All things related to multicast

["Marshall Eubanks" <>]

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

This is starting to get some press :

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=426749

Explorer who discovered the 'Titanic' sets out to prove that Noah's flood 
formed
Black Sea 

By David Usborne 

23 July 2003 

The Bible tells us how the Great Flood happened, compelling Noah to herd all 
of
animal life into his Ark. 

The skies opened and it rained incessantly, in fact for 40 days and 40 nights.
But some scientists have another theory altogether and this week an expedition
will leave for the Black Sea to try to prove it. 

<snip>

Indeed, the $5m (£3.1m), two-week expedition, which begins from the Turkish
Black Sea port of Sinop on Sunday, has been set up to garner maximum worldwide
attention. 

Its progress will be watched live by academics, archaeologists and even
schoolchildren around the globe, thanks to a satellite link from the
expedition's ship to a nerve-centre at the University of Rhode Island in the
United States. 

<snip>

Regards
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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