All things related to multicast

["Marshall Eubanks" <>]

On Sat, 19 Jul 2003 10:59:47 -0400
 "Richard Mavrogeanes" 
<>
 wrote:
> Folks,
> 

Hi Rich;

We are always willing and ready to monitor multicasts for money :)

However, your timing is great, as this is during the
I2 Multicast training workshop

http://events.internet2.edu/2003/Multicast/Multicast7-03/Index.html

and I am sure that we can look at it from Columbia.

Do you have the sdp files up on a web page or otherwise available so
that I can set up some monitoring programs ?

Marshall



> I need your help. But first some background:
> 
> On or about July 25th, we will begin broadcasting live MPEG-2 and MPEG-4
> audio/video from a research ship in the Black Sea.  This is part of a $5M
> project to explore the fantastic underwater treasures of human history that
> have been preserved under hundreds of meters of oxgen-free water.  The
> research is being conducted by Dr. Bob Ballard (who discovered the Titantic,
> PT-109, etc), and is sponsored by the National Geographic among others.  You
> can learn more about the expedition at www.expedition2003.org.
> 
> The significant part of this project is that viewers will be able to witness
> the discoveries live, as they occur.  The video is sourced from the ship
> deck, but more importantly from the Remote Vechicle's cameras as it makes
> discoveries.  This promises to be truly compelling, although I would
> anticipate long periods of "not much".
> 
> This event has made national press, and I suspect will be on the evening 
> news
> at some point during the project (July25 - August 25).  Dr. Ballard promotes
> the Internet-2 in almost every talk he gives. As a result, the multicast
> traffic on Abilene may reach record levels (or not).  
> 
> The video signals originate at the ship, are sent via satellite to an earth
> station in Portland Maine, travel via DSL to Plano TX (EDS), then travel via
> I2 to the University of Rhode Island where they are displayed on a specially
> built console.  The video signals are then encoded into MPEG-2 at 6Mbps and
> MPEG-4 at 200 Kbps by a VBrick and presented to the URI campus network and
> Abiliene.
> 
> Several institutions have built large venue theaters to exhibit the live
> video.  Others are using StreamPlayer to view the live videos at their
> desktops.  In theory, virtually every I2 participant should be able to view
> the events live, but we know that the penatration of multicast in the campus
> networks is not what it might be.
> 
> The videos are sent via multicast, and I can see it listed at several of the
> SDR monitors . As you would imagine, this is not without issues since the
> source campus network was not configured for IGMP (CGMP in this case).  I do
> not have I2 access in my office, so I cannot monitor the video in real time.
> 
> As a matter of interest, the MPEG-4 video is also sent from the VBrick via
> RTSP unicast on the public Internet, and will appear on the project web site
> during the mission.  
> 
> For the last few weeks, we've been multicasting on  233.56.12.14 and
> 233.56.12.114, and will may bring up another stream next week.  You can see
> the video as "Black Sea Project" in both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, and you can get 
> a
> free player (if you don't already have it) from the VBrick web site.
> Currently, the video is just a very cheap camera pointed out the window, but
> it will switch to the Black Sea audio/video on July 25th. As of this 
> message,
> we are not sending but it should be back up on Monday although it will up 
> and
> down as we make changes during the next few days.
> 
> Now for my request for help. I'm looking for someone to work with with good
> access that I can call with a regular "can you see it now?".  On Monday, for
> example, the the good folks at URI (who are unfamilar with multicast) wish 
> to
> prove to themselves that the bandwidth requirement from their campus stays
> the same regardless of the number of viewers (as I said, unfamilar with
> multicast).  Beyond this, it would be most useful if I could find someone
> with the time to assist others troubleshooting.  I am handicapped by not
> having local I2 access, and further handicapped by marginal backbone
> knowledge and familarity with the tools.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Rich Mavrogeanes
> 
> VBrick Systems
> 
> 1-203-303-0200
> 
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