The Axon team , led by company CEO Jan Eveleens , wants to be right at the heart of broadcast .

All roads may eventually lead to 4K / Ultra HD ( UHD ) — but for the moment , HD remains in the mainstream for Asia , suggests Jan Eveleens , CEO of Axon .

Master control systems , thus , need to be agile , flexible and powerful enough to support HD today , as well as 4K / UHD and IP in the future , he adds .

At booth 5D4-03 , Axon is highlighting SynMC , a Synapse-based master control solution that allows users to take complete control of the transmission chain , and to expand and manage master control systems in line with changing broadcast needs .

The Cerebrum control and monitoring software supports a wide range of devices from different manufacturers . These include routers , production switchers , servers , receiver decoders , multi-viewers

and waveform monitors , which are all controlled using either SNMP or third-party protocols .

Axon ’ s BroadcastAsia2016 lineup is completed by SMART DVB , an Axon platform for live MPEG-2 and DVB transport stream reporting . It offers a full suite of tools to monitor , report and analyse live MPEG-2 and DVB transport streams , enabling ope rators to ensure health , conformity and quality across the digital distribution chain .

Through a continuing working relationship with Utah Scientific , Axon is also showcasing the Utah Scientific 400 router series , which includes support for 4K / UHD and IP .

And it is through technology partnerships such as these that Axon is addressing the broadcast needs of today while preparing broadcasters for the technologies of tomorrow .

by hans hasselbach

The drive towards the adoption of IP in broadcasting seems unstoppable . One of the main areas in which IP is making in-roads is live ( or real-time ) contribution . Can IP be secure and reliable enough , deliver a live experience with minimal latency , and above all , deliver commercial benefits ?

The big challenge of using IP to carry high-quality live video content — like contribution signals — is that we have to overcome the inherent limitations of IP .

When it was conceived , IP was designed merely to try to deliver every data packet , meaning some might not get there . Those that do , might suffer some fluctuations in latency along the way ; it is up to the higher-level protocols and applications to overcome the fluctuations or re-request the missing packets from the sender .

In live broadcast , that requirement is turned upside down . We need a new picture every 40 milliseconds , and it is not acceptable to drop even a single frame of

an important video stream . So a successful IP network connection depends on high-performance video and audio media gateways , working alongside powerful network management to manage the connections .

Whether the signal is sent uncompressed , with light JPEG2000 compression or with H . 264 , it needs to be encapsulated into IP packets and multiplexed . At this point , the transport protection also starts with , for example , forward error correction ( FEC ) in the data stream to allow the receiver to detect packet errors and correct them without the need for data to be resent , which would change the latency and risk signal disruption .

Other protection strategies might include the likes of SIPS ( Seamless IP Protection Switching ), which enables the receiver to switch on a packet-by-packet basis between two identical streams .

This can be used , for example , to transmit packets simultaneously down two separate IP routes , with instant switching between them should anything

occur along either route .

Importantly , these signals can be transported over standard IP networks , so there is no requirement for dedicated equipment along the route — only the media gateways at each end .

While dedicated IP circuits will be normally used , even the open Internet could be used , with some technical provisions to overcome the huge variations in latency . This also comes with the understanding that it is far less reliable than dedicated IP links , and some compromise on quality will be needed .

However , the cost benefits remain because , with the appropriate management system , IP links are set up on-demand and paid for as needed .

Hans Hasselbach is SVP , Europe and Asia- Pacific Sales , Nevion , which is exhibiting at booth 5A8-06 .