AT&T recently announced plans to deploy what it said was the industry’s first standards-based HD-SDI video transport and switching network.

The network was designed for the professional broadcast market and customers that use AT&T’s Global Video Services. The new feature will combine AT&T’s self-healing SONET optical network with next-generation video transport technology based on JPEG2000 compression standards. It will support HD-SDI at rates between 75Mb and 400Mb, along with SD-SDI at 24Mb to 150Mb.

Following a successful pilot program in January, AT&T said it expects to start delivering the feature utilizing JPEG2000 compression capabilities starting in the third quarter to major metropolitan areas across North America.

AT&T also announced enhancements to its Digital Media Solutions, which is a suite of content management and delivery capabilities. The new features include the ability to dynamically adapt video delivery for a better viewing experience. AT&T said the enhancements expanded the capabilities of the AT&T Digital Media Solutions portfolio to help companies package, deliver and distribute video and rich multimedia Web content across their communications networks.

AT&T announced an agreement with iStreamPlanet to expand the range of services supporting video creation and publishing. AT&T will offer iStreamPlanet’s Director, Presenter and Managed Live Broadcasting and Professional Services, including content acquisition, encoding into all media formats, inclusive of the latest adaptive streaming formats, design and development of rich media experiences, and project management.