The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is a highly respected organization that works to establish technical frameworks for the creation and distribution of films and television programs. Although it is not the only group involved in broadcast standards, some of its good works involve such critical signal distribution standards as the Serial Digital Interface (SDI), ST 2022 and ST 2110.

SDI, first defined in 1989, remains a popular and reliable method of transporting high-quality video signals from point-to-point within a facility or field production. (The current version of SDI is “SMPTE ST 2083.”) However, since 1989, our world has become increasingly data-oriented and it soon became obvious that transporting broadcast-quality video signals over IP networks was both necessary and advantageous. SMPTE’s first standard to marry SDI video with IT was the ST 2022 standard.

“When the need for uncompressed IP networks in live TV production arose, companies turned to the SMPTE ST 2022 family of standards, the online media-over-IP standard available at SMPTE, to build infrastructure,” said Thomas Bause Mason, SMPTE director of standards development. 

“SMPTE ST 2022 was designed for content contribution, and was not well-suited for live TV production. A better standard needed to be created that reflected the needs of live TV production.”

That standard is ST 2110. First published in 2017, it is catching on quickly. 

“When it comes to large-scale infrastructure, almost all new facilities built [that have] IP networks for production are using SMPTE ST 2110,” Mason said. “SMPTE ST 2110 was also greatly adopted by equipment manufacturers, and SMPTE ST 2110 products are widely available.”

Core Parts Are Done
The core parts of the SMPTE ST 2110 standards family are done and were published starting in 2017, Mason said. Since then, all documents in the family except for one (ST 2110-30) went through revisions to clarify their provisions and to fix minor issues, while considering compatibility with existing implementations. These revisions were published in 2023. (SMPTE recently announced that SMPTE Standards will now be available at smpte.org to members at no additional cost.)

Perhaps the biggest benefit of using ST 2110 is that it uses standard IP networks. This has many advantages, including a large body of IP specialists that can build and maintain such networks. Another big advantage is that high-speed networks suitable for live television use commercial-off-the-shelf products that are relatively common and inexpensive. 

SDI, as well as it works, is for television only. SMPTE ST 2110 uses what the rest of the world uses.

Manufacturers are wasting no time building products compatible with the ST 2110 standard.

“Imagine has introduced SMPTE ST 2110 technology into almost every product family in our line,” said John Mailhot, CTO for infrastructure at Imagine Communications. “We see ST 2110 as the basis of design for almost every large media project in our pipeline, and even small/medium facilities are seriously considering the redundancy and scalability advantages of an ST 2110 approach.”

Mailhot said that Imagine’s Selenio Network Processor uses SMPTE ST 2110 to carry up to eight uncompressed UHD signals in each direction over 100G network interfaces, alongside their related audio and ANC components. This consolidation reduces the amount of cable (fiber) and the associated construction and project management time significantly.

“The ability to pick-and-choose from a marketplace of QSFP [quad small form factor pluggable] optical power options ensures that 100G [and 400G] IP connections can reach even the farthest corners of large facilities or even campuses,” he said. “In university settings, we are able to run 100G network connections between sports facilities on opposite corners of large campuses, building consolidated production environments that would have been much more expensive and difficult using traditional SDI approaches.”

Launching Products
Blackmagic Design launched two products last year using the SMPTE ST 2110 standard: the 2110 IP Converter and the DeckLink IP. The 2110 IP Converter 3x3G is a rackmount converter that converts 3G-SDI devices to 2110 IP broadcast systems, and the DeckLink IP is a family of three PCIe cards that capture and playback 10-bit uncompressed, broadcast-quality video directly into ST 2110 IP-based broadcast systems.

“Blackmagic Design views ST 2110 as an important tool for the industry,” said Dave Hoffman, business development manager for Blackmagic Design. “From a simplicity and flexibility standpoint, ST 2110 creates a universal language we can all speak and work in.”

Hoffman pointed out the features that make the company’s 2110 IP converter the right fit for many applications.

“Unlike using an array of miniconverters, the Blackmagic 2110 IP Converter 3x3G is rack-mountable and includes a front panel with an LCD, so users can walk up and change settings at any time,” he said. “The front-panel LCD also has the benefit of allowing live video monitoring of all input and output channels. Plus, the LCD includes network diagnostic tools to assist in troubleshooting issues in complex 2110 IP broadcast systems.”

Matrox Video offers both point-of-use ST 2110 converters as well as ST 2110 network adapters for OEM applications.

“ST 2110 is important for broadcasters, venue and stadium operators, and other media companies seeking to move to IT-based production workflows,” said Francesco Scartozzi, vice president of sales and business development for Matrox Video. “As an open SMPTE standard, like SDI, customers can choose best-of-breed products from their preferred vendor and maintain compatibility. ST 2110 production workflows use general-purpose networking equipment, which means users can easily upgrade an ST 2110 network from 10GigE to 25GigE, and even (in the future) to 100GigE without changing the whole infrastructure.”

Scartozzi said that another advantage ST 2110 offers is its ability to process video, audio and auxiliary data streams separately, depending on the capacity of the network. For example, with the right network connection, one Matrox ST 2110 NIC can support up to four 25 Gbps links and can process up to 32 channels of HD with full redundancy enabled.

“Matrox Video is an expert in ST 2110 and supported the standard before its SMPTE ratification,” he said. “We provide components to OEMs, who then build end-user products for media production, and are being used in ST 2110 productions worldwide today. The knowledge and expertise we gained during the development of ST 2110 OEM network cards has been poured into Matrox ConvertIP, which converts 3G/12G SDI to/from ST 2110. This lets broadcasters work with baseband signals inside their IP video network, and display ST 2110 on SDI/HDMI monitors.”

Manufacturer Agnostic
Chris Scheck, head of marketing content at Lawo, pointed out that an advantage of ST 2110 is that it is manufacturer-agnostic. That means customers can pick the best gear for their operations and production workflow, and avoid being locked into any particular manufacturer’s equipment universe. 

A recent addition to Lawo’s IP-native product portfolio is .edge, its hyper-density SDI/IP conversion and routing platform with up to 192 SDI connectors on 2RU.

“We recently introduced HOME Apps for server-based multiviewer generation, up/down/cross conversion, stream transcoding and graphics insertion,” Scheck said. “A lot more HOME Apps are on the roadmap, some of which will be introduced over the coming months.”

Scheck said that both these product lines feature JPEG XS compression and decompression for lossless, yet bandwidth-saving stream transport. On top of that, Lawo’s HOME Apps support NDI, SRT, H.26x, and will support more formats/protocols as soon as they become relevant.

PAC-12’s New 2110 Facility
ST 2110 is making strides in the real world of big-time sports production as well. The Pac-12 Network, a major collegiate sports producer on the west coast, recently fired up a 42,000 square-foot broadcast and production facility that it will use for production of more than 850 live events each year.

The Pac-12 Network system, designed and installed by Advanced Systems Group, uses a hub-and-spoke design where content acquired at the sports venues is backhauled to control rooms in San Francisco. This model reduces onsite staff and minimizes reliance on costly mobile trucks. 

Pac-12 also exploited the universities’ existing Internet 2 IP backbone for A/V transport and centralized production, creating the largest private IP network in the U.S. dedicated to sports. Pac-12 selected the Imagine Magellan control system for IP routing, control and monitoring, and Arista high-speed Ethernet switches. Imagine’s Magellan formed the ST 2110 orchestration backbone of the facility, while Arista’s switching and routing is the core transport component. 

There were many other vendors involved in the Pac-12 build, including Calrec Artemis audio consoles, Grass Valley K-Frame video switchers, Ross XPression graphics, Evertz Dreamcatcher replay systems, just to name a few. The audio in the Pac-12 Netword system is AES67, a standard for audio-over-IP that’s part of the ST 2110 protocol. Interoperability between the two is paramount, and requires careful network orchestration so that the two transports are handled separately and all I/O’s align properly.

“Implementing audio redundancy within an IP infrastructure is not a trivial undertaking,” said Dave Van Hoy, president of Advanced Systems Group. “We got caught in a couple of places where those became very interesting challenges. Everything worked out, with many thanks to the impressive cooperation of the Calrec, ASG and Imagine teams. It was definitely a learning lesson.” 

Identifying What's 2110-Compliant
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) is a non-profit organization founded by leading manufacturers to promote the adoption of standards as the industry transitions toward an IP future. AIMS has catalogued nearly 300 products related to SMPTE ST 2110 from 45 manufacturers (available at ).

“Originally a specialized solution for high-end or spatially constrained projects, SMPTE ST 2110 has evolved into the primary choice for designers building reliable, scalable IP-based systems,” said Andrew Starks, marketing working group chair for AIMS. “There is a tremendous innovation happening within the SMPTE ST 2110 community.”

Does this mean that the industry is rolling toward a future that is all IP and does not use SDI?

“SDI’s affordability, industry-wide familiarity, and proven reliability ensure its continued relevance,” Starks said. “Presently, most SMPTE ST 2110 systems incorporate some level of SDI integration, acknowledging its practicality and the need to support legacy equipment.

“This reality underscores the importance of interoperability between SDI and SMPTE ST 2110,” Starks added. “Such interoperability influenced key aspects of ST 2110’s design, notably in the handling of ancillary data (ST 2110-40). As SMPTE ST 2110 equipment becomes more affordable, and as the industry gains more tools and expertise in managing IP media networks, we anticipate a shift towards predominantly IP-based systems.”

The economy, familiarity and ever-growing capacity of IP networks make them a natural medium for carrying television signals. As SMPTE ST 2110 takes hold and more products are exposed to more people, expect to see ST 2110 forming the backbone of an increasing number of facilities.

Cooler fall temperatures may be on the way, but the heat is always on for the broadcast and IT equipment in master control. All electronics generate heat—and that heat can build up and damage the various components you need to run your station or provide access to content for post production. Proper cooling extends the life of your gear and makes it more reliable. Of course, most master controls don’t have an ambient temperature that supports IT or broadcast equipment, so you’re going to need more than the integrated fans in your equipment to keep the area cool and mitigate the heat. 

The optimal room temperature for most broadcast equipment is 68 degrees. This is not the same as modern IT server rooms. Much of the IT world has been redesigning equipment to operate in warmer temperatures—between 78 and 80 degrees—which means less cooling is required. Unfortunately, most broadcast equipment still includes temperature-sensitive components that are different than what you’d find in a typical server or switch. 

If you’re moving master control to a new area of an existing building, avoid spaces with exterior windows, which essentially act like solar heaters. And no, there is no window AC on the market that delivers enough cooling for any level of broadcast gear. 

Interior “show off” windows for master control are neither good nor bad, just expensive. Besides the never-ending battle of climate control, master control is filled with equipment that makes lots of noise. You don’t want to hear the fans, hard drive arrays and other components outside of the room—and you don’t want to transmit the heat from other parts of the building into the room. You’ll need a high-end window and a lot of insulation to compensate for both. Unless you really, really need to show off the blinking lights of your servers and broadcast gear, avoid the window. 

Given a choice in room size, bigger is always better. With a smaller space, there’s not a lot of margin for error. If the AC fails, the smaller room will get hotter faster, which means the risk of damaging your equipment gets much higher much faster. 

Some master control areas are nothing more than recommissioned closets with insufficient AC. For compact spaces like this, companies like Liebert and Emcor offer self-contained rack enclosure systems with integrated cooling systems, which can act as primary or secondary cooling alternatives. 

Remember, it’s essential that you have some way to not only cool the room but to remove heat from the equipment in the room. There are definitely more efficient equipment layouts to aid in your cooling quest. One time-tested technique is the “hot aisle/cold aisle” layout, which uses air flow management based on your equipment’s interior cooling fans. 

If you have multiple racks, the ideal cooling situation is to have them facing away from each other. The cooling fans intake air from the front, exhausting hotter air in the back, and then the hot air is directed toward the room’s AC return vent. By lowering the friction of air movement within the room, the air entering the equipment is as cold as possible. Studies have shown the hot aisle/cold aisle layout can increase AC efficiency by up to 20%, which can result in significant power savings. 

For a long time, there was a theory in our industry that colder was better. It’s true that cold is far more forgiving than heat when it comes to broadcast and IT equipment, and it’s always best to err on the side of being too cool as opposed to being too warm. However, you shouldn’t need to wear a parka if your master control is properly designed, particularly with today’s quality air conditioning systems and advanced thermostats.

Dave Van Hoy is the president of Advanced Systems Group, a systems integrator based in Emeryville, Calif., with offices in Los Angeles, the New York Metro Area, and the Rocky Mountain Region. Contact him at 510-654-8300 or visit www.asgllc.com.  

For professional video applications, our understanding of the cloud has definitely progressed in the past few years, though not as much or in as many ways as you may think. Remember, the cloud is an IT technology. It can be a very effective tool for certain video workflows—but not every workflow.

Opportunities to use cloud tools and workflows continue to develop and improve, but the public cloud itself is not a magic solution for efficiency. Like any technology rollout in the broadcast and video production markets, users need to examine the cost benefit and explore all their options. Content creators also need to make sure assets are properly secured to avoid unauthorized access and distribution.

On the consumer side, the cloud has obviously come a long way. Just look at the success of Netflix and other streaming services. A recent study from Cisco showed that video will account for about 80 percent of internet traffic this year.

Other than video streaming, however, real-time cloud applications in media and entertainment continue to be a challenge. More than anything, the roadblock is still bandwidth—the “last mile” problem, as the telcos say. Connectivity continues to improve, but it still limits many workflows that organizations would like to have in the public cloud. Plus, a new roadblock has appeared: Pricing structures are not always as cost effective as some marketing messages would lead you to believe.

One successful example is Discovery Networks. Back in 2017, they transitioned master control playout to the cloud, a move that created a huge cost savings. What Discovery is not doing in the cloud is real-time video acquisition and post production.

Production video assets are larger and require more bandwidth than almost any other asset. For media companies to properly leverage the cloud, they need to adjust their workflow to get to a certain level of cost savings and/or time gain. That target is different for every company.

That said, there are definitely cloud-based workflows that are working, particularly for organizations that have shared resource requirements. More and more content creators are managing archives and other content through cloud-based shared repositories like AWS, Azure and Google. Other services including Wiredrive, Sony Ci and Avid MediaCentral are cloud platforms that specialize in asset management and collaboration.

One of the biggest cloud media success stories is its use for large render projects, such as VFX and animation. From small graphics shops to studios producing blockbuster motion pictures, companies use cloud compute for rendering because its ability to scale instantly represents such a large cost savings to the production when compared to owning fixed assets. The most successful example of this is Google cloud rendering, which was developed from its purchase of Zync back in 2014.

Closed captioning has been another big win for cloud-based workflows. Through our work with EEG, we’ve seen how the cloud enables content providers to deliver cost-effective captioning for a variety of clients, providing greater accessibility for viewers than ever before.

At the 2019 NAB Show, it’ll seem like every exhibitor has a cloud play. Expect to see more cloud integration for graphics, scheduling, master control and traffic. Again, these types of tasks don’t require real-time video, so a cloud-based solution could benefit an organization, particularly if it has offices geographically spread across a large area.

Any vendor that preaches that cloud technology will solve all your problems with no downside is simply not being realistic. Remember, for the video and creative community in general, the cloud is a tool, one of many that creative people can use to create great content. If it’s not the right tool, there’s no reason for you to use it.

I’d give broadcasters a variation on the same advice I have offered with every technology change that has emerged over the years: Think about the problems you need to solve and look for products that address those issues. Specifically, do you want your solution to be on-prem (local) or off-prem (cloud), or do you need a combination of the two?

If you’re looking for cloud-based storage solutions at NAB, be sure to visit Qumulo, NetApp and Quantum. These companies have done a remarkable job allowing on-prem file systems to work in the cloud, which creates a seamless integration between on-prem and off-prem systems. This is a revolutionary-level achievement because it helps organizations maintain a single workflow despite having storage systems in multiple locations.

Dave Van Hoy, president of Advanced Systems Group in Emeryville, Calif., will attend his 40th NAB Show this year.

EMERYVILLE, CALIF.—Advanced Systems Group is an Emeryville, Calif.-based systems integrator celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and is known for being one of the largest installers of post-production and shared storage systems on the West Coast. TV Technology recently talked with company President Dave Van Hoy to discuss how systems integration has evolved over the last two decades for broadcasters.

TV Technology: What prompted you to start ASG in 1997?

Dave Van Hoy: I wanted to buy a prominent professional audio company in Northern California, but Rosemary Rodd, my friend and a tremendous business mentor, convinced me to start my own company. The business plan was centered on the brand-new DVD authoring marketplace, which was very complicated and expensive at the time.

My premise was that if we invested in the technology and became the industry experts, we could build our business around that and dominate the marketplace. As it turned out, that’s exactly what happened. As we built relationships within the industry, we expanded our focus and became a full-service production and post-production VAR.

We also got lucky. One of the early DVD authoring pioneers, Spruce Technologies, was acquired by Apple in 2001. Their software eventually became DVD Studio Pro. We were close with the Spruce team and we became the first Apple Pro Video VAR. That led us to expand our work with Xsan and other storage systems—and by 2008, we were one of the largest SAN installers in the western United States.

TVT: What have been the biggest changes to broadcast news workflows in the past 20 years?

DVH: By far the biggest change I’ve seen in news workflows was the move away from physical recording mediums. It revolutionized how news was done and was a catalyst for the adoption of IT-centric equipment. The movement began in earnest 15 years ago and really gained steam about 10 years ago. The other major change to broadcast news workflows was the implementation of newsroom control systems, which couldn’t have existed without these file-based workflows.

The seminal moment for us at ASG was when we helped KCBS/KCAL move from Columbia Square to the CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles. The stations were designed around all file-based digital workflows with one fundamental rule: no tape in the new building. Looking back now, that was a game-changer.

TVT: What have been the major changes in TV news studios?

DVH: Over the past 20 years, there have been three major changes to TV news studios. First, there’s been a move to low-energy lighting, which started with fluorescent fixtures and now includes LED. This has significantly reduced AC and power requirements while allowing more flexibility on the set.

The down-market trend of cameras has also been important. It doesn’t take a $150,000 camera to produce quality images in the studio for a news broadcast anymore. That’s been a big change in the ability to create a great looking product, particularly for smaller market stations.

Finally, camera robotics has brought tremendous change to broadcast news because the technology has effectively removed camera operators from the studio. They’re using robotics even in the smallest markets. For the studio operator, it’s a huge cost savings.

TVT: How disruptive was the industry’s upgrade to HD, and will 4K (UHD) be as disruptive to broadcasters when ATSC 3.0 is adopted?

DVH: We all know HD was tremendously disruptive in many ways. Remember, for many broadcasters, the DTV transition was more than a move to HD. It was also a repack required by the FCC that moved many stations to new digital channels.

The move to ATSC 3.0 will be far less traumatic than the move to HD. When stations were operating in SD, they could get away with a simple composite or component infrastructure. That wasn’t an option for a plant with HD; an SDI infrastructure was required because there was no other way to distribute HD signals. Today, the vast majority of stations already support a 3G-SDI infrastructure, which can support UHD signals, and many have adopted IP-based workflows. There will still be work to do, especially if broadcasters want to introduce data services and explore other revenue opportunities, but it should be a less painful process.

When it comes to UHD, I’m not sure there’s a value proposition for local news. The move from SD to HD was dramatic for newsrooms, but will UHD significantly improve shots of an anchor behind the desk or man-on-the-street interviews? Sports and other fast-moving programming definitely benefit from UHD—and maybe you can make a case for improved weather graphics—but I just don’t think the transition from HD to UHD is going to be that compelling for most local news viewers.

TVT: How significant was the move from tape-based workflows to file-based workflows for ENG?

DVH: Talk about a difference—with today’s high-quality codecs and improved telecommunication infrastructures, news crews are able to send footage back from the field as a file. That alone is a tremendous benefit because it provides production flexibility. Companies like TVU Networks provide truck-like functionality through an IP-based mobile uplink housed in a backpack. The idea that you can send live HD video back to the studio over bonded cellular modems is pretty amazing.

Tape didn’t die, it’s just moved from the front end to the back end of the process. In fact, it’s a very big part of broadcast news workflow, but its function has changed from acquisition to long-term storage. LTO tape provides the least expensive, most dense storage on the market. It’s used by virtually every broadcaster because it’s so inexpensive and offers a long, guaranteed lifespan.

TVT: Looking forward, what will be the next technological challenges for broadcasters?

DVH: I think certainly UHD is the next step for broadcasters, but we should also see the continuing evolution of OTT services that engage the user in many ways. Virtually everyone is a multiscreen viewer and stations have to compete against so many other options in the marketplace. At the end of the day, the broadcast business is still about selling ads and attracting audience, so stations need to continue to offer innovative programming and services that engage consumers.