X-PLATFORM
May-June 2017
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Above: Caton Technology’s solutions, powered by the company’s R2TP and F2TP technologies, are designed
to easily integrate with most existing IP-based production and post-production environments.
Left: Sony’s live IP Live Studio as part of its Digital Motion Picture Centre Europe (DMPCE) at
Pinewood Film Studios in the UK demonstrates a full-IP ecosystem.
The control layer also has a key
role to play in hardware virtualisa-
tion, or what Lawo terms “soft-
ware-defined processing”, Erlitz
adds. This, he says, allows users
to run any processing function by
software with a cloud-based, high-
performance processing platform,
instead of using dedicated, one-
per-function modular gear.
Such an approach, according to
Erlitz, is essential to fully take ad-
vantage of integrated IP set-ups, as
the functionality of any given sys-
tem can be tailored to its specific
application by the loading of differ-
ent software processing modules
whenever they are needed. “Apart
from much higher flexibility and
automation possibilities, this again
leads to an improved utilisation of
the given resources,” he says.
On the road to broadcast IP,
one concern that broadcasters may
plausibly raise is this: If I deploy
solutions from different vendors in
an IP ecosystem, can I be assured
that they can all work together in
a cost-effective manner?
This brings interoperability
into perspective, although industry
stakeholders have been working
hard as a collective unit to address
this issue.
Lawo, Riedel and Sony, for
example, are all members of the
Alliance for IP Media Solutions
(AIMS), a not-for-profit industry
consortium dedicated to an open-
standards approach that moves
broadcast and media companies
“quickly and profitably” from
legacy SDI systems to a virtualised,
IP-based environment.
It is of “absolute importance”
that industry stakeholders and
partners work together to bring IP
solutions to market that offer com-
plete interoperability, are based on
open standards, and integrate into
media workflow environments,
says Sony’s Takahama.
Sony, he points out, has been
committed to developing IP solu-
tions that are “ready today, open for
tomorrow” for more than 15 years.
For instance, the company
last year, launched a dedicated
live IP Live Studio as part of its
Digital Motion Picture Centre
Europe (DMPCE) at Pinewood
Film Studios in the UK. The studio
demonstrates a full-IP ecosystem,
showcasing the scalability and
benefits of Sony’s Networked
Media Interface (NMI), and aims
to create opportunities for Sony
partners and customers to test and
operate a complete IP workflow.
This initiative however, does
not deflect from Sony’s commit-
ment to the AIMS cause, which
is likely to be given a real shot in
the arm when the SMPTE ST 2110
standard is fully ratified this year.
Partnerships such as AIMS,
Takahama highlights, will only
benefit the industry and broad-
casters by giving them the flex-
ibility to explore new business
models, maintain best-of-breed
networks and add new capabili-
ties, without proprietary lock-in
or having to build new workflows.
For Riedel’s O’Neill, the
bottom line is, again, about choic-
es. IP interoperability will become
a key factor in a vendor’s future
longevity, he warns. “Just con-
necting devices and getting them
to work together takes up a huge
amount of time in any broadcast
installation,” O’Neill continues.
“All of us are under pressure as
our broadcast customers’ funding
and business models evolve. They
can’t count on huge brands spend-
ing millions in advertising dollars
anymore, so they’re on the hunt for
new revenue streams.”
The consequences? Content
creators need to create more, and
broadcasters need to broadcast
more — all while reducing costs.
“So if you can reduce 25% of your
investment, wouldn’t you want to
do that?” O’Neill asks.
AIMS, he adds, is also more
than just vendor collaboration.
Besides featuring some of the
world’s most prominent technol-
ogy manufacturers, AIMS also
welcomes broadcasters — or the
end-users — into the fold. “This
gives the end-users vital access to
the vendors and integrators who are
following the AIMS roadmap to IP
interoperability,” O’Neill explains.
“For us as manufacturers, we need
inputs from end-users to make
sure that our solutions meet their
needs — there’s no point inventing
a square peg for a round hole!”
Expect the current AIMS and
NMOS (Networked Media Open
Specifications) initiatives and the
resulting SMPTE offsprings to
become the dominant standards in
the industry, predicts Lawo’s Erlitz.
“This will happen much faster
than what we have seen with other
standardisation processes in the
media industry before,” he says, be-
fore adding that the development
and refinement of interoperable
standards is a continous process
that requires active cooperation
between manufacturers and end-
users alike. “For manufacturers
who follow this route, this is a
big chance as customers naturally
favour open standards over pro-
prietary solutions,” he concludes.
And a unified approach to-
wards IP will be high on the agenda
at BroadcastAsia2017 in Singapore
from May 23-25, where the Broad-
cast IP Inter-Op Lab will attempt
to demonstrate the viability of IP
to Asian broadcasters.
Set up by APB, in collabora-
tion with systems integrator Ideal
Systems and show organiser UBM
SES, the lab will showcase what is
working in IP today and highlight
interoperability between different
manufacturers.
It will also offer a hands-on
approach of working on an all-IP
ecosystem, and will include a live
broadcast studio, as well as content
editing and distribution to over-
the-top (OTT) platforms, all in
real-time IP.
The Bro