Video on Demand: Architecture, Systems, and Applications

Winston Hodge, Stuart Mabon, John T. Powers

This article describes video on demand (VOD) and near video on demand (NVOD) and explains the differences between the various types of VOD systems as they relate to telephone company (Telco), commmunity antenna or cable television (CATV), cellular TV, and hotel applications. System similarities of the various carriers are described, with the intent to identify as much common equipment as possible that will be compatible across the various applications. Basic VOD functional requirements are also discussed. Hotel VOD systems are really small CATV or Telco systems that can be expanded into full-size, commercially viable VOD systems easily because of their scalable architecture. The roles of image compression, video-friendly disk-storage systems, video servers, encryption, switching, transmission, and control-system elements in this VOD application are also discussed.

Print ISSN
Published
1993-09
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J00588