FTTPandGPON

  Don’t you just love industry buzzwords. AV over IP. Networked AV.   Networked Video. IPTV on the LAN. Even HDMI over Ethernet. All pretty much the same thing expressed in different ways. Every vendor tries to coin ‘their’ phrase – a slightly different take on a current technology trend or ‘buzz-term’ that’s riding high in the industry. It’s easy to be taken in by the hype, publicity and industry noise with this stuff, but whatever anyone wants to call it, distributing AV signals over an IT network is where things have been going for a long time, whether you like it or not. So sorting out the ‘FUD’ (fear, uncertainty, doubt) factor, or even worse that FOMO (fear of missing out) feeling, is crucial so you can then focus on what’s actually important in all this hyperbole. So maybe this will perhaps simplify things..   This is Nothing New Many of the challenges faced in today’s AV world – not only by AV integrators but also IT managers – have been seen in the past m...

  Bit of a duff thing to say as we all probably know this, but we’re in the age of remote work, smart homes, and increasingly bandwidth-hungry applications. But perhaps what is less well-known is that many of us are turning to fibre-optic solutions for faster, more stable internet connections. And one of the most efficient ways to deliver high-speed fibre broadband is through GPON – Gigabit Passive Optical Network technology. Because I get this a lot of the time, I would like to get one thing clear – GPON technology is not just used in ‘big-boy’ territory – that is to say it is not in the remit of ISP’s, commercial users or the corporate space any longer. It is perfectly viable for your average home user to consider installing GPON at in their home or in a SOHO environment, as there are practical and affordable options available now to help you get the most out of your fibre connectivity.   Let’s take a look at some of the core components and basic installation setup, foc...

  Ok so we all know by now that AV signal transmission is, more and more (whether we like or not) migrating onto the IP network. Which in turn also means that point-to-multipoint communications are becoming increasingly prevalent on every network where AV type traffic (such as IPTV) is used. So, it therefore becomes important to understand how multicasting will impact your business. The Network Switch is the Infrastructure What we’re really referring to here, the essential ingredient of all this, is of course the network switch. The real-time demands of applications such as voice and video, not to mention the bandwidth requirements, especially high-volume, high-bandwidth video can easily strain a poorly designed network to its limits. But let’s just define what we mean by real-time traffic here. In professional AV, media content (such as IPTV for example) is streamed across the network with the principle requirement being that it be delivered to the desired endpoint with very...