APB PANELLISTS
6 NEWS & VIEWS
June 2018
The progress and benefits of IP for broadcast
BY MICHAEL CRONK
Since the Alliance for IP Media Solutions ( AIMS ) was formed , a lot of progress has been made towards an IP-based future over the past two years . The industry has galvanised around a common standards suite for IP : SMPTE ST 2110 , and all of the primary components of that standards suite have been published . Numerous technical interoperability events have been conducted and interoperability between vendors has been confirmed . Recently , at this year ’ s NAB Show , more than 50 companies demonstrated working systems based on SMPTE ST 2110 — all at the IP Showcase booth , showing just how far the industry has come .
The progress is perhaps best portrayed by end-user adoption . At this year ’ s NAB Show , AIMS showcased 30 television- and radio-based system installations using SMPTE ST 2110 and AES67 . Just about every region of the globe was well represented with countries such as China , Japan , Australia , Brazil , the US , Canada , the UK , The Netherlands , Germany , Luxembourg , Finland and Norway . These installations included not only green field plants and existing facilities , but also fixed and mobile installations . They comprised core infrastructure builds and studio builds , one-site and multi-site implementations , all showing the versatility and power of this technology . But why did these installations make the move to IP ?
In a word , it would be because of benefits . Broadcasters have begun to see ( and to realise ) the tangible benefits of moving to IP for live workflows . This marks an exciting time in the adoption of IP technology in our industry . The much needed standards are in place so people can deploy knowing they are not investing in dead-end technology .
Furthermore , the advantages of IP are yielding economic benefits to those who make the transition . Therefore , to understand what is driving the adoption of IP , we need to look no further than the benefits that broadcasters are experiencing with IP .
In this article , I outline what I call the “ top three ” benefits of moving to IP , based on installations to date . Not every installation enjoys all three of these , but all of these are tangible and real across many installations .
The benefits [ of IP ] are tangible and real , and help explain why the adoption of IP-based systems is on the upswing .
❝ Broadcasters have begun to see ( and to realise ) the tangible benefits of moving to IP for live workflows … Scalability , format flexibility and better equipment utilisation ( resource sharing ), are three of the top benefits of IP .❞
Scalability
A big driver for IP-based systems has been scalability . Put simply , with IP , one can scale to much larger system sizes than is possible with SDI . For example , SDI routers with 3GHz lanes max out at around a 1176 x 1176 matrix size . Many network installations or even large outside broadcast ( OB ) trucks with high camera count requirements , such as at a car racing or golf tournament , have signal monitoring requirements beyond 1176 signals .
This scenario demands IP infrastructure , even in HD workflows . When it comes to 4K / Ultra HD ( UHD ), 12G-SDI routers cannot scale much beyond 288 x 288 . Therefore , unless one moves to IP , the amount of signals one can route is severely limited for many applications . In summary , IP scales to large I / O counts so much more efficiently .
As an example , Arena TV ’ s OBX truck , a 4K / UHD OB truck operating in the UK , supports 32 cameras and multiviewing for almost 500 unique sources . If one were to build the routing system for such a truck with SDI routing , it would require four full ( 37 rack units / rack ) racks of SDI routing gear . The same system in IP takes up only 10 rack units !
IP is head-and-shoulders above SDI technology in terms of scalability . Not everyone needs the scalability IP offers , but in the world of expanding channel counts , increased requirements for signal monitoring and growing demand for higher bandwidth formats such as 4K / UHD , why not design your next system with technology that can expand to meet not only current but also future needs ?
Flexibility
Another big benefit of IP-based systems is their format flexibility — the ability to handle any format , present or future , with the same infrastructure . Unlike SDI routers , IP switches are agnostic to the data they carry . Furthermore , the new standards suite , SMPTE ST 2110 , is designed to accommodate not only today ’ s frame rates and resolutions , but it can also handle future formats such as UHD-1 and UHD-2 . It can accommodate high dynamic range ( HDR ) and wide colour gamut ( WCG ) signals . It can accommodate 4:2:0 , 4:2:2 and even 4:4:4 colour sampling . It can accommodate 8- , 10- , 12- , 14- and 16- bit pixels . In short , SMPTE ST 2110 and IP provide a mechanism that will allow a broadcaster to handle multiple future formats without a change in infrastructure or standard .
One of the toughest situations broadcasters face in an SDI-based world is trying to predict the future . Investing in an SDI infrastructure for a future format is a big bet , which can require years to install and even longer to amortise . In today ’ s world of rapidly changing consumer preference , such a bet is all that more risky . By investing in IP once , you can greatly reduce your risk of investing in technology that becomes obsolete . With an investment in IP , you can be prepared to handle future formats .
Utilisation
An additional benefit of IP is better equipment utilisation . In traditional SDI-based studios , each studio is typically outfitted with enough equipment ( multiviewers , signal processing , production switching , camera control units ( CCUs ) and so on ) to be stand-alone and self-sufficient . While we typically think of self-sufficiency as good , it is also very expensive , particularly if a given studio is only really used a few hours each day . IP enables better sharing of resource . Every signal on a facility ’ s network can be accessed , anywhere within
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Graham Stephens CTO Media City Development , Malaysia the facility . As a result , with IP , one can share a common set of processing resource ( multiviewers , signal processing , production switcher resource and CCUs ) in a pool , and this pool can in turn be accessed by any studio .
With WAN connectivity , this model can be extended beyond a single facility to multiple remote facilities . This is what the NEP Group has done with great success , both in The Netherlands and Australia , where it is able to place only cameras in sports stadiums and show sets . All the other equipment ( and the control room itself ) is centrally located . With this approach , NEP is able to connect to 29 remote venues across Australia and crew shows from one of two control room locations : Sydney or Melbourne . This allows NEP to deliver top-notch production services while spending less on both equipment and travel .
Scalability , format flexibility and better equipment utilisation ( resource sharing ) are three of the top benefits of IP . These benefits are tangible and real , and help explain why the adoption of IP-based systems is on the upswing . To be sure , IP represents a learning curve for most broadcasters . However , the benefits of tackling that learning curve are compelling . This is why the list of media companies moving to IP continues to grow .
Michael Cronk is chairman of the Alliance for IP Media Solutions ( AIMS ) and vice-president for core technologies at Grass Valley . He is also an APB panellist .
Goh Kim Soon Senior Vice-President Broadcast Engineering Mediacorp
Shad Hashmi
Vice-President , Digital Development , Global Markets & Operations , BBC Worldwide Asia