iptv news0703.qxp
11/3/13
17:33
Page 6
eracue is providing television and radio programmes distributed all over at Frankfurt Airport site using IPTV, based on the existing network infrastructure and the Teracue IPTV hardware and software for its distribution. More than 90 television and radio channels are distributed over the IPTV network today. This includes the television programmes of public and private television networks, various pay-TV channels and about 20 radio stations. Fraport does not just use IPTV for its own purposes, such as for meeting rooms and lounges or on more than 200 displays on 120 gates. There is also opportunity for catering establishments, bars and retail businesses at the airport to use the IPTV system to show programmes on their own terminals. Furthermore, to date, more than 400 set-top boxes have been connected, which are provided with IPTV channels at Frankfurt Airport. The streaming of television and radio programmes is provided with the help of the DVB-to-IP gateways by Teracue. Signals, such as DVB-S/S2 and DVB-ASI are
T
Teracue lands at Frankfurt Airport
streamed via IP using a multicast process with the hardware plug-in cards designed for robust 24/7 operation. “With our solution, there are DVB satellite signals, which we feed into the network in real-time as IPTV streams, sometimes in HD and sometimes in SD,” says Klaus SchultzFademrecht, manager of the networks department at Fraport. “Back in 2008, we started to convert the television and radio distribution at Fraport into an IPTV solution. As well as the enormous cost advantage, the low maintenance requirements and high degree of
scalability were decisive reasons for setting up an IPTV system.” In addition, the installed IPTV system is flexible enough to grow with its requirements. For example, in the early stages, set-up was only provided for SD distribution. The upgrade to HD only required replacement of the set-top boxes. According to Schultz-Fademrecht, the company is discovering new fields of application for which IPTV can be used. “We are currently integrating a centrally-controlled mute switch, which can be automatically sent to all connected set-top boxes in emergencies, for example when there is a fire alarm. No laborious expansions to the IPTV network were needed, even to set up this function. Only the Teracue management software ElementManager, which gives remote access to each individual set-top box needs to be upgraded to enable this global mute function. The exam