WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR ISP LIMITS YOUR USE OF BROADBAND VIDEO SERVICES? Recent press coverage has highlighted speculation that broadband video sites could severely affect Internet performance. Reports suggest that peer to peer and video broadcasting could double net traffic within two years and that video and consumer traffic will surpass business traffic by next year. This is a real concern for Service Providers who may have to limit the bandwidth available to these services. Exterity offers an alternative approach for TV and Video distribution throughout organisations using the existing network infrastructure and bypassing the internet. By installing Exterity “head-end” equipment network managers can take Digital Terrestrial and Satellite TV straight from the broadcaster via the aerial or satellite dish and distribute it over the local area network, (usually existing cat 5 cable), to any network point. Users can then view the channel on a LCD or plasma screen using an Exterity set-top box, or directly to a network connected PC using an Exterity software application. This solution has the advantage of guaranteed performance and scalability (one head-end can service as many users as there are network points (given that LAN bandwidth is pretty ubiquitous these days. Similarly non-digital video sources (e.g. DVD’s) can be distributed over the LAN by using an Exterity encoder at the head-end. Exterity also offers server based applications that allow Video on Demand and Scheduled Broadcasting to be viewed over the network with the content available presented to the viewer as an Electronic Program Guide, (EPG).