Lockwood Broadcast Group Case Study: Reliable Video Delivery over IP Streamline Operational Efficiency

Lockwood Broadcast Group has been on the cutting edge of video delivery over IP since its inception. It has been involved in IP multicasting since 2007 and was among the first broadcasting companies to distribute HD content over IP.

Before using VideoFlow, Lockwood had worked with several vendors for video transport with various levels of success. "We looked at everything out there, tried numerous products but couldn’t find anything that gave us both the reliability and the operational efficiency that we need," said Bob Pectelidis, Lockwood's Corporate Director of Engineering.

One of Lockwood's key challenges was finding an effective way to reduce bitrate overhead. This was a critical cost factor since the company's transport infrastructure to the TV stations has been and is still primarily based on dedicated private lines (e.g., bonded T1, leased lines) that carry a significant price tag.

Before using VideoFlow, Lockwood deployed compact and reliable MPEG4 devices that used forward error correction (FEC) for recovering lost packets. The bit rate overhead when using FEC can reach a constant 29% even if no packet is lost and, if a guard band is added, overhead can reach 49%. "We had to allow for a fair amount of overhead regardless of the line quality, just in case," confirmed Pectelidis. "We needed a more efficient way to deal with packet loss to save money and network resources."