The Video Services Forum (VSF),has further enhanced the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating a RIST Relay function to address the issue of firewall traversal for RIST devices. This feature, detailed in TR-06-4 Part 3, is the third release in a series of ancillary features for RIST specifications.

The RIST Relay provides a connection service to RIST devices using the RIST Advanced Profile. RIST devices connect to the RIST Relay as a rendezvous point, and the RIST Relay either facilitates a direct connection between the RIST devices, or relays the traffic between them. The RIST Relay is also capable of supporting group operation (many-to-many communication).

Developed jointly by a group of experts using a standards-based approach, the RIST protocol is designed to reliably transport video over unmanaged networks such as the Internet. It provides an open, interoperable and technically robust solution for low latency video contribution. It can be used for any use case where video needs to be transported over the Internet, but is typically used for professional media workflows, such as news and sports contribution, remote production, affiliate distribution and primary distribution.

"The RIST Relay function allows devices to connect simply and securely across firewalls, without needing to open ports in advance," said Adi Rozenberg, CTO and Co founder, Alvalinks and RIST Forum Director. "Using a proxy device that is external to the organization and a SIP like mechanism to connect peers and organizations, RIST Relay massively simplifies connectivity, solving many real-life broadcast problems. The RIST Relay is an exciting development that brings much needed functionality to the market, enabling many new user applications."

Technical recommendations are available from the VSF website..

The Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) Forum has added IP Multicast Authentication to the RIST Main Profile Specification (VSF TR-06-2).

The upcoming TR-06-2:2022 will have a mechanism to authenticate multiple receivers: the EAP SHA256-SRP6a Authentication Protocol, it said.

With the EAP SHA256-SRP6a protocol, RIST can be used to create a secure multicast content distribution system without locking users into a proprietary vendor system. The addition to the specification enables bi-directional authentication. It is based on use of the username/password model, which removes the need to generate and maintain complex SSL certificates. The protocol also enables a way to de-authorize receivers on the fly without disturbing the content, it said.

“Since its development, RIST has natively supported IP Multicast, enabling one-to-many transmission with reliable, low-latency delivery. With security a growing concern for broadcasters, authentication becomes even more crucial when transmitting content over a combination of network lines. The RIST Multicast Authentication system offers a free alternative to costly proprietary DRM systems and ensures that only authorized receivers are able to decrypt the multicast content,” said Ciro Noronha, president of the RIST Forum.

The EAP SHA256-SRP6a Authentication Protocol will be published as part of the 2022 update for both RIST Main Profile (VSF TR-06-2) and RIST Advanced Profile (VSF TR-06-3).

More information is available on the forum’s website.  

LOS ANGELES—The Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) Forum today announced the launch of a test application server for vendors to test their RIST implementations,

Hosted by RIST and managed by SipRadius, the test server is offered at no charge to vendors, the forum said.

“The new test platform gives developers the ability to do much more than just RIST testing,” said RIST Forum President Ciro Noronha. “It enables basic video routing with no transcoding and promotes confidence monitoring through webrtc playback.”

The compatibility test platform uses libRIST and the CoralOS, SipRadius’ proprietary Linux flavor. LibRIST is a free, open-source library with licensing that encourages developers to add the RIST protocol to their applications, it said.

The CoralOS, in addition to RIST services, provides a web interface for configuration and media services to produce, ingest and playback the developers’ RIST transported streams.

“The RIST protocol and libRIST provide a robust solution for low-latency live video over unmanaged networks,” said Sergio Ammirata, managing director of SipRadius. “It is developed by a group of experts, meaning users benefit from a broader range of real-world experiences than a single-vendor solution. The new test server ensures that members can implement the RIST specification confidently.”

(To learn more, see “RIST Forges Reliable, Secure Internet Connection.”)

The test server is currently available to RIST members working on a RIST implementation. More information on libRIST is available online.

Email Sergio Ammirata to receive credentials and documentation for testing. 

The RIST Forum membership has now reached above 100, following a recent surge in new members. Additions include M2A Media and Grass Valley, which joined as associate members, with the following as affiliate members: Global Tecnologia Digital, Herring Networks, MediaAtmos, OConsortium, Onplay and SEJ Systems Ltda.

Members are committed to adopting the RIST protocol for high-quality, broadcast-grade video over the public internet, and represent all facets of the industry.

Arielle Slama, co-chair, The RIST Forum, said, “Video providers are increasingly looking for quick yet cost-effective ways to distribute video. However, broadcasters need to retain broadcast-grade quality even when using standard internet connections. RIST is enabling that, and as more broadcasters are moving to IP workflows, we are seeing interest in the protocol grow to accommodate that.”

Suzana Brady, co-chair, The RIST Forum, added: “Crossing the 100 milestone is a really exciting achievement for everyone involved in the RIST Forum. The RIST protocol is gaining real momentum, and it is fantastic to see various industry leaders getting behind the protocol.”

For more information on the RIST Forum or to join, please visit the organization’s website.

CEREDIGION, U.K.—The Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) Forum has announced 15 new members have joined its ranks, led by NBC Universal and Hitachi-Comark.

The list of companies that have joined the RIST Forum as affiliate members includes American Public Television, Arena HD, Broadcast Wireless systems, Caton, Cyan View, Enensys, Hitachi-Comark, NBC Universal, Sienna TV, SIP Radius, Softvelum, Tata Communications, Tubical and Videohouse. DTV Innovations has also joined as an associate member.

The RIST Forum, which now features more than 80 members, is committed to the adoption of the RIST protocol for high quality broadcast-grade video over the public internet. RIST aims to create an industry-wide, interoperable transport solution that can be implemented by any vendor into its equipment.

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.

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.

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.