Level 3 Communications hosted the October meeting of the Video Services Forum at their spacious meeting facility in Broomfield, CO earlier this month, and many interesting presentations we delivered. Level 3 delivered two interesting presentations - one on distributing linear television channels over fiber networks (instead of via satellite) and another on OTT workflows for liver linear production. Thomas Edwards of Fox gave an excellent tutorial on the P4 programming language for SDN's. Matthew Goldman of Ericsson (ans newly-elected SMPTE President) took the audience on a deep dive into UHD and HDR technologies. Margaret Pinson of the Boulder-based Institute for Telecommunication Sciences expanded everyone's horizon by talking about the importance of image quality in public safety applications, and how much work there is to be done in this vital area. Your truly made a plea for establishing a combined control and timing plane within IP video production networks and keeping it separate from the connections used to transport high-speed media signals. Overall, a great meeting, and a special thank you to Level 3 for not only hosting us in their headquarters facility but also sponsoring a delightful social hour at Murphy's Tap House.
