Television companies covering outside broadcasting events in Florida, Hawaii and Southern California can leave their satellite trucks at home by using GTE Telephone Operations’ broadband network. The largest local telephone company in the US has begun to implement Northern Telecom’s Cornerstone Video Operations Center and will eventually offer the network to customers in its 15-state service area. Video Operations Centers collect local broadcast information from events such as sports stadiums and government buildings, and collates the footage at a central site for distribution to local and remote television studios. Video and audio signals are transported from local venues to the Video Operations Center for switching and transport to final destinations such as a broadcaster’s production studio or a long-distance carrier’s point of presence. The cost of conventional end-to-end satellite delivery of a video signal can cost as much as $2,000 an hour for a US-to-UK hook-up. Although GTE officials have not yet worked out tariff levels, delivery via a centralised Video Operations Center may cost as little as $1,650 a month. The operating centres can be under the direct control of end users such as broadcasters, advertisers, and video production centres. GTE’s announcement was made at the National Association of Broadcasters convention last month in Las Vegas. The new application supports GTE’s Video Connect services for broadband video delivery. GTE Video Connect is a full-motion videoconferencing service provided over the public switched network at tariff rates and targeted to business video customers.
