ANUTV
FAQ
Where is TV available?
STB
Television displays and projector systems can be connected to the digital TV network via a set top box (STB). The STB connects to the AV inputs of your display and plugs into the data network.
Channel selection is via remote control. Channel lists can be displayed on the screen.
ANUTV enabled televisions are located across campus in libraries, languages areas, and student residences.
Desktop
You can view TV using your PC connected to a TV enabled network. This is done either with the VLC application or via a web interface (coming soon).
Why isn't TV available in my area?
Network capacity
Due to the potentially large amount of traffic that can be generated by a large number of people watching a lot of different channels, multicast TV to desktops will only be enabled on networks that meet a minimum standard. That minimum is basically 1Gps interconnects between switches and the backbone network.
ANU Networks and communications is currently upgrading the data
networks across campus to these standards, however it will take a
year or two before the entire campus is complete.
Some of the student residences are currently provided with a cut-down version
of the service with a small sub-set of channels available to desktops.
There is still potential to provide some TV services to areas that
don't meet the minimum standard by installing set top boxes connected
to TVs in common areas.
Firewall Policy
Networks and Communications policy requires that a network be protected by a firewall before desktop TV services will be enabled.
What channels are available?
TV and radio channels originate from a number of sources.
Terrestrial - Local digital TV channels are fed into the system via a TV antenna pointed at Black Mountain Tower. All of the local channels are reticulated on to the ANU network.
Satellite - Free to air satellite channels are
received by a collection of six dishes located on the roof of Leonard
Huxley Building. While each dish points to one satellite, we can
tune in to multiple services on each of them. Each tuner card in
our head-end streamers can tune to one service (bouquet) which may
contain up to a dozen video channels and as many radio stations.
We generally stream all channels that are available on any bouquet
that we tune in to.
Internet - There is some content that comes on to the network from around the world via our international research network connections. As the University does not have control over these external services, we only add Internet channels to the STB channel lists when they are constant and reliable.
How do I improve the picture quality on my desktop?
You can improve the picture viewing in VLC by applying a de-interlacing method. This more closely models how the picture would be viewed on an actual television.
Video > Deinterlace > Blend
Why does the radio take so long to start?
VLC does not start playing content until it's buffer is full. As an audio stream has a much lower bit-rate than video, it takes longer to fill the buffer. I can take several seconds to a minute before an audio stream starts playing.
It is possible to tune the buffer size using the VLC preferences to improve the start up times for audio streams.
Why have you selected those channels?
As we have a limited number of tuners, we cannot reticulate all of the channels that are available. Channels have been chosen based upon their percieved value to the viewing community. As most of the satellite TV services are transmitted as a bundle (or bouquet) of channels, we will generally stream all of the channels that are available on the bouquet that we have tuned.
Do the ANU channels have a traffic related cost or is all of the traffic confined to either on-net or on campus?
All of the ANU grouped channels are on-campus. Anything else you get is going to be on-net (and not subject to quota or traffic charging) as the multicast capability is generally limited to AARNet and international research networks.
Why is there so much stuff in the VLC SAP playlist that I can't view?
The general reason for this is that SAP is often broadcast without a Time to Live (TTL) that matches the actual video content. So we see announcements for stuff that we cannot see.
We have been making noises on the international network forums to get people to clean up their act and reduce the amount of useless entries.
All of the content in the groups prefixed with ANU are sourced locally, except for the ANUTV Network group which are pointers to external sources that aren't reflected in the general SAP list.
Is it legal to reticulate TV across campus like this?
ANUTV reticulates Free-to-Air (FTA) television and radio across the ANU campus for ANU staff and students. All of the content would be freely available to anybody on campus who had a TV antenna or satellite dish.
Universities Australia has brokered an agreement with Screenrights that permits the communication and copying of TV, radio and satellite services to University staff and students.
What are Satellite Sun Outages?
A couple of times every year, satellite TV services suffer short sun outages. These outages happen around the time of the autumn and spring equinox, and occur as the sun appears to pass directly behind the geostationary satellites we are tuned to. The outages will cause some channels to drop out for periods of up to 10 minutes either-mid morning, or mid-afternoon, depending on the channel.
The sun outage periods for 2009 are 1-7th of April, and 6-12th of September.
If you are viewing a satellite channel via a set-top-box, a sun outage may cause the box to stop displaying video on all channels. If this happens, reboot the box by removing and replacing the power cord.
