For the vast majority of people, this year's Superbowl will forever be remembered for Janet Jackson's unplanned display following what singing partner Justin Timberlake wonderfully euphemistically described as 'wardrobe malfunction'. For those in the broadcast industry, the event was also of note for the fact that not only was there was unprecedented opportunity and take up of Internet-based broadcasting of the game, the actual options themselves were of very high quality and deployed in critical applications. Not long ago, video services over IP networks were characterised by low quality pictures and low availability of services. This indeed was the opinion voiced in this column about 18 months ago. This situation is changing rapidly and before too long the cable and even satellite broadcasters will have a real challenge on their hands. 2004 could be the year that Internet users have real options for high quality video delivery.
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