Screaming Video

Computerworld - The words streaming video can send some managers of bandwidth-constrained networks screaming into the night.
After all, streaming content, along with instant messaging and music downloads, account for an average 25% of corporate bandwidth use, according to a report by Lawrence Orans, an analyst at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc.
Bring it on, says Jake Star, vice president of computer services at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn. His new $4 million network can take it.
In April, the casino finished a $1.2 billion expansion that more than doubled its hotel space with the addition of 1,200 rooms, enlarged the casino and added a 100,000-square-foot convention center, a shopping mall with 50 stores and restaurants, and a 10,000-square-foot sports arena.
The complex has video to the desktop for all PCs, and video-based training for employees has begun. The hotel offers free high-speed Internet access in all rooms, videoconferencing, and custom video LANs between hotel rooms and servers in convention center exhibits. Mohegan Sun had been using one T1 line, but the expanded property shares two full T3 lines from two providers for redundancy.
In April, the casino broadcast its grand opening in full-motion video to desktops via IP multicast. And the casino is in the early stages of offering on-demand video training.
Although such video services may be the exception today, "network managers who believe they will be able to block access to streaming video or deny requests to support it are sorely mistaken," Orans says. Businesses are finding legitimate uses for video applications, he says, which means networks will have to be upgraded to support video traffic.

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