London (Parliament Politic Magazine) – The British Technology (BT) Group has introduced innovative technology that improves the quality and dependability of live programming for viewers while reducing costs for networks and broadcasters. BT Group is working with major broadcasters and platforms to develop and deploy new Multicast Assisted Unicast Delivery (MAUD) technologies that will enable live event coverage in 2024. Current advancements in IP transmission technology are meant to meet customer needs; this is demonstrated by a recent survey that reveals customers value reliability and visual quality above everything else while watching live TV.
MAUD Aims
The BT Group has unveiled a state-of-the-art technology with the goal of enhancing the quality, reliability, and sustainability of live video streaming over the Internet. The goal of Multicast-Assisted Unicast Delivery (MAUD) is to improve the experience of viewers while making the complex process of getting material in front of them more efficient. Well-known broadcasters, including the BBC, will evaluate and maybe test the technology to support a range of live shows.
In order to provide the event to individuals who have chosen to view it, MAUD technology employs “multicast” to merge those separate feeds into a single shared stream. This is not the same as traditional “unicast” distribution when each viewer watches the event through a separate, dedicated internet stream. One further notable advantage of MAUD over “regular” multicast streams is that its integration is totally transparent to the player application. Because content service providers don’t need to modify their client apps in order to leverage this technology, they save time and money.
The elimination of the requirement to choose and provide millions of distinct streams to viewers significantly boosts the efficiency of video distribution. Additionally, this reduces the overall expenses and environmental impact for internet providers, broadcasters, and video distribution networks (CDNs). MAUD technology saves energy by using up to 50% less bandwidth and fewer caches during peak events. Freeing up internet capacity will help provide a higher quality of experience for both live and non-live material.
Howard Watson’s Statement
“MAUD is a breakthrough in how we deliver content over the internet. Developed in our world-class labs at Adastral Park in Suffolk, MAUD could be a key solution to how we manage ever-increasing traffic loads.” BT Group Chief Security and Networks Officer Howard Watson stated: “By combining individual streams, MAUD delivers a more reliable, consistent picture, no matter whether customers are watching over Wi-Fi, fiber, or mobile networks.”
The introduction of MAUD coincides with fresh data from BT Group demonstrating that, despite the rising appeal of on-demand content providers, the UK public’s thirst for live content remains unquenchable. According to a poll on the priorities and watching habits of the British public, 90% of people still watch live television, primarily sports and news, and more than half of them do so at least once a day.
Read More: United Kingdom: risk of prison for irresponsible tech bosses
Paolo Pescatore Remarks
According to Paolo Pescatore, founder of PP Foresight, “data shows that audiences still value the live experience even in the on-demand era, whether it’s the Euros or Eurovision, gaming over Twitch or gigs from Glastonbury.” Peak network demand is being driven to unprecedented levels by live events and sports, so it’s wonderful to see innovation making it possible for premium live content to be distributed to a large audience on a variety of devices while also being produced in a more ecologically friendly way.
Viewers also place a high value on the viewing experience; even with recent advancements in services, over 90% of viewers rank picture quality and dependability as critical, ranking them higher than interactive features, commentary, and stream synchronization by over 3.5 to 1. Regarding sports, viewers continued to value visual quality and consistency above latency, or the amount of time it takes for live action to appear on screen. The majority-owned company of BT Group plc, British Telecommunications plc, is responsible for almost all of the BT Group’s operations and holdings. The London Stock Exchange is home to the BT Group plc listing.
The Content Delivery Research team of BT’s Research Labs, located in Adastral Park, Suffolk, created MAUD. The objective was to develop a live streaming solution that was both effective and considerate of the demands of the several organizations involved in the content distribution chain. Earlier this year, at the International Broadcasting Conference in Amsterdam, the MAUD solution was introduced to broadcasters. Multicast was characterized as the most “technically efficient technology for IP-delivery of live content” in a September Analysys Mason paper that was written for Ofcom.