rvices have added new dimensions and challenges such as asset manage- ment and security. Commercial transactions where transfer of con- tent and rights to use it are exchanged for money on an individual or one-at-a-time basis make the business look like telephone calls (i.e. keeping track of small, valuable transactions that when aggregated, billed, and collected, become a significant business). Networks designed and used in everyday business to support voice, data, and Internet access are not satisfactory for content transport because of the amount of bandwidth required, reliability, robustness PRACTICAL IP AND TELECOM FOR BROADCAST ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS and network performance in terms of bit error rate. However, once a network is designed to deal with content transport, voice and data represent incremental levels of traffic across a more reliable and robust network at lower unit cost. Depending on the nature of the content, coping with requirements can range from situations requiring an immediate need for breaking news to well known and scheduled events such as the Olympics, political conventions, and elections. Elections represent a special challenge. Much is known, or strongly suspected, about the locations where the news will originate, but the sheer magnitude of the number of locations coupled with the unknowns about the outcomes make it easy to miscalculate availability of circuits and facilities, wreaking havoc with competitive news coverage. COMMUNICATIONS REQUIREMENTS FOR PRACTICAL BROADCAST OPERATIONS Communications requirements in the broadcast industry include voice, data, Internet access, control functions, and content transport. It's helpful to consider the business or organizational functions re- quirements separate from content creation, distribution, and delivery operations. Ongoing, day-to-day production of content by the net- works (ABC, BBC, CBS, NBC, PBS, HBO, etc.), and local stations, broadcast radio, TV, and cable, have unique requirements for tele- phone and data services to "get i