World-class Experts Watched a Trial 4K Video Transfer in Prague, Offering a Resolution 4-times Higher than HDTV

The 7th annual international LambdaGrid Workshop, hosted by CESNET, an association of universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, took place on 17th and 18th September in Prague. 116 renowned professionals from 17 countries gathered – coming from Europe, Brazil, China, Canada, Japan, South Korea, USA, Australia and Taiwan.

During the two-day session, the participants watched several demonstrations of use of the Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF – virtual organization creating a research space). Attractive shows included demo transfers of high-quality video in the 4K format, featuring a resolution 4-times higher than that of HDTV and matching, in terms of quality, at least 35 mm film. The first demo proved that the GLIF infrastructure will enable such video transfers from many locations worldwide. Transfers to two localities in Prague (Karolinum and Barrandov) have been performed from Seattle, Chicago and San Diego, USA, from Tokyo, Japan, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The second experiment had its global premiere, demonstrating the possibilities of remote interactive cooperation on digital film processing. A film shot in Prague with a 4K camera by SALSA was pre-processed (professionals call this pre-processing "debayerization") with super-computing equipment in San Diego while an interactive color correction was performed as the following step. The correction was carried out by specialists from FlimLight, located at the Ryerson University in Toronto. Toronto specialists who are engaged in Hollywood film processing used a color correction system located in Prague. The correction was done in accordance with commands of the cameraman who shot the film and was also present in Prague. All partners could continuously monitor the correction at their sites, being interconnected by a low-latency videoconferencing system.

Both unique demonstrations were performed under the patronage of CineGRID, an organization dealing with research in the area of utilization of high-speed networks for production and distribution of high-quality digital media (for more information on CineGRID go to: http://www.cinegrid.org/). The main local partner was the CESNET association, one of the active CineGRID members. Other local partners of the experiment include ACE, CINEPOST, CISCO Systems, T-Systems Pragonet and Visual Connection. Foreign partners were DALSA, Cinepost, ACE, Ryerson University, Keio University, the University of California San Diego/Calit2, the CANARIE network and the StarLight project.

GLIF (Global Lambda Integrated Facility) is a virtual organization creating a research space comprising optical links (lambdas) and nodes referred to as GOLE (GLIF Open Lightpath Exchange). Lambdas are transfer channels using various laser wavelengths for parallel transmissions of signals via optical fibers. Interconnection of lambdas with pass-through nodes allows creation of a lightpath between two end members of the given network, which is usually used to transfer signals at gigabit or 10-gigabit speeds. GLIF was founded in September 2001 and develops a global laboratory for the research of optical networks and their new applications. CESNET has been an affiliated member of GLIF since 2004 and belongs among the best in Europe in this area.

GLIF interconnects the most important network research sites in North America, Europe and Asia. Users of GLIF include institutions, organizations and consortiums running applications that are extremely demanding in terms of the transfer capacity and other transfer parameters. A typical example would be remote communication with a unique experimental facility producing a continuous data flow with the volume of several gigabits per second. Such facilities are operating today in fields such as high-energy physics, astronomy or other natural sciences. Other applications (such as videoconferences) have low-latency requirements or low transfer rate fluctuation requirements etc.

GLIF turned out to be a unique and very useful environment for the research of networks, network services and network applications. This environment is used by various national teams preparing new experiments that usually have both a network component as well as an application component. Creation of comprehensive teams is a prerequisite of successful GLIF utilization for global-scale experiments. This means that there is a wide range of experts from many countries involved in the preparation and implementation of such experiments, both "along the line" of the experiment and in the "terminal" countries. Their task is considerably more complex than mere utilization of standard network services provided by operators today. GLIF helps test new ideas and perform work or tests that will be feasible in "fixed" networks after several years, rather than several months. If used correctly, this advance can have a critical impact from the science, research, production and business perspective.

The CESNET association was founded by universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The association is currently financed mainly from the resources of the governmental Committee for Research and Education and the resources of the members of the association. The association deals with the research and development of information and communication technologies, building and developing the national gigabit optical network, CESNET2, designed for research and educational purposes. With its research activities and accomplishments, the CESNET association can represent the Czech Republic in the pan-European GÉANT2 network construction project as well as other international projects.