BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY
With more than 55 members already on board , Mike Cronk , chairman of the AIMS board , invites broadcasters to join the collective industry effort to adopt ‘ one interoperable approach ’ to IP .
02 capabilities — and broadcasters are then able to select best-inbreed solutions ,” he added .
For AIMS to boast 56 members — as at press time — just a year into its formation is also instructive , and a clear acknowledgement of the inevitable transition to IP . After all , this is an industry grouping featuring companies that are essentially competing against one another in an increasingly competitive marketplace .
To further muddy the waters , there are companies within the grouping that are also actively developing proprietary standards of their own .
However , this should be interpreted as a positive development , suggested Cronk , because even companies who are undertaking proprietary implementations are acknowledging that , in order to be successful , the industry needs to collectively adopt ‘ one interoperable approach ’ to IP .
How do we get there ? IP-based broadcast is real , and broadcasters can now transition operations to an IT-based infrastructure without compromising current benchmarks for quality , performance or reliability , said Joe Khodeir , VP sales , Asia-Pacific , Imagine Communications .
The caveat , he stressed , is to cross a “ chasm of trust ”, where media professionals must guarantee performance of their networks and overcome any concerns about replacing SDI-based infrastructure with commercial off-the-shelf computing and networking platforms .
To demonstrate the feasibility of IP-based infrastructures in live , critical broadcast environments , Imagine was involved in a number of commercial deployments in 2016 .
These included the Rio Olympic Games , where Imagine Communications equipped an outside broadcast truck for Latin American broadcaster Globo . The deployment is said to deliver the “ first ” 4K / UHD and IP-capable production to Latin America .
Imagine also worked with Sony for the launch of a dedicated IP Live Studio at Sony ’ s Digital Motion Picture Centre Europe ( DMPCE ) at Pinewood Film Studios near London .
IP is ready for primetime , declared Khodeir , for the simple
reason that broadcasters have to begin to migrate operations away from rigid , single-purpose components and work towards software-based common computing resources .
In any event , the transition need not happen overnight ; the current integration of the SDI and IP signalling planes allow for a gradual and cost-efficient transition to next-generation architectures , Khodeir suggested .
When putting in place a new system , the expectation that it works as well as , if not better than , the existing system should be a given . When the system in question is one that has worked well for many years , the challenges become multi-fold , as is the case with SDI .
SDI has been a “ great medium ” and the broadcast industry has become highly adept at using it in a very efficient manner , said Tim Felstead , Head of Product Marketing , Snell Advanced Media ( SAM ).
The industry is in a transitory period when it comes to IP , he added , and until broadcasters see the same level of security , reliability and performance in IP systems as they have enjoyed in SDI systems , hesitation in adopting IP is unavoidable .
“ One of the problems that broadcasters are experiencing is the worry in terms of managing hybrid workflows and the need to meet the requirements of SDI and IP simultaneously ,” he continued .
Like Imagine Communications , SAM is a founding member of AIMS , which Felstead urged broadcasters to join , so that the industry can collectively push for open , vendor-agnostic IP standards publicly .
Other AIMS members you can read about in this supplement include Riedel and Axon . For the former , the company ’ s focus remains on using IP infrastructure to transport media data within local facilities , via routers and between larger networks .
Describing IP as the “ first true disruptive change ” to the basic foundation of how video content is created and distributed , Christian Diehl , product manager at Riedel Communications , urged caution when it comes to managing expectations .
He explained : “ While it ’ s true that IP ultimately will deliver