APB PANELLISTS
6 NEWS & VIEWS
November 2016
Live IP : A practical view
by willem vermost and felix poulin
For many years now , we have taken for granted that the future of content production lies with IP , and how it promises many benefits .
The exciting news is that we are now passing from theory to practice . One of the most significant proofs-ofconcept , titled LiveIP , has been delivered at Belgium ’ s national broadcaster VRT . It involved building and operating a live TV production studio with stateof-the-art IP-enabled equipment , using available interoperable , open standards . The project is the result of great collaboration between VRT , the European Broadcasting Union ( EBU ) and a group of innovative broadcast technology partners including Axon , D & MS , DWESAM , EVS , Genelec , Grass Valley , Imagine Communications , Lawo , Nevion , Tektronix , Trilogy and Vizrt .
Why change ?
Today ’ s digital environment has a clear impact on audiences . Consumers want to be able to consume more media anytime , anywhere and on any device . This obliges media organisations to provide new formats , and to package their content for different media delivery platforms .
This ongoing business transformation would be difficult to achieve using traditional SDI-based technology , as it is not flexible enough to adapt to the continuous and rapid changes . While IP is often said to be the technology best placed to support that transformation , there are many questions in the industry about its readiness for live production . Can it , in its present state , bring to professional live media the transformation seen in other areas such as telecoms or media post production ?
How to change ?
The best way to answer these questions is to actually test this new technology in a real environment . The LiveIP project was designed with many short phases , built around typical workflows : single camera , multi camera , remote production , a live TV show . During the summer months in Europe , the set-up was used for a daily production and at IBC 2016 , the kit was used to produce IBC TV .
What technology is being used ?
This project started in spring 2015 . The design of the system was based on the technology that was available at the time , and that vendors had committed to providing working implementations during the course of the project .
The topology used for the IP network is the so-called Spine-Leaf archi tecture . It is a software-defined network , based upon the OpenFlow
❝ This ongoing business transformation would be difficult to achieve using traditional SDIbased technology , as it is not flexible enough to adapt to the continuous and rapid changes [ brought forth by a digital environment ].❞
standard , which deals with the routing of the media streams . To transport the uncompressed video , SMPTE ST 2022- 6 was used . As in many SDI-based television studios , audio is usually carried separately from the video . A combination of AES67 and the Ravenna standard was used .
Just like in a traditional SDI-based studio , an SDI-over-IP studio requires the end-devices to be precisely synchronised . IEEE 1588-2008 , or Precision Time Protocol ( PTP ), is the recognised way to achieve sufficiently precise time distribution over a network . Not all video equipment was already capable of using PTP during the project .
PTP includes several parameters , which are constrained in profiles that are specific to certain applications . In this project , two PTP profiles were used by the different devices : the profile for video applications as described in SMPTE ST 2059-2:2015 and the profile as described in AES67 for professional audio applications . From an operational point of view , one profile for video and audio would be beneficial .
What about interoperability ?
The transition to IP video transport and IT architectures is a fundamental change for our industry . It brings more flexibility and modularity , but also adds complexity . The technology is also new to users , as well as to many vendors . This being said , we found that users have a baseline expectation : they want the same level of interoperability as with SDI , which gives them the liberty of building systems from best-of-breed components .
Therefore , there is a real advantage in bringing together technology pioneers on the premises of a broadcaster to interconnect their hardware and software to address a real use case — all while the technology is still evolving . Within this “ safe haven ”, engineers can cross company boundaries and work together on the interoperability between their products , without being burdened by commercial concerns . Moreover , the findings from this project are contributing to the international standardisation of the technology .
What to conclude ?
From the LiveIP experience , we can
Willem Vermost
conclude that it is possible today to build a live IP-based studio . No real roadblocks were encountered throughout the entire project . The set-up has proved to be particularly flexible due to the fact that there is more emphasis on configuration than cabling .
Andrew Anderson
Head of Broadcast Operations Seven West Media
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Stan Moote CTO IABM
❝ Users have a baseline expectation : they want the same level of interoperability [ with IP ] as with SDI , which gives them the liberty of building systems from best-ofbreed components .❞
Further development
In order to help EBU members , who are Europe ’ s public service broadcasters , an EBU working group has drawn up what it believes will be the evolution of the technology over the coming years . The roadmap , which you can read more about at https :// tech . ebu . ch / news / 2016 / 08 / ip-production-infrastructure---is-it-ready-for-take-off , was welcomed by many organisations and has been adopted by the Joint Task Force on Networked Media ( JT-NM ).
To unlock all the possibilities that IT-based systems can provide , further development is needed . Aspects to be explored include elementary flows , discovery and registration , capability management , and virtualisation .
The next big step towards IPbased live production would be to have a new open standard based on all current efforts and the VSF recommendations TR-03 and TR-04 . The SMPTE drafting group is using these recommendations as a foundation for a new open standard that will be known as SMPTE SD-2110 . This will enable separate video , audio and metadata essence in an open , interoperable fashion . The publication is to be expected very soon !
Willem Vermost is Network IP Media Technology Architect , European Broadcasting Union ( EBU ), and Felix Poulin is Senior Engineer and Project Manager , Media Production Technologies , EBU
Christopher Slaughter
CEO CASBAA
Felix Poulin