BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY
Navigating the
road to IP with a
hybrid strategy
While the transition to IP may be inevitable, the reality is that the
move to an Ethernet IT-centric environment will pose a significant
challenge for most broadcasters. It could even be argued that today,
the barriers to IP outweigh the opportunities. B Y PETER SC HUT
Currently, IP is less reliable than SDI, more
expensive and harder to control and monitor.
In its basic format, Ethernet does not work
in a live broadcast environment as it is built
around a best-effort delivery strategy —
lacking the consistent, constant low latency
and high reliability that our customers need
and expect. However, there is no doubt that
with continued protocol enhancements, it will
become the backbone of our industry; IP is
proving to be more convenient, more flexible
and eventually cheaper.
As our industry takes further steps
towards IP, what is becoming increasingly
clear is that every application needs its own
specific technology — one standard does not
fit all — and this is leading to uncertainty and
confusion among broadcasters.
Taking a snapshot today, it looks like TR03
will become the production standard providing
separate elementary streams for video, audio
and data. It will be a timed and low latency
format. ST2022, meanwhile, is most definitely
a contribution standard. It handles all data in
one stream — audio, video and data locked
together in one. ST2022 is nothing more than
packetised SDI with embedded audio and data
— this is good for contribution applications
where you do not want to mess with individual
payloads.
Playout, however, is a completely different
ball game, using different formats — from SDI
and uncompressed IP to files. The outputs
are transport streams with highly compressed
data payloads. They live as an ASI stream and
move increasingly into Ethernet/IP all the way
to your home. With broadcasters staggering
roll-out according to different operational
priorities and the launch of new technologies,
expectations may have to be reset.
However, over the past six months, the
landscape seems to be becoming clearer with
the emergence of the Alliance for IP Media
Solutions (AIMS). This industry coalition, of
which Axon is a member, has gained a lot of
momentum with real efforts and activities to
encourage companies to work together and
create interoperable solutions.
So how should a broadcaster start to plan
the move from SDI to IP? Let us be realistic
here. Our industry has a tendency to carry old
formats for decades (we still sell composite
video products), and the move to IP will not
change that. SDI is not dead. Despite the
18
When will the broadcast industry mov e to a full IP domain? A ccording to A x on, ev en as early adopters’ new
infrastructure cores are based on IP, the surrounding environment is still currently dominated by SDI.
“We envisage a slow
move into the full IP
domain over the next
five to 10 years and
for the foreseeable
future, our industry
must navigate a
hybrid world where
SDI and Ethernet will
live side by side.”
— Peter Schut, CTO, Axon
marketing hype, it remains a mature and reliable
interface that our customers use and trust.
In all honesty, today, there are many
applications where the use of IP is
questionable and for several years ahead SDI
will be the only route forward. Early adopters
currently face a lack of native IP products,
so while their new infrastructure cores are
based on IP, the surrounding environment
is still dominated by SDI — forcing them to
re-introduce SDI routing because IP routing is
simply not maturing fast enough.
We envisage a slow move into the full
IP domain over the next five to 10 years
and for the foreseeable future, our industry
must navigate a hybrid world where SDI and
Ethernet will live side by side. Over the past
12 months, Axon has been working hard to
develop a clear path for our customers; we
have moved from AVB (Audio Video Bridging),
via ST2022, to TR03 (and TR04).
This shift in focus in itself is not a big deal
— our development team has always been
well-placed to react to the market — but these
technologies are as equal as they are different
and all are very complex. It is clear that
ST2022 is here to stay in some applications.
Whether TR03 will be embraced completely
by our industry remains to be seen but the
signs are all there.
Axon’s strategy remains customer-focused
and pragmatic: to deliver products and hybrid
solutions that the industry needs as it moves
from SDI to IP, ensuring that all relevant new
hardware platforms are equipped with highspeed Ethernet (10Gbps) interfaces. Today
we have a future-proof set of hardware and
software platforms, fully ready to help our
customers make that transition.