internet measurement company, said internet users in the U.S. viewed 13.5 billion videos online during the month of October 2008. IT directors have been expressing their concerns about video for some time. Until recently, enterprise users haven’t demanded that video be carried on the network. But applications like videoconferencing, training, sales demos and video pitches, and security are becoming mission critical. It’s becoming increasingly important to consider the implications of storing and transmitting all of this video. FORMS OF VIDEO Video comes in many formats, and there are many ways to categorize the different types. For the purposes of this discussion, it’s helpful to distinguish among these three types of video content. Type 1: Conventional video can be analog, digital, or digital IP. It is characterized by the fact that it is recorded and presented by the standards and traditional methods of the television broadcast industry. It emanates from a single source and is broadcast to many users. In analog form, one television channel occupies 6 MHz of bandwidth. At output it will conform to the NTSC or ATSC standards used by televisions. Examples include television program-
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