Iowa Network Services has deployed a Super Headend to serve more than 560,000 viewers in 330 communities statewide.
Tut Systems, an OR-based provider of products for digital television headends, has launched a Super Headends concept for managing all incoming video signals.
The Super Headend approach efficiently manages hundreds of TV program channels and other services, and lets each local market obtain an optimized mix of channels and services that are customized to their local subscribers’ needs.
In Iowa, Iowa Network Services (INS), a Tut “Super Headend” deployment, serves more than 560,000 Iowans in 330 communities statewide. INS owns and operates a fully digital 2000mi statewide fiber optic network, and in collaboration with 150 independent telephone companies, has extended that coverage over an additional 2500 miles of fiber.
The output of a Super Headend feeds a redundant ring of fiber optics, and individual nodes connect to the ring. Equipment in each node selects the appropriate TV, data and other bit streams from the ring, and reprocesses them to efficiently serve local subscribers connected to each node.
Various nodes that connect to the 4500 miles of fiber in Iowa also use Tut Systems’ equipment to select and groom digital programming for their local markets. The Super Headend controls ingest of all incoming signals, including local analog over-the-air TV stations, which are digitized at the Super Headends, and then distributed statewide over the fiber network. Currently, the network uses five OC-3 ATM rings to deliver services statewide.
Each local node connects to the statewide fiber, and picks off unique mixes of selected services. Some local nodes use ADSL, and others use traditional coaxial cable as their final mile connection to subscribers. The INS system supports video-over-ATM, video-over-IP (Internet Protocol), and DVB-ASI video-over-QAM for the coaxial cable services.
For more information, visit www.tutsys.com.
