Overcoming the technical challenges of DVB-NIP implementation
Opinion
Deployment in Peru has provided valuable learnings and more collaborative work is now being done to address other challenges in order for DVB-NIP to reach its full potential.
According to recent estimates, a third of the global population, around 2.67bn people, remain unconnected to the internet. They’re therefore unable to receive content delivered over internet protocol (IP) networks such as video and data — something that the rest of the world takes for granted.
Many of these people live in countries and regions where terrestrial connectivity is poor or non-existent, often because of a combination of challenging terrain, high infrastructure costs and low population density, making it difficult to justify the cost of building and maintaining terrestrial networks.
And while satellites serve those same regions delivering traditional direct-to-home broadcast TV content, they have not historically been able to deliver IP-based content and data to IP ecosystems and devices.
The brainchild of the DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) project members, DVB-NIP — or DVB Native IP, as it is also known — sets out to bridge this gap by enabling the delivery of IP-based content by satellite to set-top boxes and IP-based devices such as smartphones and tablets.
However, as promising as DVB-NIP is for bridging the satellite and IP delivery gap, having only been published in 2024, it’s still very new and real-world deployment poses challenges.
This is especially true for broadcasters grappling with legacy infrastructure, content security and digital rights management (DRM).
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Technical readiness
It’s not a reach to say that DVB-NIP already meets the majority of technical requirements needed for full-scale commercial roll-outs. This was demonstrated in Peru when the Peruvian government selected DVB Native IP-enabled technology to deliver live and file-based content to the entire country.
This move to adopt the standard was made to allow the population, many of whom live in remote communities, to connect to vital services, such as public broadcasting and news services, as well as entertainment and distance-learning resources.
Carried out by ST Engineering iDirect in collaboration with EKT and EasyBroadcast, the roll-out in Peru demonstrated that the standard can be used to effectively deliver video data and content at scale.
Before deployment, it was estimated that just under a third of the country’s population had access to these services; afterwards, access has been extended to the entire population.
On top of verifying the technical capabilities of the standard in a real-world environment, the Peru deployment also provided a number of learnings around challenges that need to be addressed in order for successful, widespread roll-out.
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Barrier to widespread deployment
Content security and DRM remain key sticking points. Securing content presents two significant hurdles, each rooted in a different part of the ecosystem. One stems from the deployment environment itself.
In scenarios where connectivity is limited to a single direction and no return path exists, implementing and managing DRM becomes far more complicated. These set-ups require careful planning, as traditional DRM workflows often rely on bidirectional communication for licence acquisition or updates.
The other challenge lies in the expectations of content owners and providers. Each brings their own perspective on how their assets should be safeguarded, shaped by legal, commercial and technical priorities. What one provider considers essential might be seen as excessive or unnecessary by another.
This variability creates a moving target for broadcasters, which must navigate and adapt to meet those requirements. Although a commercial DRM solution is available to address the unidirectional issue, it’s something that would benefit from being more formally supported within the DVB-NIP framework in the future.
A more standardised approach would help provide rights holders with the reassurance they need to know their content remains secure.
Also to consider are the practicalities of transitioning from traditional broadcast technology to infrastructure and hardware/software that supports DVB-NIP.
Fortunately, most broadcasters have already adapted their operations in recent years in response to changing consumer habits to include an IP headend where live and file-based content is received, processed and prepared for distribution over an IP network. In which case, those broadcasters can use that same headend by integrating a native IP server that generates the multicast stream and the associated signalling to adapt the content for satellite delivery.
On the end user side, for widespread deployment, legacy set-top box software needs to be re-engineered to embed a multicast client capable of interpreting the streaming format and delivering it correctly to the player. While this process takes a bit of work, providing broadcasters have control over the software on their set-top boxes, it is entirely achievable.
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Paving the way for scalable successful deployments
Native IP stands to bridge the gap between satellite and IP delivery and, as such, will enable traditional broadcasters and satellite data providers to solve some of the major challenges they face today.
DVB-NIP is very much a collaborative effort and there is a strong community of DVB-NIP specialists that are actively collaborating with technology vendors to make this happen.
The driving forces behind the DVB-NIP standard are now undertaking the last-mile engineering work to bring DVB-NIP from specification sheet to successful, scalable deployments.
With continued collaboration and innovation around the remaining technical challenges, the industry can unlock the full potential of DVB-NIP to transform how content is delivered, making IP-based services accessible to all.
Bart Van Utterbeeck is general manager, Latin America, at ST Engineering iDirect