MONTREAL, Quebec — September 13, 2019 —Matrox® Video is pleased to announce that the Matrox X.mio5 Q25, Matrox X.mio3 IP, and Matrox DSX LE5 D25 SMPTE ST 2110 network interface controller (NIC) cards have all successfully passed the most recent Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM) Tested program for both the SMPTE ST 2110 standard and the NMOS/JT-NM TR-1001 specification. Matrox’s participation and technical contributions to the testing initiative represents a renewed commitment in maintaining the highest standard for multi-vendor interoperability in SMPTE ST 2110, IP-based deployments.

Returning to the IBC 2019 IP Showcase, the JT-NM Tested program offers prospective purchasers of IP-based equipment with greater, more documented insight into how vendor equipment aligns with open industry standards. The Matrox X.mio5 Q25, Matrox X.mio3 IP, and Matrox DSX LE5 D25 cards underwent the rigorous JT-NM testing program, with each of them seamlessly serving as reference sources for the SMPTE ST 2110 trial. For the NMOS/JT-NM TR-1001 trial, the same Matrox NICs demonstrated their built-in NMOS support with predictable, system-level connectivity for the TR-1001-1 technical recommendation. With built-in support for the NMOS IS-04 Device Discovery and Registration, NMOS IS-05 Device Connection Management, NMOS IS-09 System, LLDP, DHCP, and DNS-SD specifications, Matrox NICs completely abstract all low-level design work enabling OEMs to readily integrate their solutions into the ST 2110 network environment. 

Featured Matrox ST 2110 cards in the JT-NM Tested program: 

• Matrox X.mio5 Q25 ST 2110 quad 25 GbE NIC card for IP workflows from HD to 4K
• Matrox X.mio3 IP ST 2110 NIC card with multi-channel video I/O over 10 GbE plus onboard video processing
• Matrox DSX LE5 D25 ST 2110 dual 25 GbE NIC card for IP workflows from HD to 4K

“Matrox has been a long-time supporter of the SMPTE ST 2110 standard, and we are thrilled to continue this commitment through JT-NM’s IBC 2019 Tested program,” says Alberto Cieri, senior director of sales and marketing, Matrox Video. “Backed by our unique combination of IP know-how and broadcast expertise, Matrox NICs are built to offer the simplest path from SDI to ST 2110, while guaranteeing complete network interoperability and 24/7 reliability for next-generation ST 2110 workflows.”  

See Matrox SMPTE ST 2110 NIC cards in action at IBC 2019 on Matrox stand B15, hall 7 and in the IP Showcase Future Zone in rooms E106-107. 

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About Matrox Video

Matrox Video is a technology and market leader in the field of 4K, HD, and SD digital video hardware and software for accelerated H.264 encoding, realtime editing, audio/video input/output, streaming, A/V signal conversion, capture/playout servers, channel-in-a-box systems, and CGs. Matrox's Emmy award-winning technology powers a full range of multi-screen content creation and delivery platforms used by broadcasters, telcos, cable operators, post-production facilities, live event producers, videographers, and A/V professionals worldwide. Founded in 1976, Matrox is a privately held company headquartered in Montreal, Canada. For more information, visit www.matrox.com/video. 

Matrox Media Contact: 

Email: pr@matrox.com

Tel: +1 (514) 822-6000

Website: www.matrox.com

MONTREAL, Quebec — September 13, 2019 — Matrox® Video, a world-class provider of cutting-edge SMPTE ST 2110 network interface controller (NIC) cards for OEMs, is pleased to announce that BBright, a leading solutions provider for Ultra HD channel deployments, is launching an innovative range of Matrox-based media production servers for SMPTE ST 2110 workflows. Leveraging the latest Matrox ST 2110 25 GbE network cards, UHD-Channel, the first BBright IP-based media platform offering, will showcase state-of-the-art, 4K video I/O over 25 GbE at IBC 2019, on BBright stand 2.B39.

Next-generation UHD playout, media production platforms

In an effort to meet today’s ever-evolving media consumption demands, BBright is releasing a new wave of flexible, agile, and scalable IP-based solutions. The new BBright UHD-Channel media production server is equipped with Matrox DSX LE5 D25, a 25 GbE SMPTE ST 2110 NIC card which offers complete offload of ST 2110 to preserve CPU resources for media processing operations. This enables the BBright UHD-Channel solution to deliver advanced video I/O of up to two 4K/UHDp60—including ‘clean’ and branded feeds—and/or two 4K live inputs using a 25 GbE link, with SMPTE ST 2022-7 redundancy. With Matrox’s built-in support for NMOS Device Registration and Discovery (IS-04), NMOS Device Connection Management (IS-05), and the JT-NM TR 1001-1 recommendation, BBright’s UHD-Channel solution can seamlessly plug in and operate in SMPTE ST 2110 environments.

“Looking at Matrox ST 2110 NIC cards, it was immediately evident that their high-density, 24/7-reliability, and zero-CPU-usage—combined with their SMPTE ST 2110 technological expertise and interoperability levels—would provide us with the necessary foundation to quickly transition our SDI-based 4K know-how to cutting-edge ST 2110,” said Laurent Appercel, marketing director, BBright. “Our ability to now offer a new range of next-generation UHD solutions means forward-thinking broadcasters can deliver unprecedented 4K playout and media production over IP workflows.”

“Matrox is excited to be collaborating with BBright and pair best-in-class ST 2110 and 4K proficiencies to build a new foundation of groundbreaking SMPTE ST 2110 solutions,” says Alberto Cieri, senior director of sales and marketing, Matrox Video. “As a pioneer in UHD development, BBright is further cementing its reputation as a leader in 4K broadcast solutions with high-density, game-changing video production servers to take content anywhere.”

BBright UHD-Channel (Stand B39, Hall 2) and Matrox SMPTE ST 2110 NIC cards (Stand B15, Hall 7) will be seen in action at IBC 2019 from September 13-17.

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About BBright

BBright company focuses on rapid market transitions around 4K – Ultra HD, HEVC, multiscreen and content delinearization. BBright develops high-end 4K and HEVC software-based technologies running on broadcast-grade appliances such as live Ingest & Replay Playout servers (baseband or transport stream), professional Decoders and reference Test and QC systems for the Ultra HD video ecosystem. BBright serves various customers worldwide which are broadcast equipment manufacturers, 4K content vendors, video network operators (satellite, terrestrial), telco operators (IPTV) and public or private TV channels.

BBright Media Contact:

Email: laurent.appercel@bbright.com

Website: www.bbright.com

About Matrox Video

Matrox Video is a technology and market leader in the field of 4K, HD, and SD digital video hardware and software for accelerated H.264 encoding, realtime editing, audio/video input/output, streaming, A/V signal conversion, capture/playout servers, channel-in-a-box systems, and CGs. Matrox's Emmy award-winning technology powers a full range of multi-screen content creation and delivery platforms used by broadcasters, telcos, cable operators, post-production facilities, live event producers, videographers, and A/V professionals worldwide. Founded in 1976, Matrox is a privately held company headquartered in Montreal, Canada. For more information, visit www.matrox.com/video.

Matrox Media Contact:

Email: pr@matrox.com

Tel: +1 (514) 822-6000

Website: www.matrox.com

LOS ANGELES—One oft-touted advantage of transitioning from SDI baseband video to an IP equivalent is the ability to use common off-the-shelf (COTS) computer hardware to replace specialty video equipment.

The idea is that the economies of scale the computer industry brings to the table are so far superior to anything the M&E industry can muster, which should make it easier for broadcasters and others to adopt IP-based workflows.

However, a presentation at the SMPTE 2018 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition by Jean Lapierre, senior director of software engineering at Matrox Graphics, sheds a somewhat different light on the issue. While his “Bridging The Gap Between Software and SMPTE ST 2110” presentation did not address the cost issue, it did throw into question the notion of “common” in “common off-the-shelf” computer hardware for M&E applications.

“We think that ST 2110 with full implementation of [ST] 2059 is very difficult using a generic network card and some software,” he said. “It’s much easier if we are leveraging some hardware acceleration on the network card. And we think that the way to do that is to use an FPGA-based network card that actually understands the full ST 2110 implementation.”

PACKET SPACING

Lapierre offered several examples of situations in which a conventional network interface card (NIC) and use of a computer’s CPU would not be up to task.

For instance, traffic shaping is “actually quite tricky to do in software,” he said. Lapierre explained that simply using software to packetize a frame of video and send it as fast as possible on the network is not a realistic solution.

He pointed to an example of 1080p 60 video at a little bit less than 3Gb/s being sent over a 10Gig network.

Sending a frame from a hypothetical source A as fast as possible will take about a third of the memory in a receiver’s buffer. However, if two more sources are added and all three burst their packets onto the network, the network switch will not be able to send all of the packets at the same time. This will require buffering, said Lapierre.

With just three sources, this approach is acceptable. “Where we get into trouble is when you try to move that to scale,” he said.

A far bigger buffer will be needed on the switch; however, it still may be inadequate and have to drop packets, which is undesirable, he explained.

SMPTE ST 2110 addresses this situation through packet spacing, which is “a nice way of spreading packets over time,” which creates holes for other packets to fill as they traverse a network, he said.

In the same example, the same amount of data is sent on the network, but spread out over time, allowing the receiver to build up the frame. With packet spacing, if two more sources are introduced, the switch only has to buffer a smaller part of the second and third source, he said.

However, doing so in software is tricky, said Lapierre. One strategy is to build time loops to build in the needed delay, but that wastes CPU cycles that could be used on an important task.

Additionally, the computer’s operating system may have an essential task to perform, putting the time loop to sleep momentarily to accomplish the task, thereby unexpectedly extending the duration of the loop.

“We think it is better to leave that job to a network card that can do the packet spacing for you.”

PTP-AWARE NETWORK CARD

Precision Time Protocol (PTP), which keeps audio and video packet flows from multiple streams in step in time, is also a challenge in a software implementation.

In this example, PTP would require a network stack, consisting of a grand master clock, a conventional NIC, an operating system and the software implementation, he said.

“Well, my piece of software uses that stack to talk to the grand master to find out what time it is, and by time the message comes back I have to try to figure out how long it took for this message to get there and how long it took to get back,” he explained.

The problem is it can take a variable amount of time to go through the stack, he added.

“We can improve our situation by using a network card that understands our situation,” said Lapierre. However, the precision of PTP that is possible in software is inadequate and “can wreak havoc,” he said.

“What we think is better is if the network card, which is PTP-aware, is the one responsible for doing the time stamping—and why not [also] doing the packet spacing,” he said.

By adding a network interface card to a system with on-board ST 2110 and ST 2059 support, vendors can spend their development time improving their own Software solutions, not dealing with these network interfacing issues, he explained.

“Also, if we look at all the CPU processing we are talking about we will be wasting CPU cycles doing timing loops and things of that nature. To me, if we do that, it sounds like we are doing less with more and not more with less,” he concluded.