The Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM) said it will enhance its JT-NM tested program, a standards testing effort that when validated will authorize vendors to display badges at their 2020 NAB Show booths attesting to their implementations of parts of SMPTE ST 2110, AMWA NMOS specifications and the JT-NM TR-1001-1.

The Joint Task Force will publish testing criteria. Vendors will perform testing at their own facilities. Standards validation of vendor test results will be confirmed at a testing event scheduled for the week of March 16, the task force said.

Overall testing results will be published in a catalog. Past catalogs are available online.

This round will include testing of broadcast controllers and registries. All vendors producing equipment using relevant portions of the standards to be tested are welcome to participate in the tested program, the task force said.

Participation in past events is not a prerequisite for participation in the program for the 2020 NAB Show.

The Joint Task Force is a consortium of industry organizations, including the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Video Services Forum (VSF).

More information about the testing and standards validation program is available by emailing Bob Ruhl. 

WOODLANDS, TEXAS—The Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM), which presented the results of its JT-NM Tested Program at the IP Showcase during the 2019 NAB Show in April, relied on test and measurement equipment and software, reference senders and receivers and network switches from a variety of sources for its March 18 tests held at an event hosted by Fox Networks in Woodlands, Texas.

The aim of the program, organized by both JT-NM and the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), is to give broadcasters, post-production firms and other M&E industry entities thinking about adopting SMPTE ST 2110 and SMPTE ST 2059 standards better perspective on how the equipment of vendors align with the standard, JT-NM said.

“This program is not a certification program; rather it is a snapshot in time of how vendor equipment conforms to key parts of SMPTE standards, providing prospective purchasers and users with a reference as they begin their equipment evaluation and qualification process,” says the JT-NM website.

Among the companies and organizations providing test and measurement hardware and software for the Woodlands test, were BridgeTech, the EBU, Meinberg, Packetstorm, SDPoker, Tektronix and Wireshark. The EBU and IRT administered use of the equipment.

In addition to supplying equipment for the tests, Tektronix helped in their development and dispatched experts to the Woodlands site to assist.

“Every architecture, implementation or customer application is different,” said Mike Overton, principal engineer at Tektronix. “By establishing trust in which devices meet the test criteria, we’re helping strengthen confidence in the standards and, ultimately, advancing their effectiveness.”

Tektronix provided it SPG8000A as the PTP grandmaster clock for the media IP network, its Prism IP/SDI hybrid monitoring and analysis platform and its WFM8300 waveform monitor to monitor video and audio signals to ensure correct decoding of streams.

Other T&M equipment and software used included: BridgeTech’s VB440 IP probe; EBU’s Live IP software toolkit; Meinberg’s PTP Track Hound network traffic capture tool and analyzer; Packetstorm’s CRS capture and replay system, network emulator and VIP media over IP analyzer; SDPoker’s CLI tool and library for ST 2110 SDP files; and Wireshark’s network protocol analyzer.

The results of the JT-NM Tested Programs were presented in a report that is available as a PDF download.