ATLANTA--In response to a trend in the market for virtual headends to be shared among operators in order to cut costs, NetInsight has introduced the Nimbra multi-service IPTV platform, which enables headend operators to aggregate and distribute next-generation services over terrestrial networks. This includes services such as high-definition content, non-linear interactive programming, e-commerce, time-shifted TV and video- and gaming-on-demand.

“Small consortiums don’t necessarily have the funds for head-ends,” said Dan Lutter, director of North American sales for NetInsight. “If they can pick up the signal for someone else, across state lines, it is a huge savings to them. They can accelerate their rollout of advanced services.”


To share headend costs, these virtual headend operators provide a centralized point of ingest for their services and then multicast them across the network to subscribing telco and cable operators.

“Our proposition is, we can do this terrestrially, and a headend operator can take a line up and transport it – it doesn’t matter how far – and multitask it to multiple head-end customers without the quality of service issues of standard multicast,” Lutter said. “We take care of the multicast at layer two. We are able to do it very efficiently and without rising up to higher transport levels with any packet loss. It doesn’t matter how many operators are in between.”

The Nimbra IPTV platform creates what Lutter called a true multicast environment. Channels branch off from the virtual headend to the final customer, giving operators price and performance benefits. The Nimbra platform carries the signals natively so the operator only has to do compression once to accommodate whatever the last mile will allow, Lutter said. By doing this, the platform optimizes the IP network, providing 97% bandwidth utilization at 100% quality of service.

“Consumer demand is there because people are investing in TV with capabilities beyond what operators can deliver right now,” Lutter said. “There is a customer experience issue too. We see a demand from the operators because their customers are complaining, ‘Why does this show look better than that one?’ They tell them it just depends on compression. Customers don’t necessarily understand this, but they recognize there is a difference.”

Lutter said he expects the new technology to be especially successful with independent customers who are looking for an alternative to satellite. Midwest Tel Net, one of NetInsight’s North American customers for the past six years, will deploy the Nimbra 360 platform for a triple play in its Minnesota local region.

“This is the first time that a telco of this nature has offered services across state lines using a guaranteed service,” Lutter said. “Whatever they see at the customer end in the state of Minnesota is exactly as it went in at the headend, without any degradation of quality. In essence, we are providing the multicast ability of satellite on terrestrial networks without the quality of service issues of IP. We complement IP and empower it to have the distribution ability and scalability of satellite for high-end services like video that require 100% QoS.”