Lawo announced this week the debut of Edge One, a new device that provides combined, expandable connectivity and functionality for both video and audio in a compact footprint. Edge One will be demo-ed in the company’s booth (C2108) during the 2026 NAB Show, April 18-22 in Las Vegas.

Edge One features SMPTE ST2110 native support with a bandwidth of up to 25Gbps. It is equipped with both RJ45 ports incl. PoE++ and SFP ports. For applications that don’t require a network connection, the company says Edge One matches and surpasses previous Lawo solutions that are still popular for audio de-embedding, shuffling and embedding.

One side of the device is equipped with 8x bi-directional HD-BNC connectors for SDI signals, that can function either as inputs or outputs, and 4x HDMI outputs, two of which can alternatively be used as inputs. Furthermore, SFP ports for MADI I/O, GPI I/Os, an audio interface via USB-C and Sync, Reference and Wordclock connectors are also available.

On the other side of the device, three audio interface modules cover a variety of I/O applications: Mic/Line inputs only; Mic/Line inputs and Line outputs; as well as a module specifically for commentary applications. The audio interface modules can be easily swapped by the user for agile utilization scenarios.

Since not all connectors and software functionality may be needed in every use case, Edge One supports Lawo FLEX. Lawo’s software-licensable functionality allows users to activate what they need and leave out what they don’t. For out-of-the-box deployment, Edge One is available in three intuitive packages: Audio, Video and Audio + Video.

The following functions can be licensed if they are not included in the selected package: video signal instances (in or out), video frame syncs, JPEG XS en-/decoding, the Edge One Commentary App, audio MADI I/O with built-in SRC, and the mc²-grade audio DSP for low-latency local mixing.

While Edge One can be rack-mounted (1U) or installed in a convenient location using an optional mounting bracket, it is also compact enough to be carried from one assignment to the next, while being protected with rubber bumpers.

“Despite its impressive specifications, Edge One is first and foremost about convenience and agility for broadcast and AV professionals,” says Lucas Zwicker, Senior Director, Workflow and Integration, CTO Office at Lawo. “A single stagebox can be used to connect microphones, speakers, cameras, monitors, projectors and more.”

Christian Struck, Lawo’s Senior Product Manager, Audio Infrastructure, adds: “Most productions require a limited number of audio and video connections, and some applications can be handled more efficiently by placing compact stageboxes close to the sources and destinations in a distributed fashion. This is where Edge One shines.”

For broadcasters that have yet to convert from Serial Digital Interface (SDI) to SMPTE ST 2110 IP production workflows across portions or all of their facilities, three new industry initiatives within and outside SMPTE bode well for accelerating the pace of IP adoption.

While ST 2110 has taken center stage as the driving force behind the industry’s ability to embrace the scaling, remote connectivity and other efficiencies of IP software technology, SDI still serves as the dominant production backbone in 82% of broadcast operations, according to the 2026 edition of Haivision’s annual survey on global broadcast tech trends released last month.

‘It’s a Pain’
As Samuel Recine, Matrox Video’s vice president for strategic partnerships, noted, “It’s not easy to migrate entire facilities to 2110.” Even as new-build requirements and aging SDI facilities unleash inevitable migrations to IP production, ST 2110 users attest to facing hurdles they would rather not contend with.

For example, when executives at a recent industry gathering were asked about their biggest challenges with ST 2110, several singled out problems with using the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) to ensure synchronization across video, audio and metadata streams.

“It’s a pain,” said Peter Wehner, executive vice president of technology operations and engineering at Mobile TV Group, which supplies mobile units for live sports and other productions. “When something goes wrong, there are different reasons every time.”

“I agree; it’s PTP,” concurred Jason Taubman, senior vice president for technology at Game Creek Video, another mobile production fleet supplier. In addition, while “we’re all in on 2110,” another big issue has to do with scaling, where managing “tens of thousands of signals is a huge challenge,” he said.

But the good news is “we’re now feeling comfortable with IP interoperability,” Taubman added. “We can cherry-pick vendors from off the shelf.”

Indeed, there’s every reason to expect the pace of ST 2110 adoption will accelerate as interoperability extends into other areas vital to usage. This includes vendor compatibility enabled by the IP Media Experience (IPMX) standard backed by the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), the Linux Foundation-backed Media eXchange Layer (MXL) software development kit (SDK) and SMPTE’s emerging ST 2138 standard, also known as Catena.

So far, when it comes to live venue-centered production, “2110 in the field is typically limited to large deployments—big trucks, big network centers, where you need lots of streams, lots of devices,” Cobalt Digital Chief Technical Officer Ciro Noronha noted. “All those big guys are going to 2110.”

Bringing Pro AV Into the ‘MiX’
This has been a major step toward minimizing the amount of field-deployed equipment via remote connectivity over IP to core production centers. Now, thanks to IPMX, these benefits can be more readily exploited in smaller live broadcast productions as well as a vast range of other use cases that have been off limits to ST 2110, including Pro AV, corporate media and education productions that traditionally rely on High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) switchers and cable for digital operations.

This year’s ISE in Barcelona demonstrated how suppliers are rapidly adopting IPMX as a software upgrade to existing ST 2110 products and as the foundation for a new generation of products that work at extremely low latencies with asynchronous and synchronous sources in compressed or uncompressed modes without requiring the use of PTP. “I call it ST 2110 made easy,” Noronha said.

At the 2026 NAB Show, Cobalt is introducing IPMX in one of its audio monitoring units along with the new blueCORE “processing box” supporting 2110 input and output gateway functionality. “Everything we do from now on will be
IPMX-compliant,” Noronha said, bringing “all the benefits [of ST 2110] without the big price tag.”

Elsewhere on the show floor, Imagine Communications is promoting features unrelated to IPMX that have been added to its ST 2110 products, but in the broader scheme, the company is highly focused on bringing the new standard into its portfolio, according to John Mailhot, Imagine’s senior vice president of product management. The company will soon obtain certification for products already in line with the standard, he said, while “others will be compatible
over time.”

For now, Imagine will concentrate on touting ST 2110-related advances like a new graphics workflow enhancement to its recently introduced XVR playout engine and an expansion of multiview capabilities in workflows under control of its Selenio Network Processor. In the latter case, Mailhot said, Imagine is leveraging technology obtained with its recent Pixel Power acquisition to “present operations people everything they need to see all their work in one solution,” including low-latency remote feeds from satellites and other sources.

Matrox, another supplier all in with IPMX, has exploited the compatibility between IPMX and ST-2110 to the fullest extent by offering each of its ST-2110-related products as a “superset” that can be deployed with software tuned to either mode.

For example, Recine said, an IP/SDI converter that’s used in a complex ST 2110 broadcast environment where all live flows must be synchronized can also be purchased in IPMX mode for conversions in business, education or other more limited production situations where PTP synchronization isn’t essential, including portions of a broadcast facility that aren’t involved in “the mission-critical part of producing live content.”

Media eXchange Layer
Meanwhile, another realm of versatility that alleviates ST 2110 usage burdens is opening with the introduction of the MXL software development kit (SDK). By creating a template for packaging video, audio and data essences as microservices in container-virtualized data centers, MXL “is a way of breaking down the barriers, not having to encapsulate 2110 every time you want to do another bit of processing in the workflow,” said Daniel Robinson, product manager for MXL at Matrox Video.

MXL has strong industry support with collaboration from the EBU, the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) and a growing coterie of European and Canadian media companies such as CBC/Radio-Canada, BBC, France TV, RTÉ (Ireland), SRG SSR (Switzerland), SVT (Sweden), SWR/ARD (Germany) and VRT (Belgium). Extending the reach to global proportions, including the U.S., are vendor “implementers” Appear, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Grass Valley, Imagine Communications, Intel, Lawo, Matrox Video, NVIDIA, Riedel Communications and Telos Alliance.

Matrox is one of about six vendors “that have actually got it working in our product,” Robinson said. Many components in the Matrox product line were already configured to work in the containerized environment, but there is greater demand for the cost savings that come with such efficiencies in an open-source environment, especially one that avoids a drawn-out standardization process, he noted.

Hardware Control
The third initiative, SMPTE ST 2138, would expand interoperability essential to speeding the transition to IP by defining an open-source media control system that securely connects all devices pertinent to broadcasters’ IP-based production operations, regardless of whether transport is via ST 2110, NDI or something else.

This includes support for connecting everything that receives production output, as well as devices supporting data-center lighting, power maintenance and other operations, noted Chris Lennon, a SMPTE fellow serving as director of standards strategy at Ross Video, who has been a key figure behind the initiative.

“From our perspective, SMPTE ST 2138 is driven by customer demand,” Lennon said. “It’s hard to deny we have a serious problem with well over 200 proprietary control systems in operation.” The open-source OpenGear Protocol (OPG) developed years ago by Ross Video is the foundation for ST 2138, which has been greatly enhanced for today’s cloud operations with microservice-based scalability and other innovations, he explained.

At press time, five documents defining the 2138 protocol stack were slated for posting for input from the community at large, with a tentative cutoff date six months from now, depending on whether there’s enough consensus to merit the final push to standardization. It remains to be seen how broad industry support will be at this early stage, as other approaches to a universal IP device control system take hold in other industries’ forums.

“Luckily, many of them can work with the rapidly growing standards like 2110 and IPMX,” Sam Racine noted. One aspect that could be critical to broadcast industry buy-in to ST 2138 is that it is fully compatible with MXL. “We’ve done proofs of concept to show they are complementary and can work together,” Lennon said.

For many suppliers, the question of incorporating ST 2138 into their software stacks is still on the back burner. “If it’s important to our customers, we’ll support it,” Imagine’s Mailhot said. “Right now, there are a lot of things customers say they want that we’re actively doing.”

But the overall direction in broadcast production is clear. The all-out hunt is on for whatever it takes to make ST 2110 a more viable bridge from SDI to IP.

All of these new initiatives (and more) will be highlighted at SMPTE’s IP Showcase, part of the Tech Chat Theater in the West Hall during the 2026 NAB Show, April 19-22 in Las Vegas. The showcase is sponsored by AIMS, AMWA and the VSF.

IP networking is a relatively new technology in the broadcast space. While some broadcasters have been active for almost 100 years, the networking world arrived on the scene only fifteen years ago. The turning point came with SMPTE ST 2022 (standardized in the years 2012–2015), which defined professional media over managed IP networks.

Then, SMPTE ST 2110 (ratified in 2017) formalized the transport of uncompressed audio, video, and metadata over IP, using standard Ethernet and TCP/IP infrastructure. Around this period, major broadcasters (BBC, ESPN, NBC, Discovery, etc.) began migrating their production studios to IP-based routing and switching using standard network gear — especially 10/25/40/100 GbE Ethernet.

Ten years ago, broadcasters would ask network engineers at trade shows like IBC or NAB, “Why are you here?” They would answer, “We’re doing networking.” Their job was the plumbing under everything. They would transport “water” from left to right, and they didn’t really care what kind of water it was; they would transport all of it.

In the IT networking space, most of these companies have been around for 30 years, doing exactly that. In commercial AV, it only was 10 years ago that networking started to emerge. Today, it is accelerating everywhere, thanks to the industry’s acceptance of AV-over-IP.

Megatrend: The IP Transition in Broadcasting is Accelerating
There is a specific need that companies in the broadcast space have, that is different to IT and commercial AV, which is reliability — their number one priority. Quality and reliability go hand in hand. This translates into a secure and predictable outcomes. Redundancy is therefore essential. Apart from those requirements, other trends in broadcasting make IP networking the logical next step.

Three technology planets: IT, pro AV, and broadcast, have already collided. We’re in the middle.

The Operational Needs Become Increasingly Urgent
If you listen to the CTOs of the big media companies, they’re all complaining about budget stress because, for example, advertising revenue may go down. They don’t fully monetise social media yet, but viewers are shifting from linear broadcast to social media.

That creates downward pressure on their operational expenses. How do we solve that? Should we stop buying million-dollar boxes, or give up maintaining expensive legacy technology? It is time to consider switching to scalable technologies or brands that do the job for a little less but still provide what’s needed without sacrificing reliability, but with a more attractive OPEX rather than a huge capital expense upfront.

From Cloud to Hybrid Cloud, Back to On-Premises – Should We Buy or Build?
You can see recent trends in broadcasting following what happened in Big IT. We tend to all run to one side of the boat at the same time. For example, 10 years ago, it was all about Big Data.

So, the industry spent millions on it. And we didn’t reap all the benefits from it; we did not receive our money back in operational outcomes. A few years ago, the industry all decided to be in the cloud. And now we’re locked in. And there’s cloud fatigue and cost explosions. Today, many broadcasters say, we should escape from cloud lock-ins and do some of this on-premises. And the conversation now centers on whether it is all “Buy” or “Build”? Well, it’s going to be a mix. It’s going to be hybrid.

The Pain of Data Management
Broadcasters ask the industry: “Who can help us with this hybrid piece?” Because you still need to move things around the building, to different departments, and to the various clouds you have, as well as servers, storage, archives, OB vans, or production sites. There’s a lot of data moving through the company, and that’s where the plumbing becomes increasingly essential, as all of this data is IP-based and highly fragmented.

The buzz phrase of the day is that the data is in a “data mesh.” That means data can be everywhere, not just in one central data lake, as we believed 10 years ago. This puts more pressure on media company CTOs. Now, if you’re the largest media company in the world, that’s not unbearable, because if you are Disney, ABC, or Netflix, you have the budget to solve all these problems. It’s different when you’re a regional broadcaster, or perhaps you’re in a vertical market or niche, in which case you may not have the cash to deal with all this complexity.

While the big cloud providers made it easy for broadcasters to ingest data into their clouds, the on-premises storage vendors did not significantly improve usability. Looks like they left the streaming media handling to the broadcast ecosystem players like Grass Valley, Ross Video or EVS. For a solution to send ST 2110 streams to your local storage, you would need to duct-tape a decoder board, some software, a Mac, a switch, and a NAS together, and get it all to work. Not precisely an easy-to-use over-the-counter appliance. Luckily, innovation is happening in this space, particularly in the start-up scene in Belgium.

Network and Security Design Expertise
CTOs still need to address core issues, such as performance, cybersecurity, data sovereignty, or compliance. How do you do that on a network? That’s really a hot topic in 2026. Dealing with that combination of new trends and old trends. Networking engineers provide a bit of handholding with these types of smaller and mid-sized customers to help them navigate from A to B.

Sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know. Large broadcast organisations often hire a consultant to explain the process to them, which typically contains, “Yes, we can do that, but it is going to cost you.”

However, those who don’t have the budget to hire a big consultant will try to figure it out themselves. Therefore, we observe that across all these layers, from the largest broadcasters to the smaller ones, there is a need for education on IP networking, as modern workflows are now entirely run over SMPTE 2110 networks.

Compliance – Internal and External
There’s increasing pressure from the public, through various government bodies, to address security, compliance, and data sovereignty issues. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) promotes standards for media exchange that help with security, compliance, and interoperability.

The industry is embracing MXL, which refers to the Media eXchange Layer of the Dynamic Media Facility (DMF) reference architecture. Even if you are a small broadcasting outfit, you need to deal with that. There is a significant need for education on these topics. We provide our part in that, particularly when it comes to the lower layers of networking and zero-trust network security.

Some things are a reality for everyone. For example, you can give your employees access to ChatGPT, allowing them to work more efficiently. However, they may then upload some of the content they create into an AI for translation or summarisation, which causes the spread of your intellectual property worldwide.

Those issues must be addressed, and that’s where a technology solution comes in, aside from training, which is a complementary educational solution. They need both the technology to make security easy and the education to prevent mistakes in network design, enabling them to deploy these solutions quickly.

Evolving Network Innovation – It Doesn’t Stop
It is also exciting to see that the audio component of the broadcast IP transition has taken off. It’s catching up with the IP part of video. We see that a couple of acquisitions were announced in mid-2025. Audinate acquired Iris, while Ross Video acquired Lean and Mean Audio. And we also see investments from VizRT and NDI in the audio space. With adjacent applications like live events and enterprise studios, there is a lot of drive (and money) behind these innovations.

Fighting Complexity Makes for Better Economics
The industry has made some things unnecessarily complex. For example, can I perform video transport with or without genlock or PTP clocking? “The answer is a clock! What was the question?”

Now that all broadcasting is moving to networks, it’s a bit more subtle. Some parts of a network, such as the intercom nodes in a broadcast studio or at a racing event, don’t need to be on a PTP clocked network. We developed a solution that combines clocked networking and non-PTP networking within a single network, managed through a single hybrid profile. During the Olympic Games in Paris, the team took one week to configure a network for a couple of hundred operators.

Learning from that, we automated the entire configuration process, and now it takes only 10 minutes. And the CFOs of the media companies can smell that from a mile. This saves them a lot of money.

Operational efficiency is therefore a key theme. It’s the number one theme for many operational managers in broadcast. Simplification and automation help them. If it’s quicker and they don’t need a PhD on site to fix all of that, but rather a more junior employee who plugs in a cable. If it just works, they love that. And of course, the outcome is predictable and reliable; and more affordable.

Trickle-Down Virtualization
When you speak with manufacturers and high-end users, you’ll see they’re already going to fully adopt software-defined networking. Much of this is very high-end, but it will eventually trickle down, as it always does. It starts at the top of the pyramid and then comes down at a different price point. As a technology company with 30 years of experience, we typically wait until that mass inflection point is reached.

SMPTE ST 2110, which scientists and well-suited professionals once primarily drove, is now being adopted by a wider audience. The same will happen with concepts like data-loss prevention or zero-trust security. This is becoming a mainstream reality because no one wants their content to end up on the dark web or on a dodgy peer-to-peer site.

All the components that make for a successful networking business growth spurt are in place. Innovation, such as software-defined networking, is definitely needed. There’s a problem we can solve together by making this easier. The fact that it is challenging to move audio everywhere, just as you already had to move SDI video, suggests that the industry may be a little late with this.

However, from all of the alliances we’re in, we hear that the trend is the same. Make deploying audio over IP in broadcast easier, and standardise it somewhat, so it’s easier for broadcasters to deploy multibrand, hybrid cloud-based solutions.

Six years ago, broadcast technicians asked network engineers, “Why are you here”? Now they ask them: “Wow, how do you do this?” To qualify that as a noticeable shift is an understatement. Networking engineers enable powerful, beautiful experiences—by doing the plumbing right.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand TVBEurope.

The Television Academy has announced the recipients of the 2025 Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards honoring an individual, company or organization for developments in broadcast technology. The awards ceremony will be held Tuesday, Oct. 14, at the Television Academy’s Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, California.

“Behind every unforgettable moment on screen is a breakthrough in science, technology or engineering,” said Cris Abrego, chair of the Television Academy. “These groundbreaking innovations transform the way stories are created, shared and experienced. We celebrate these Emmy winners for forever changing how we experience the magnificent power of television.”

“This year’s Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards acknowledge the wide range of technologies used in our industry to aid the storytelling process,” said Barry Zegel, co-chair of the Engineering, Science & Technology Committee. “The award recipients represent a remarkable group of cutting-edge technologies that have advanced television production, safety and artistry in ways unfathomable when our industry began. In addition, we are recognizing the innovators responsible for remarkable production tools and setting standards that have revolutionized broadcast production and distribution.”

Added co-chair Wendy Aylsworth, “We also extend our hearty congratulations to Mark Schubin, who is receiving the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award, and to BBC Research & Development on receiving the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award. Both are incredibly deserving of these prestigious legacy awards.”

The Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards are made possible by Television Academy sponsors Decoy, FIJI Water, Franciacorta, Johnnie Walker Blue Label, LG, People, The Ritz-Carlton and United Airlines.

The following is a list of awards and recipients to be recognized:

Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award

This award honors a living individual whose ongoing contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.

This year's recipient is Mark Schubin.

Mark Schubin (with a degree in chemical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology) has been in television since 1967, working on every aspect, including design, manufacturing, lighting, sound, camera, editing and distribution. His diverse projects have spanned the world on all seven continents, including Antarctica, from operas to the Olympics. He helped develop the broadcasting of the Metropolitan Opera (The Met) productions to cinemas and television stations around the world and has continued supporting this project for many years since its inception.

Mark refers to himself as an “Engineer and Explainer”: His non-judgmental — but humorous — communication of facts and arcane — but relevant — information is what endears him to creatives, business executives and technologists alike. This is why he has been the program chair of the HPA Tech Retreat since 1998, speaks frequently at events and seminars on a wide array of technical topics and on the history of television, and has been a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Engineering Awards committee for more than 30 years.

A prolific engineering historian, educator and professional writer, when Sports Video Group asked him to do so, he changed his more than 33-year-old monthly column on "Video Research" in Videography magazine into SchubinCafe, which is archived by the Library of Congress. Mark’s lifetime of accomplishments in the television industry are noted beyond this archive by his numerous publications, patents and awards.

For more information, visit SchubinCafe.com.

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award
This award honors an agency, company or institution whose contributions over time have significantly impacted television technology and engineering.

This year's recipient is BBC Research & Development

BBC Research & Development has had a proud history of shaping how we watch and experience television as it focused on its public mission in support of broadcasting. Since its founding in 1930, the team has led the way in breakthroughs that became everyday essentials — like FM radio, stereo sound and the Radio Data System that sends song titles and traffic updates to car radios. Over the decades, they’ve been central to important advancements in television, playing a pivotal role in the development and standardization of High-Definition Television (HDTV), Ultra High-Definition Television (UHDTV), Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) for the carriage of High Dynamic Range (HDR) information and 5G networks.

Looking ahead, their work continues to help define the future of television in its research on Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). BBC Research & Development continues to lead and participate in the important industry collaboration on the impact and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As co-founders of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, BBC Research & Development is also helping to create standards that will allow media creators to understand better human/AI collaboration and copyrightability of AI-generated media. Behind the scenes and screens, BBC R&D remains an important industry force that shapes how television can help us connect with stories and each other, today and in the future.

For more information, visit BBC.co.uk/rd.

Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards
Presented to an individual, company or organization for developments in engineering, science and technology that are either so extensive an improvement on existing methods or so innovative in nature that they materially affect the production, recording, transmission or reception of television and thereby have elevated the storytelling process.

George Dochev and Peter Thompson, LucidLink
LucidLink is a cloud-native storage collaboration platform that streams data on demand, letting creative teams access and edit the same files instantly from anywhere - without syncing, downloading, VPNs, or complex IT. It mounts like a local drive and provides a single source of secure, always-up-to-date files. In media & entertainment, LucidLink powers edit-in-place, VFX, audio, and finishing workflows, supporting growing files and enabling distributed teams to work on large media as if it were local. Widely adopted by leading studios, streamers, and creative houses, LucidLink has become an essential tool for television projects worldwide.

For more information, visit LucidLink.com.

Ian Sampson for the development of Hush Pro
Hush Pro is an AI-powered audio plugin that isolates dialogue from ambient noise, transient sounds, and room reflections. It allows editors and re-recording mixers to clean up production audio with remarkable efficiency, minimal artifacts, and exceptional quality. Since its release, Hush Pro has quickly become an essential tool at post-production studios around the world, delivering pristine dialogue while significantly reducing the need for ADR.

For more information, visit HushAudioApp.com.

Fraunhofer IIS and intoPIX for the development of JPEG XS
JPEG XS is a state-of-the-art image compression format that transmits high-quality images with minimal latency and low-resource consumption, with virtually lossless image quality. JPEG XS is therefore ideal for live, professional video and broadcast applications where bandwidth presents challenges to deliver the highest quality. JPEG XS enables the transmission of high-resolution video streams over standard Ethernet infrastructure. This makes JPEG XS a fundamental game changer for real-time transmission of video for a wide variety of applications in media and studio technology as well as making real-time video processing in data centers practical.

For more information, visit: FraunhoferIIS.com and intoPIX.

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers [SMPTE], European Broadcasting Union [EBU] and Video Services Forum [VSF] for the development of the ST 2110 Suite of Standards
ST 2110 is a suite of standards for transmitting uncompressed video, audio, and data over digital Internet Protocol (IP) networks in professional media environments. It emerged as a replacement for traditional Serial Digital Interface (SDI) infrastructure, offering greater flexibility and scalability. It is now widely adopted, improving flexibility and scalability over the previous generation of Serial Digital Interfaces (SDI) and is foundational to all digital content transmissions.

For more information, visit SMPTE.org, EBU.ch and VSF.tv.

Mark T. Noel, Jesse Noel, Casey D. Noel and J.D. Schwalm for the development of the NACMO series of motion bases
The NACMO series of motion bases are the first of their kind, developed as a mobile motion base built specifically for television and cinema production. These machines provide a safe and streamlined approach to giving six axes of motion (seven with the optional rotator) to any otherwise static prop or set piece be it a boat, helicopter or car. The largest motion base — “Mo” — has a 75,000-pound capacity and can give all levels of motion to provide a real experience that translates on the screen for the environment and the actors involved. NACMO motion bases can be set up on location or on a sound stage. They are often used in conjunction with LED volume stages.

For more information, visit NACeffects.com.

Jayson Dumenigo for the development of Action Factory’s Play’n with Fire Hydrogels
Action Factory’s Play’n with Fire Hydrogels are innovative, high-performance polymers engineered to provide unmatched protection against extreme heat during the performance of fire stunts. Designed for durability and application at 74-76 degrees F; not iced, these gels maintain exceptional stability and require minimal reapplication even under the most intense conditions, significantly cutting down on the time it takes to accomplish a fire stunt on set. In a record-breaking stunt, it withstood direct flame exposure for five minutes and 25 seconds and temperatures upward of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Its reliability, ease of use and groundbreaking heat-protective technology make Play’n with Fire gels a game-changer for television and stunt professionals, setting a new standard in safety and performance.

For more information, visit AFstunts.com.

Rob Drewett and Andy Nancollis for the development of the AGITO Dolly System
AGITO is a versatile, compact modular robotic dolly system designed to keep cameras steady and in motion for film and television production. Often likened to a “Swiss Army Knife” for camera movement, it folds the work of multiple traditional rigs into a single, reconfigurable platform. With quick-switch modes including free-roaming, track-based, overhead and MagTrax — the latter using a simple strip of magnetic tape to guide the camera with precision, allowing crews to reset quickly and save valuable time on set — AGITO delivers everything from classic tracking shots to complex, repeatable moves all from one adaptable system. This groundbreaking approach represents a leap forward in the art and engineering of camera movement — opening up fresh creative possibilities for both camera operators and cinematographers.

For more information, visit MotionImpossible.com.

Andy Carluccio, Jonathan Kokotajlo, Eyal Hadida and Brendan Ittelson for the development of Zoom for Broadcast
Zoom for Broadcast is a media integration platform that turns Zoom Meetings into broadcast-ready feeds, extracting individual high-quality video and audio from remote participants and routing them into professional live productions as though they were in-studio. It gives producers deep control over each guest’s AV settings, uses Zoom’s global cloud infrastructure to deliver low-latency, reliable streams without costly equipment or complex setups, and elegantly scales from one guest to hundreds in a familiar meeting experience. With robust application programming interface (API) and software development kit (SDK) support, it plugs into existing production tools, making high-quality remote contributions both accessible and affordable — and eliminating the traditional barriers of expense and technical complexity in live broadcasting.

For more information, visit: Zoom.com

Boris Yamnitsky, Jason Clement, Mike Escola and Peter McAuley for the development of Boris FX Continuum
Boris FX Continuum stands as one of the most enduring plugin collections in post-production history, relied upon for decades by editors, motion graphics designers and VFX artists. Its tools have shaped the look of broadcast television, becoming a defining standard for effects, transitions and image restoration. With a legacy defined by reliability and innovation, Continuum continues to evolve through graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration, machine learning–driven effects and a deep library of presets, ensuring its ongoing role as a cornerstone of modern post-production.

SALT LAKE CITY—Utah Scientific has introduced a new UTAH-400 Series 2 gateway router configuration that addresses the complexities of setting up an IP core workflow.

The configuration is aimed at facilities requiring hybrid SDI-IP functionality as they transition to SMPTE ST 2110. It consists of a UTAH-400 gateway device and a Serial Digital Interface (SDI) backup in one chassis. Available in multiple frame sizes and configurations, ranging from 72 x 72 to 1056 x 1056, the solution has a 10-year hardware warranty, the company said.

One configuration, for example, is a UTAH-400 gateway router equipped with six Utah Scientific PassThrough cards and six standard input and/or output cards in a 72-frame configuration, which offers up to 72 SDI-to-2110 conversions or 72 2110-to-SDI conversions. In this instance, this capability is available a 72 x 72 SDI router, eliminating the need for multiple separate devices, Utah Scientific said.

Whether switching 2110 or SDI, the new configuration operates like a router, making 2110 routing as easy as SDI. It is configured to operate as either a core router in a SMPTE ST 2110/SDI hybrid solution or as a gateway and an edge device in an ST 2110 core. In the ST 2110 core, it serves as a bridge between SDI and 2110, also providing a traditional SDI router as a backup in case of emergencies, the company said.

The configuration ensures the system will continue to function if there is an interruption to the 2110 core, such as the switch control system crashing. The gateway router can work with other vendors’ SDI-to-2110 gateways or on its own, Utah Scientific said.

“We have seen and been involved with multiple 2110/SDI hybrid workflows,” Utah Scientific CEO Brett Benson said. “They all require gateway devices, and they all require some kind of emergency backup, ideally with control independent of the IP fabric. Why not have both in one product that also includes a 10-year hardware warranty?

“Whether a user is planning to keep SDI workflows or move to ‘all IP,’ the gateway router will provide conversion and peace of mind,” Benson continued. “Wherever they are in the transition to 2110, the gateway router fits. Plus, not only will it be there when users launch their 2110 systems, it will still be under warranty when it’s time to upgrade.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

The development and adoption of the SMPTE ST 2110 IP standards suite has been so prominent in both broadcast and pro AV that, in truth, the coverage of some other standards projects has sometimes suffered in comparison. So the aim here has been to cast the net as wide as possible and establish an overview of the current technical standards and specification initiatives set to have a major impact on the industry in the future.

Now that the ST 2110 standards are firmly embedded in broadcast and beyond, the organization is working on projects for virtual production (VP) and AI. The SMPTE On-Set Virtual Production (OSVP) initiative is part of SMPTE’s Rapid Industry Solutions program, one of the ambitions of which is “to be an on-ramp to the definition of new SMPTE standards by bringing together experts to determine where interoperability gaps exist that are getting in the way of using new techniques and technologies,” says Jim Helman, CTO MovieLabs and co-lead for OSVP.

At present, the OSVP’s working groups are focused on interoperability in the areas of camera and lens metadata, camera tracking metadata and color, as well as a group concentrated on education. In the interoperability areas, the groups are involved in documenting best practices, and providing metadata specifications and code to support them.

Already, notes Helman: “The interoperability working groups have published metadata specifications for camera and lens metadata and packaged supporting code as camdkit. Additions are underway that define a tracking protocol called OpenTrackIO, which was presented at the SMPTE MTS conference in October, in a version 0.9 form and should soon be in full release. The OpenTrackIO work could also lead to new SMPTE standards, such as carriage on SMPTE ST 2110.”

Addressing AI
Also underway are three new standards concerned with various aspects of AI, including ST 2141 Metadata Generated by LLMs (large language models), for the definition of metadata fields for LLM-generated context; ST 2142 Embeddings for Metadata: Contextual and Non-Human Readable Fields, which will define the metadata required for embeddings, including generation context and model parameters; and ST 2143 AI Model Metadata and Creation of Centralised Model Registry, which will define a standardized metadata scheme, and develop guidelines for metadata creation and management. SMPTE has also been collaborating with the ETC in a joint Taskforce on AI in Media, the latest report from which is titled “SMPTE ER 1010:2023.”

Thomas Bause Mason, SMPTE director of standards development, explains: “Although we are still in the early stages of AI adoption, with many individuals seeking to understand its implications, it is evident that AI will integrate into all facets of media creation, processing and distribution. As with previous major technological advancements, standards from organizations such as SMPTE and other Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) will play a crucial role in facilitating the adoption of interoperable and secure solutions within the media industry.”

Being mindful of the “ethical component” will continue to be a crucial element here: “It is imperative to ensure that AI applications are developed within ethical boundaries to protect consumers from biases, misinformation, and to guarantee equitable access to AI technologies,” Mason added. “Industry-wide frameworks established by standards organizations can provide environments conducive to the development of ethical AI applications.”

AV1 and IPMX Updates
The high efficiency and versatility of the AV1 video encoding standard generated plenty of headlines pre-COVID-19, so it seems like a timely moment to check in with the Alliance for Open Media about its current phase of adoption.

According to a spokesperson: “AV1 is becoming increasingly integral to daily life, reducing streaming and storage costs. [For example] approximately 95% of Netflix’s catalogue is encoded with AV1; over 50% of YouTube’s catalog (weighted by watch time) is available in AV1; and more than 70% of Meta Reels (by watch time) on iOS utilize AV1. The widespread adoption of AV1, supported by tens of millions of AV1-enabled Intel CPUs and GPUs, underscores the growing importance of this codec in delivering superior video experiences across platforms.”

Meanwhile, it’s important to note that the rollout of ST 2110 continues apace—not least through its manifestation as part of the IPMX standards, which are based on ST 2110 but add features and capabilities to address the specific needs of broadcast and pro AV, such as asynchronous audio and video support that suits AV and live production. At ISE in February, the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) highlighted a host of new IPMX-compatible solutions, including an NMOS controller, AES67 speaker, and Dante-to-IP adapter.

Andrew Starks, chair of the AIMS marketing workgroup, is also closely involved with the IPMX roadmap, as well as director of product management at Macnica. Starks confirms that 2025 will be a big year for IPMX

“In March, the VSF [Video Services Forum] hosted an IPMX testing event focused on key standards, including timing, video and audio. This was the third round of testing for IPMX, but the first using an official test plan designed to serve as the technical framework for validating IPMX equipment. The goal was to finalize the standards documents and refine the testing process so that by the next event in August, manufacturers will have everything they need to bring IPMX-compliant products to market.”

In particular, he highlights two current documents from the VSF: the IPMX Test Plan, or VSF TP-10-1, which outlines the tests manufacturers need to pass for their products to qualify as IPMX-compliant; and the recently-released VSF TR-10-9, which defines IPMX requirements for system environments and device behavior, ensuring that IPMX devices interact properly with each other—as well as with ST 2110 and AES67 devices.

“From the outside, it can seem like open standards take forever to develop—especially compared to proprietary technologies,” says Starks. “So we get why some people are eager to see IPMX fully available. But when you consider the amount of testing, documentation and collaboration involved, things are actually moving fast with very few delays. We’re right where we expected to be, and the momentum is strong.”

That last sentiment, it seems, is one that can be applied to many areas of standards development at the moment.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. —The SMTPE Media Technology Summit made a return engagement at the Loews Renaissance Hollywood Hotel here, playing before an audience of some 800 television and cinema industry professionals. While the four-day event (Oct. 21-24) featured sessions on a broad range of cutting-edge topics including advances in video compression, color-space management, content streaming, virtual production, high dynamic range (HDR) and cloud applications, artificial intelligence (AI) and SMPTE’s ST 2110 digital media IP transport standard were a very big part of the agenda.

Opening the proceedings, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers President Renard Jenkins welcomed attendees to “the only peer-reviewed conference that is still in existence today for media technology.”

He told the audience they were part of a very special group. “We have the opportunity to affect the direction of our industry, because we are the science behind the art of motion picture and content creation, as well as visual imagery,” he said.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, “our industry is in a corrective state,” Jenkins said. Productions and the overall industry are now starting to ramp up, he said, although the situation is not what it was before COVID-19.

“We’re seeing productions coming back, but not coming back as great as they were in 2021 and prior to 2020,” he said. “However, we are seeing that they are coming back at the rate of 2017, which is a little more of what we should expect. The market and the industry, as a whole, were saturated—content was being created everywhere, and we were in the gravy boat together, and things were wonderful.

“COVID showed us that we had to think differently about what we do,” Jenkins continued. “Like the phoenix, we do rise, because people love our content, people love to be able to communicate and we have an immense amount of power and an immense amount of influence and impact throughout the world. Having that type of power and impact is something that we as an industry should hold very close, and understand that it is the responsibility that we have to actually put forward.

“Let us be ethical in the way we operate,” he concluded. “Let us be inclusive in the way we build our teams. Let us think forward and think about what we are doing, because just because we can does not mean that we should.”

AI on Center Stage
AI is taking on more and more roles in cinema and television content creation, as was reinforced in several sessions at this year’s MTS. In one, a dialogue between cinematographer and director Lawrence Sher and Variety senior entertainment technology and crafts editor Carolyn Giardina, Sher urged attendees to embrace artificial intelligence.

“Don’t be afraid of technology,” he said. “I think the knee-jerk reaction is to be terrified about new technology such as AI. I’d rather embrace what is possible for it to do and then choose what parts of it that work. I think AI is a powerful tool. I’ve seen [it create] beauty and I’ve seen things that are soulless and terrible. I don’t think we are going to be replaced.”

Erik Weaver, director of the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, also shared his views on AI in “Foundations of AI in Entertainment: A Two-Year Retrospective on Tech and Trends.”

Discussing the practicality of AI, Weaver observed that despite all the rumors and fears, the technology is still experimental and very expensive to deploy. “It costs $700,000 a day to operate ChatGPT,” he said. “And it’s a perfect container for hype and fantasies.

“Don’t believe the hype, ChatGPT is not AGI [artificial general intelligence] and no jobs will be replaced,” Weaver said. “[However], generative AI will put more power in the hands of the ‘top of the food chain,’ creatives like directors and producers who will love its ability to help them communicate their vision and prototype shots.”

While much progress has been made in AI and machine learning in recent years, he noted, there’s a lot more to do.

“The big breakthrough in AI came with the release of Chat GPT 0.1,” Weaver said. “It uses chain-of-thought reasoning and develops logical thinking steps. I’ve seen some amazing stuff coming down the runway lately.

“[However], the domain of AI is vast, complex and still poorly understood — even in the AI research community,” he continued. “The technology is advanced in certain areas, and burgeoning in others. It involves many domains of science and tech. It touches many different areas of an organization unevenly. And it scares everyone.”

The ethics of applying AI also remain a gray area, Weaver noted, which presents a challenge to users.

“AI governance is an emerging and complex issue, which for most organizations doesn’t have a precedent,” he said. “Regulations are still emerging and the boundaries or even implications of AI governance are still very opaque. Just like the technology itself, the ethics of AI is still experimental and involves multiple domains and competencies.”

Diving Deep Into ST 2110
Although AI wove its way into many of the conference presentations, the really big spotlight was aimed at SMPTE’s ST 2110 suite of standards for content transport and metadata via internet protocol (IP). Sessions covered ST 2110’s role in the fine-tuning of LED video walls, or “volumes,” used in production sets; support for the most recent video codecs; and even its application in making this year’s Paris Summer Olympics more “accessible and immersive.”

The conference also featured an intensive five-hour training session designed to provide a grounding in the theory behind ST 2110 signal transport, as well as the project-management elements necessary to create a successful IP infrastructure.

Enrollment in the ST 2110 class, which took place on the final day, was limited to just 70. Whitcomb Consulting Principal Leigh Whitcomb discussed the various elements of systems for transporting content over IP, and Karl Kuhn, principal and founder of consultancy Sherwood Insights, gave information to help smooth the transition from an SDI (serial digital interface) infrastructure to an all-IP facility.

Whitcomb’s contribution included the planning and design of an ST 2110 network; precision time protocol (PTP) timing; and the place of the SMPTE ST 2059 standard in implementing PTP for the synchronization of video over IP networks.

The goals for Whitcomb’s portion of the training were to provide “an appreciation of the key differences between SDI and ST 2110 systems; a description of the role of each model comprising the ST 2110n suite; a discussion of how video, audio and ancillary data are packetized; an explanation of how synchronism is achieved between different media flows; an understanding of the packet traffic constraints for video signals; and how to read and understand an SDP [session description protocol] file,” he said.

Such an educational session is needed because now that ST 2110 has been around for seven years, “the market has become relatively mature,” he said.

“Before, unless you were doing it for the flexibility, there weren’t as many business reasons for moving to ST 2110,” Whitcomb said. “Nowadays, there are a lot more. If you’re building a new facility or need a lot of flexibility it makes sense to go to 2110. If you’re doing any upgrades, 2110 makes a lot more business sense. And if you’re going to switch to 2110, you want to get educated in it. Some things are the same as SDI—the functions you have to do are the same—[but] how we do it is quite different.”

Whitcomb broke his training component into two parts—ST 2110 itself and PTP (precision time protocol) synchronization, a necessary part of creating an IP infrastructure. A separate emphasis on PTP was needed, he said, because the protocol has acquired a somewhat “jaded” reputation—and must be better understood to move forward with ST 2110.

“[Early on], there were a lot of mistakes made,” he said. “People made some bad decisions. There were some implementation problems, and there were a lot of bad feelings and myths going around.

“People were saying PTP doesn’t work and it’s really hard; I’m trying to demystify that,” he said.

Whitcomb noted that while analog color black timing was relatively foolproof, “there are many ways to do PTP wrong, but there are some simple rules to do it right, and when you do, you will have a good experience.”

Kuhn (who appeared virtually) stressed in his portion of the training that creating an ST 2110-based infrastructure is not a “do-it-yourself project.”

“Most people have not done this before, as SDI has been around for 30 years or so and they’ve very comfortable with that technology,” he said. “IP is a totally different thing. You need to bring in a qualified systems integrator. You need to know how to ‘speak the language’ in dealing with vendors and, unlike SDI, what’s really important is to build a ‘sandbox’ lab for testing things before you try to introduce them into your main network.”

Kuhn said that although transitioning to IP involved a number of challenges—including a steep learning curve—the rewards are numerous.

“According to [Director of Customer Solutions] Cassidy Phillips at swXtch.io, who’s done a lot of study in this area, there’s a 58% savings in power for roughly the same switch density,” Kuhn said. “Also, a 5120-by-5120 SDI router might occupy 10 racks. You can now do this in two RUs within a single rack if you move to IP. There’s really an incredible savings in electrical power, air conditioning and floor space.”

The Oct. 24 event wrapped up with a comprehensive testing of ST 2110 knowledge, with certificates of completion awarded to participants. Organizers said it was the first time SMTPE has offered a certificate educational program at its annual conference. The course was intended as a preview of a very comprehensive virtual course on ST 2110 that SMPTE will offer, they said.

The 2024 SMPTE Media Summit attracted some 800 attendees and featured 40 exhibitors of television and cinema products and services in its “Solutions Hub.”

Summing up this year’s event, SMPTE president Jenkins said: “SMPTE strives to provide quality educational and innovative, research papers and panels as the foundation for our yearly MTS. Our goal is to showcase the work of the individuals who are driving efficiency and improvement throughout our industry by developing and deploying advanced technology and solid engineering.

“The attendance for this year's summit was on par with our 2023 summit and the vibe was one of camaraderie and support for the industry, our members, vendors, and partners,” he added. “We were excited to add a specific track for students this year under the moniker of SMPTE Student Day.

“Feedback from attendees has been positive, especially regarding the session selection this year, which focused on everything from IP transport and delivery via ST 2110, virtual production, deep dives into color science, sound technology and, of course, artificial intelligence,” he concluded.

Sally-Ann D’Amato, named SMPTE’s interim executive director earlier this month, also shared her thoughts on the event.

“This year’s MTS was all about networking opportunities and a better synergy between the program and the exhibitors,” she said. “We continued with 2023’s addition of the Emerging Tech Stage Sessions, with many of our exhibitors participating. We also added the ‘Tech Treks’ this year, which were guided exhibit tours of companies that were showcasing technology discussed within the program. It was a great way for our exhibitors to show the attendees ‘technology in action,’ and also to demonstrate the impact of SMPTE standards on their work, especially ST 2110.

“We also tried to build in more time for networking, and I heard a lot of positive response from attendees on that,” D’Amato added. “SMPTE has always been about quality over quantity. We want to bring together the practitioners, the manufacturers and the decision-makers in the same room and give people access to connections that they might not otherwise make.

“We tried to put more focus on early career professionals and students this year,” she concluded. “We want to set these individuals on a path to more involvement and eventually leadership within SMPTE and the industry.”

The 2025 SMPTE Media Technology Summit will move from its longtime location in Hollywood to neighboring Pasadena next year, running from Oct. 13-16, 2025.

HACKENSACK, N.J.—LiveU is launching a new single 4K/Quad HD video receiver for ST 2110 broadcast facilities. 

The company said that the latest addition to the LiveU IP-video EcoSystem is designed to provide an efficient and adaptable way to receive high-quality LRT (LiveU Reliable Transport) live content feeds from any LiveU EcoSystem device and then seamlessly output them as 2110-compliant streams. 

The LiveU's LU4000 ST 2110 operates as an all-in-one receiver in the video chain, reducing IT costs, time and overhead while keeping everything in sync.

"IP-video is increasingly flowing through our customers’ entire workflow, so it’s no surprise that nearly all our customers building or upgrading a broadcast facility are thinking ‘IP first’,” explained Yulia Rozmarin, director of product management. “While the benefits of a full ST 2110 live IP-video production facility are clear, our customers have also reported that complexity needs careful management. For this reason, we're delighted to be able to reduce this complexity, removing the need to manage and maintain separate receivers and transcoders and simplifying the flow between LRT and ST 2110. Now our customers can connect the powerful creative possibilities opened up by the LRT powered LiveU EcoSystem directly with their SMPTE ST 2110 facilities in a much simpler and more robust manner."

Building on LiveU's LRT protocol, the receiver enables a resilient, low latency IP-to-IP workflow for receiving a single 4K video feed or up to four full HD live feeds, adding to the operational scalability of ST 2110. The LU4000 ST 2110 can be swiftly deployed regardless of network configuration. Tasks have been automated to shorten the workflow, including the routing, switching and processing of separate bonded video, audio and data streams, LiveU reported. 

The LU4000 ST 2110 is fully NMOS-compliant, making device discovery and control easy. The product architecture future-proofs it to allow further workflow simplification developments, providing customers with complete peace of mind and effortless upgrading.

For provide redundancy, LiveU said that the LU4000 ST 2110 adheres to the highest 2022-7 SMPTE-defined path redundancy standard. Customers benefit from stable stream transmission along with the consistency afforded by hardware-based Precision Time Protocol (PTP) feed synchronization, again providing complete peace of mind via rock-solid operation.

LiveU will be at IBC2023 in Hall 7, Stand B.19. To schedule a meeting or guided tour, visit get.liveu.tv/ibc2023/. 

BURLINGTON, Canada—Evertz will spotlight Studer Audio, which it acquired in 2021, and the role enhanced plays in helping content creators produce more engaging live content at the 2023 NAB Show, April 15-19, in Las Vegas.

Since the acquisition, Evertz has focused on integrating the brand’s technology into its own live production workflows. This has resulted in advancements with Studer Vista digital mixing consoles, which now support SMPTE ST 2110, making them well-suited to the Evertz range of Software Defined Video Networking (SDVN) solutions, the company said.

Evertz will introduce its Video PFL (Pre-Fade-Listen), a new feature for the Studer Vista console range that gives engineers enhanced capabilities, especially when working in a live environment. Maximizing MAGNUM OS orchestration, monitoring and analysis software, Video PFL lets an audio operator select an input to pre-fade while listening to the audio and seeing the accompanying video for that channel on the multiviewer in the audio control room, it said.

The company also will show expanded Studer Vista control using the Evertz VUE Intelligent User Interface. Now offering over 2,000 bidirectional controls, the combination of Vista and VUE is well-suited for remote productions. In addition, Evertz has also brought all the power of Studer Vista to its DreamCatcher BRAVO Studio virtual production control suite with the introduction of Vista BRAVO, it said

Alongside its Live Media Production solutions for audio, Evertz will show new developments to BRAVO Studio, the collaborative, web-based live production platform that is redefining the creative experience for content creators and broadcasters, it said. 

Providing virtual access to all the services found in the traditional control room, BRAVO Studio is a simple, reliable and cost-effective platform that accesses live video and audio from remote locations over dedicated networks, 5G networks or public Internet. The platform ingests multiple live camera feeds; provides live video and audio mixing with transitions; multiple video overlays for picture on picture or multi-box looks; slow motion replays; clip playout; highlight clipping and packaging; multiple dynamic graphics layers; and multi-image display of sources and outputs on the user interface. 

At NAB, Evertz also will show BRAVO Studio’s new Highlight Factory, where clips and stories are automatically created using AI technology and published to Ease Live where users can pick their own highlights.  

See Evertz at NAB Show booth N2225.

More information is available on the company’s website.

MARINA DEL RAY, Calif.—Last week, the Video Services Forum (VSF)—an industry group covering all aspects of video networking technology—celebrated the 25th anniversary of VidTrans, its annual three-day gathering. Usually held the week after the HPA Tech Retreat in Palm Springs, the timing and proximity makes it easier for Tech Retreat attendees to  participate in both events.  

This year, 148 industry professionals attended the event, Feb. 28-March 2, which despite the not-so-friendly southern California (wet/cold) weather, went on without a hitch. 

Topics of discussion covered the transport of video and media signals throughout systems, hence the name “VidTrans.”  This year’s agenda focused on innovative types of networking and video technologies along with their application to video transport. 

Here’s a summary of selected presentations:

Video Quality Monitoring
In the session “OTT: Best Practices and Challenges,” Andrey Pozdnyakov, president of  video monitoring provider Elecard, discussed typical OTT tasks and challenges, practical use-cases and quality monitoring models. Andrey described how to detect problematic parts of technical equipment or networks which then quickly identify who is responsible for the issue. 

Elecard’s monitoring products describe the differences and findings in a Quality of Services (QoS) vs. a Quality of Experience (QoE), similar to those applications in cable or encoding systems. 

Implementing Sustainability
In a hybrid session that included in-person and virtual panelists, “Minimizing the Carbon Footprint of Live Production” focused on sustainability in the video networking space. 

Moderated by Andy Rayner, chief technologist at Nevion, panelists Thomas Edwards of AWS, Barbara Lange of Kibo121, Athena Trastelis of the CBC, and Geoff Wolf of the BBC, discussed how their organizations are working towards implementing and maintaining a carbon neutral-future, focusing on the environmental impacts and best practices in the workplace.  Panelists asked the VidTrans audience to consider buying products from companies who have a demonstrable plan for improving their workplace or products amidst a growing global awareness for sustainability.

Live Cloud Production Networking
On-demand networking for enabling live cloud sports production in a real-world proof of concept (PoC) was discussed by Brad Cheney of Fox Sports, Thomas Edwards of AWS, and Ryan Korte of Cloud Connect, Lumen Technologies. The team showed how they approached “working from home” for live sports productions including the products and practices, showing examples of recent live sports productions done entirely in the cloud from non-venue locations.

Prompted by the impact of Covid on remote production, Fox in particular, has taken a stunning direction in making live production possible using cloud-based services and production support services that literally “sit” in production personnels’ living rooms, front porches or in a hotel.

This is obviously changing the structure, feasibility, and cost of doing live sports productions by mitigating the expenses and time associated with moving an entire truck fleet-level staff to the onsite venue. This new approach is changing the model by spreading the production into geographically separated locations and eliminating the requirements to transport large sets of complex hardware (i.e., mobile outside broadcast units) to site.

Designing for Efficiency
Adam Salkin, director of engineering, M&E West for Diversified, discussed how EVS, TAG VS and Fox Sports collaborated with Diversified to design, assemble and configure a fully transportable system (Fig. 1a) contained in a system engineered for transport in a cargo plane’s belly.

The folding rack system (Fig. 1b) consists of multiple skids that hold five 44RU systems each and contain a complete ST 2110 mobile production system that was used for Fox Sports’ coverage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl LVII and the upcoming 2023 FIFA Women’s Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand.

Considering the complexities associated with assembling and transporting the huge volume of gear needed to technically produce these events, it was impractical to use ocean cargo methods to get the systems between locations in the time frame available between two major events. Developing the air-cargo system was essential to covering the World Cup and Super Bowl in the minimal time allotted.

‘Building the Airplane While in Flight’
I had the pleasure of joining Microsoft’s technology team of Jack Clawson, Chief Solutions Architect and John Ball, Project Manager at Microsoft to focus on the timelines involved in transitioning to IP in the session “End User Requirements and Design Challenges,” moderated by Brad Gilmer, Gilmer and Associates. 

In the session, Jack and John outlined all the detailed planning and implementation requirements for an active project that updated Microsoft’s Production Studios services on their Redmond, Wash. Campus.  

Panelists talked about the steps taken in the migration from an SDI-based system to IP. Since the five-year-old SMPTE ST2110 standard is so new, such a transition was described by one panelist as akin to “building the airplane while it’s in flight.”  

Discussion topics focused on how the integration addressed supply-chain issues, delays, and the continual changes and additions incurred as the design and install was developed throughout an 18-month period; all the while, keeping live production going and major events Microsoft conference events moving forward. Extensive adjustments were constantly made as switch deliveries and new products were introduced into the Microsoft Production Studio systems—often with delay adjustments driving the “next phase” of each project segment.

Network Details
Chris Lapp, Technical Solutions Architect of Cisco Systems discussed any-source multicasting (ASM) in the session “PIM: there's a better way,” which included a brief overview of PIM-DM (dense mode) and PIM-SM (sparse mode). In addition, Chris described the concepts of “PIM flooding,” a generic way of distributing information within a PIM domain as well as “PIM source discovery,” which announces information of active sources throughout a PIM domain. 

Chris discussed the status of this technology within the IETF and Cisco, describing how the oldest multicast routing protocol commonly used today is defined in RFC 3973 (which is only an experimental protocol and not a standard). 

Sufficient detail was diagrammed to describe the variations in the family of PIM (protocol independent multicast) as optimized for specific, particular, or differing environments. The protocols provide one-to-many and many-to-many distribution of data over a LAN, WAN, or the Internet.  

IPMX and RIST Updates
One of VidTrans’s annual rites of passage include a summary status of the variations, findings, and demonstrations of the newest Technical Recommendations, such as TR-10 for Internet Protocol Media eXperience (IPMX) and TR-06 Reliable Internet Stream Protocol (RIST). 

The developers for both of these transport technology TRs discussed their progress within the VSF Activity Group, including an update on TR-10 within the IPMX group from Jack Douglas, Vice President Marketing and Business Development for Packetstorm. IPMX is a ST 2110-type implementation focused on products in the ProAV marketplace. Such products are already available for harmonized implementation with ST 2110 systems.

Dr. Ciro A. Noronha, Ph.D, Cobalt Digital, updated the gathering on the latest developments in RIST Source Adaptation. Topics included the motivation for source adaptation, and an overview of the VSF TR-06-4 (Part 1) and preliminary implementation results for this technology. 

TR-06-4 (part 1) is designed to recover packet loss via retransmission. When network capacity falls below the stream rate, no amount of retransmission can fix this (i.e., you can’t recover a 5 Mbps stream once the link falls below 4 Mbps). TR-06-4 sets a point where the stream source must be reduced to compensate for a link level that is insufficient. This TR creates a signaling methodology to dynamically adjust the stream source rate to compensate for network changes.

New features are summarized in TR-06-3 RIST Advanced Profile for other protocols and in TR-06-4 RIST Ancillary Features including Source Adaptation (approved in November 2022) and the use of Wiregaurd VPN in RIST (approved in January). 

Historical Perspectives and PTP Security
Wes Simpson of LearnIPVideo reviewed the history of the Video Services Forum, from its creation in 1997 to the present, while John R. Naylor, Vice President of DashBoard, softGear at Ross Video, presented the SMPTE Study Group’s second report on Security in ST 2059, including a detailed overview of how PTP (i.e., IEEE-1588) functions, typical PTP applications, how PTP is used in broadcast infrastructures and the vulnerabilities of PTP on systems plus suggested corrective actions to prevent bad actors from taking over PTP in a system.

The VSF’s annual technical conference is an educational and networking experience for all those working in the domain of IP video in a broadcast environment, a WAN or a transport solution provider’s world.  Each year the VidTrans conference showcases some of the latest applications, technologies and products in its exhibit hall as well as provides attendees with networking opportunities at this special event. 

More information about VSF is available at vsf.tv.

Since the first document release in 2017, the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards for video transport over IP networks has made major inroads in the market for professional video and audio production gear. By removing the highly-compressed, unreliable stigma created by early IP streaming technologies (looking at you, Flash), ST 2110 enabled bit-perfect production systems to be built using widely-available Ethernet networking gear. 

As IP networking infrastructure continues to grow in capacity—while simultaneously lowering the cost per bit—IP systems have become ever-more capable and affordable. Like any major technology refresh, the transition to IP-centric media systems has experienced a few bumps along the way, but overall progress has been steady and new products are filling in the few remaining gaps needed to support every conceivable broadcast application.

When first released in 2017, ST 2110 provided a standard way to transport video over general purpose IP networks. Since it was targeted as a direct replacement for SDI, the focus was on uncompressed video inside a live studio production environment. 

One important difference from SDI is that each signal type is transported in a separate stream of packets, thereby eliminating the need to “embed” audio signals within their associated video signals. Synchronization is provided by distributing a precision (PTP) clock to every media device on the network, thereby allowing each device to align its outputs to a common timing reference point.

Market Impact
Over the past five years, IP media transport generally and ST 2110 specifically have made major inroads within the professional broadcast market. According to John Mailhot, CTO, Networking and Infrastructure for Imagine Communications, the industry has already reached the point where “ST 2110 is a better choice for greenfield studio construction and for applications that require more than 512 video router crosspoints.” 

Alan Wollenstein, director, Engineering Systems for the National Football League, spoke about how critical ST 2110 technology was for the implementation of the NFL Network’s new Los Angeles Facility in Inglewood, Calif. “We have 19 physical and 75 virtual edit bays in our new facility, which stretches over 200 yards from one end to the other. It simply would not have been possible to build this brand-new installation without using ST 2110.” 

New Updates in 2022
ST 2110 is made up of a number of standards, each of which covers one aspect of IP media transport; this makes it so that each of these documents can be updated independently.  Many of the core set of ST 2110 standards were updated in 2022, as shown in Fig. 1. The good news about these updates is that they were done very carefully, so as to avoid breaking equipment and software that were built using the 2017 edition of the standards. Here are a few highlights on the new standards:

ST 2110-10 System Definition: This document focuses on providing better information for control systems.  Two new (recommended) SDP parameters have been added: TSDELAY and TSMODE.  The first of these, TSDELAY, allows a device to indicate the amount of time (in microseconds) that elapses between the sampling or other time indicated by the RTP timestamp for a packet and the time that the first packet containing that timestamp is emitted by that device. 

The second of these, TSMODE, allows a device to indicate whether or not the RTP timestamps present on packets coming into the device are preserved or modified in the output of the device. Used together, these two new parameters allow a broadcast controller to more accurately assess the delays incurred within each step of a workflow, allowing tighter control of end-to-end delays and simplifying overall media synchronization.

ST 2110-20 Uncompressed Video: This adds support for two new video formats.  One addition supports a new Transfer Characteristic (the “TCS” parameter in SDP, which indicates how binary pixel values relate to pixel brightness) to support “Camera Log S3” as defined in SMPTE ST 2115 (and is used in a wide variety of high-end video and digital cinema cameras). The other addition was a new colorimetry type of “ALPHA” which is specifically designated for key signals, while it was clarified the key signals must not declare a TCS value. 

ST 2110-21 Traffic Shaping: This new version clarifies that the virtual receiver buffer  (VRX) constraints do not apply for constant bitrate compressed video signals, and providing a more flexible way of calculating the timing for interlaced video in order to support standard definition video formats (which are still used in many applications around the globe).

ST 2110-22 Compressed Video: This revision clarified that the Virtual Receiver Buffer constraints in the packet timing model do not apply, and cleared up some confusion about how the bitrate of a compressed signal is defined in SDP.

ST 2110-30 Uncompressed Audio: This document is currently undergoing very minor revisions to clarify some wording and to provide clearer descriptions of the audio receiver conformance levels.

ST 2110-40 Ancillary Data: This new revision creates two packet transmission models for ancillary data. LLTM, the Low Latency Transmission Model, requires senders to transmit ancillary data packets within 8 video lines of their specified location. CTM, the Compatible Transmission Model, allows a 1 msec window for transmission. These are signaled with the SDP parameter “TM.” One other minor change was to require senders to transmit packets in increasing order by original line number.”

IPMX
One major way that ST 2110 technology is being expanded to support new applications is in the development of IPMX (Internet Protocol Media eXperience). The goal of this development is to help reduce the cost of ST 2110 technology for applications that may not require its full range of capabilities. 

Another goal is to produce the first truly open, license-free IP video specification for the ProAV market (in contrast with NDI, SDVoE and HDBaseT). IPMX supports HDCP content protection, multi-monitor synchronization, FEC (Forward Error Correction), EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) and a variety of other features that are crucial to supporting this market. 

IPMX specifications are currently being developed by a group within the Video Services Forum (the same source as many of the key concepts behind ST 2110). More info, including downloadable copies of all
the released specification can be found at www.vsf.tv.

What the Future Holds
Not everything is perfect in the world of ST 2110. The capabilities of system and broadcast controllers are lagging behind those of video and audio endpoints, at least based on the results of the JT-NM Tested event in Wuppertal, Germany last August. Development of these systems proceeds apace, with particular emphasis on improving IP network security for broadcast devices. 

Most of the key ST 2110 standards have stabilized, and are not expected to change much (if at all) in the coming years.  This is good news for developers and implementers, allowing them to focus on fine-tuning and cost-reducing existing designs, rather than having to implement new features. It is likely that system cost reductions will also continue, as video systems are now more closely aligned with present trends in the much larger IT and datacom industry (including Moore’s Law and other factors). 

John Mailhot noted that “The cost premium for ST 2110 in media endpoints is going away, and the cost of 100 gigabit optics is dropping dramatically.”  Advances in Ethernet switch capabilities will also help significantly; Alan Wollenstein indicated that “The choice of spine and leaf IP network architecture for our facility was key for our application.”

Cloud-based production is much easier to implement with an IP-native technology like ST 2110 as compared to SDI-based systems. As more ST 2110 systems migrate from using uncompressed video to deploying JPEG XS or other compressed formats, the costs of transporting video to and from the cloud will become more attractive, making other benefits of the cloud (including rapid scalability, AI-based functions, pay-as-you go, and more) accessible to a wider market. 

Overall, today’s market and technology trends will continue to make ST 2110-based systems more affordable and flexible throughout the broadcast industry.  Pretty impressive for a six-year-old! 

HEBDEN BRIDGE, U.K.—Calrec has unveiled its ImPulse 1 IP audio processing and routing engine, a smaller, but powerful, SMPTE ST 2110 version of its ImPulse core.

The cost-effective ImPulse 1 IP comes in a compact 1U form factor and offers a second, optional core for redundancy. The 128-input channel digital signal processor (DSP) offers entry-level pricing, the company said.

Since the introduction of Calrec’s ImPulse IP core four years ago, the industry has broadly adopted IP. However, cost has remained a constraint, the company said. 

The ImPulse 1 makes the move to IP more attainable. The new solution offers a range of options to suit various budget requirements. ImPulse 1 works with Calrec’s Argo Q and Argo S control surfaces and Calrec Assist, the company’s browser-based GUI that’s well-suited for remote, multi-operator or headless operations. Cores with smaller DSP license are available without hardware redundancy, it said.  

"Broadcasters are under pressure to improve workflows in the move to ST 2110 and reduce costs whilst still demonstrating ROI. With this in mind, we have introduced a cost-effective and compact 1U solution with an optional second core for redundancy and a range of DSP options, including a new 128-channel DSP pack.”

Designed for small to medium-range single mixer applications, ImPulse 1 is offered with a new DSP license with 128 input channels. Its small form factor makes the ImPulse 1 a good fit for small spaces, such as those in an OB truck or a flypack. DSP options range from 128 to 384 input channels, it said.

“With the addition of Argo and ImPulse1, we are able to help broadcasters of any size navigate the move to ST2110 with a range of solutions, price points and a pace that suits them,” said Letson.

Twin core hardware redundancy or optional single core systems are available with ST 2022-7 as standard, Calrec said.

• Up to 672 processing paths.
• Native AES67/SMPTE ST 2110-30 connectivity.
• ST 2110-30 connections can operate in 1Gbps or 10Gbps mode.
• Built-in support for NMOS IS-04 advertisements and IS-05 connection managements.
• Max router capacity of 2,048 x 2,048.
• Up to 512 ST 2110 streams. Each stream can pass between 1 and 80 audio channels.
• Surface connectivity via IP, so surfaces can be physically remote, connected over COTS networks and supplemented with Assist web UI for multi operator, remote or headless use.

More information is available on the Calrec website.

MONTREAL—Matrox Video has begun shipping its ConvertIP SMPTE ST 2110 converters for HD/4K broadcast monitoring.

With multiple connectivity options, uncompressed and JPEG-XS support, a fanless design and NMOS control, these standalone devices offer broadcasters flexibility and reliability to display ST 2110-20 and ST 2110-22 signals on HDMI or SDI monitors in any ST 2110 environment, it said.  

ConvertIP converters support uncompressed and JPEG-XS HD/4K video over 10 GbE and 25 GbE ST 2110 networks. These devices also include PoE+ and PSU power options and host an independent control network port for in-band or out-of-band operations, said Matrox.

The new converter’s fanless design and dedicated media port for 2022-7 redundancy support ensure smooth, continuous operation and maximum uptime. As part of the 2022 Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM) testing program, ConvertIP successfully tested for the SMPTE ST 2110-22 and the NMOS/JT-NM TR-1001 specifications, assuring broadcasters that ConvertIP can interoperate seamlessly within multi-vendor ST 2110 ecosystems, the company said.

“Broadcasters managing SMPTE ST 2110 infrastructures are looking for an easier approach to broadcast monitoring, and Matrox ConvertIP does just that,” said Matrox Video technical marketing manager Daniel Maloney.

The company will demo the Matrox ConvertIP Series at a number of upcoming industry events, including InterBee 2022, Nov. 16-18, in the IP Showcase and Japan Material booth 5401, and at the Taenam DVI seminar, Nov. 22.

More information is available on the company’s website.

All Mobile Video (AMV) has outfitted its Eclipse production truck with Bridge Technologies’ VB440 IP monitoring and analysis probe. The AMV Eclipse employs a Cisco leaf-spine network architecture based on SMPTE ST 2022-7 to provide complete redundancy and will incorporate both 4K and HDR production capabilities, Bridge Technologies said.

The Bridge Technologies VB440 sits at the heart of the truck, making it possible to monitor, analyze and visualize all high-bitrate broadcast media content as defined by the SMPTE ST 2110 and ST2022-6 standards, it said.

The VB440 supports HD, 4K, SDR, HDR and combinations of immersive audio, making it possible for AMV engineering and production teams to monitor all layers of media transport continuously on both redundancy layers in real time. The device is especially beneficial because it facilitates both technical network engineering and creative decisions in the moment, the company said.

The VB400 can be accessed by multiple users via their own, customizable HTML-5 browser- based layouts. As a result, the unit takes up much less rack and desk space. Other attractive qualities for mobile facility applications include its lower energy draw and bundling of multiple functions that normally would require individual devices, it said.

The VB440 offers a range of audio and video scopes, including HDR preview on SDR screens and 5.1/7.1 audio review across stereo as well as JPEG XS analysis and signal generation for greater setup efficiencies. The probe offers operators and engineers the deep insight needed to ensure error-free delivery of live and recorded broadcasts, according to the company.

“The VB440 probe has become the ‘go to’ tool on the truck before and during any live production,” said AMV technical supervisor Paul Butkiewicz. “We use it to sweep and compare all the devices for errors across both redundancy layers to assure device, QSFP and signal flow integrity, both before the truck rolls out of the bay and during live productions.”

“Because the Eclipse covers high-profile events, it’s critical to know when errors occur on any of our sources and remote feeds, through the use of notifications and alarms. We’ve been really impressed with the ease of integration of the VB440 and how seamlessly it has worked in our NMOS environment.”

Bridge Technologies' U.S. business partner 2110 Solutions consulted AMV and sold the VB440 to the mobile production facilities company.

LONDON—Class is in session with Leader Electronics, as the company has announced three new video primers that help explain SMPTE ST 2110 Professional Media Over Managed IP Networks suite of standards for free on YouTube.

The three video primers include an introduction into ST 2110-20, and introduction to SMPTE ST 2110-10 System timing and one on SMPTE ST 2110 Professional Media over IP.

The test and measurement aspect of IP signal measurement, both in an IP-only and SDI/IP context are also covered in the primers.

PDF documentation based on each primer will be available on request to provide viewers with a copy of relevant diagrams and supporting graphics.

"Leader has always taken its educational role seriously, right back to the pre-digital era, and is building up a reference archive which can be accessed easily by anyone needing to study the technical aspects of video, audio and related data monitoring, and their relevance to creative program production,” said Kevin Salvidge, Leader’s European development manager.

These three primers are the latest in a range of primer videos available on Leader Europe’s YouTube channel. 

OTTAWA—Ross Video has opted to use integrated Matrox SMPTE ST 2110 network interface controller (NIC) cards for multichannel IP video I/O workflows with its XPression real-time motion graphics engine.

The XPression product family has developed systems to support SMPTE standards in HD-SDI workflows using the Matrox DSX LE4 IP cards to help meet the needs for IP production. In addition, Matrox DSX LE5 D25 and DSX LE5 Q25 NIC cards support UHD inputs and outputs over 25 GbE for XPression.

Ross Video has used Matrox as XPression’s primary video I/O card for more than 10 years, according to Patrick Twomey, Ross Video’s director of Xpression product marketing.

“Matrox has always provided top-notch products and a robust SDK for the XPression Development team to work with, and the new Matrox DSX LE5 cards provide XPression the bandwidth to support multichannel inputs and outputs using the latest SMPTE standards for IP production our customers demand,” Twomey said.

For more information, visit www.matrox.com.  

Q: What is SMPTE ST 2110, and how can broadcasters leverage the standard to efficiently transition to IP?
A: SMPTE ST 2110 enables separate, location-agnostic production flows for video, audio and data components/essences of traditional TV services, using an all-IP approach. The standard abolishes the requirement for two separate sets of switches—SDI switches for professional media and IP/Ethernet switches for general data—allowing facilities to rely on one common data center infrastructure. 

The transition to ST 2110 also entails the availability of Precision Time Protocol (PTP) time sources and, to support signals up to Ultra High Definition (UHD), requires 25 GbE or higher grade network interfaces.

For cost-effective transitions from SDI to IP, broadcasters can leverage SMPTE ST 2110 encapsulators, also known as “IP Media Gateways,” which provide IP encapsulation and decapsulation for video, audio and metadata, and provide dense solutions that typically come with custom FPGA-based designs. 

Media processing solutions further complement SMPTE ST 2110 environments by providing, along with a wide range of media processing functions, the SMPTE ST 2110 ingress and egress functions. There are also extensive diagnostic and monitoring tools to make the transition to media over IP as smooth as possible. 

Plus: What SMPTE-2110 Means for Broadcasters

What is PTP, and what is its role in broadcasters’ shift to IP-based infrastructure? 

PTP coordinates the timing for all audio, video and metadata packets, allowing for wide network system synchronization regardless of the physical location of the equipment itself. This concept enables Local Area Networks (LANs) to extend throughout a building, across a campus or between geographically separated environments for unprecedented flexibility and efficiency in distribution workflows.  

PTP time-based infrastructure and 25 GbE network interfaces, ideally with hardware timestamping, are required to facilitate the transition from SDI to IP. Broadcasters can leverage SMPTE ST 2110 receivers, which are synchronized to global PTP time sources, to help ensure packet timestamps corresponding to essence access units are matched up to accomplish highly accurate time alignment for all essences. 

What are potential challenges that can arise from the routing process, and how can they be overcome?

With PTP, packet loss and routing errors can be prevented with hitless merge redundancy provided by SMPTE 2022-7. Furthermore, existing ST 2110 solutions empower users to tune hitless merge reception via playout and synchronization delay parameters. Playout delay defines the buffer that is used to compensate for jitter and the window that is used for packet reordering. For hitless merge, this delay determines the buffer that can compensate for the delay between both paths. 

Broadcasters are increasingly seeing the benefits of migrating to IP infrastructures, and many will look to work with a vendor that can provide the right tools and expertise for leveraging SMPTE ST 2110 and PTP. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio Canada, for example, tapped Synamedia’s Video Network portfolio to assist with its transition from SDI to a SMPTE ST 2110 IP-based infrastructure. With the new standard, broadcasters will experience unprecedented agility, flexibility and efficiency in their content delivery workflows to provide optimized, infinite video experiences. 

Jovo Miskin is senior engineering manager for Synamedia. 

To move forward with the design and deployment of a SMPTE ST 2110 network, Robert Welch, technical solutions lead at Arista, has a simple piece of advice: work backwards.

“Try to figure out what you are trying to do with it [the network], and then go in reverse,” said Welch during his “Proper Network Design and Considerations for SMPTE ST 2110” presentation, the final session at the virtual AIMS (Alliance for IP Media Solutions) IP Oktoberfest 2020.

Asking questions up front is the key to succeeding. “I want to understand what’s going on because I am building the network based on the end nodes, not the other way around,” he said. “You don’t decide the network first and then figure out what to do with it.”

During his 30-minute presentation, Welch examined a variety of questions that must be answered. The first set of questions pertained to determining the connectivity requirements of end nodes, including whether there is an out-of-band management interface, whether there is a specific interface for control or multiple interfaces—if the latter, do they share the same IP address, and which interface or interfaces is PTP (Precision Time Protocol) on?

”As a network architect, what you are trying to do is reduce constraints—constraints in learning, constraints in bandwidth, constraints in deployment [and] constraints in knowledge,” he said.

Welch also discussed non-blocking and blocking architectures, beginning with a description of spine-leaf network architecture.

“The spine is typically just an interchange,” he said. “So it’s really just a connect between the other leafs. Or, do you connect other high-bandwidth devices to it? This is one of those decisions you have to make.”

Drilling down into the details, Welch talked about PTP and doing it right to keep it protected. “It is the most valued transport that you have,” he said.

When architecting a network, do not “link routes from blue to amber or amber to blue,” he explained. “You don’t want the PTP-only links to carry the multicast streams, or even control or monitoring, things like that” he said.

Welch laid out a couple of ways to keep PTP separate, including creating an unused VLAN with no traffic other than PTP as well as making it a routing interface without an IP address.

Another practice to avoid is “overflowing your bandwidth,” and Welch illustrated the point with an example based on the Imagine SNP (Selenio Network Processor) with two 100 Gb/s ports.

“For every 100 Gig link.. go[ing] to a leaf, I’m going to need 100 Gig link going to a spine. In fact, I would venture to say if I had four links of 100 Gig, I would need five or more links between these leafs and the spine,” he said.

This approach is very costly and amounts to oversubscribing. It also raises the question of why there’s a non-blocking fabric in play at all, he said.

“You want everything [in the network] being active and use what you have, OK?” he said. “And not worry about the constraints.”

One solution is thinking about the spine-leaf being internal to the switch. “The switch has multiple network processors—or ASICs—on it, and internal to it is a fabric,” he said.

“There’s two types of fabric. There’s one that’s more crossbar-oriented where flows can get pinned, and there’s another type that turns each individual flow into multiple cells. It breaks it up so you’re not using the entire fabric.”

“What you want to do as an architect is figure out what the flows are and can you do line-break flows of 100 Gig and multiple 100 Gigs using one architecture or the other,” he explained.

For the network architect, it’s necessary to think about capacity, node connectivity and constraints up front to avoid overflow, he said.

Welch also discussed the difference between the three types of network traffic: unicast—one-to-one initiated by a client and connected to a service; broadcast—one-to-everything on the VLAN; and multicast—one-to-“wherever you want do the join,” he said.

“This is where it [multicast] comes in,” he said. “You could have a transmitter that doesn’t have a receiver until it’s needed—like the output of multiple cameras.”

However, without a querier and querier IP address, what results is “flooding,” said Welch. “Your multicast becomes a flood.”

In essence, the multicast becomes a broadcast without a querier and querier IP address on the switch, he added.

Understanding the different types of multicast is also important to being able to figure out how to diagnose problems that may arise, he explained.

Welch recommended network architects make wise choices about network typology, understand end node requirements from “a physical, logical and flow perspective” as well as a security perspective, and the holistic aspect of architecting the network up front.

“If you do that, and do that well, you are going to be a hero and make people happy,” he concluded.

MONTREAL—Matrox has announced Matrox VERO, a SMPTE ST 2110 signal generator and diagnostic tool for 2110-networked facilities. 

The new device combines an adjustable signal generator, a PCAP recorder and signal diagnostics integrating EBU LIST into one appliance. VERO validates ST 2110 devices for compliance before they are deployed, the company said. 

"As an early developer and pioneer of ST 2110 network interface controller cards and adapters, Matrox Video has long been equipped with the necessary tools to validate products within ST 2110 infrastructures,” said Alberto Cieri, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Matrox Video. “Our JT-NM [Joint Task Force on Networked Media] participations have also allowed us to understand the technical aspects required by broadcasters and manufacturers to certify devices in-house.”

Matrox VERO ensures that any new device acts as a “good network citizen” and works seamlessly with other ST 2110 devices to maintain broadcast operations when connected to an on-air production environment. When an issue arises, the Matrox VERO can help diagnose the source of the problem, the company said.

Key features include:

• An adjustable ST 2110 reference sender that allows users to test receiver compliance and resilience in ideal to worst-case scenarios. 
• PCAP recording, which captures a perfect replica of network traffic, including UHD video flows, in a PCAP file for ST 2110 diagnosis. 
• EBU LIST integration pre-installed with the European Broadcasting Union Live IP Software Toolkit (EBU LIST) diagnostic tool for user convenience and access. 
• HD/Full-HD/UHD output channels. Two independent output channels, each capable of generating one video, up to four audio and one ancillary data flow. Each of the two can also be dedicated to independent video resolutions and frame rates—up to UHD at 60 fps, which allows ST 2110 equipment manufacturers to verify multiple resolutions simultaneously, including support of ST 2022-7. 
• Intuitive web-based interface. Works with any web browser, enabling users to operate diagnostic tools from anywhere on the network using any PC, tablet or mobile device. 

The company has published a video on the Matrox Vero. 

More information is available on the Matrox website. 

MONTREAL—The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada has selected Synamedia’s video network portfolio for its transition from an SDI to IP-based infrastructure as part of its relocation to its new broadcast center in Montreal, the company announced.

CBC/Radio-Canada will rely on the company’s virtualized Digital Content Manager (DCM) in its SMPTE ST 2110 IP-based infrastructure, Synamedia’s PowerVu professional receiver (D9800) to enable the transition to next-generation distribution networks and the company’s Video Network Service Manager to configure, monitor and manage Synamedia’s array of  video network solutions, it said.

“This is a major achievement of [sic] us, given we managed to replace equipment that’s been in use for two decades,” said Synamedia product marketing manager Bart Van Daele. “This is really a major win.”

After a rigorous selection process, CBC/Radio-Canada chose Synamedia for its SMPTE ST 2110 upgrade to enable transfer of compressed and uncompressed video packets over IP without any loss in quality, the company said.

The Synamedia solution addresses the desire on the part of the CBC/Radio-Canada team for a partner with capabilities and expertise in encoding and transcoding, multiplexing, satellite receivers and decoders, and monitoring and network management, the company said.

“We’re thrilled to be CBC/Radio-Canada’s partner of choice in assisting with the broadcaster’s relocation and transition to IP-based infrastructure,” said Julien Signes, senior vice president and general manager, Video Network at Synamedia.

More information is available on the company’s website.  

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. 

HACKENSACK, N.J.—To assist with CBC/Radio-Canada’s new Montreal broadcast center transition to the SMPTE ST 2110 standard, the broadcaster has chosen to equip the facility with LiveU technology to create an IP-based system.

LiveU products that will be added to the Montreal facility’s operations include LU600 HEVC field units, servers and supporting equipment. The setup in Montreal will be similar to what CBC/Radio-Canada has in its Toronto facility to support broadcast, digital and radio operations.

“CBC/Radio-Canada broadcasts from locations around the world, requiring an integrated solution to deliver high-quality live transmissions over IP to its audiences,” said Avi Cohen, LiveU COO and co-founder. “CBC/Radio-Canada has given us the opportunity to work towards the development of a mix of products that support SMPTE ST 2110 for CBC/Radio Canada.”

LiveU Canadian reseller partner, DXM Technologies, will support CBC/Radio-Canada in this endeavor.

With SDI environments under pressure from the need to support higher resolutions and simultaneous delivery to all platforms, broadcasters and production companies are turning to open standards-based IP as their future-ready infrastructure. Not only does IP underpin the smarter workflows needed to meet fast-evolving consumer demands, it also is key in delivering the agility and scalability needed to handle a wide range of applications. From live sports production to fixed facilities, IP infrastructures bring the efficiency and OPEX-based operational models needed to build successful media businesses.

OPEN IP IS CENTRAL TO FUTURE-READY INFRASTRUCTURES

In today’s mediascape, content creators have a growing need for operational and business flexibility and IP allows them to spin up channels and services far more rapidly, providing a level of responsiveness that was previously unavailable.

The work on open standards-based IP interoperability by industry bodies like SMPTE, AIMS and AMWA has gone a long way towards addressing interoperability, price and the need for comparable functionality to SDI environments, contributing to the accelerated deployment of IP-based solutions. New specifications such as JT-NM TR-1001-1 promise to enable much more streamlined and straightforward configuration of SMPTE ST 2110-based systems, making the power of IP more accessible to smaller installations and facilities as well as large ones.

A wide range of products are now available from vendors that offer native IP connectivity—from cameras to production switchers, processing to multiviewers, routers and servers. Broadcasters and media organizations can flexibly select solutions from multiple vendors with the assurance that all products will be compatible with one another.

By deploying open standards-based IP infrastructures, broadcasters, outside broadcast (OB) companies and service providers can deliver the quality of service that clients have come to expect from SDI—with the added benefit of greater scalability and format flexibility. Major OB providers, such as Mobile TV Group (MTVG) have already deployed glass-to-glass open standards-based infrastructures for new trucks and this trend will continue.

THE HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE

Meeting consumer demand for more live content, while budgets remain static, means having to deliver first class content with greater efficiency. The real potential of IP lies in transforming the way production teams work—especially in the live production environment; it can open up smarter ways of working, regardless of where staff are located. Remote/at-home production is just one way that IP can radically shift broadcasters’ approach.

Using IP connections allows cameras and base stations to be separated by very long distances. Once signals are received in the production center, operators can match the cameras using operational control panels (OCPs) and switch the program as they would in a standard live production set-up.

Rather than acting as a like-for-like replacement for SDI, IP opens up new ways of working. Distributed production models, for instance “At-Home” production, allow the cameras to be located at the venue while directors may be on location with the vision mixer, other processing equipment and the rest of the crew in the production studio. IP also makes truly collaborative live production workflows a possibility, allowing production staff to work from any location, even if it’s their home. As smarter, more efficient workflows free staff to focus on higher-impact creative tasks, broadcasters and production companies can leverage the best talent—wherever they are in the world.

As well as bringing the majority of the live sports and event production infrastructure and workflow back to the home studio, this approach allows the same production team and on-screen talent to support multiple, back-to-back games in a day. While the cost savings and ability to ensure consistency across multiple productions is undeniably alluring, the reduction in environmental impact—from sending less kit and crew out on location—is significant and of growing importance to media companies.

THE IP FUTURE IS NOW

Now a maturing technology, price points are coming down and open standards-based IP is no longer a solution reserved for large facilities or premium events with big budgets. A growing number of strong use cases demonstrates that the benefits of IP extend beyond supporting new higher resolutions—without compromising on speed.

The full potential of open standards IP will come to light as it becomes embedded in broadcast and content production infrastructures. Rather than using a new technology to do things in the same way, customers are already beginning to look at how to create new and innovative workflows underpinned by scalable, agile IP infrastructures.

THATCHAM, England—At the recent JT-NM Testing Interop in Wuppertal, Germany, Phabrix’s Qx rasterizer and Sx TAG products were successfully tested and met the criteria for the AMWA NMOS TR-1001-1 and SMPTE ST 2110 standards for IP-based equipment.

The Qx ST 2110 core IP featured was proved to provide ST 2110 confidence status monitoring, while the Sx TAG was verified to offer support for modern IP broadcast systems with JT-NM encapsulation and decapsulation of ST 2110-20/30/40 with IP to SDI gateway, ST 2059 PTP and ST 2022-6.

“Phabrix is committed to complying with the growing list of standards our industry is facing, with the JT-NM program offering a trusted reference source for our customers,” said Phillip Adams, Phabrix CEO.

Phabrix will display both the Qx rasterizer and Sx Tag system at IBC 2019.

WUPPERTAL, Germany—In August, another round of JT-NM interop tests took place in Germany to test a slew of company products and if they met the qualifications for JT-NM’s standards, including the newly announced JT-NM TR-1001-1. Three companies—Grass Valley, Lawo and Nevion—have announced that their tested products passed the tests for both TR-1001-1 and the previously developed SMPTE ST 2110 standards.

GV’s XIP-3901-UDC-IP agile processor, IPVU monitoring gateway, K-Frame X video production center and Kaleido IP multiviewer systems all passed the tests. Nevion’s software-defined media node Virtuoso also passed. Lawo did not specifically announced which of its products passed the test, but noted that all did.

With the passing grades, all of these products have shown that they are capable of working in a multi-vendor environment in an IP media network.

The official results of the test program will be published in a JT-NM Tested catalog and made available during the IP Showcase at IBC 2019, Sept. 13-17.

BOTHELL, Wash.—The AIMS roadmap to IP technologies in broadcasting has received an update with the addition of JT-NM Tech Stack Part 1, also known as JT-NM TR-1001-1, the Alliance for IP Media Solutions announced today.

“The JT-NM Tech Stack Part 1 is a critical link in the continuum of standards that are easing the broadcast industry’s transition to IP operations. Now that the industry is seeing broader and more mainstream IP deployments, JT-NM TR 1001-1 will play a key role in making IP installation and operation easier and more straightforward,” said Andy Warman, board member, AIMS.

The JT-NM Tech Stack Part 1, developed by the Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM), is intended to automate installation and eliminate complexity by providing specifications and guidance aimed at making SMPTE ST 2110 systems easier to deploy and operate, AIMS said.

Using the stack, media and entertainment companies are able to connect new recommendation-compliant equipment to their networks and configure it with less human interaction.

JT-NM TR-1001-1 covers four areas, including:

• The network environment, which defines use of the Precision Time Protocol for time synchronizing IP flows on the network, DHCP for IP address assignment, LLDP for devices to identify themselves to media network switches and DNS-SD for service discovery when using AMWA NMOS IS-04.
• Discovery and registration using AMWA NMOS IS-04 to discover devices on a network and register them with a central registration server.
• Connection management via AMWA NMOS IS-05 for switching control between IP network flows.
• System resource, which defines system-wide constants.

The JT-NM Tech Stack Part 1 will be highlighted at the IP Showcase during IBC 2019, Sept. 13-17, at the RAI Amsterdam. The showcase will be held in Room E106/E107.

More information is available on the AIMS Alliance website.

PARIS—As more and more media facilities are looking to move toward IP workflows, Dalet has announced that its Dalet Brio I/O platform can be of assistance in that department as it now supports SMPTE ST 2110.

In the latest release of high-density ingest and playout platform it now offers support for SMPTE ST 2110 and SDI standard workflows, which the company says will allow users to invest in IP infrastructure without disrupting their current operations. With its new level of IP support, the Dalet Brio enables users to process parallel streams, including SMPTE ST 2110, ST 2022-2 and NDI for linear channels, and RTMP for digital platforms like Facebook Live, YouTube and Twitter.

Dalet Brio’s performance and support for SMPTE ST 2110 workflows were tested and passed by the Joint Task Force on Networked Media in April 2019, which Dalet’s Director of Product Marketing Matthieu Fasani says ensures “that you are implementing a solution that is going to be compatible with the industry standard.”

The newly updated Dalet Brio is now available for consumers.

LIEGE, Belgium—EVS’ latest version of the XT live production servers are now IP certified after passing the Joint Task Force on Networked Media’s JT-NM SMPTE ST 2110 testing. This makes the XT servers a fully-approved product to produced and shipped with full IP interoperability, consistent with the AIMS Alliance roadmap and industry-agreed open standards.

The SMPTE ST 2110 IP network standards specifies the carriage, synchronization and description of separate elementary essence streams over professional IP networks in real-time for live production, playout and other professional media applications.

Key to the newest XT servers is the Multicam 16.2 software engine, which will be publicly released in June. The software supports more of the JT-NM stack of technologies, as well as NMOS IS-04 and NMOS IS-05 updates. Now all EVS servers with the upgraded software engine—which includes the XT, XS-VIA and previous generation XT4K and XS4K—now natively support IP and meet the compliance standards to transition to IP workflows.

EVS claims that the XT servers are the first live production servers to feature IP interoperability.

WATERLOO, Ontario—After demonstrating its latest product at the 2019 NAB Show, Dejero is fully rolling out its new WayPoint 204 transceiver. The new product is designed to assist with those transitioning to an IP infrastructure, offering support for the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards.

WayPoint 204 reconstructs video transported over multiple IP connections from Dejero transmitters, decodes HEVC or AVC, delivers four channels of balanced IFB and provides four outputs supporting SMPTE ST 2110. The product has also been equipped with redundant power supplies and RAID storage.

The support for SMPTE ST 2110’s standards offers format flexibility, scale and resource sharing and a simplified process for adding metadata, which can include captions, subtitles and time codes. The ST 2110 standards also allows for the synchronizing of audio, video and metadata, while also remaining as independent streams.

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. 

LOS ANGELES—The universe of AES67- compliant products has expanded over recent years and with the interoperability standard now published in the SMPTE 2110 standards suite has become the “Rosetta Stone” of audio-over-IP. But while digital mixing console system products were among the first to adopt AES67, to what extent are end-users networking compliant products? What barriers to adoption remain, and what can be done to promote more AES67 network implementations?

ALL IP

“In the TV market, AES67 interoperability is part of almost every client conversation,” said Martin Dyster, vice president of business development-TV, TV Solutions Group, The Telos Alliance. Proof that AES67 is ready for primetime can be seen at University of Notre Dame Martin Media Center, a benchmark for what is possible in an all-IP, multivendor environment, where his company supplied the console and routing pieces, Dyster said.

Across the campus-wide media production environment, says Dyster, “All video and audio are transported as IP from the cameras and mics to PCR, and in the case of the Telos Alliance Axia Fusion consoles, there’s not a physical router in sight. Everything is routed at switch level, so it truly is a system achieving what was intended with AoIP all along.”

The installation includes Evertz core video and control elements. “The interchange of around 450 AES67 streams between it and the audio production system is seamless,” Dyster says. “Other vendors in this installation include Riedel, who supplied an AES67-equipped Artist system. Other examples where we’ve connected at AES67 level include products like the Genelec 8340 IP monitors—but any AES67 compliant product should work fine.”

AOIP IS THE GOAL

Don Bird, vice president of Business Development and Marketing for Lawo North America, agrees that AES67 is a basic requirement in almost every customer project. “In some cases, as a natural subset of their request to deploy a complete ST2110-compliant infrastructure, but even in those projects involving an upgrade of existing facilities where AoIP is the goal and the rest of the production pipeline is going to be migrated to IP over time,” he says.

Lawo has been providing AES67 capabilities across distributed and remote production architectures as well as in local studio environments for some years now, according to Bird. “This is nothing new at this point, as customers clearly recognize the savings in cost, flexibility and efficiency of operation.”

Phil Owens, senior sales engineer, for Wheatstone in New Bern, N.C., has observed less enthusiasm for AES67 thus far. “Customers are primarily concerned with their central infrastructure,” he says. “AES67 tends to address add-ons, in most cases. This will change in the TV market as SMPTE 2110 and its audio component, SMPTE 2110-30, become more prevalent.”

Owens has primarily seen client interest in interfaces with a live sound component in a system, and interfaces with some AES67- or Dante-capable intercom systems. “And we have seen smaller local studio implementations, such as interfacing with Dante-equipped mic preamps via AES67,” he reports.

“We are currently working on two university projects that have an auditorium equipped with a Dante-equipped live sound board tied into their broadcast facility via AES67,” adds Owens. “Another university has expressed interest in interfacing a Wheatstone system with an RTS intercom using their Omneo protocol, which is in fact Dante; that will be an AES67 interface.”

Calrec Audio has supplied AoIP networks to several broadcasters for facility-wide installations, reports Dave Letson, the company’s vice president of sales. “More often, though, we are seeing pockets of deployment in POC or smaller applications, so the broadcaster or facility can cut their teeth and gain an understanding of SMPTE 2110 networks.”

The real benefits and savings will come from greenfield builds that can implement the networking facilities from the get-go, Letson believes. Thus, some manufacturers have developed products, such as Calrec’s H2-IP Gateway devices, to bridge proprietary IP infrastructures and create hybrid networks.

That said, Calrec consoles are being networked with products such as Sonifex’s AES67-based monitor pre-hear products and Grass Valley routers, says Letson. “Calrec’s AoIP I/O solutions allow any piece of third-party equipment that is AES67 compatible to talk to Calrec’s I/O boxes and enter the [company’s proprietary] Hydra2 domain.”

BARRIERS TO ADOPTION

Manufacturers almost universally note that AES67’s lack of discovery, control and connection management, which were never part of the standard’s brief, are a barrier to adoption. Lawo’s Bird observes, “We offer a range of products that enable us to provide all-AES67 network infrastructures for our customers, so we don’t really encounter any barriers in that respect.”

“AES67 is an audio-only interface that has to be set up manually by entering a number of stream parameters at both the send and receive ends,” says Owens, “or ‘semi-manually’ by using an SAP utility to advertise those stream parameters to the various endpoints. Control—logic events—has yet to be addressed, although yet another standard, AES70, is a possible solution.”

Letson points to a recent survey by Grass Valley that indicates that IP adoption is slower than previously forecast. Two-thirds of respondents stated a preference for a hybrid approach, with cost a major concern when considering a move to IP. “Cost is obviously a barrier unless you are already planning to replace equipment,” he says, including the costs to deploy completely new infrastructure and train staff, and costs incurred through disruption.

“A fear of the unknown and a feeling that AoIP is brand new and unproven” also militate against wider or faster adoption, Dyster suggests.

The Networked Media Open Specification [NMOS] is currently being finalized. The IS-04 part of that spec addresses discovery, and the IS-05 part addresses connection management, according to Owens. “NMOS will make AES67 much easier to set up and use,” he said.

Calrec, like many other manufacturers, is developing a stream manager, Calrec Connect, which will allow complex network information to be displayed and streams to be created in a user-friendly manner, according to Letson. “This helps to reduce the burden of training needed,” he said.

Bird noted the importance of ongoing training in fostering adoption. “Through involvement in associations like AIMS and various technical recommendation groups and standards bodies we put great emphasis on education and awareness,” he said. “We encourage any customers interested in deploying an AES67 infrastructure to have open dialog with their consultants, integrators, and equipment providers to verify that all components specified are fully supporting the standard in an interoperable way.”

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Rapid-fire changes in the television industry in the past 15 years have made multiviewers an essential component in virtually all studios. Of course, nothing stands still for long, and as workflows, processes and standards change, so too change how multiviewers work.

With the acceptance of IP video and the SMPTE 2110 along with other related standards, multiviewers are now starting to show up with full IP video capability. That said, most facilities today do not have media distribution via SMPTE 2110 networks, so there is still a good market for multiviewers that accept signals the old-fashioned way: SDI and HDMI.

HIGHER RESOLUTIONS

In addition to the new IP video transport standard, there is an increasing need for multiviewers to work with 4K/Ultra HD (3,840 x 2,160-pixel) video.

“Our largest model, the MultiView 16, has 16 independent 6G-SDI inputs so customers can connect any combination of SD, HD or Ultra HD sources and monitor them all simultaneously on a single display,” said Bob Caniglia, director of sales for North America for Blackmagic Design. “It has router-style controls on the front panel, along with the LCD and spin knob, which lets you adjust settings, route sources to different views, add overlays and more. Output can be set to a 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4 grid, and you can solo any source full-screen.”

Blackmagic Design’s MultiView 16 and MultiView 4 (a four-input model) feature remote control via IP using the included Mac and Windows software. MultiView 16 also features remote control via IP using Blackmagic Videohub hardware control panels. In addition, MultiView 4 supports power over Ethernet (PoE+), which can be used to remotely power the device.

[Read: NAB Show Product Review — Signal Processing & Analysis]

Likewise, For-A uses IP control to permit fast reconfiguring of its multiviewers and integration with the company’s switcher line.

“Having the switcher, router and multiviewers in combination allows the operator to maintain consistent source naming and tally information between all subsystems,” said Bob Peterson, product specialist for For-A Corporation of America. “The switcher can also map its program buttons to directly control the router’s crosspoints, which makes configuration of 4K UHD easier. All our multiviewers can tightly integrate with For-A switchers.”

Peterson said that all For-A multiviewers use IP networks as the primary method of layout and control. Some of the company’s multiviewers have hardware control panels, and all For-A multiviewers have web GUIs for basic control functions and can stream screen output and error information over IP for logging purposes.

“The publication of SMPTE ST 2110, as well as ongoing work by industry bodies such as AIMS and AMWA, has now given our customers the confidence to invest in IP solutions.” — Martin Jolicoeur, Grass Valley

FULL-BORE IP VIDEO

Going all-in with IP video is not hard to find among multiviewer manufacturers.

“The publication of SMPTE ST 2110, as well as ongoing work by industry bodies such as AIMS and AMWA, has now given our customers the confidence to invest in IP solutions,” said Martin Jolicoeur, director product line management for Grass Valley. “We are committed to helping our customers make the transition to IP at a pace that suits their business and operational needs, whether that’s getting them IP-ready or going all-IP.”

Jolicoeur said that Grass Valley customers can futureproof while still maintaining their current SDI environment using the company’s Kaleido-Modular-X, which allows them to upgrade to full IP when needed. The addition of an IP input card supports monitoring of SMPTE 2022-6 video-over-IP using dual 10 GigE IP inputs.

Jolicoeur said that the Kaleido IP multiviewer-native IP solution delivers the highest number of simultaneous video and audio decodes in the industry, with an unlimited number of audio decodes (stereo and 5.1) per program. It also supports SMPTE ST 2110 and 2022-6, DVB MPEG TS and OTT monitoring of streaming formats.

Also falling into the full-bore IP video category is the Apantac T-Sharp, which allows IP inputs such as H.264 and ST 2022/2010. The T-Sharp and other Apantac multiviewers can decode incoming streams and display the video signals as part of the multiviewer’s output. Apantac multiviewers support formats from analog video to SD/HD/3G/12G, HDMI, 2022/2010 and H.264 as inputs.

In addition to its broad support of IP video, Apantac’s multiviewers have IP control capability that is manufacturer agnostic.

“Apantac multiviewers allow IP control using not only Apantac’s own software, they also allow all popular control systems such as Crestron and AMX,” said Thomas Tang, president of Apantac in Portland, Ore. “IP control also allows the multiviewer to communicate with third-party products such as production switchers and routers for dynamic names and tallies.”

CLEAN SHEET

If you are a manufacturer and want to create a multiviewer line in 2018, where do you start on your clean-sheet design? In the case of Lawo, you head right for IP.

“As we don’t have any SDI-legacy [multiviewers], our products are developed as true IP-native products,” said Andreas Hilmer, director marketing and communications for the Germany-based company. “Our multiviewers … are true IP multiviewers with 10/40GB network connectivity, plus additional SDI IO if needed, running on Lawo’s V__matrix software-defined processing blades. All our products are based on IP technology using open standards in line with the AIMS roadmap, such as ST2110, SMPTE2022-6/-6 and AES67.”

In conversations with engineers tasked with making IP video work in their facilities, I’ve been told that SDI was still the way to go for maximum reliability and a trouble-free out-of-the-box experience. However, that was before SMPTE 2110 and related standards were finalized. With strong standards supporting IP video, it looks like many manufacturers are getting the product out there, ready for the demand that they expect will follow.

There are many other aspects to multiviewers that need to be researched before you decide to commit to a specific product. IP video is just one of many recent developments to make it all the way through standards creation to manufactured products, giving engineers more flexibility and choice in system design and operations. IP video — as implemented in multiviewers and other products — is now mainstream.

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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has published its latest SMPTE ST 2110 standards suite addition, ST 2110-40, which maps ancillary data into Real-Time Transport Protocol packets and enables them to move synchronously with associated video and audio essence streams, SMPTE said today.

SMPTE ST 2110-40 joins ST 2110-10, -20 and -30, which address system concerns and uncompressed video and audio, respectively, as well as ST 2110-21, which specifies traffic shaping and delivery timing for uncompressed video.

[Read: What SMPTE-2110 Means For Broadcasters]

“This advance is momentous because it means that, thanks to the ST 2110 standards suite, every element that has been part of the traditional SDI studio can now be put into an IP studio,” said SMPTE Director of Standards Development Thomas Bause Mason.

SMPTE ST 2110 provides for carriage and synchronization of separate audio, video and ancillary data streams for live production, playout and other media uses. Separating the essences makes it easier to add captions, subtitles and Teletext, and to process multiple audio languages. It also makes it possible to carry next-generation image formats, including HDR, which may require metadata, SMPTE said.

SMPTE offers a seven-week online virtual classroom course on ST 2110, including the newly published ST 2110-40. The next available class begins July 23.

More information is available on the SMPTE website.

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LAS VEGAS—IP has been a part of the NAB Show for the last few years, but with the approval and publishing of the first documents of the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards the path to real-time IP signal flows is clearing and the show floor will feature an IP Showcase that will further illuminate just what is on that path.

Featuring more than 50 manufacturers and eight industry standards bodies and trade organizations, the IP Showcase will serve as a demonstration of the benefits and practicality of transitioning to IP workflows using the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards, AES67 and AMWA NMOS specifications. Some of these benefits expected to be highlighted include format flexibility and efficient cabling; resiliency and data-loss protection; plug-and-play connection management; and choices of interoperable audio equipment.

Other areas of focus that will be discussed as part of the showcase include transitioning from SDI to hybrid IP/SDI systems and on to all-IP; designing deterministic systems; and using new tools for automatic alignment of signals. There will also be information on IP reference deployments for real-world comparisons.

[NAB Show: Technology for Storytelling]

A live all-IP studio will be on-hand for a firsthand look at live program production and output using SMPTE ST 2110. The integrated IP Showcase Theater, curated by IABM, will provide presentations that cover a range of real-time IP production and intra-facility distribution topics.

If companies are still interested in participating in the Showcase they are required to attend a pre-stage event to demonstrate interoperability between SMPTE ST 2110 devices from March 19-23 at Fox Network Center in the Woodlands, Texas.

BEAVERTON, ORE.—Tektronix has added support for the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards for professional media over IP networks to its PRISM media analysis solution, the company announced today. It also has added new field-upgradable signal generation capabilities to the analysis tool for use in testing IP and 12G-SDI for hybrid/SDI networks.

As facility infrastructure evolves from SDI to IP, broadcast engineers and IT professional must manage hybrid SDI and IP environments. The addition of SMPTE ST 2110 signal generation to PRISM, which can be connected to any broadcast signal in a facility, means users now have a comprehensive measurement, network analysis and troubleshooting tool, the company said.

The new MP-GEN option module for PRISM can inject known good signals into the network to check signal paths and system redundancy, thus allowing users to identify where connectivity errors and other problems originate, Tektronix said. It does so by providing ST 2110-20, -30 and ST 2022-7 test patterns that can be used on IP networks and on 12G-SDI for hybrid/SDI networks.

PRISM’s new ST 2110 support provides generation, connectivity and analysis for: ST 2110-10, system timing; -20, uncompressed active video; -30, uncompressed PCM audio; -40, ancillary data; and -21, traffic shaping uncompressed video.

More information is available on the Tektronix website.

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NEW YORK—Thanks to the adoption of the SMPTE ST 2110 standard, 2018 promises to be the year when integration of audio and video becomes easier and faster. The synchronization of all streams will simplify the process of recording content, pulling apart audio and video in order to work individually on the components and then bind them back together. How will console manufacturers respond to the new requirements?

Phil Owens, senior sales engineer, Wheatstone

AES67 will be the required audio format. Every packet in an AES67 stream is time-synched, making it possible to re-synch audio and video. Phil Owens, senior sales engineer at Wheatstone in New Bern, N.C., says that the new SMPTE standard will be good for his company.

“In the past, with HD-SDI, audio was embedded in the video stream,” he said. “You had to de-embed it—which required a bunch of hardware—then re-embed it, which required even more hardware. It’s going to take a while for stations to adopt AES67, but when they are looking at new systems they will have to make sure they support the SMPTE ST 2110 requirements.

“For us, it’s good because we have a whole IP infrastructure we’ve developed over the last decade, which has been used in a large number of radio and TV facilities,” Owens continued. “Our Wheatstone Blade network is an IP audio network that’s perfectly suited to supporting the SMPTE ST 2110 spec. If a station is looking at IP-based systems, the Blade offers great connectivity between various systems.”

Owens pointed to a second benefit to AES67 adoption. “All of the different platforms that are in use—house routers, audio systems, intercoms, for example, will now have a common protocol,” he said. “We’re constantly adding new features to the Blade network. The most recent is a utility that can be built in that will let a Blade connect to a Dante network. We’re continuing to develop control surfaces—what we used to call audio boards—that take advantage of our Blade network and use it as their backbone.”

MOVING AWAY FROM THE PHYSICAL
Logitek Electronic Systems is banking on a continued migration away from physical consoles, according to Frank Grundstein, director of sales for the Houston-based company. “The world has become accustomed to touchscreens,” he said. “Whether they are in a mobile phone, on a tablet or part of an automation system, touch devices are now the norm for running applications and making menu choices. Consequently, in the audio world for local market television, we have increasingly seen a move away from large mixing consoles.”

Stations that rely heavily on automation tend to prefer having no physical audio console at all, according to Grundstein. “A ‘virtual’ console presented on a touchscreen supplies all the controls needed for local takeover of audio. Most control is handled via the program automation system,” he said. “While some users still prefer the convenience of a physical board, they don’t need or want an audio console that takes up half a room.”

To address these changing needs, Logitek introduced their Helix line of consoles in 2017.

The Helix line incorporates a “glass cockpit” approach to audio management as well as commonly requested physical components. Two models for television production are available: Helix Studio, a full-featured touchscreen console with multitouch capability; and Helix TV, a physical board with a mix of touch-sensitive automated faders and touchscreens for source selection, metering and other functions.

The physical console, available in configurations ranging from 6–36 faders, is compact yet provides all the audio control needed for local market TV operations. As a virtual device, Helix Studio can be configured to meet any station’s requirement for faders, source selection, monitoring, metering and more. Both products work in tandem with the Logitek JetStream Plus AoIP router, which addresses another TV market need—minimal rack space requirements—with 240 channels of I/O in only four rack units.

The cost of a system is based on the number of faders and how much audio I/O will be needed for the router, according to Grundstein.

“Most TV facilities have been buying a physical console with 24 faders,” he said. “They sometimes go up to 36 but generally don’t need that many faders. Some station groups have determined that they don’t want any physical control surfaces in their studios.”

Some operators are not comfortable working without physical faders, Grundstein added. “They may buy a physical console, but because the consoles are router-based, they buy one that has fewer faders than the ones on the board they’re replacing,” he said. “Other engineers feel that everything is going into automation and simply do not need any physical faders. Our virtual console, the Helix Studio, connects to the JetStream engine. When the automation system tells the audio engine to do something the moves reflect on the displayed fader.”

Dave Letson, vice president of sales, Calrec

REMOTE POSSIBILITIES
U.K.-based audio console developer Calrec is targeting remote broadcasting. “Traditional broadcasters are seeing huge competition from on-demand web streaming services,” said Dave Letson, vice president of sales. “To counter this, they are looking to cover more live events, and some are moving into niche programming to provide a broader choice and a more tailored viewing experience. To achieve this more versatility is being demanded from the audio console.”

Calrec’s Apollo console is a natural fit for this market, according to Ian Cookson, communications manager. “The real benefit of remote production is not really size reduction but the exact opposite,” he said. “It allows the broadcaster to do more with their resources for a nominal expenditure when compared to using traditional methods.”

For example, an Apollo console based at a sports broadcaster’s HQ can now cover multiple games from multiple locations, allowing providers to offer less popular sports that may not pull the viewing figures to warrant the expenditure of a full OB truck, Cookson noted. “As viewers are changing the ways they consume TV, there is an expectation to be able to watch whatever they desire,” he said. “Broadcasters need to keep up with this demand but don’t necessarily have the budget to use traditional methods. This way the output increases and the quality doesn’t suffer.”

Calrec addresses this need for remotely controlled audio with the RP1, which is essentially a mixing console in a 2U box, according to Cookson. The RP1 allows the broadcaster to overcome the three main hurdles for audio in a remote production workflow: latency, control and transport.

“The RP1 has DSP inside so it can mix locally at the venue so this will eradicate any latency for monitoring and IFBs,” he said. “These DSP resources are controlled from the main console at the centralized facility.”

This control data is a really small amount of information so the delay from the fader on the surface to the DSP in the RP1 is nominal. Plus the RP1 integrates with any of the backhaul technologies broadcasters use, from a traditional embedded SDI stream to emerging AoIP technologies.

“Calrec has an AoIP solution—a 1RU rackmount box that connects to Calrec’s consoles via the proprietary Hydra2 protocol like any other IO box,” Cookson said. “This acts as a gateway from Hydra2 to AoIP using the AES67 standard.”

These boxes can accommodate 1 or 2 cards, giving either 256 or 512 bidirectional signals, which is one of the highest density AoIP solutions currently available, according to Cookson.

“To the Calrec user the AoIP ports appear on the console like any other IO box and so there is no learning curve and sources can be patched to and from the AoIP box quickly and easily.”

This is the second installment in a series of articles about the newly-published SMPTE standard covering elementary media flows over managed IP networks. This month, the focus is on video transport, specifically the packet format that will replace uncompressed SDI (Serial Digital Interface) signals that are currently in widespread use for many different kinds of video production.

UNCOMPRESSED ACTIVE VIDEO
The full title of SMPTE ST 2110-20 is “Professional Media Over Managed IP Networks: Uncompressed Active Video,” and that is a good indication of what is contained in the standard. Specifically, uncompressed video images are transported (just like SDI), but only the data that make up the “active” portion of each video frame. In other words, just the image samples (also called pixels) that comprise the pictures to be delivered to viewers are transported within the new IP video format.

This method significantly reduces the amount of data required to represent each frame of video. For example, a 59.97 Hz 720p video signal that uses a 1.483 Gbps SDI signal can be carried as an IP packet stream at less than 1.18 Gbps, for a 20 percent savings.

However, this method has side effects, including eliminating the HANC (Horizontal Ancillary) space commonly used for embedded audio signals as well as eliminating the VANC (Vertical Ancillary) space frequently used for transporting other related information such as time code, format description, advertising triggers, captions, and many other types of useful information. Audio and other non-video data types are transported as separate IP streams as defined in other parts of the ST 2110 series (which will be discussed in future installments of this article series).

Fig. 1: Table of SDP Parameters Defined in SMPTE ST 2110-20

To avoid wasting bandwidth, data samples from adjacent pixels are packed directly next to each other, without any interspersed header information. The packing is organized through the use of pixel groups (also called “pgroups”) whose size and data layout vary depending on the specific video format being transported. Tables inside ST 2110-20 define a wide range of different video sampling formats that can be transported, including most (if not all) of the formats that are used in professional video production, such as RGB, Y’C’BC’R, ICTCP, XYZ, video key and other varieties. Since the pgroup size varies with the number of bits per sample and with the color subsampling format (4:2:2, 4:2:0, etc.), each allowed format is specified in the document.

The order of the various color samples in each pgroup is also specified, to enable interoperability. For example, the pgroup for a 4:2:2 10-bit video (normal HD-SDI) would be 5 bytes (40 bits) long and contain four 10-bit samples representing two pixels in the order C’B Y0’ C’R Y1’. Up to 286 of such pgroups can fit into one standard UDP datagram, carrying 572 pixels. Other sampling formats will have different numbers of pgroups and pixels per datagram.

DEFINING IMAGES IN FEWER THAN A THOUSAND WORDS
Most of the remainder of the ST 2110-20 document is devoted to defining the exact format of the video signal that is being transported. Session Description Protocol as specified in RFC 4566, provides a machine-readable layout for this information.

THE RIGHT PICTURE

One benefit of the full complement of video format specifications defined in ST 2110-20 is the elimination of the ambiguities that have been prevalent in many industry documents. For example, it doesn’t take too much searching to find spec sheets for some devices listing “1080i59.94” and other devices listing “1080i/29.97,” sometimes from one manufacturer! With a complete set of SDP required for every video signal, it will be easier to get the right picture.

AMSTERDAM—At last month’s IBC Show, SMPTE announced that three of the main documents in the new series of IP video standards (SMPTE ST 2110) have been finalized. Years of work have led up to this point, which should prove to be a pivotal moment in the ongoing migration of media networks to use IP networking technology. Once this new standard is fully released and implemented over the next few months, manufacturers will be able to supply devices that can seamlessly interconnect uncompressed video, audio and other important metadata between devices that support every conceivable video processing function.

WHY IP?
For broadcasters, the transition to Ethernet/IP technologies is inevitable for three main reasons:

The roadmap to an all-IP based media transport ecosystem, according to the Joint Task Force on Networked Media.

Flexibility — Today’s viewers are blessed with an enormous range of high-quality video content, most of which is available to watch on-demand using a variety of delivery networks and devices. Many of these systems already rely on IP networks to deliver content to the ultimate viewer; all of them use IP technology today at some point in the production process. With new video formats such as Ultra HD and high dynamic range coming to the fore today, and virtual/augmented reality just over the horizon, broadcasters need to replace their ageing SDI/HD-SDI production plants with a technology that has been proven to support multiple different formats on common infrastructure.

Cost — The cost of high-bandwidth IP equipment and circuits has been dropping steadily for several decades, a trend that shows no signs of stopping. Today, even low-cost workstations have GigE network connections built-in, and affordable 40 and 100 Gbps Ethernet switches are widely available. For connectivity, consumers are offered low-cost gigabit internet connections in many cities, and it is now possible to lease a 10 Gbps connection from London to New York for $2,500 per month (the same price that a 270 Mbps video connection would have cost just a few years ago with a thirtieth of the capacity).

Ubiquity — IP networks have been deployed everywhere that humans go today, including the International Space Station and Antarctica. Every smartphone user carries an IP send/receive device in their pocket. Videotape-based workflows have disappeared, replaced by workstations and storage systems that are dependent on high-speed Ethernet connectivity at the professional and the prosumer level.

THE IMPACT
The massive interop demonstrations that took place in 2016 and 2017 at IBC and the NAB Show have clearly shown the willingness of manufacturers to embrace IP technology. But what will be the impact on broadcasters? Here are a few changes that will be driven by the adoption of SMPTE ST 2110:

Common Timing — With bidirectional links throughout an IP-based facility, broadcasters will no longer need to construct separate signal paths to distribute sync signals to devices. Instead, IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol will allow devices to be slaved to a common master clock at accuracies of better than 1 microsecond, providing complete video and audio synchronization across an entire facility. When GPS receivers are added to the mix, separate facilities that are hundreds of miles apart can be frame-accurately synchronized and share a common timecode base.

Simplified Infrastructure — Anyone who has ever had to install something as simple as an audio system for a hotel ballroom has likely realized that cable management can quickly become a headache even for relatively simple setups, and adding video just makes the wiring more complicated. In large studios and OB vans, individual cable connections for each signal path can become congested, heavy and hard to maintain. Using high-speed Ethernet, a single connection can support multiple uncompressed HD video along with hundreds of uncompressed audio signals. As formats change in the future, only the end devices need to be upgraded, while the core IP equipment remains in place.

Reduced Bandwidths — Uncompressed 1080p video consumes 2.97 Gbps of bandwidth on a coaxial cable, which balloons up to 3.17 Gbps when converted to IP using SMPTE ST 2022-6 encapsulation. In contrast, a SMPTE ST 2110-20 signal with 1080p video occupies less than 2.67 Gbps, which frees up about 300 Mbps of bandwidth, which is almost enough capacity to carry one hundred audio signals. By sending only the image pixels (stripping off the legacy vertical and horizontal blanking/ancillary data spaces), the new standard moves to a system of only sending elementary signals, and removing the need for audio and metadata embedding and de-embedding. For lower-third graphics and other signals that occupy only a fraction of a video frame, the IP signal bandwidths are even lower.

Improved Versatility — SMPTE ST 2110 includes a robust mechanism for defining a wide range of video formats (up to 32,767 pixels on up to 32,767 lines), including multiple bit depths, multiple colorimetry schemes, any conceivable frame rate, and other associated parameters. Separating the transport format (Ethernet data frames carrying IP packets) from the video format gives broadcasters the ability to choose exactly the right format they need at each step along the broadcast chain, whether it is UHD for mastering or low-resolution video for streaming, and still be able to transport every version over a common infrastructure. As new applications emerge, new standards can easily be created to work in harmony with these established principles.

SMPTE ST 2110 is made up of a number of separate documents, each of which forms a part of the overall specification. ST 2110-10 gives a system overview and discusses system synchronization. ST 2110-20 details the uncompressed video formats, and the related ST 2110-21 defines how the torrents of packets needed to carry an uncompressed video signal will be managed to ensure that they don’t cause excessive flooding on a network. ST 2110-30 focuses on uncompressed PCM audio, and ST 2110-40 shows how the all-important metadata can also be carried over IP networks. Each of these standards is a topic in itself, and each will be discussed in detail in these pages in the coming months.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE has moved forward with approval for the first standards within SMPTE ST 2110, Professional Media Over Managed IP Networks. This standards suite specifies the carriage, synchronization and description of separate elementary essence streams over professional IP networks in real time for live production, playout and other professional media applications.

According to SMPTE, the SMPTE ST 2110 standards enable intrafacility traffic to be all-IP, allowing organizations to rely on a single common data-center infrastructure. The standards also make it possible to separately route and break away audio, video and ancillary data streams to simplify tasks like adding captions, subtitles and teletext, and the processing of multiple audio languages and types.

The foundation for the SMPTE 2110 standards came from Video Services Forum’s Technical Recommendation for Transport of Uncompressed Elementary Stream Media Over IP (TR-03).

“Radically altering the way professional media can be handled, processed and transmitted, SMPTE ST 2110 standards go beyond replacement of SDI with IP to support the creation of an entirely new set of applications that leverage information technology protocols and infrastructure,” said Matthew Goldman, SMPTE president and senior vice president of technology, TV and media, at Ericsson. “The formal standardization of the SMPTE ST 2110 documents enables a broad range of media technology suppliers to move forward with manufacturing and meet the industry’s high demand for interoperable equipment based on the new suite of standards.”

SMPTE is currently featuring the newly approved standards as part of the IP Showcase at IBC 2017. More information on the SMPTE ST 2110 standards can be found at www.smpte.org/st-2110.

BURLINGTON, ONTARIO—As the industry continues to make strides toward IP, Evertz and Panasonic have announced an effort to test SMPTE ST 2110 interoperability among its products.

The two companies are collaborating to demonstrate support of the upcoming SMPTE ST 2110 set of standards for transporting video, audio and metadata over IP, including AMWA IS-04 support for registration and discovery of network devices. To do so, Evertz is showcasing the interoperability of its timing systems and multiviewers with Panasonic’s SMPTE ST 2110 enabled camera systems.

“Vendor interoperability around a single unifying standard, SMPTE ST 2110, will be a critical requirement for media companies as they transition to IP infrastructures,” said Mo Goyal, director of product marketing at Evertz. “Continuing interoperability testing of SMPTE ST 2110 will ensure a smooth and glitch-free industry transition to IP-based workflows.”