In many enterprise environments, live television feeds are an essential information resource. Depending on requirements, access to live or archived broadcasts may be needed to track items such as financial market activity, corporate media coverage, and local news events. Today, given the distributed nature of many organizations, a centralized streaming solution that leverages the existing IP network infrastructure is the most viable means of delivering this access to users.
IP-Based Streaming in the Enterprise
Bringing a cable or satellite TV feed into the building and running dedicated coaxial cabling to fixed displays or workstations equipped with TV tuner cards has been the traditional way to provide relevant TV access to users. However, while meeting basic needs, this approach is simply not scalable as requirements span beyond a single site and limited set of users. The costs of deploying and maintaining TV service, separate cabling infrastructures, and locally-installed PC components across multiple sites can become excessive.