Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) @ConnecTechAsia Show News - Day 3 | Page 26

26 THURSDAY 28 June 2018 @ConnecTechAsia2018 www.apb-news.com The issues in IP migration – a BY DR AHMAD ZAKI MOHD SALLEH Disruptions caused by digital technol- ogy is hitting many different industries, including banking and finance, trans- port, travel, shopping and, of course, media. Disruptions in the media industry, however, can bring healthy competi- tion, which forces media organisations to be more efficient. Setting up a TV station requires huge investment. Playout centres require specialist knowledge and design. Material handling, process- ing, storage, transfer/transport and various processes in the value chain before it becomes transmissible is an area reserved for specially trained staff and specialised equipment (mostly analogue in nature). Traditional TV and broadcast organisations are big, labour-intensive, full of specialised equipment and heavily manned by trained and experienced staff. Because barriers to entry are high, competition is low and businesses thrive. Digital disruptions threaten to change this. Proliferation of smart devices enables many small, fully digital and highly efficient TV stations and service providers to emerge. The non-linear nature of these service providers also adds to the attrac- tiveness as lifestyle changes demand time-shifting capabilities and better choices. Businesses evolve and the harsh reality of increasing operating costs will become apparent. Normally, startups are lean, revenues are low but operating costs are negligible. As the business grows, revenue grows but so does operating costs. Net profits are normally good during the startup and growth phases. A major portion of ‘costs’ is normally attributed to human resource. People executing similar tasks are paid significantly more as the company matures. Eventually, businesses will start to decline and steps will have to be taken to control the decline. Adoption of new tech- nologies, thus, may be an option for broadcasters. Technological change and its effect on current players For many years, Serial Digital Inter- face (SDI) was the backbone of many broadcast infrastructure. Its real-time, high-quality, low latency and uncom- pressed nature was ideal for demand- ing broadcast requirements. As time goes by, technology improves and an- alogue systems are gradually replaced by digital ones. Computers and digital networking slowly but surely moved into broadcast and entertainment, as did non-linear editing systems, video processors, digital encoding and, of course, IP. Computers started to move into broadcasting facilities during the mid-’90s, and the early 2000s saw the start of migration of IP into broadcast- ing stations. It is important to note that IP was never designed for real-time trans- port. The lack of real-time capability made the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) initiate the development of RTP more than 20 years after IP was invented. IP was designed for robust, error-free communications. The concept where digitised, real-time sources are chopped up into packets, encapsulated by various transport and error checking information, and sent into networks using different paths was really strange and not optimised for real-time data. However, faster computing power at affordable prices somewhat helped in the transition. IP became more attractive to the broad- cast fraternity due to the promise of lower cost — nothing more than that. The promise is somewhat not fulfilled to the level we would like it to be. IP’s entry into the broadcast world spurred the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE) to develop standards to interface SDI to IP. The well-known SMPTE 2022 suite of standards defines adaptation tech- niques for SDI to IP. As broadcast requirements evolve to include HD, 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) and 8K, SDI and its enhancements — HD- SDI, for example — can no longer cope with its massive infrastructure requirements. Cabling and interfacing devices became too unwieldy, helping IP move into the broadcast industry. It can also be seen how manu- facturers are attempting to control broadcast IP through various allianc- es, namely, the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) and the ASPEN Community. Both attempted to push different versions of IP implementa- tion, and we see this as an attempt to exert control and proprietary owner- ship of IP workflow for the broadcast industry. INTRODUCING AP PLAYBOOK Collaboration and coverage planning made simple Use AP Playbook to plan your coverage across your organization. – No more duplication of efforts. – No more consumer tools for newsroom use. – No more missed stories or misapplied expenses. Talk to us [email protected], ap.org/playbook, or visit our Booth 4K3-05 Powered by AP ENPS, the world’s leading news production system.