More than forty participants travelled to Geneva for yesterday's workshop on Content Delivery Networks for broadcasters. Four of the presenters represented OCEAN, a European project that aims to find solutions to the problem of multimedia content traffic clogging up future networks. EBU Members are likely to become ever more reliant on CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) to ensure their content reaches their audience.
The event attracted a broad cross-section of broadcasters and other content providers, as well as service, infrastructure and technology providers. Thus it was an ideal forum in which to exchange ideas about trends and opportunities for future delivery networks.
Ocean's Six: Bram Tullemans (EBU), Chris Hawinkel (Alcatel-Lucent), Yannick le Louédec (Orange Labs), Vincent Bonneau (Idate), Marcin Pilarski (Orange Labs), M. Oskar van Deventer (TNO).
From a technical perspective, the focus was on CDN architecture, bringing the Quality of Experience closer to the customer, and how content providers can interface with different CDNs. The event also examined business aspects, looking at new and old business models, leading to an extensive discussion around who should foot the bill for the investments that will be required. ETSI, the European Telecommunication Standards Institute, were also in attendance. Their presentation on CDN Interconnection highlighted the proposed solutions for interfaces between different CDNs.
Bram Tullemans, who leads the work in this area for the EBU Technology & Innovation Department, said: "To improve online distribution and deliver a better experience for the audience our content needs to be cached deeper in the network and closer to the end user. CDN technology is indispensible - and any investments that telcos make can ultimately be cost neutral as the higher network efficiency will offset the upfront costs."
The presentations from the CDN Workshop are available here.