# How AT&T will deliver TV (and more) over crowded LTE



## Athlon646464 (Feb 23, 2007)

*How AT&T will deliver TV (and more) over crowded LTE*

(engadget.com) - During the first-ever College Football Playoff National Championship, AT&T showed off a working demo of a new version of its Long-Term Evolution network: LTE Broadcast. With this, the wireless carrier is hoping to alleviate the congestion problems consumers face when they are in highly crowded places -- such as professional sports stadiums. AT&T's been working on LTE Broadcast for years, but until now has shared few details about it. In 2013, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that the company was "all about architecting networks to deliver video," pointing out that the technology would be "mature in scale within the three-year time horizon."...

Full Story Here


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

Love it. As technologists are declaring broadcast dead, AT&T is pioneering a new type of broadcast. Substituting RF for, well, RF.

Let's face the fact that individual streaming is inefficient. Broadcast is much more efficient. One can envision wireless cable with linear channels using this method.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Isn't one of the main points of having video coverage being able to rewind? If they're going to force everyone to be more or less in sync, I'm not sure I get it.

I know I've caught myself watching a game on the big screen a time or two but I can't see paying to attend a game that I'm going to watch on a 3" section of screen only in real time.


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## swaff (Feb 15, 2009)

harsh said:


> Isn't one of the main points of having video coverage being able to rewind? If they're going to force everyone to be more or less in sync, I'm not sure I get it.
> 
> I know I've caught myself watching a game on the big screen a time or two but I can't see paying to attend a game that I'm going to watch on a 3" section of screen only in real time.


Really?

Nothing says that this would be limited to a 3" screen.

Rewinding isn't a function of the stream being delivered, it's a function of the device that receives the stream.

Anyone up for an LTE set-top box?


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

I fully expect the first Directv / att box will have this lte stuff in it.


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## wxguy (Feb 17, 2008)

Sounds like they are using the broadcast approach that FanVision uses at Nascar and Indy500. They are in the UHF band, but the ATT could be using some of the newly opened broadcast channels to allow a new chip in the phones to access. Probably on a PPV basis. Verison tries using the standard LTE to stream some races but block it at the track since they can;t handle the bandwidth loading. ATT is onto something here.


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## mrdobolina (Aug 28, 2006)

Ever since I went to my first NCAA Men's BBall tournament first and second round games I've thought it would be a great idea for the NCAA to offer a service similar to this at these games. For instance, each arena would have this broadcast ability and would rent tablets or some similar device to those fans that wanted to not only watch the game going on in front of them, but also the other games that are being played at the same time. Sure, this makes most sense for the first 3 rounds of the tournament when there are multiple games being played at one time, but I know it would be something that I would pay for.


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

harsh said:


> Isn't one of the main points of having video coverage being able to rewind? If they're going to force everyone to be more or less in sync, I'm not sure I get it.
> 
> I know I've caught myself watching a game on the big screen a time or two but I can't see paying to attend a game that I'm going to watch on a 3" section of screen only in real time.


Uh, you can't rewind broadcast on Dish, which uses the same paradigm, just over the satellite feed to your box? Maybe you need a new provider.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

swaff said:


> Rewinding isn't a function of the stream being delivered, it's a function of the device that receives the stream.


Do you know of any phone or tablet app that features the ability to pause live video streams?


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## swaff (Feb 15, 2009)

harsh said:


> Do you know of any phone or tablet app that features the ability to pause live video streams?


Who says that this will be limited to phones and tablets?


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

swaff said:


> Who says that this will be limited to phones and tablets?


Are you suggesting that people will bring even more sophisticated television viewing configurations into the stadium (or other "highly crowded place")?


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## mexican-bum (Feb 26, 2006)

harsh said:


> Are you suggesting that people will bring even more sophisticated television viewing configurations into the stadium (or other "highly crowded place")?


They are called tailgaters... I am one of them


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## swaff (Feb 15, 2009)

harsh said:


> Are you suggesting that people will bring even more sophisticated television viewing configurations into the stadium (or other "highly crowded place")?


I'm suggesting that the techonology demonstrated will not be limited to Sporting Venues


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

harsh said:


> Do you know of any phone or tablet app that features the ability to pause live video streams?


Uh, any one could do it with enough memory (maybe just a small buffer) and the right app. You do know that Roku's have a local memory for quick 30 second rewinds, right?

Also, who is limiting themselves to today's technology? Do you think they are doing this just for now? This could be a future of video distribution and devices can spring up. Like hybrid laptop/tablets. Oh, wait, those already exist.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

tonyd79 said:


> Uh, any one could do it with enough memory (maybe just a small buffer) and the right app.


I didn't ask you to forecast, just to cite an example of some combination that would make this worthwhile.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

swaff said:


> I'm suggesting that the techonology demonstrated will not be limited to Sporting Venues


The point of the exercise was a demonstration of how this would work in "highly crowded places".

What other extreme density locations do you think they may have been talking about?


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

harsh said:


> I didn't ask you to forecast, just to cite an example of some combination that would make this worthwhile.


Pac12 networks apps for one.


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## swaff (Feb 15, 2009)

harsh said:


> The point of the exercise was a demonstration of how this would work in "highly crowded places".
> 
> What other extreme density locations do you think they may have been talking about?


Sorry. I guess I made the assumption that you had read the entire article.

"The stadium is only one use case; we wanted to show what our network can do,"


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

inkahauts said:


> Pac12 networks apps for one.


Do they support trick play? The documentation mentions only live TV.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

swaff said:


> Sorry. I guess I made the assumption that you had read the entire article.


The article was about a technology demonstration of reducing network congestion in highly crowded places.

The concept at the tail end about the possibility of mass software updates is ludicrous in a marketplace that prefers controlled roll-outs.


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