OSLO—The Sony Group Company Nevion has published a new whitepaper exploring the different ways in which live media workflows can be orchestrated in IP-based production facilities.
The briefing digs into the benefits and drawbacks of automated routing, and makes the case for media-aware SDN (Software Defined Networks) for all but the smallest networks to get the most from IP.
“IP technology is the future of live production, so it’s crucial to get the underlying infrastructure right,” explained Olivier Suard, vice president of marketing, Nevion. “SDN is an optimum approach because it takes control of network resources to manage flows across the network. But controlling media flows is just one aspect of managing live productions. A holistic view of the control layer, combining LAN, WAN, cloud and broadcast control, can enable organizations to use IP technology to its full potential.”
The whitepaper noted that orchestration of media flows, covering device and network control, is increasingly taking place in IP-based local area networks (LANs), where it is fundamental to maximize performance, efficiency and scalability.
In assessing different orchestration approaches, the researchers pointed out that automatic routing (e.g. using on IGMP/PIM protocols) allows the network to decide itself how to route media flows. While this offers simplicity, it presents drawbacks in terms of managing bandwidth efficiency, speed of switching and security.
Instead, more organizations are adopting SDN routing, with an orchestration system making informed and media-aware routing decisions by maintaining a comprehensive view of the whole network topology and the IP media flows that operate across it, the study found.
The paper goes on to cover the many advantages of an SDN routing approach, which offers improved security, flexibility and centralized control, but this approach comes with its own considerations. This includes potential compatibility issues with legacy broadcast controllers, bandwidth management, network and service correlation and service assurance, Nevion reported.
Alongside key considerations related to device orchestration, the paper also looks at the implications for media orchestration within IP live production infrastructure. Not all orchestration systems offer the same capabilities. For example, in a hybrid approach combining cloud and on-premises resources, orchestration and broadcast control technologies need to meet the challenge by routing media flows across ground and cloud.
The new whitepaper, “Orchestrating Live Media Flows in IP-based Broadcast Facilities” can be downloaded from here: https://nevion.com/resources/whitepapers/ip-production-control/
