6 - Infrastructure Built at Scale

Summary

This chapter turns its attention to the underlying infrastructure that constitutes the material foundation of the global TV system. Technology is the application of science and knowledge to accomplish a task inside a domain, while infrastructure consists of the material elements that actualise it: it is the buildings, cables, servers, switches, and routers needed to transport data packets from point A to point B; it is the firms, machinery, engineers, and technicians who design, build, update, and repair these material components. This chapter examines the cloud infrastructure that sustains streaming, focusing on two key components: undersea cable networks and data centres. The final section describes the contours of the video ecosystem that technology and infrastructure have created, and within which television operates today.