NGIS
Public TV’s next step toward Next Generation: vendor contract negotiations
Satellite cost estimates are down,
capacity will rise
Public television has been transforming its supply chain for more than 10 years. We have converted from analog to digital technology, established the Web as a significant distribution platform, and negotiated digital carriage contracts with cable and direct broadcast satellite providers.
Now public TV is preparing to install the Next Generation Interconnection System (NGIS), a robust linkage that will ensure continued and uninterrupted delivery of programming, enhancing stations’ ability to deliver such services as high-definition video, multicasting of standard-definition programs, datacasting for public safety or education, and other digital initiatives.
The NGIS project began more than three years ago when station engineers and staff members from American Public Television, the National Educational Telecommunications Association, APTS, CPB and PBS Technology & Operations met in Pittsburgh to discuss public TV’s needs for the future. Since then we have developed the design, and our activity level is now reaching a fever pitch.
NGIS merges satellite, terrestrial, file transfer and storage technologies to form an efficient program distribution infrastructure. This hybrid distribution model is currently being examined or used by all of the major commercial broadcast networks.
Over the past six months, PBS, CPB and independent consultants have undertaken an exhaustive review of the NGIS project. In the process, planners have reduced projections of overall NGIS project costs — and the associated funding request to Congress — from the original $177 million to $120.2 million. The savings came from evolution of the NGIS project concept and technology, along with reductions in overall equipment costs. In this case, time and the falling cost of technological capability were on our side.
The NGIS business requirements, design, architecture, cost and implementation plan were approved by the Technology & Distribution Committee, which governs public TV’s interconnection. PBS and CPB subsequently signed a 10-year master agreement, ensuring uninterrupted interconnection system management through 2016.
The total project cost of $120.2 million includes the expenses of installation and operation of satellite and terrestrial bandwidth, as well as equipment at member stations, PBS and other national distribution entities over at least the 10-year operating life of the system. (How long the system actually operates will depend on factors such as the outcome of contract negotiations with service providers, the final system design and funding decisions by Congress.) CPB, PBS, the stations, consulting engineers and the PBS Enterprise Technology Advisory Committee continue refining plans to align costs with the changing financial environment.
The project’s $50 million federal appropriation will get NGIS started, and public television is asking Congress for the rest. Congress is considering CPB’s $40 million request for fiscal 2006, and we plan a $30.2 million request for fiscal 2007. All of public TV’s national organizations support these requests and have discussed them with Senate and House funding committees.
Choosing strategic partners
To choose the technology partners that will build the system, PBS Technology & Operations requested proposals from 150 equipment vendors, bandwidth providers and system integrators. Two panels—technical and business—including reps of stations and national organizations evaluated more than 50 responses, which addressed transponder/terrestrial capacity, station equipment and the replacement for the present Motorola DigiCipher II encoding system. In mid-October these two panels gave their recommendations to PBS executives and the Technology & Distribution Committee, and the committee has approved them. Dividing the evaluation of vendors’ proposals into major groupings allowed us to investigate all aspects of the design technology, particularly the proposals for non-real-time (NRT) file transfer technologies.
We now must do extensive testing to compare and validate the many competing proposals and have hired a system integrator to undertake that task.
To encapsulate and identify content files, the system will likely use the new SMPTE Material Exchange Format (MXF) standard, a wrapper format for any combination of pictures, sound and data that also conveys metadata for easy exchange of content — such things as the duration of a program and the codecs required to decode it.
The continuing development of the proposed MXF standard is not part of the RFP process, but it’s a critical component of NRT file transfers and will be a determining factor in the edge system design. The success of MXF will hinge on how well the format is supported by the manufacturers of servers already used by our member stations. We are talking now with these manufacturers.
Another new standard used in the system will be Digital Video Broadcasting, an internationally accepted transmission standard for which there are many vendors of satellite transmission and reception equipment. It’s replacing DigiCipher II, successor to DigiCipher I, which public TV adopted back when digital compression and transmission standards were formulated in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Now that the Technology & Distribution Committee has approved selected vendors’ proposals, we expect to begin contract negotiations by the end of December. We expect to reach two critical milestones at the end of summer 2006:
- completing replacement of the DigiCipher II system, and
- arranging to have satellite transponder capacity tested and ready for use.
Now for the heavy lifting
While we continue feeding all programming in real time, we’ll prepare the major transitions to NRT technology. We will get file-transfer technology up and running, first at PBS and then at stations, without relying on it for broadcast operations. When tests show the new system working at all stations, public TV can begin to distribute most of its programs by NRT file transfer.
There will always be some programs—less than eight hours a day—that air live or near-live in some time zones, such as the NewsHour and Charlie Rose. These will continue to go out in real time, but they will require only a single feed. In time zones farther west, the real-time feed will be captured by the video servers at the stations, which can air the programs whenever they choose. This will let public TV eliminate all but two of the current five time zone feeds and stop leasing one of our seven Ku-band satellite transponders.
To deliver preproduced programs that can be fed early, we can use a higher order of modulation in NRT mode, transmitting four times more programming per transponder than our present system.
We can further reduce needed capacity by beginning NRT delivery for other program distributors such as APT and NETA. Cutting back satellite capacity will give public TV a major financial payoff in addition to the operational advantages of NGIS.
With the technical side of public television’s digital transition nearly complete, stations can now create their own menu of multicast channels using PBS, APT and NETA programming and local services/programs.
We are clearing away a number of older packaged feeds and will make room for new ones, though there will probably be a net increase in these feeds. PBS will no longer need to distribute the prepackaged multicasting service known as DT1, because NGIS will give stations the ability to create their own multicast using a mix of national and local services. The old PBS Kids and PBS You feeds will be eliminated. Ending Schedule XP is under consideration. This leaves only Schedule X in the current DT1 multicast service, but the need for it is diminished now that local public TV services are available through DBS providers. Schedule X could end if the FCC rescinds its mandate for a “clear feed” of the PBS schedule for satellite TV subscribers who can’t pick up a public TV station over the air.
The new feeds will include expanded HD programming and new standard-definition packaged channels such as Create, PBS KidsGo, World and Public Square, which are being developed. Stations will also use additional capacity as they increasingly retrieve older programs from the PBS library. We continue to work with all programming partners to understand their distribution needs.
Critical factors in success
A project of this scope and size is complex to manage. Many factors will come into play and may affect how NGIS rolls out. We cannot control the timing and amount of federal funding, but PBS, APTS and CPB have been working with decision-makers in Congress. But with skill and professional leadership, public TV can shape its future by finding strong partners through RFPs, negotiating contracts and consulting with stations. PBS Technology & Operations, with guidance from the Technology and Distribution Committee, has managed these issues so far and expects to continue its success.
Some factors in the transition will require basic blocking and tackling. For those, PBS has built a solid team in the Interconnection Replacement Office under the leadership of Jerry Butler, senior director, and we are augmenting the team with two more engineer/technologists and a communications manager.
Finally, the process will test our ability to manage communications and change. In the coming months we will be communicating with stations more often and in greater depth. PBS has launched this effort by distributing a Technical FAQ recently developed by the Enterprise Technology Advisory Committee for station engineers and presenting an NGIS Executive Summary at regional CPB/PBS round-robins for station general managers. The committee has also conducted a station survey to give us a strong knowledge base about stations’ equipment and processes.
PBS also will begin a series of town hall meetings for general managers and professionals in broadcast engineering, information technology, traffic and programming.
The changes surrounding NGIS will challenge all of us in public television, but NGIS is a crucial element in our digital transition. Public television has a history of successfully managing change. As media, broadcast and IT professionals, we have been managing technological changes for years with great success. As business leaders, we have been managing the chaotic change of the media and consumer marketplace.
The marketplace and our own hopes for the digital future have demanded the investments we’ve already made and the changes we are planning. NGIS will help cement our future. If we come together, share together and work together, we will succeed together.
Edward Caleca, at the time this article was published, had been senior v.p. of technology and operations at PBS for nine years, overseeing public TV’s interconnection system. He led PBS’s planning for the digital transition and liaison with cable and satellite operators.
Web page posted Oct. 20, 2008
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