LONDON -- PacketExchange, Pacific Northwest (PNW) Net, and Pleora Technologies have announced the successful conclusion of a rigorous, two-way transcontinental trial to stream high definition television around the world, without compromising on image quality.

The trial was conducted this month over a dedicated long-haul Ethernet VLAN (virtual local-area network) provisioned by PacketExchange between one of its London network nodes and PNW Net's facility in Seattle, Washington. Pleora's EtherCast(TM) Video IP Engines streamed a high definition television signal in real time from Seattle to London and back again for a continuous 24-hour period.

The EtherCast engines performed flawlessly. The transfers were lossless and the video quality was excellent. Moreover, the picture was delivered back to Seattle with a round-trip latency of only 0.5 seconds. This low latency reflects the high quality of the PacketExchange VLAN connection and the fact that this completely bypasses the congested 'public Internet'. The ultra-efficient, purpose-built hardware in the PL1453A engine was also critical.

"This trial demonstrated that PacketExchange's global network delivers the superior performance Layer 2 connectivity required to transport latency-sensitive IP video traffic to destination without touching the public internet" said Kieron O'Brien, Chief Executive Officer of PacketExchange, an international high-speed connectivity and IP transport service company based in London, England. "We look forward to working further with PNW Net and Pleora to expand our level of video service traffic."

"Pleora's engine delivers reliable DVB-ASI (Digital Video Broadcast - Asynchronous Serial Interface) transport over VLANs for less than one quarter the per-port price of equipment from other vendors," says Pat Holland, Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer of Pacific Northwest Net, a global video transport service provider. "This product, together with the growing availability of high-quality private VLAN connections, allows us to deliver a new class of video services that gives broadcasters and other enterprises an affordable, practical way to transport broadcast-quality digital video."

PacketExchange Ltd.