AN MPEG ALTERNATIVE

Rural telcos have a particular dilemma in trying to deliver video to their customers: namely, the threat of signal degradation as video traffic treks across the long copper loops that span the lonesome prairies. For many carriers, the industry's leading compression standards may not be enough. But now they have an alternative: PSI_V (pronounced “sigh vee”).

The newest version of the industry's most popular compression standard, MPEG-4 can squeeze standard-definition video to about 2.5 Mb/s and high-definition video to perhaps 8 Mb/s. So to bring one HD and two standard video signals to subscribers' homes, carriers need close to 15 Mb/s. And that doesn't include voice or high-speed Internet service. That kind of heavy bandwidth load will degrade over the 12,000 feet or more that many carriers call the last mile, forcing them to rebuild their networks, shortening the distance between node and home to less than 6000 feet.

A new compression technology developed by Infinite Video (a subsidiary of Even Technologies), PSI_V compresses standard-definition video to 750 kb/s and HD to 3 Mb/s. So it can deliver the aforementioned three-channel video package with 4.5 Mb/s — less than a third of the bandwidth MPEG-4 requires.

“That means you can reach out to 13,000 or 14,000 feet,” said Bob Saunders, co-founder of Infinite Video. “You can deploy IPTV over your existing outside plant to probably 80% to 100% of your customers without a rebuild.”

PSI_V's ability to leap long copper loops in a single bound might make it a natural for rural telcos, but Saunders said big-city carriers should need it even more. Still, this summer, Wyoming's Silver Star Communications will become the first telco to use it. Allen Hoopes, Silver Star's president, sees no drawbacks to the technology — only the typical anticipation over whether a vendor's technology will deliver the vendor's promise.

Saunders says compatibility with MPEG isn't an issue because his product converts MPEG video to PSI_V. And though the only set-top box that can handle PSI_V at the moment is Infinite's own, Saunders hopes other set-top vendors will license PSI_V and include it in their products next year.

There is a benefit to using technology specific to just one vendor, Hoopes said. “When you have a problem with your network, you can point at them and say, ‘Solve this problem.’”

That's precisely what Infinite hopes to do.