Introduction: How Broadcasters can transition from a satellite distribution network to an IP-based network.
With Broadcasters today aware of the advances in the IP world, they are looking for new innovative solutions to enhance their content delivery strategies by using IP networks, in particular Public and Private CDN’s that will allow them to reduce delivery their distribution costs and gain more control over the content they deliver to their affiliates and partners.
Thanks to the proven reliability of satellite delivery, broadcasters have relied on it since its creation in 1962 for the distribution of their content around the world. However, the escalating costs associated with satellite distribution and the need of replacing those who are about to reach their end-of-life (EOL), Broadpeak believes that this perfect storm to be the right moment for content providers to adopt their distribution workflows with the advancements in the IP world for creating a more flexible and cost efficient solution that adapts to today’s market necessities.
Broadpeak’s approach leverages an innovative methodology centered around Manifest Manipulation and the DASH-TS standard. This solution enables the creation of unique streams tailored to each partner or affiliate, ensuring optimal content delivery. The DASH-TS protocol facilitates low latency delivery, achieved through HTTP 1.1 CTE – Chunked Transfer Encoding, while preserving all associated metadata (SCTE signals, PIDs, VCHIP, and other ancillary data). This ensures that video segments remain unmodified throughout the content delivery chain, maintaining high quality and integrity.
Note: The intent of this blog is not to go into the technical details of the structure of the APIs to be used with this solution or how to perform content replacement or dynamic ad insertion, my goal here is to discuss how Broadcasters can transition from a satellite distribution network to an IP-based network.
The Current Landscape: Challenges in Satellite Contribution
During the past several decades satellite technology has been the most effective and reliable method for global content distribution due to its ability to reach remote areas with limited infrastructure. However, recent breakthrough advancements in the IP world have mitigated those benefits thanks to its flexibility and lower cost. Some of the current challenges associated with satellite technology are:
- Bandwidth Limitations: The C-band spectrum, which defines the available bandwidth, is finite. As the demand for bandwidth increases due to the growing number of applications, including 5G networks, HD/UHD content (and soon 8k video), the amount of bandwidth allocated to content distribution becomes increasingly hard to come by (and more expensive).
- Interference and Congestion: Satellite networks are susceptible to weather conditions, solar activity, and other factors that can cause signal degradation or loss. This vulnerability is seen a lot in regions known to have heavy rainfall or locations with tropical climates.
- Lack of Flexibility: Once a satellite transponder is launched into space, the ability to change parameters is limited, and normally are only applicable to a specific to the region or area covered by the transponder. Additionally, satellite technology requires a long-term commitment that can impact the ability to adapt quickly and efficiently to market changes.
- Cost: Leasing transponders, maintaining satellites, stations, and other infrastructure requires a heavy financial investment and a long-term commitment, and this goes without mentioning that it also requires specialized personnel to handle their operations.
These challenges and the escalating demand for more channels, content diversity, and higher video resolutions (particularly for live sporting events), an IP-based software solution emerges as a more efficient choice for distributing content. Its adaptability to specific needs, improved data management, cost reduction, scalability (expanding only as necessary), enhanced collaboration, better accessibility, and robust data security are key advantages that will enable content providers to gain a competitive edge and deliver superior customer experiences.
The Broadpeak Solution for Broadcast Distribution
Before going into the Broadpeak approach to handling content distribution over IP networks, let’s first understand the importance of Manifest-Manipulation and why Broadpeak has selected DASH-TS as the protocol of choice for distributing the content.
Understanding Manifest-Manipulation-Based Delivery
In essence Manifest Manipulation is the process of dynamically modifying or manipulating a manifest file for implementing changes to a stream that will allow the content owner to implement targeted ad insertion or content substitution (blackout) among other use cases, that will increase the streaming experience of a user while also allowing the content providers to create additional revenues by monetizing their content.
It is important to understand that a Manifest Manipulation solution is not capable of inspecting the video segments for determining when a change must be done in the manifest, due to this it is important to know that a packager will be a part of the solution, as this is the element that will be doing the insertion of the necessary cue tones based on the in-band SCTE-35 signals available in the Transport Streams (TS). This process is known as conditioning or splicing the manifest.
The Manifest Manipulation node can receive an out-of-band signal, which is called SCTE-224 messages, that have information regarding the scheduling of events and/or content policies from that control what content will be delivered. These policies can be based on audience attributes such as geographic location, device type, user demographics, subscribed services, service tiers, access network, etc. and can be applied to both live and on-demand content.
It is important to highlight that the use of SCTE-35 messages, and keeping them throughout the whole workflow, are a key element in this type of solution as the feeds that are delivered to its affiliates require the content replacement slots to be frame accurate. This is one of the most important aspects that any manifest manipulation solution needs to be able to execute on for it to be part of any broadcast distribution workflow, as SCTE-224 does not give you this possibility on its own.
By implementing a manifest manipulation solution into the content contribution and delivery workflow, content providers gain complete control over the content they deliver to their partners, for example, build a channel that only has content to what the affiliate or partner has rights to. This approach offers a significant advantage over satellite distribution, as it reduces distribution costs by transmitting only one stream instead of multiple streams.
Beyond content control, implementing a manifest manipulation solution also enhances the content creator’s workflow flexibility, enabling them to adapt the content to emerging market trends, new regions that are now part of their footprint, and other factors. This flexibility may not be feasible when distributing content via satellite due to the limitations mentioned previously.
Benefits of creating manifest files in real-time
- Request-based ad insertion: With the use of SCTE-35 markers available in the live streams. The type of ad insertion uses cases that are applicable to live are: Pre-roll – prior to the start of the stream, break-level – replaces the entire ad-break (multiple ads), spot-aware replacement – replaces only specific ads within a break.
- Request-based blackouts: Allows you to replace programs within the stream, at specific time slots, with content from other live feeds or from a VOD asset. This manipulation can be triggered for a specific audience or multiple ones. These slots are usually triggered by a schedule that is known in advance or can be triggered via a SCTE-224 message.
- Policy & Viewing policies: Blackouts service can have multiple policies defined for determining what type of content the user can receive. These are defined within the SCTE-224 message, you can use Policy and Viewing Policy to:
- define Actions to choose the replacement content to apply during the slot. It can be a default content or one specific to the slot.
- define Audiences (with Zip codes or Categories) to which the Content Replacement slot created will apply.
In summary, the utilization of a manifest manipulation solution facilitates a highly scalable and targeted ad insertion or alternate content placement solution while also providing a comprehensive list of real-time control features that will allow the content provider to create unique personalized streams for each one of its partners.
What is DASH-TS?
History of MPEG-DASH
To explain the DASH-TS protocol, let’s first provide some historical background on why DASH was created and how it became the protocol of choice for streaming media.
MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) was officially published in April 2012 as an open standardized protocol developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) as an industry standard. It was created by the collaboration of various companies and industry organizations like: Netflix, Google, Microsoft and others.
MPEG-DASH works by breaking down media content into smaller, downloadable HTTP files, which are then delivered to the user’s device. This adaptive streaming approach allows the player to dynamically switch between different bit rates and resolutions based on the user’s bandwidth and network conditions, ensuring a consistent playback experience.
This flexibility and adaptability allows greater control for quality and switching, as it is codec agnostic which is a key element for implementing a robust manifest manipulation solution for content contribution and distribution. I do want to acknowledge that HLS does support now a wider range of codecs like AV1 and unofficially VP9, but these usually are not supported immediately.
What is DASH-TS
Now that we have given a brief history on MPEG-DASH, let’s now explain what is DASH-TS (MPEG-2 TS over DASH). DASH-TS is part of the MPEG DASH standard, specifically the SCTE 214-4 standard which is called MPEG DASH for IP-Based Cable Services Part 4: SCTE Common Intermediate Format (CIF/TS) Manifest for ATS Streams. The standard defines DASH-TS as a DASH-like manifest (MPD) used for processing virtual segmented content streamed for linear services or stored for cDVR and VoD services, based on parsing of ATS or DASH-TS conditioned streams. This standard was published in 2018, and is available here. The following is a brief overview of the standard:
“The CIF MPD or CIF manifest is created from the parsing of an MPEG Transport Stream that is marked up and conditioned for virtual segmentation. A downstream device such as a packager can then use the CIF MPD to request and extract segments that can be modified to support various types of adaptive streaming technologies in the client.
The CIF MPD is used for processing of virtual segmented content streamed for linear services or stored for cDVR and VoD services. The CIF MPD is the DASH-like manifest as described in the reference architecture in Section 7 of SCTE 217. This document is an extension of DASH as constrained by SCTE 214-, 214-2, and 214-3. The CIF MPD contains enough information to create client manifest and segment conditioning for the supporting end-client player adaptive streaming technologies.”
Why is DASH-TS The Contribution Protocol of Choice?
The use of the DASH-TS standard for contribution and distribution of content provides the following benefits:
- When DASH-TS is used, there is no manipulation/modifications to the TS streams. All ancillary data is kept throughout the whole workflow e.g.: data timing, boundary point, labeling information, etc. for each segment as well as SCTE-35 messages (for frame accurate replacements) and PTS stream times.
- The DASH-TS standard allows the use of the HTTP protocol for the streaming of multiple layers of video, in addition to multiple PIDS of Audio & Subtitles/Closed-Captions.
- Allows for the use of CTE transfer which allows the solution to perform at the same level of latency as an ultra-low latency solution with CMAF, guaranteeing that it at least matches the latency of satellite distribution.
- Provides a more efficient recovery and reduces the network impact when it encounters errors during transmission, as with CTE only the specific chunks that errored are retransmitted, not the entire data set.
- Avoids the dependency of doing conversions of the video from TS to MP4 to TS and re-insertion of all the metadata and/or signaling from data provided in the manifest (or CMAF emsg box) which can lead to missing the frame for insertion of content if not done correctly.
- The use of DASH-TS provides more flexibility when it comes to using multiple sources as DASH uses multiperiod, there will be no impact on the playout of the stream if there is a profile that does not match exactly the profiles in use by the main source stream.
- Future Proof, as more codecs evolve over team, which can provide better compression techniques, audio quality, etc. these can easily be supported with the DASH-TS approach.
In summary, utilizing the DASH-TS protocol within a broadcast-like workflow for content distribution to affiliates and partners offers several advantages. Notably, it eliminates bandwidth limitations imposed by satellite networks while providing a future-proof solution that ensures simplicity, flexibility, and control over the delivery of live content to multiple markets.
One last item to call out is that the receiving end of the DASH-TS stream requires a receiver capable of receiving DASH-TS and converting it back into an MPEG-TS stream. Broadpeak has this module, and it can be integrated into Integrated Receiver Devices (IRDs).
The Proposed Broadpeak Solution
Figure 1 depicts a simplified visualization of Broadpeak’s vision of the solution architecture which we have separated into three different areas.
The first area (enclosed in the blue box) is all about ingesting the live source stream(s) into the solution and ensuring that the SCTE-35 markers are available in the stream for the manifest manipulator node. In addition to the main stream to be used, it is also necessary to identify where the additional streams are located as well as any VOD content and/or Advertisement content to be used. This area of the solution will include encoders, origin/packagers and a CDN for the delivery of the video segments. For security, the stream may be protected with any flavor of DRM or with AES-Encryption.
The second area (enclosed in the red box) is the manifest manipulation node. This node will oversee the generation of the unique stream(s) that are required for each one of the affiliates and/or partners that will be part of the ecosystem, based on the policies and actions that the broadcasters scheduler provides via SCTE-224 in other words, this is where the real magic happens, as the manifest manipulator solution responsible of personalizing each stream to be delivered to an affiliate.
Figure 2. Lives Sources with SCTE-35 & SCTE-224 messages provide an example of how 2 different channels can have different break points, and how each break point can have different policies in place.
Some examples of what the manifest manipulator policies and actions are: enforcing a blackout for a particular DMA, replacing a game that is airing on the main channel for a different game that is applicable to a certain market, replacing ads with others that are applicable to a certain type of demographics (i.e. ads in Spanish), etc. The CDN will also be used in this area, for the delivery of the manifests to the affiliates. Figure 3. Manifest Manipulated Streams provides an example of how these streams will look after they have been processed by the manifest manipulator node.
The third area of the solution is the partners location that will receive the stream that has been built by the manifest manipulator for the partner based on the policies defined by the content owner. The components in use for this area will be an IRD receiver with the Broadpeak DASH-TS receiver.
Content providers will have the autonomy to decide whether to transmit a single-layer high-bit resolution stream to their partners or provide multiple layers (or a subset of all available layers). This flexibility ensures that all content is processed with consistent quality throughout the delivery to end-users and/or broadcasting points.
Key Features & Benefits of the Proposed Solution
By content providers migrating to an IP strategy for distributing their live content to their partners some of the key features they will be able to reap are:
Scalability & Flexibility
- Seamless scaling from a handful of affiliates to nationwide or global reach, for example a content owner who only distributes to partners located in the USA, can very easily distribute now to global partners with a few simple steps, i.e. Adding new policies and schedules for the new partners and deploying a new IRD at the partners site, while letting the CDN handle the extra bandwidth required for delivering the content.
- Dynamic adaptation based on real-time conditions, by allowing the content owners to overwrite current policies in place with new ones in a matter of seconds. All that would be required is to trigger a new SCTE-224 message with the update, i.e. the football game time has extended due to overtime, with a simple API call the program can be updated with new program start/end time, which will delay any content replacements after the game (when applicable) to not start until the new game end time.
Cost Efficiency & Operational Simplicity
- Reduced dependence on expensive satellite transponders, as footprints may increase over time and/or the number of streams being provided by the content provider can also increase, there is no need to secure additional satellite bandwidth for its distribution, all that is required is to secure there is IP connectivity to the destination point, and with the use of CDN’s there is no long term commitment either.
- Streamlined workflow with fewer hardware components that also improve the TTM for new services and/or markets, as mentioned previously there is no need for specialized hardware components like the satellite transponders and dish receivers for extending coverage into new regions (this can take a long time for deploying if not available in the new location), with an IP-based solution more often than not networking components are already deployed by the content owners and its partners, with the only requirement being finding a CDN (or multiple for redundancy purposes) that distributes to the new location
Customization & Monetization
- Manifest manipulation enabling dynamic ad insertion and local content substitutions. Content Providers can now create a new revenue stream by launching a programmatic ad service (which can also be interactive ads too), where advertisers can bid for ad space that will address specific audiences, i.e. advertisers who sell sports related ads bid for ad space during sporting events, while beauty product advertisers may choose to not participate for this block of programming. In addition to this, by keeping the original SCTE-35 messages partners may be able to detect when they require to replace the original content with i.e. local news programs (or other content) as well as perform Ad-replacement of their own when the SCTE-35 message indicates they are allowed to do so.
- Potential to increase revenue through more targeted, localized content strategies. The key here is that for enabling a more targeted ad service it is of high importance to have data. By combining a DAI service with data that may be only available to the broadcaster/content owner, this can allow the creation of a more in-depth analysis of who is viewing the content, some examples are: type of program, audience profile, age group that traditionally watches the program, key elements to be aired in the program (i.e. show frequently shows a brand of vehicles, soft drink, shoes, etc.) which can be of more value to the advertisers that are vying to purchase ad space, which in turn can in turn be sold at a higher price point, as this would provide the advertiser a higher hit rate on his ads.
Reliability & Quality
- DASH-TS supporting near-broadcast quality at scale and Built-in resilience against network fluctuations. Thanks to the protocol being codec agnostic and being designed for delivering high-quality video, this can give broadcasters their choice of preference for the codec to use that that will allow them to keep quality of the video based on the network conditions and with low latency, which is critical for live streams.
Implementation Approach & Roadmap
The following items are a high-level description of the steps that both the Broadcaster and Broadpeak teams’ responsibility for deploying a solution of this type. In each topic I’ll describe some of the key items that need to be addressed to ensure successful implementation.
Overview of Steps:
1. Assessment: For this first step, the broadcaster needs to evaluate the current satellite-based workflows and identify points of integration for manifest manipulation. Key items to identify in this step are:
- What type of sources will be used (live, vod, ads)?
- Where are the sources located?
- How many unique streams need to be generated in total?
- What is the Redundancy and Fallback strategy?
- Identify Type of SCTE-35 message to support and segmentation type that will trigger actions
- Any special requirements or use case?
- Will the solution be deployed on-prem, in the cloud or will it be a hybrid deployment?
- Regulatory compliance in different regions (closed-captioning, accessibility requirements).
- What type of security will be used (AES-encryption or DRM)?
- What interface are the partners expecting to use for receiving the content (ASI, SDI, IP, etc.)?
Once these items have been identified, the Broadpeak team will design the solution based on these business and regulatory requirements.
2. Solution Design: Based on the Business requirements that have been defined, Broadpeak will create a design for the solution that will include the network architecture, propose CDNs for the solution (if not defined by the broadcaster) or distribution infrastructure, components or services to be offered. Some of the key items that the Broadcaster will need to review or approve are:
- CDN’s to be used for the solution
- Cloud provider to be used (if it is a cloud solution)
- Encoders and IRDs to be used (if not included as part of the new solution)
- All sources to be used as the primary channel that will be used for creating the variants for the affiliates are included in the solution
- All affiliate or partner locations are included in the solution
3. Pilot / Proof of Concept: Once the use cases have been defined and the solution design has been completed, the next step is to run a trial with a limited set of affiliates or channels to test streams are created as intended, performance, latency, and overall reliability of the solution. The key finding for this step is to make sure no corner case has been excluded, and solution is working as intended by the broadcaster.
4. Deployment & Integration: Roll out to the broader network of affiliates, monitor performance, ensure SLA adherence.
5. Ongoing Optimization: Collect metrics (e.g., latency, bitrate stability), use analytics to refine and optimize streaming parameters. As with any software-based solution, tweaking is a must. With the information collected throughout the life of the solution, metrics will be of high value as network conditions may change over time and more importantly not all destinations will have the same configuration due to the difference in the network.
6. Additional Roles & Responsibilities: The Broadcaster’s Team will be responsible for the content creation, scheduling of content for all channels and affiliates, and handle the affiliate coordination.
The Broadpeak’s Team, throughout the life of the project will be responsible of network configuration, ongoing technical support and documentation and software updates.
Expected Outcomes & Metrics for Success
- Potential Benefits:
- The solution can provide 30% to 70% cost reduction due to decreased satellite dependency coupled with how the solution is implemented.
- More targeted ad inventory leading to higher revenue.
- Improved viewer experience through adaptive streaming and minimized outages.
- Control of your own content, as there is no longer the need to rely on affiliates to build their streams on their own.
- KPIs:
- Channel uptime/availability.
- Average stream quality (bitrate, latency).
- Time to add or update affiliate feeds (speed of deployment).
Tier 1 Operator Use Case
For illustrating some of the benefits and flexibility to this approach, let’s review the following use case by a Tier 1 Operator providing Television Services in Canada. For this solution the Operator had 2 requirements that were necessary. The first one was having a solution that would allow them to perform SimSub (also known as Simultaneous Substitution, a sort of Canadian Blackout or Content Replacement). The second requirement was for them to be able to interrupt live delivery of their content, with short notice, and replace the current program with a different a EAS alert video currently ongoing in their region/area.
In order to deliver a solution that would allow the Tier 1 Operator to meet with these two requirements, Broadpeak delivered a solution that uses our Manifest Manipulator that is in charge of executing the SimSub replacement for each live feed (250+ channels) in addition to performing the necessary EAS alerts replacements when required for each geographical location (there are 40+ regions).
During the gathering of requirements phase of the solution, a key element was identified that did not exist in the solution, the operator did not have a solution that could parse the CSV files with the programing schedule for all channels into SCTE-224 API calls, and it would also require the development of a tool that would parse the SCTE-18 messages into a SCTE-224 message for the EAS alerts.
In total, the project lasted approximately 4 months to develop, including the components for triggering the SCTE-224 messages into the system, which allowed the operator to meet the deadline imposed by the Canadian Regulatory body for having a solution in place that would comply with their new laws.
With this solution the operator is now ready to be able to implement changes in a very short timeframe, as all it will require from their end is to update the geographical regions (if required) and/or add the programing schedule for any new channel that is added to their lineup. As for the triggering of the SimSub, all that is required by the operator is to trigger the SCTE-224 messages into the system with all of the necessary policies and actions associated with the policies.
Conclusion: The Path from Satellite to IP
For broadcasters that are searching for a next-generation solution for distributing its content to its partner affiliates, that is frame accurate, provides low latency, preservers the metadata associated with the video, and also offers a seamless user experience, Broadpeak proposes a software-based solution leveraging our Manifest manipulation for optimizing the streaming experience and enabling frame accurate content personalization which when combined with the use of the DASH-TS format that provides flexibility and reliability for meeting all of the broadcasters needs for updating their content distribution workflows in a short timeframe (and with a lower cost) that meets todays ever evolving market changes.
Looking ahead, consider the possibilities that this type of content distribution can unlock for broadcasters when combined with technologies like ATSC 3.0. These two technologies could work together to dynamically switch content delivery for users on the go, enforce appropriate blackout rules as users move between markets, and leverage the extensive data from next-gen analytics for more accurate targeted advertising and new monetization opportunities. Most importantly, it would enable broadcasters to maintain a single workflow for delivering content to both broadcast and OTT ecosystems, all while retaining complete control.
For more information or to see how these strategies can support your business, contact our experts today or visit our booth at NAB Show 2025 located at #W3331
Author
Rafael Silveira Viso is a systems engineer with extensive experience in telecommunications and media. He specializes in content delivery and has worked on technology integration and media solutions for over 20 years.
Before joining Broadpeak as a Presales Manager in 2022, he held technical and presales roles at Ericsson and Mediakind, focusing on media distribution and solution design. He began his career at Movilnet, a Verizon subsidiary in Venezuela, working on network operations and new technology deployments.
