WITH IP INTEROP
BEHIND US,
VIRTUALIZATION IS THE
NEXT STEP TO ELASTIC
PRODUCTION
By JAMES STELLPFLUG,
VP PRODUCT MARKETING, EVS
A historic shift for the broad-
cast industry is happening. IP
is the beginning of a transition
that includes, but doesn’t end
with virtualization. This is the
next step in the evolution of IP
and only when core aspects of
live production like video pro-
duction servers, switchers and
camera processing are success-
fully virtualized will we start to
reap the true benefits of the
technology.
To this point, one of the biggest
barriers has been the inability
to virtualize input and output
for point-to-point signals like
SDI. Systems are bound to the
physical interface, which has
prevented advances in the live
domain. But with IP standards
and interoperability developed
between multiple across the
industry, we’ve been able to
eliminate those physical con-
nections. The age of virtualiza-
tion is now possible.
We’re fully aware that virtual-
ized processes are already in
use today – especially across
business systems, control layer
tools, and file-based processing.
And IP has been the enabler of
this, supporting functionalities
built on standard data center
appliances with standard com-
puting equipment at the core.
Through functional separation
– decoupling network control
and forwarding functions – net-
work virtualization and automa-
tion, users can control traffic
from a centralized console with
entirely.
This is where the virtualized pro-
duction model comes into play.
IP-enabled, software-defined,
COTS hardware-driven. This is
all increasingly paving the way
for migration away from dedi-
cated hardware, onto software
and into the cloud.
WHAT’S DRIVING THE
MARKET?
We’ve all heard about the
immediate benefits of IP and
virtualization – more flexibili-
ty, streamlined production and
better economies of scale. But
there are larger market forc-
Broadcast Beat Magazine • www.broadcastbeat.com • 77