Comment by kotaKat

I've worked with a few video headends, it's all multicast all around inside the core.

Even extremely small users are leveraging systems like the DISH Smartbox to distribute satellite TV inside their properties as multicast IPTV.

https://info.dishbusiness.com/smartbox

Alternatively, slightly larger operators use Smartboxes and feed the multicast into their own repackaging and DRM to kick out to their end-users as a streaming TV product. We also used lots of HDHomeRuns to provide local television channel insertion where it was required on top of it.

I will say - I LOVE the Smartbox platform and how far it's transformed television distribution. We've gone from 3-4 full 40U racks all wired up with individual satellite boxes down to a very, very elegant power-sipping 3RU box that can pull in 192 channels and IPTV from the Web.