Telenor leads MARCH project in Svalbard
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Live video streaming and Internet during the excavation of Predator X from August 3-18, 2010
The excavation of Predator X in Svalbard is now available for the world to watch, thanks to the international Telenor-led project with MARCH (Multilink Architecture for Multiplay Services). Telenor and MARCH are delivering live video streaming and Internet access as scientists come face-to-face with pre-historic sea creatures from the Jurassic period. Watch now
Converging mobile, broadband and broadcast networks
While the excavation, helmed by Jørn Hurum of Oslo’s Natural History Museum, is historic in itself, the MARCH technology demonstration at Svalbard is also breaking new ground. This event is a unique real-life, live demonstration of simultaneous use of multilink technology. Through the convergence of mobile, broadband and broadcast networks, MARCH aims to create a more cost efficient way to utilize bandwidth – which also results in a better user experience.
“At Svalbard today, we are exploiting the potential of converged networks. Rather than relying on solely the mobile network, for example, we are instead testing the use of multiple networks at the same time,” said Terje Tjelta, Senior Research Scientist at Telenor Group and Project Coordinator for MARCH. “The site of the excavation was completely barren and devoid of any communication technology. This provided us with the perfect test bed to put our multilink network to use in a real-life scenario.”
Increasing capacity and coverage
As the project leader for the MARCH demonstration at Svalbard, Telenor is showing the world that converged broadband service delivery is a realistic utilization of networks that will increase capacity and coverage. The motivation behind the MARCH project is to improve user experiences by allowing individual users to take advantage of available broadband, mobile and broadcast networks simultaneously.
“By making better use of existing networks, we will be able to provide more robust, more powerful and more available mobile broadband coverage to our customers without heavy investments in new access networks,” said Tjelta. “At the site where palaeontologists will be uncovering one of the Earth’s oldest creatures, MARCH will be there building solutions for our future.”
About MARCH
MARCH is an international project consisting 12 partners from five countries, including three Norwegian partners: Telenor, Simula Innovation and Lividi, who are partially funded by The Research Council of Norway. Its purpose is to realize the potential of simultaneous use of available network technologies, a more cost effective approach to increasing bandwidth and improving the user experience.