iptv news_news 29/08/2014 16:53 Page 3
Bell Labs boost for
video research
lcatel-Lucent’s Bell
Labs has opened a
new ‘antenna’ office
in Cambridge, UK, to
concentrate on videocentric networking
innovation. The unit will be
led by Bo Olofsson,
formerly director, Product
Research Group at BSkyB.
At Sky, his team was
responsible for research
and experimentation on
A
emerging consumer
technologies and their
potential future application
and implications for Sky
and its product and
services.
From the Cambridge base,
Olofsson will head global
research into real-time delivery
of video to all types of
connected devices, such as
smartphones, games consoles,
tablets, Smart TVs, and more
across Bell Labs. This is the
second Bell Labs antenna office
and follows the opening of the
Israel Bell Labs cloud research
facility in May. A third location
will be announced later this
year.
Research at the Cambridge
location will centre upon the
evolution of video and real time
cloud content delivery. Video
currently accounts for
approximately 75% of a mobile
service provider’s network
traffic. This
is expected
to increase
as
consumer
appetite
changes and demand for video
over any device grows even
further, driving the need for
networks to evolve. In addition,
with the rise in user generated
content - from tablets,
smartphones, video cameras
and machines - which needs to
be uploaded, stored, managed
and delivered in real time, the
scale and scope of video-centric
networking will increase even
further. According to AlcatelLucent, this makes it essential
to develop
innovative
solutions
that help
design the
‘video
centric’
networks of tomorrow.
The Bell Labs team will be
co-located with the
headquarters of Alcatel-Lucent’s
IP Video business, which has
grown significantly following
the acquisition of Cambridge
based Velocix in 2009. Focused
on delivering specialist
integration services and one of
the most innovative ranges of
video solutions in the industry,
Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Video
business was named leading
vendor of CDN equipment by
SNL Kagan MRG. The
company’s IP Video solutions
include the Emmy award
winning Cloud-DVR, the Velocix
CDN and Transparent Caching.
Marcus Weldon, president of
Bell Labs and CTO AlcatelLucent said that work at the Bell
Labs location in Cambridge
would focus on one of the big
problems that is facing the
industry today. “The massive
growth in the generation and
demand for video-centric
content is creating one of the
biggest issues for our customers
as they evolve their networks.
Bo Olofsson’s team will work
closely with the IP Video team
to solve these issues with
solutions that optimise videocentric delivery and network
capabilities that ensure high
quality even as demand
explodes,” he advised.
Olofsson noted that as
consumer and enterprise user
behaviour evolved and the
appetite to produce and
consume video continued to
grow, it was placing huge
demands on the network and
forcing a need for
change.”Coming from a
provider, I have first hand
experience of these challenges –
and we are going to research
new ways to support that
demand. I’m very excited about
the opportunities and
challenges ahead, as I lead this
research at the new Bell Labs
facili