User requirements for video networks

Until fairly recently, running professional quality video over a network was pretty much out of the question. Manipulation of high quality video was left to the very high-end graphics engines which operated in the usually isolated environment of a graphics post production facility. Times have changed. In the last two years, consumer manufacturers of hardware and software have realized that video is the key application that will increase their sales for the next few years. As a result, the weight of the consumer market has been brought to bear on the problems of processor speed and network bandwidth. This push has resulted in a corresponding development in the professional video market, creating lower cost solutions for the computer manipulation, storage and transfer of video over high speed networks. This paper attempts to quantify, from the user perspective, the requirements for video networks that will function in this new environment. The paper identifies business drivers behind the need for new networking technology. It then defines specific software, hardware, and quality of service levels for this technology. A new generation of television applications are calling for networked systems that will allow organizations to exchange data that crosses functional and departmental lines. These applications will that remove the physical barriers of time and distance as well as those of departmental and equipment functionality and interfaces. These changes impose hardware and software requirements that mandate detailed planning and consideration in order to implement this flexible support environment. It is the purpose of this paper to describe some of those applications and to the explore the requirements that they impose. Software applications that work with video are network intrinsic but are different from desktop applications in two important ways. First they utilize the network to serve applications to a wide variety of hardware and thus provide the user with interfaces at virtually any networked device. Second,the data these applications support is a complex construct of differing data (and metadata) types, assembled from physically diverse locations.