So what's all the Buzz about Video over IP?

Video over IP is an enabling technology that allows video signals to be digitized and streamed over IP networks. Over the next five to ten years, Video over IP networking will make access to video services of all kinds simple and cost-effective, like access to voice and data services has been now for many years.

To illustrate the power of Video over IP, let's take a look at an example.

Imagine that you're the Director of Security for a large banking institution. You have an interest in developing the ability to centrally monitor, on demand, the security surveillance video cameras installed at any one of the 400 bank branches located in your territory (be it a municipal region, nationwide, or across an entire continent).

In the past, the only satisfactory approaches to achieving high quality video transmission was to either lease bandwidth from a service provider or to install private, dedicated communications links to each and every one of the 400 sites. Either option proved to be difficult and expensive, primarily due to the substantial bandwidth required to transmit video (in contrast to voice and data).


The expense of the dedicated link approach has typically led most security officials to settle for recording all surveillance video cameras locally (i.e., at the banking branch itself). In the event of an alarm condition (e.g., robbery attempt) at one of the banking branches, local police authorities would be dispatched to the site immediately without knowing what was happening inside. Both banking and police officials would only have access to the locally archived video surveillance footage once the alarm had passed (e.g., the alleged robbers are apprehended), thereby defeating a primary purpose of the system.

With the rapid advancements in Video over IP technology in recent years, a new approach has emerged that makes instant access to high-quality video signals possible from a central monitoring facility. Two developments in particular have been critical to this:

1. Video Compression. The development and adoption of video compression standards, such as the MPEG (Motion Pictures Expert Group) video compression standards, have significantly decreased the amount of storage and/or transmission bandwidth required. For example, without compression, approximately 150 Mbps of bandwidth is required to transmit a single stream of digital video. The bandwidth required to transmit high quality, full-motion video today using compression can be reduced to a range between 1.5 Mbps to 6.0 Mbps using the most widely adopted video compression standard in the world today, i.e., MPEG-2.

2. Available Bandwidth. An explosion of bandwidth availability over the past two years has led to falling prices for end-users deploying their own enterprise networks and leasing bandwidth from service providers, making bandwidth hungry applications such as video far more affordable. Furthermore, the emergence of Virtual Private Network (VPN) links now offer large enterprises access to affordable bandwidth for applications like video surveillance.

For the immediate future, these technological breakthroughs mean that cost-effective virtual links, i.e., communications links that are only used and charged for by the service provider as and when required, can be used to transport video anywhere, anytime. These breakthroughs also allow Video over IP to overcome traditional obstacles that restricted access to video services in the past.

Let's again consider the example of the banking Security Director. Using equipment that combines MPEG-2 video compression with IP networking technology, such as the
i-Volution series of video networking products by Impath Networks, the Security Director can now have access to any one of the video surveillance camera feeds from a central monitoring facility as required. In the event of an alarm in any one of the branches, a virtual link can be created between the banking branch and the central monitoring facility so that high quality, full-motion video images of on-site events would be automatically transmitted to personnel in the central monitoring facility. The virtual private connection would flow through the network of any service provider or telecom carrier that offers virtual private networking to enterprise customers.

The benefits of this approach are numerous. The most important of these include the ability to instantly access any video camera in the entire network while maintaining a reasonable operating budget for the leasing of IP network services across your territory, since only "requested" video streams are ever transmitted and charged for (since available bandwidth is charged for only when actually in use).

This is the magic of Video over IP. It's an enabling technology with endless possibilities and enormous potential. It isn't hard to see why it is widely anticipated that digital Video over IP solutions will transform the way the world communicates over the coming years.