MANAGEMENT
August 2018
15
How broadcasters can approach test and measurement
when dealing with multiple formats
by prin boon
Reliable and agile test and measurement
(T&M) solutions have never been more
important as customers grapple with the
rapidly evolving technology landscape.
Facilities are increasingly having to support
a mix of formats employing existing services
based on well-established and understood
technologies, and new services based on IP,
high dynamic range (HDR) and 4K/Ultra HD
(UHD) formats. We are seeing the following
developments having a dramatic impact on
our customers’ approach to T&M:
n The ongoing roll-out of digital HD
production and transmission.
n The gathering momentum of 12G-SDI
for 4K/UHD applications.
n Increasing interest in the use of IP for
live production, particularly with SMPTE ST
2110.
n The availability of HDR contribution
feeds from major live events.
4K/UHD has led to a proliferation of new
standards and formats, with delivery using
quad-link 3G, dual-link 6G or single-link 12G
signals. These higher bandwidth signals are
cites the transition to IP, which pro-
vides both risks and gains as opposed
to sticking with SDI. “Ultimately,
the choice must always be with the
broadcaster and the viewers who
help drive the different technological
trends,” he says. “Like all businesses,
broadcast and media organisations
need to tread the fine line between
being viable and profitable today
with being viable and profitable in
the future, regardless of the decisions
that have been made in the past and
those that will be made tomorrow.”
Look at the current functionality
and compatibility of the T&M prod-
ucts on offer, examine the approach
taken by the T&M equipment manu-
facturer in response to changes in
technology, and study their roadmap
for the future, alongside their track
record, Wheable advises. “Depend-
ing on the type of role that T&M
equipment needs to perform, then
the important factors include con-
nectivity, functionality, functional
availability, and is the equipment
within your budget,” he adds.
For Rohde & Schwarz’s Strobel,
he believes that a monitoring solu-
tion that meets today’s and future
requirements must meet a number
of overall design principles. These
include:
n Being purely software-based
with hardware-agnostic program-
ming for high portability and to ac-
commodate changing requirements,
such as new formats for media enco-
ding and transport.
n Platform based on commercial
off-the-shelf (COTS) IT hardware
or Open Virtualization Format
(OVF) — compatible hypervisor for
more challenging to manage, and physical
layer testing at facilities is especially im-
portant in view of the greater cable length
sensitivity and unforgiving nature of 4K/UHD.
With 12G-SDI gathering momentum
fast for 4K/UHD applications, and many
customers having to make informed choices
between SDI and IP infrastructure adop-
tion, there is a real need for informed and
pragmatic decision-making influenced by
business values.
To address this requirement, Phabrix has
developed a suite of SDI analysis and stress
tools that extend right up to 4K/UHD 12Gbps
that are available as an option for the Qx.
Phabrix is also a supporter of a new SMPTE
project to develop a pathological SDI stress
pattern for 12G-SDI.
With both the established SMPTE ST
2022-6 and the SMPTE 2110 suite of stand-
ards, an entirely new level of test and meas-
urement tools are required. ST 2110-based
IP systems employ Precision Time Protocol
(PTP) with multiple audio, video and ancillary
data flows delivering highly complex inter-
actions between edge devices and switches
that you simply do not get with SDI systems.
Our customers are seeing issues around
protocol behaviour, network jitter and PTP
on these complex networks. Configuring a
large IP facility can be challenging with tens
of thousands of IP addresses to be allocated
and managed. There is a growing call from
broadcasters for equipment suppliers to sup-
port NMOS IS-04 discovery and registration,
and IS-05 device connection management
protocols, in addition to the conventional
broadcast control systems.
With 2018’s Winter Olympics, Royal Wed-
ding and World Cup all being shot and dis-
tributed live in HDR, this is the year that ‘live
HDR production and distribution’ became a
reality. With three HDR-related formats —
HLG, PQ and SR Live — there are potentially
many more conversions to perform, not only
from standard dynamic range (SDR) to HDR
but also between the three formats. Also,
the look and feel of the SDR and HDR pro-
grammes have to balance out, so that the
director is still able to freely cut between
sources and tell the story as it unfolds.
Simultaneously, shooting live produc-
tions in both conventional SDR ITU-R BT.709
and HDR ITU-R BT.2100 with wide colour
The Omnitek Ultra TQ is an SDI/IP device that supports SDR, HDR and WCG
workflows. It can also analyse and decode Dolby E, Dolby D and Dolby D+ audio
for monitoring and quality checking audio content from SDI/SMPTE 2110/2022-6
sources, as well as AES inputs.
❝ Appropriate test and
measurement (T&M) equipment
is required at each stage in the
production process to ensure
that the image quality from
‘glass to glass’ is maintained
regardless of signal handling
and processing along the way. ❞
— Alan Wheable, FISTC, MITOL,
Communications Manager, Omnitek
low Capex and Opex IP — based
transport and signalling protocols
to leverage the established frame-
work of the TCP/IP