Multicast (IGMP)
What is Multicast?
Multicast is way of streaming video over the Internet in an efficient way. For example all Zen Internet customers wanting to watch the BBC News stream can get the stream from Zen’s network rather than getting multiple copies from the BBC. This helps reduce the amount of bandwidth required by large organisations wanting to stream content to many users, and reduces costs to the ISP receiving that content too. This means that more streams of a high quality can be provided to many more people.
How does Zen provide Multicast?
Zen has enabled its ADSL gateways to allow you to receive Multicast streams from the BBC’s trial. In order to receive these streams you will need to have a compatible modem or router.
Listed below is the hardware that we have tested with Multicast.
Known to work
Speedtouch 330 USB
Voyager 205 (Requires some settings changes not through the web configuration page.See this link for a guide: http://www.zensupport.co.uk/KnowledgeBase/article.aspx?id=10532).
Speedtouch v5.4 - 536/546/585/620 using our setup article (see related articles).
Known not to work
Netgear DG834/G (Netgear advise later firmware updates may be compatible)
Draytek 2600/+/i/G/Gi/VG/VGi (No plans for this feature to be added)
Draytek 2800/G/VG (beta support available for Multicast)
Speedtouch 510 (Although there is some support, real world tests have not been successful)
How do I watch Multicast video?
You will need a computer capable of playing Video and Audio together and for certain video formats the computer will have to be powerful enough to meet the media player's specification.
The BBC are broadcasting their Multicast streams in the following formats:
Realplayer 10
H.264 (QuickTime 7)
MediaPlayer 9
To download any of these players follow the information on the BBC's web site, the page is linked below:
What can I watch?
All the Multicast streams that Zen subscribe to are listed here:
Just click on the relevant link to launch the stream you would like to watch.
Getting additional help:
The BBC multicast service is a trial and as such Technical Support are unable to provide assistance with hardware configuration and setup. In all instances you should visit your hardware manufacturer's Web site or post on the Zen forum for help with Multicast setup.
The following post on our forums contains additional information and a list of other (including non-supported) hardware that is known to work with the service.
