By Dan Holden,Comcast Media Center
This paper addresses a new transport methodology that will reduce bandwidth consumption on a cable plant. Cable faces a unique challenge — how to support heritage set top boxes (STB) concurrently with new Consumer Electronic (CE) devices that have exponentially greater capabilities which include: increased resolutions, frame rates, 3D, interactive applications, two-way/IP protocols, and the ability to reach beyond a traditional cable plant.The cable industry must find a way to maximize the video viewing experience, while minimizing the bandwidth and storage requirements associated with compressed video streams.The complexities associated with advanced services are daunting. Numerous standards try to address unique opportunities, but the industry currently lacks a unified methodology to associate all of these disparaging technologies into a single, integrated delivery mechanism.
An approach to resolve this issue is dividing video, audio, and associated data into a grid.Rows are responsible for horizontal partitioning of enhanced video resolution, 3D, applications, data, subtitling, and audio tracks.