OPINION AND ANALYSIS
The Hybrid Transition to IP Production By Will Waters, Senior Director IP Workflow Strategy at NewTek
I
t is an exciting time for broadcasters. Around the globe, broadcasters and video production professionals are navigating the transition to IP, perhaps the biggest change the video production industry has seen in the last half-century. Where once a tiny number of producers generated video, now almost anyone can make a show and broadly distribute it across IP networks and the internet. As a consequence, consumers of video now expect more content, in more places, and they want it on their own schedules. To be successful, broadcasters today must be able to quickly and easily produce content that is curated for many smaller groups of viewers and do so while reducing costs. Afterall, the true end goal of the transition to IP in broadcast is to gain the flexibility, efficiency, and cost savings that the larger IT industry can provide. Recently, the ratification of major standards such as SMPTE 2110 and the continued mass adoption of proprietary protocols like NewTek’s NDI begin to paint a picture of how IP solutions will emerge. What this means for broadcasters is that video production over IP is no longer a future milestone, but a reality today. Other areas of the modern production facility have long been using networked IP infrastructure in their workflow. Software-driven applications within the live production space like graphics generators and video playout servers are already connected to the rest of the facility via the network for interface and control, leaving only the raw audio and video streams in an SDI format. The ratification and adoption of IP standards for moving high-quality, low-latency video suitable for live switching now brings the rest of the studio into the same fabric. However, the need to support existing SDI-based gear is clearly apparent for successful transition to IP
for several reasons. Large investments in SDI core routers and many edge devices serve a legitimate function and there is little reason to get rid of them quickly. The HD signal types commonly used are HD-SDI (1.5Gb/s) and 3G-SDI (2.97Gb/s in progressive format) and these uncompressed formats can be moved into 10Gb/s network routing easily. Higher resolution formats such as UHD-1 (12 Gb/s) and UHD-2 (24Gb/s) require a different approach and are the topic of a different debate. Further complicating matters are various uncompressed IP formats introduced prior to the ratification of SMPTE 2110 and the introduction of 12G-SDI. As a result, some manufacturers are resisting putting IP capable I/O on their equipment. This dictates that a proper transition to IP will require hybrid systems taking advantage of the best of breed devices whether they are SDI or IP based. Conversion from SDI to and from IP is an important design consideration for engineers as they plan out the IP infrastructure. While it is a practical reality that conversion will be required in a hybrid facility, the amount of conversion should be weighed against the cost of full infrastructure switchover. Depending on the type and capabilities of the conversion products, there are hidden costs when dealing with multiple resolutions and formats. Additionally, lots of conversion usually comes with increased power consumption, adding to cost. With IP, all traffic in a facility can be on a single common infrastructure. However, transitioning to IP for the sake of using IP alone gains little benefit in both workflow and investment. If an IP implementation did no more than provide a simple, unidirectional connection between devices, perhaps reducing expense, it may not justify the effort. Once studios are connected on the IP network, however, physical ‘normal’
8 | TVBE MAY 2018
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19/04/2018 09:49