OVERVIEW

Transporting video signals is a round-the-clock business throughout the world today. Whether for entertainment, education, or personal communication, we now live in a world where we are constantly exposed to video content in many different forms. The scale and scope of the technologies and systems that are used to gather and deliver all of this content are quite amazing. For example, over 1 billion viewers around the world saw the final match of the 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament.

As Internet Protocol (IP) technologies for video transport continue to mature, more and more of the video delivery process will take place over IP networks. This change will ultimately include all phases of video content creation and delivery, beginning right at the video camera and ending at a home viewer's video display. As we will see throughout this book, there are many different areas of the video industry that will be affected by IP technology.

In this chapter, we will look at the primary methods that are used today for delivering video signals to viewers around the world. Then we'll discuss some of the main technologies that are used in telecommunications networks, including ATM and IP protocols. We will also investigate some of the issues surrounding video transport on the Internet. Finally, we will introduce our Video User Checklist, which we will be creating and expanding as we progress through the book. By the end of this chapter, you should be familiar with some of the common forms...