From SD to HD – Video Update Challenges

Kurzfassung

In order to support the International Space Station missions of the European Space Agency Manned Space & Microgravity a set of communications services/systems has been developed. Particularly the Video Distribution Service supports both the internal video distribution at Columbus Control Centre and the video distribution between facilities located in Europe, America (NASA) and Russia (ROSCOSMOS). This system was designed and developed in 2002-2003. At this time the broadcast industry was mainly using SD/analogue technology. It was the beginning of live streaming over IP. Today the video standard is HD/Digital. Almost all broadcasters are using IP as transmission media. New technology means new technical challenges. The video system was designed to support real time space-operations, simulations and public relation events. The user needs associated to these kind of activities are slightly different, and don’t always fit with the needs of the industry. The new system must integrate the new operational wishes of the different operational teams. The standards inside the broadcast industry are still changing a lot. The industry is offering new codecs, higher video-resolution, and 3D video technology is emerging. The video capabilities inside the ISS are also evolving and will continue to evolve. The new system needs therefore to be easily maintainable and updateable in order to follow both kinds of changes (industry and ISS operations). The deployment of the new system must minimize the impact on on-going operations and minimize the costs. The challenges of updating the Columbus Video Distribution System to HD/Digital (technical, operational, maintenance and deployment) during running operations will be presented in this paper.