High Def video content requires high speed Internet

It's an exciting thought: watching crystal clear high definition programming, from sports to news to your favorite television shows, over your Internet connection.

But there's a catch -- to play eye-popping video content over the Internet, you need a top-notch high speed network. This critical component has been sorely lacking for a huge percentage of Americans, leaving them unable to enjoy the latest TV technology.

High definition programming will never reach its full potential unless all Americans have connections fast enough to handle the heavy bandwidth demands. To work properly, user-friendly video players and higher quality video require an Internet connection that buzzes along several megabits per second (Mbps). Today, speeds of that rate make up just a fraction of the market.

The problem only threatens to get worse as more Americans get on an overloaded web. The advent of high definition TV programming over Internet connections is putting major stress on our current networks. As President Johna Till Johnson of independent research firm Nemertes asserts,

"Users will experience a slow, subtle degradation, so it's back to the bad old days of dial-up. The cool stuff that you'll want to do will be such a pain in the rear that you won't do it."

Content delivery network Limelight Networks is preparing for a big test of the web's current infrastructure. This summer, Limelight will handle a majority of traffic for NBC's broadband coverage of the summer Olympics in Beijing.

But Vice President Dave Hatfield of Limelight is not taking any chances. He admits that transmitting HD can be problematic:

"[There is] the technical problem of moving a 36-gigabyte file across an Internet that's choked with traffic."

The HD content explosion is poised to revolutionize how we interact with the web for entertainment. Yet without a national high speed Internet policy -- and increased existing bandwidth for HD -- many Americans will never experience the exciting possibilities.

Broadband Raises the Bar (Broadcasting & Cable)

Report: U.S. Internet is Slow and Pricey (Speed Matters)

Study: Internet traffic jam looms in 2010 (Speed Matters)