The Switch, a video and fiber switching services provider based in New York City, has contracted with Miranda Technologies to supply 3Gb/s video routing switchers and centralized control solutions for a 50-city fiber transmission expansion project. Beck Associate is providing system design and equipment integration.
The Switch offers local switching and long haul transmission, as well as AT&T and Verizon circuits to its customers, which include major television broadcasters, cable operators and many other organizations.
Currently, The Switch provides local switching in six cities: New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington DC, London and Toronto. It plans to roll out switching in 44 additional cities, beginning in the summer of 2011.
The new fiber infrastructure will feature 20 NVISION 8500 Hybrid routers for connecting the first phase of dedicated fiber-optic circuits at the new switching facilities. The new fiber transmission system will be able to handle critical signals for all major US networks in virtually every format available, including 3Gb/s/HD/SD, JPEG 2000 compressed 3Gb/s/HD/SD, SDTI and ASI.
David Anderson, CTO at The Switch, said the company is committed to building out a 3Gb/s infrastructure that will allow customers to run two uncompressed 1.485 Gb/s HD signals for 3-DTV, if required.
All routers will be connected by a secure VPN and controlled using Miranda’s iControl Network Monitoring System at The Switch’s Network Operations Center in New York. The iControl system will integrate tightly with The Switch’s touch screen customer interface. The control system offers direct signal control to all Switch clients with total signal transparency from anywhere in the world.
Miranda has performed custom development work to integrate the routing system with the network’s ScheduALL network management system. This allows The Switch operators to schedule, reserve and then execute video switches in all cities, across the network of Miranda routers, to the customers’ local fiber optic circuits.
In addition to the new routers at the new facilities, the existing signal management infrastructures in New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles will be upgraded using NVISION 8500 Hybrid and NVISION 5128 systems.
