The media industry is firmly set on a path to an IP-connected future. Major live events are now routinely covered through remote production, with sources and data delivered over open circuits to the broadcast center rather than being managed on site. This trend will certainly continue, so it’s therefore critical that live production workflows are designed with security and resilience in mind.

IP Adoption
As with any new technology, adoption grows in phases. At first, it’s experimental, with every set-up carefully crafted. Then it moves to a proof-of-concept phase: standards emerge that help make the infrastructure more routine. Finally, it becomes routine, and engineers pull the standardized modules, both hardware and software, that they need for the job in hand, and economies of scale give it a commercial imperative.

This path can be plotted as two lines on a graph. First is the amount of technical effort needed to establish, maintain, and operate the network. This should fall as experience and technology grow, making for simple, standardized implementations.

The second may be a little less obvious. This time it is a line that rises over time. As more productions opt for IP-connected remote working, the demand for facilities and bandwidth grows. More ambitious production standards, more cameras on site, and more return feeds, make the demand for bandwidth grow even faster.

Estimates vary, but it is certain that more than 80% of internet bandwidth is taken up by video. Of course, much of this is content delivery, from TikTok to Netflix. However, what we might call professional video transfer, such as live production, is taking an increasing share.

Managing Cyber Threats
As well as leading to congestion, the growth in the use of the internet for the transport of video also attracts the attention of those with malicious intentions. Whether for political reasons or simply for financial gain, there are many people who seek to profit or make a name for themselves through cyber-crime. And while interrupting a feed from a streaming service might upset customers, if a live production feed is interrupted, this can have much bigger ramifications.

Imagine sitting in master control in the seconds before the Olympic 100 meters final, and suddenly every monitor shows a demand for large numbers of Bitcoin. Not a good situation!

The World Economic Forum now publishes an annual Global Cybersecurity Outlook. Its 2024 report found that among its surveyed organizations, minimum viable cyber resilience was down 30%. In 2025, 35% of small organizations believe that their cyber resilience is inadequate. Media enterprises, many of which are classed as SMEs, must act.

Building Secure and Scalable Live Production Workflows
Not all transport protocols meet the demands of the live production environment equally, which is why RIST (Reliable Internet Stream Transport) that aligns with emerging industry needs, is gaining traction. It’s flexible, readily established, and supports the key professional technical standards like SMPTE ST2110, as well as JPEG-XS, AV1, H.264, and many more.

Security is baked in, with streams protected with AES encryption and advanced authentication options like DTLS. The protection is so good, it’s tempting to take the view “it’s RIST so we don’t need to worry”, however, it’s important not to be complacent because this inevitably leads to security holes.

Every time a network is created, engineers need to consider security at every single point. Just because a stream leaves the source encrypted and arrives at the destination encrypted, that does not mean there is no risk on the way. It’s important to consider whether there are any points in the network where the signal needs to be decrypted?

Why? Is it for routing or distribution? How are those nodes protected? Are those devices completely secure or do they have back doors? Do they need to phone home for licenses and how do they store passwords and routing data?

RIST has a very useful routine called rist2rist, which is great for building distribution services. It takes in a stream and sends it to multiple qualified destinations. Most important, rist2rist does not need to decrypt the stream to achieve this, so you can host the node anywhere you like, including in the cloud, with a high degree of confidence.

As the pressure grows for more and more services, the need for staff also grows, as does the pressure on those operators. Human factors are well known to have huge potential to bring down even the best systems. In the old days, a broadcaster’s infrastructure was contained in a machine room, in the center of the building, protected by multiple layers of access control. You must think the same way about virtual infrastructures. Single sign-on systems must be applied rigorously, allowing access only to the parts of the system required and the times when it is needed. Giving too much freedom simply increases the chances of operator error causing disaster.

Importance of Securing Every Element of IP Production
So far, I have talked about video as the essence of IP infrastructures. It is so obviously important that it is tempting to neglect everything else that production requires. But you can’t make a live production without intercom, text and document transfers. It is important to recognize that they should be protected in the same way as video and audio.

It's easy to imagine, in the set-up phase of a production, an engineer at a remote site asking for an IP address. If the central engineer sends this in the clear, then anyone with minimal hacking skills could read it, and a bad actor could very quickly take down your whole network. It is vitally important to wrap text and intercom into the same high-resilience, end-to-end encryption.

The future for IP production is extremely positive, delivering high performance at low cost and with agile set-ups. But as it grows, we must build new working practices that adopt zero-trust architectures and tight access control. RIST is ideally placed to be the cornerstone, but for an IP future where live video is consistently delivered reliably and securely, an all-embracing approach to security is critical.

The Video Services Forum (VSF), has announced a new specification for the RIST protocol (Reliable Internet Streaming Transport) that allows for the use of Wireguard VPN in RIST devices. This feature, detailed in TR-06-4 Part 2, is the second release in a series of ancillary features for RIST specifications.

Wireguard VPN has been selected as an off-the-shelf alternative to transport RIST Simple Profile (VSF TR-06-1) or unencrypted RIST Advanced Profile (VSF TR-06-3) streams. Wireguard sessions can also be used to carry non-RIST data for in-band control or other purposes. Additionally, Wireguard can also support IP Multicast, if configured to do so. Technical recommendations are freely available from the VSF website for all to download and make use of.

The RIST protocol has been designed as a reliable, low-latency video contribution transport over the Internet. It is typically used for professional media workflows, such as news and sports contribution, remote production, affiliate distribution and primary distribution. Developed with multi-vendor interoperability as its key objective, RIST provides a technically robust transport solution regardless of the application, use case, or environment it is deployed in. 

Ciro Noronha, CTO, Cobalt Digital and RIST Forum President, commented: "For some time, the RIST Advanced Profile has been a novel way to provide a VPN service, but for some applications, offering a standard off-the-shelf VPN is more desirable. The Wireguard VPN has been selected by the RIST Activity Group as the recommended alternative. RIST was launched to address compatibility issues in video transport and this update furthers enhances its interoperability and functionality.”

The VSF will be holding its annual technical conference and exposition, VidTrans, in Marina Del Ray Feb. 28-March 2. RIST representatives will be exploring the technical benefits and latest developments of the protocol during the event, in a series of demos. 

Registration is now open.

As more and more broadcasters and video content providers adopt or consider adopting IP for transporting content, the need for a reliable, interoperable transport solution is becoming ever more clear. Broadcast workflows have become increasingly complex over time in part because of the many media businesses vendors involved in the entire media supply chain, and also because not all products and workflows are capable of operating together. 

While the issue of interoperability can be problematic at all stages of the broadcast workflow, the problem is particularly apparent when it comes to transporting content. The actual physical process of sending content from content provider to broadcaster or affiliate is often not straightforward. Different encoders and decoders operating with incompatible transport protocols cause real problems in the industry. 

Industry response
A group of industry experts developed the Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) protocol in 2018, in response to this problem. RIST is an open-source, open-specification transport protocol designed for transporting broadcast grade video over the Internet, while ensuring reliability and security. With the intention of developing a cross industry interoperable standard, any organization can download the protocol information and develop compliant solutions that can be incorporated into their own products at no cost and very few restrictions. 

RIST has been on the scene for several years now, so it seems timely that the RIST Forum, created to drive the adoption of RIST, has recently carried out a survey of media and broadcast professionals across the globe to understand how RIST is being used in practice across the industry.

RIST uses in the real world
Of the media and broadcast professionals surveyed, approximately half confirmed that they were currently using RIST at the time of the survey. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the main users of RIST were fibre and IP network operators, and television broadcasters. The survey highlighted that the protocol is also being used, albeit to a lesser extent, by sports rights owners, teleport owners, by systems integrators and during the video and TV production process.  

The protocol is not being used in isolation; more often than not, it is being used alongside multiple transport protocols such as SRT, RTP, UDP and RTMP. This highlights the fact that RIST can, and is being, combined with other protocols to address the limitations of said protocols. 

According to the survey responses, RIST is being used in a wide range of use cases, from streaming a 24/7 news channel, for content contribution and distribution, as part of cloud-based workflows, and as a backup for contribution delivered by other means. 

Interoperability is critical
With so many different solutions on the market for each stage in the broadcast workflow, all with different price points and functionality, content owners and media companies want to be able to choose the product that best fits the type and value of the content, as well as their operation and business needs.

This preference for an a-la-carte approach to technology puts interoperability right at the top of the list in terms of priority. This is evident in the findings of the survey with 91% of broadcasters surveyed citing multi-vendor interoperability as a key factor when choosing which protocol to use.  

Other considerations when choosing which protocol
As broadcasters operate in an increasingly competitive market, the ability to deliver a reliable and efficient service is paramount. It is no surprise then that alongside interoperability being a key factor when choosing which protocol to use, the broadcasters surveyed stated that seamless redundancy and availability was the next most important consideration, followed by ease of use, then ability of the protocol to operate in degraded networks. 

Increased demand for content
Consumer demand for content, in various formats, appears to be increasing exponentially and supplying this demand is in itself a challenge for the industry. The Internet is an economically viable and flexible medium for transporting content and this makes it sometimes preferable over traditional methods of transfer. 

The Internet as a transport method has proven that it has an important role to play in today’s diverse broadcast industry. Media organizations and broadcasters need interoperability between vendor solutions in order to work efficiently so that they can meet the seemingly insatiable demand for content. 

The (bumpy) road to interoperability
Since the industry started transitioning to using the Internet as a contribution mechanism, much has been penned about the importance of interoperability. While it would be hard to find someone in the industry that didn’t think it was vital, it is harder still to create the perfect conditions for interoperability to exist. Interoperability, by its very nature, requires a level of partnership working and, that can be difficult to achieve in a competitive commercial environment. 

Technology companies naturally want to recoup maximum return on their R&D investments and that can mean making a solution proprietary. The industry-wide journey towards IP in general is set to continue so the importance of interoperability is only going to grow. In order to get the right level of cooperation and open communication to have full interoperability, we need to have a more partnership-led approach involving industry experts working together towards a common goal.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—Sencore has announced a new release of its DMG-7000 Internet Distribution Gateway platform, which adds new reliable internet streaming protocol (RIST) features, including link bonding and seamless switching. 

These two powerful features will take internet-based transport to the next level, the company said. They combine the powerful features of RIST with the existing protocols and features of the DMG 7000 and allow users to transmit, receive, convert protocols like RIST, Zixi, SRT, HLS and MPEG/IP in a simple to use media gateway.   

With the new release, Sencore’s DMG 7000 internet distribution gateway now has the full support of these RIST receive and transmit technologies: 

• Simple and main profile
• Unicast and multicast support 
• Packet retransmission via RTCP 
• Full datagram and reduced overhead tunneling modes 
• Encryption and authentication
• Link bonding 
• Seamless switching

To download the full datasheet and view new features and product specifications visit www.sencore.com.

A release video is available here

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.—Cobalt Digital has announced that its implementation of the Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) Main Profile now includes full support for certificate-based authentication. 

The enhanced functionality gives users of Cobalt Digital's 9992 encoder/decoder family and 9990 decoder an added level of security by ensuring the identity of the remote site when transmitting content over the Internet with RIST. 

In addition, Cobalt Digital announced that it has also made full support for SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) available for the 9992 encoder/decoder family and that it will be adding the feature in the future to 9990 decoders.

“Security is an enormous concern today, especially with the dramatic increase in streaming due to the pandemic,” explained Dr. Ciro Noronha, executive vice president of engineering at Cobalt Digital, which designs and manufactures edge devices that help live video production and master control clients transition to IP, 4K, HDR and the cloud. “The RIST protocol enables greater choice and flexibility for broadcasters, allowing them to take advantage of the cost-effective internet for contribution feeds with top-of-the-line security, as well as the freedom to mix ‘best of breed’ products from different vendors. Cobalt is a strong supporter of open standards and is delighted to offer even greater security and reliability with full support of both RIST and SRT.”

CEREDIGION, U.K.—RIST Forum, along with Florida-based development company SipRadius, has announced the first publicly available version of the RIST Protocol, the libRIST 2.1.2.

The libRIST 2.1.2 project features a library and sample calling programs that implement the RIST (Reliable Internet Streaming Transport) Protocol. It supports both RIST Simple Profile (TR-06-1) and the upcoming Main Profile (TR-06-2). The open source licensing for libRIST provides free redistribution of source and binaries when accompanied by copyright and disclaimer notices.

“With the current climate of uncertainty and with many people suddenly seeking to transmit reliable, high-quality video from homes and remote facilities, internet delivery has become more important than ever,” said Ciro Noronha, RIST Forum president. “Many of the more advanced features of the protocol, such as encryption, are supported. By providing so much code and functionality up front, we hope to speed the adoption of RIST in general.”

The libRIST project files include support for Linux, Microsoft Windows and Apple platforms.

For more information, visit www.rist.tv.  

CEREDIGION, U.K.—RIST Forum has appointed four new individuals as directors, as well as confirming a few others in key positions.

RIST Forum is tasked with promoting the Reliable Internet Stream Transport standard for transporting live video over unmanaged IP networks. The objective of the forum is for global adoption of the interoperable RIST protocol.

The newly appointed directors of the RIST Forum include Paul Atwell, president at Media Transport Solutions; Kieran Kunhya, CEO at Open Broadcast Systems; Adi Rozenberg, co-founder at VideoFlow; and John Wastcoat, senior vice president of alliances and marketing at Zixi. Jacob Kinsey, senior associate director for Cobalt Digital will remain in his position as a director, serving as the forum’s treasurer.

In addition, Arielle Slama, senior product marketing manager at Net Insight, and Suzana Brady, vice president of sales at Cobalt Digital, were voted to remain as co-chairs.

“Our focus for 2020 is to demonstrate this ground-breaking multivendor approach wherever we can,” said Ciro Noronha, RIST Forum president. Noronha said that this will be done in part through RIST-hosted plug-fests and demos.

RIST Forum also plans to attend the 2020 NAB Show, where it will be showcased in the Future of Delivery Zone, and the directors will participate in a full program of panel debates and presentations during the show.

LOS ANGELES—VidTrans 2020 will host a major industry interoperability demonstration for technologies used to transport video and audio over IP networks, the Video Services Forum announced last week.

The conference, Feb. 25-27 at the Marina del Rey Marriott, will focus on innovative types of IP networking and video technologies and their use for long-haul video transport and in production studios.

The theme of VidTrans 2020 is “Delivering the Benefits of IP for Media Production.” It will feature an exhibit with a showcase of the latest applications, technologies and products and offer opportunities to socialize.

The exhibit hall and interop will be open Feb. 25-26. An opening night reception will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 25. The gathering will feature an interoperability demo of the Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) protocol.

(Read more: RIST Forges Reliable, Secure Internet Connection)

RIST technology will be demoed by using real-time, contribution-quality video streams. They will be exchanged securely with top-of-the-line encryption over the public internet between Marina del Rey and other remote locations around the world, organizers said.

An emphasis will be placed on multi-vendor interoperability using the upcoming VSF TR-06-02 RIST Main Profile. Nearly a dozen tech providers will participate.

VidTrans 2020 also will include technical sessions on high-performance IP media networking technologies. Experts will present technical papers on a variety of video networking, IP transport and IP production topics. 

Among the conference panel discussions are “ST2110 Becomes Mainstream: Successes and Ongoing Challenges” and “Progress Report: Broadcast Virtualization for On- and Off-Premises Workflows.

More information about VidTrans 2020 is available on the Video Services Forum website.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—There is an old saying that goes, “‘Tis impossible to be sure of anything but death and taxes.” I’d like to propose an extension of that quote to include “faster internet speeds,” whether they be wired or wireless.

In the past 20 years at my home, I have literally gone from dial-up speeds that were limited to 28 kbps, to the availability of gigabit Ethernet. Yet for some, pure connection speed is not enough without improved reliability.

Greater reliability and improved security are the goals of the Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) Forum, which has members that include many of the television industry’s best-known companies. Experts at these companies will tell you that the ability to watch streaming 4K content at home is no guarantee that the internet is reliable enough for broadcast origination or contribution.

“For lack of a better word, internet service is ‘bursty’ at best,” said Jacob Kinsey, chief development officer for Cobalt Digital and RIST Forum co-chair. “Internet speed ebbs and flows—sort of like the tides, except internet speed is unpredictable. Because bandwidth access goes up and down with the number of users and the content being accessed, it becomes very important to have a retransmission methodology for video content.”

RIST is one function of the Video Services Forum, which has played an important role in the development of the SMPTE-2110 video over IP transport standard. The international association is comprised of service providers, users and manufacturers that focus on interoperability, quality metrics and education for media networking technologies. The VSF’s activities include:

• Providing forums to identify issues involving the development, deployment, operation and security of media networking technologies;
• Promoting interoperability by contributing towards the development of standards.

The driving force behind RIST is the overall growth of the television industry. There are more content creators on more networks than ever, and this will only continue to increase.

“We know live video transport over the internet will grow 15 times or more by 2022, so having a cost-effective solution to transport that video for contribution or distribution applications is essential,” Kinsey said. “RIST offers the key to unlocking video transport interoperability over the internet, and it can be used to transport PTZ control and other communications as well as video and audio signals.”

NATURAL GROWTH?

Won’t the natural growth of faster speeds and technology like 5G be enough to get us the bandwidth and reliability we need?

“The internet is unreliable,” Kinsey said. “Video requires packets of information be delivered in order and in a timely manner. When transporting video over unmanaged networks (as opposed to a private network), reliability is even more difficult to achieve. Reliability is the key to the success of RIST.”

A definition of the term “broadcast quality” is elusive, but it means absolute reliability and the highest quality to many people.

“RIST is designed to deliver broadcast-grade live video transport over any type of connectivity,” said David Griggs, senior product manager for media services at AWS Elemental. “It leverages standards-based quality-of-service [QoS] techniques to ensure that a high-quality, live video stream can be delivered over both managed and unmanaged networks, such as the internet, and at bitrates suitable for professional broadcast applications.”

The potential audiences out there are huge, so the stakes for reliable internet delivery could not be higher.

“More than an estimated billion viewers tuned into coverage of Women’s World Cup this summer, a testament to growing consumer appetite for live video and its importance in modern broadcast programming,” Griggs said. “Whether delivering a premium live sporting event or 24/7 linear service, ensuring reliable, high quality video distribution is essential for customers who want to deliver great viewer experiences.”

OPEN STANDARD

One of the driving forces behind the RIST Forum is interoperability based on an open standard, which is the reason why the RIST Forum is populated by manufacturers. There are some proprietary and semi-proprietary networking protocols targeted at the broadcast industry, and RIST promises to replace them with an open standard along the lines of RS422.

“In the past, internet transport content distribution models were manufacturer-specific and did not allow for implementation without requiring uniform deployment of identical-brand hardware or software at each location,” said Paul Atwell, president of Media Transport Solutions and a RIST Forum member. “RIST allows for the transport and exchange of content by applying a uniform set of existing practices manufacturers can implement in order to allow interoperability between unrelated sending and receiving devices.”

Atwell said that RIST will let customers keep existing hardware (encoders, decoders, multiplexers, integrated receivers, etc.), without requiring a wholesale replacement or writing off a previous capital expense.

Although the ever-increasing internet bandwidth to the home is fine for watching streaming content in living rooms, Atwell and others pointed out that occasional lags and dropouts seen at home are unacceptable to content creators, distributors and broadcasters.

“Occasional bandwidth congestion or brief loss of service is somewhat acceptable or even anticipated by the average user of the internet,” Atwell said. “For the delivery of high-quality source material, such as HD cameras located at a remote sporting event or returning broadcast content for network distribution, interruptions in the contribution stream are unacceptable.”

One relatively low-cost way that RIST plans to build in more reliability is to incorporate reliable bonding of multiple IP connections to sustain the required transport bandwidth. Not only does this provide a wider pipe when all the circuits are working, it allows for failure of one or more circuits without killing the entire feed.

MORE EFFICIENT COMPRESSION

Another way to improve the reliability of contribution feeds is to use more efficient compression of the video signal. Since compressed video is sent as packets, more compression means that fewer packets need to be sent—however, the loss of a packet results in a greater breakup of the transmitted signal.

Still, the inherent improvement in reliability by sending less data (i.e., using more compression) is significant.

“Applying RIST to transport streams with greater compression increases reliable delivery of valuable payload packets, plus the added benefit of a reduction in allocated bandwidth,” Atwell said.

RIST technical recommendations will continue to evolve as Forum members weigh in and incorporate preliminary recommendations into their hardware. Meanwhile, manufacturers and other interested parties will continue to refine the standards and practices through the Video Services Forum.

What has happened so far in the industry is that a couple of companies recognized the benefits of IT infrastructure early on and developed proprietary network devices specifically for broadcast transport. These worked great within a facility, and didn’t really need to connect to the wider world since commercially available networks did not have the sort of bandwidth and reliability required for content distributors. Still, these were proprietary solutions that meant you had to get a bunch of “Brand X” boxes to make everything work.

The RIST Forum is focusing on building that reliability into each connected component, and also adapting them to work with the wider internet with increased reliability. And since the content is valuable, encryption should be built in from the start.

RIST was established in March 2019 with 21 founding members, which has since grown to 36, according to RIST Forum co-chair Kinsey.

“Our industry association has a presence at every major trade show, and we’ve sponsored programs at NAB and IBC. One of the concerns with using the open internet for video transport is security, so RIST has added encryption and VPN tunneling, which was part of our RIST Main Profile demo at IBC in September. Our goal is to make IP transport over the internet as ubiquitous and reliable as SDI cabling within a facility.”

For more information, visit www.rist.tv.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Oct. 15, 2019 – Cobalt Digital is pleased to announce the appointment of Ciro Noronha, Ph.D., as executive vice president of engineering. Noronha joined the Cobalt team in 2016 when ImmediaTV was acquired. He will work closely with Ryan Wallenberg, vice president of engineering, and Kyle Wilken, vice president of firmware, managing the engineering team and providing valuable resources for Cobalt Digital as the company continues to offer the highest quality, latest technological solutions to meet the needs of the broadcast industry.

Noronha was responsible for the development of ARQ technology, which was instrumental in enabling a cost-effective means of live, low latency contribution and distribution of broadcast content over the internet. As a result, Cobalt was one of the companies selected to receive the Emmy® Award for "Pioneering Reliable Transmission Method for Live Contribution and TV Links."

“Dr. Noronha has extensive engineering knowledge and management experience that will assist in guiding Cobalt to an increased successful future,” added Gene Zimmerman, president and CEO of Cobalt Digital. “We are pleased to have him on board to strengthen our engineering management team."

Contact Noronha at 217-344-1243 or via email at ciro.noronha@cobaltdigital.com.

About Cobalt Digital
Cobalt Digital Inc. designs and manufactures award-winning edge devices that help live video production and master control clients transition to IP, 4K, HDR, the cloud, and beyond. As a founding partner in the openGear® initiative and proud member of SMPTE, Cobalt also offers a best-of-breed interoperability platform that simplifies technological adoption. Distributed through a worldwide network of dealers, system integrators, and other partners, Cobalt Digital products are backed with a five-year warranty. Learn more at www.cobaltdigital.com.

AMSTERDAM—A midday meal and education are on the agenda for the RIST (Reliable Internet Stream Transport) Forum at IBC 2019 in Amsterdam.

The forum will host a free “Lunch and Learn” event Monday, Sept. 16, during the confab. Those attending the lunch will have the chance to learn more about RIST and its possible uses in video delivery.

During lunch, RIST experts will be available to talk about the protocol and the forum. There will also be presentations and a panel discussion with representatives from Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elemental, Cobalt Digital, DVEO, Net Insight, Open Broadcast Systems, VideoFlow and Zixi.

A variety of topics will be discussed, including: the RIST Main Profile, encryption, high-end live media workflows, delivery of content to tens of millions of people using RIST, as well as how RIST and the cloud are transforming content distribution and the future of the format, the forum said.

“RIST is all about the combination of interoperability and innovation, giving the broadcast industry a simple yet highly effective method for interchanging professional signals between different vendors,” said Alexander Sandström, co-chair of the RIST Forum. “RIST has the potential to solve a lot of the complexity with live media workflows.”

RIST was jointly developed by a group of experts using a standards-based approach. RIST provides an open, interoperable and technically robust solution for low-latency live video over unmanaged networks.

Champaign, Ill. – 4 September, 2019 – The RIST Forum will host a free “Lunch and Learn,” followed by presentations and panel discussions, on Monday, 16 September, at IBC2019 in Amsterdam. The RIST Forum is an independent association focused on promoting the open, interoperable, and technically robust RIST protocol for the delivery of low-latency live video over unmanaged networks.

The session will give attendees the opportunity to learn more about RIST and its potential for live video delivery. Starting with the “Lunch and Learn,” where RIST experts will be on hand to discuss the forum and protocol, the day will also feature presentations and a panel discussion from Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elemental, Cobalt Digital, DVEO, Net Insight, Open Broadcast Systems, VideoFlow, and Zixi.

Topics will include the RIST Main Profile, encryption, high-end live media workflows, delivery of content to tens of millions of people using RIST, as well as how RIST and the cloud are transforming content distribution and the future of the format.

“RIST is all about the combination of interoperability and innovation, giving the broadcast industry a simple yet highly effective method for interchanging professional signals between different vendors,” explained Alexander Sandström, co-chair of the RIST Forum. “RIST has the potential to solve a lot of the complexity with live media workflows.”

“This session is about educating attendees about RIST and its potential, helping them determine whether they should be implementing it in their own workflows,” added Jacob Kinsey, co-chair of the RIST Forum. “We are taking the same collaborative approach with the RIST day at IBC as the technical activity group has done when developing the RIST specification. Speakers and panelists are from a wide range of companies, and all sessions are interactive and to give everyone a chance to meet and discuss with the experts and innovators behind RIST.”

RIST has been developed jointly by a group of experts, combining real-world experience into defining workable specifications. Technical recommendations are posted from the Video Services Forum (VSF), an independent group of vendors, end-users, and service providers. For more information about the event at IBC or to register, please visit https://www.rist.tv/register-for-ibc-2019.

About RIST
Developed jointly by a group of experts using a standards-based approach, RIST provides an open, interoperable and technically robust solution for low-latency live video over unmanaged networks. With RIST, interoperability is achieved through clear specifications, while vendors remain free to innovate within their own implementations. For more information please visit https://www.rist.tv/.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Aug. 13, 2019 – Cobalt Digital will showcase its card-based 4K and HDR workflow solutions for openGear® frames next month at IBC2019 in Amsterdam (Stand 10.B44). Product highlights will include its new decoders and encoders, RIST Main Profile, bi-directional SDR/HDR conversion solution for live production, and new multiviewers and distribution amplifiers. Plus, the company will debut a new 12G openGear router and RIST gateway solution.

The new 9992-DEC Series of HEVC/AVC/MPEG-2 decoders for openGear frames will be introduced at the show. Like the company’s 9992-ENC series of encoders, the flexible 9992-DEC features pay-as-you-go licensing, so users only pay for required features when needed. Designed to meet the most stringent requirements for today’s broadcasters, the 9992-DEC supports up to 4K resolution and offers a full complement of audio decoding capabilities. The series also includes the 9992-2DEC dual-channel decoder, as well as the 9992-DEC-4K-HEVC with single-channel 4K or dual-channel 2K and support for H.265.

Earlier this year, Cobalt was one of several companies to receive an Emmy® Award for its collaborative work on ARQ, the underlying technology powering RIST. At IBC, Cobalt will debut support for the RIST Main Profile, which adds features such as encryption (DTLS or PSK), tunneling, NAT traversal, point-to-multipoint distribution, low bit rate optimization, and reliable ST-2110 transport.

New advancements in HDR at the show include a complete end-to-end HDR workflow within Cobalt’s 9904-UDX-4K up/down/cross converter. Utilizing Technicolor’s suite of HDR tools, which can be bundled into a single ordering option, the 9904 can generate dynamic metadata when converting from HDR to SDR and back to HDR, preserving the full HDR picture information.

Cobalt continues to develop its popular 9971 Series of multiviewers, adding dual outputs and user controls. Delivering uncomplicated monitoring of asynchronous 4K and HD signals, all three models accommodate a variety of signals and applications. All models also include HDMI outputs for economical viewing on consumer-grade 4K monitors. One-button template presets simplify setup, but users can also create and save customized layouts. Up to five 9971 can be installed in one 2 RU openGear frame – and multiple cards in a cascaded chain can provide multiviewer layouts of up to 64 sources.

The new 9915 Series of DAs support 4K 12G-SDI sources and allow for copper runs long enough to reach most equipment within master control. One of four models in the series, the 9915DA-4x16-XPT-12G, includes four input channels that can be crosspoint-routed to 16 DA outputs in several configurations. Up to 10 cards can be installed in one openGear frame, allowing for up to 40 channels of input and distribution to up to 160 outputs.

“Broadcasters now accept 4K as the production norm, and Cobalt has an extensive menu of openGear-based solutions for studios and mobile production,” Chris Shaw, executive vice president of sales and marketing, Cobalt Digital. “Our products provide flexible and affordable ways to process, monitor, and distribute 4K and HDR content.”

Other products at the Cobalt booth will include a new 12G-SDI openGear routing card with a 12x12 routing matrix. Designed to fit into legacy frames, the card helps customers use 4K islands cost effectively. Demonstrating leadership of RIST technology, Cobalt is also launching SafeLink, an openGear solution that can take in multiple transport streams and provide a RIST wrapper to protect video links between two points.

About Cobalt Digital
Cobalt Digital Inc. designs and manufactures award-winning edge devices that help live video production and master control clients transition to IP, 4K, HDR, the cloud, and beyond. As a founding partner in the openGear® initiative and proud member of SMPTE, Cobalt also offers a best-of-breed interoperability platform that simplifies technological adoption. Distributed through a worldwide network of dealers, system integrators, and other partners, Cobalt Digital products are backed with a five-year warranty. Learn more at www.cobaltdigital.com. 

Champaign, Ill. – March 25, 2019 – The RIST Forum was established today with 21 founding companies to promote the Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST), a new interoperable and royalty free standard for low-latency video transport over unmanaged networks for contribution and distribution applications. In its efforts to promote worldwide adoption of RIST, the new industry association engages both users and vendors of RIST technology and products.

The RIST Forum will host a free panel discussion during the 2019 NAB Show on April 9, at 2 p.m. in the South Hall Learning Lab, Room S210, in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Representatives from members Cobalt Digital, Net Insight, VideoFlow, and Zixi will provide a detailed overview of the technology, as well as plans for further adoption of the standard. NAB attendees are encouraged to register for the panel at www.rist.tv/register-for-nab-2019-panel.

RIST was developed by an activity group within the Video Services Forum, combining more than 300 years of industry experience to provide the foundation for interoperability and a technically robust design. It was demonstrated publicly for the first time at IBC 2018, with the RIST Simple Profile Specification published in October 2018 (as VSF TR-06-1). The protocol has now been subject to numerous interoperability tests, in which implementations from Artel, Cobalt Digital, DVEO, Evertz, Net Insight, Nevion, QVidium, VideoFlow, and Zixi have already shown interoperability. There is also an open source VLC player with technology contributed by DVEO.

“We are proud to announce the RIST Forum and encourage users, manufacturers, and industry professionals to join us,” said Jacob Kinsey, RIST Forum co-chair. “We want to help broadcasters and other content providers lose the packet loss. RIST is a technically robust solution co-developed by a large number of vendors, ensuring interoperability and enabling future innovation, and it’s really in a category of its own in terms of ease of adoption.”

Current members include Amagi, Artel, Ateme, Cobalt Digital, Crystal, DVEO, Evertz, Haivision, Happy Robotz, MVA Broadcast Consulting, Mankin Media, Media Transport Solutions, Net Insight, Nevion, Qvidium, Sencore, Synamedia, Telecom Product Consulting, VideoFlow, Zayo, and Zixi. For more information, visit www.rist.tv.

About RIST Forum
The RIST Forum is a nonprofit organization that strives to make the world adopt the Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) interoperable standard for transporting live video over unmanaged networks. Established as a collaborative, nonprofit organization, the RIST Forum is a true community that’s engaging both users and vendors of RIST technology and RIST products.

Follow us on Twitter @RISTForum, LinkedIn @RIST Forum, and get involved at www.rist.tv.

For further information about RIST Forum, please contact:
Jacob Kinsey, Co-chair RIST Forum, jacob.kinsey@cobaltdigital.com or
Alexander Sandstrom, Co-chair RIST Forum, alexander.sandstrom@netinsight.net

LOS ANGELES—The Video Services Forum has announced that two major industry interoperability demonstrations of the latest technologies for transporting video and audio over IP networks will take place during VidTrans 2019, Feb. 26-28 at the Marina del Rey Marriott in Los Angeles.

The theme of this year’s conference is, “Delivering the Benefits of IP for Media Production” and will focus on the innovative types of IP networking and video technologies and their application both for long-haul video transport and for the production studio. In addition to technical sessions, the conference will also showcase some of the latest applications, technologies and products in its exhibit hall as well as provide abundant networking opportunities at our special events. The exhibition hall and interop will be open Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 26 & 27 and offers an opening night reception on Tuesday.

VidTrans19 will feature two important industry interoperability demonstrations:

RIST (Reliable Internet Stream Transport) technology will be demonstrated through the use of real-time, contribution-quality video streams exchanged over the public Internet between Marina del Rey and a number of remote locations around the world. The emphasis will be on multi-vendor interoperability using VSF TR-06-01 (published in October, 2018), with close to a dozen technology providers participating in the live demos, which will be conducted on-site and via the public Internet.

JPEG 2000 Ultra-Low Latency (J2K ULL) technology will also be demonstrated in a live network during VidTrans19. Four leading technology providers, Artel, Evertz, Grass Valley and Media Links, will feature compatible implementations of VSF TR-01:2018 (released this past June) in a live demonstration in the exhibit hall. This new version of the spec updates the widely-adopted TR-01 for new applications, including Ultra HD levels 1 and 2, HDR video and end-to-end latencies below 1 frame period for many implementations.

This year’s VidTrans conference will comprise two and a half days of informative technical sessions on the latest technologies for high-performance IP media networking. Industry experts will present technical papers on a wide variety of topics related to video networking, IP transport and IP production. Highlighting the conference will be two eagerly anticipated panel discussions: “Challenges and Solutions to the Rollout of 2110 Systems” and “Workflow Virtualization and Cloud-Based Systems – How to Design and Deliver”. The preliminary conference program is available on the VSF site.

VidTrans provides an ideal venue for television professionals to see the latest IP media technologies in person. This low-key conference, attended primarily by industry decision makers, offers a great opportunity to speak directly with key technology providers and users from around the world.

VidTrans19 Conference will also include a number of social networking events, providing attendees the opportunity to interact with colleagues and industry peers.

For more information about the conference, please visit vsf.tv for updates.