Broadwing Communications will announce today that it is almost doubling its Media Services Network to now reach 41 cities, to keep up with demand for high-quality real-time video feeds in high-definition TV format.

Sports programming and other events transmitted live are the primary drivers for the expansion of the Media Services Network, which launched in five cities a year ago and was expanded to 20 in April. Broadwing believes it is now operating the largest DTM or dynamic synchronous transfer mode, network in North America.

The network was set up specifically to meet the needs of media companies, offering pay-as-you-go bandwidth with 100% quality of service that can be reserved for short time periods via an automated system for quick turn-ups and tear-downs, said Del Bothof, vice president/general manager of media service for Broadwing Communications, a subsidiary of Broadwing. Services range from 3 Mb/s for compressed video all the way up to 1.5 Gb/s.

"That is a pure digital signal that comes out of the camera that high-definition TV requires," he said. "Whenever they want high definition, our network is the only one that carries that reliably. We are seeing growth because a lot more high-def events are happening."

Broadwing provides contribution-quality video, as well as other file formats, and through a partnership with Intelsat, is linked to major sports venues through the U.S. HTN, a major transmission facilities service provider to sports cable networks. The broadcasting industry has also teamed with Broadwing and Intelsat.

Broadwing Media Services markets now include Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York, among others.