IP MIGRATION has been a key participant in the NMOS project for many years, and remarks: “The discovery and connection management solutions have enabled the discovery of ST 2110 equipment on an IP infrastructure, to see it in an NMOS registry, and then make connections to it. That is essentially the capabilities that you get with the NMOS IS04 and IS-05 specifications. But since they were published, the number of specifications and areas we have been working on has increased exponentially, and many more people should be made aware of that.”
STATUS MONITORING
Cristian Recoseanu
For example, Recoseanu points to two work-in-progress ‘best common practices’ (BCPs). BCP-008-01 and BCP-008-02 contain standard methods of monitoring the statuses of receivers and senders, respectively, providing users with standard models, guidance, expectations and requirements for minimum status reporting. By allowing broadcast engineers to ascertain the health of critical parts of the network, it becomes much easier to debug problems and identify potential weaknesses. The two specifications also exemplify the NMOS teams’ ongoing commitment to outreach, which involves speaking to end-users to determine their precise requirements. “As with previous specifications developed by AMWA, we spoke extensively to end-users, who had largely been faced with not having technical specs in this area, and they suggested the minimum requirements they would be happy to have, which would help them solve 95 per cent of the problems they face. We then had to work really hard on the modelling framework and develop the specifications in such a way that they respected the requirements and ‘red lines’ outlined by the users.” Recoseanu adds that the receiver/sender status specifications are now in “their final phases of development; we’re working on the test implementations and expect to be able to publish them soon.” There is also a white paper, which can be accessed here, related to the development of BCP-008-01 and BCP-008-02 that provides useful “use cases and scenarios”. Across its specifications, NMOS effectively addresses many of the requirements pertaining to the presentday broadcast ecosystem. For instance, the current geopolitical outlook— characterised by profound global instability, rising numbers of cyberattacks, and threats to broadcast organisations—means that many content services are reviewing their security infrastructures. One of
the earlier BCP specifications, BCP-003-01, documents best practice for secure transport related to NMOS API communications. Recognising that a secure control plane and sufficient encryption are essential, BCP-003-01 (and related specs BCP-003-02 and BCP-003-03) allows for interoperability using widely adopted technologies, such as TLS 1.2 or better for HTTP and WebSocket messages. Security and encryption will continue to be high priorities as the NMOS specifications develop, underlining the fact that, for broadcasters and other media organisations, the preservation of their content is always paramount.
CONTROL AWARENESS Meanwhile, NMOS continues to raise awareness of NMOS Control. Whilst this aspect has undoubtedly contributed to the present sense of momentum around the standard, there is also a recognition by AMWA proponents that the best kind of awareness revolves around practical demonstrations and hands-on experience. Therefore, demos and training about NMOS Control are set to play a decisive role in the next phase of NMOS. Stefan Ledergerber is founder and owner of Simplexity, a company providing consulting and training of audio/video over IP systems, and a contributor to standards initiatives including AES67, SMPTE ST 2110 and NMOS. “I think a lot of people already have a strong theoretical knowledge of NMOS, but now they are increasingly beginning to convert that into practical experience, including via the growing number of training sessions being organised by AMWA.” The annual calendar of trade shows and industry events remains crucial to spreading the word about NMOS. In addition, Recoseanu and Ledergerber highlight the role of the IPMX (Internet Protocol Media Experience) open standards, which are growing in popularity and build upon some existing specs and standards, including NMOS, ST 2110 and AES67, to offer an approach to IP networking that is especially relevant to pro AV applications, with additional provisions for control, copy protection, connection management and security. “It's definitely an exciting time for NMOS as these specifications begin to be more widely understood and implemented, due to their inclusion in ST 2110 and IPMX,” adds Ledergerber. “NMOS is out there in the world, delivering for a wide range of customers, and some very exciting times lie ahead.” For more information on NMOS, including videos about individual specifications and the overall project, please visit https://www.amwa.tv/
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