SMPTE ST 2110 exploded in 2020 and over subsequent years became the core of many new IP infrastructure projects. IPMX is heading in the same direction, and 2023 is going to be the year where we see more projects adopting the standard as their foundation. You’re going to see some bigger rollouts and higher profile installations, and then it will really take off in late 2023 and early 2024. So, stay tuned — it’s going to be an exciting year.

It’s clear that standards are crucial when building any system based on interoperable functions between different manufacturers’ equipment, and two industry standards have been developed to advance the adoption of IP deployment: SMPTE 2110 – the set of SMPTE standards for the transport of digital media over an IP network – and the NMOS (Networked Media Open Specifications) suite of specifications, which also ensures easy device connection management on a network, something fraught with multiple perils that were never envisaged by the builders of SDI networks in the past.

One major way that ST 2110 technology is being expanded to support new applications is in the development of IPMX (Internet Protocol Media eXperience). The goal of this development is to help reduce the cost of ST 2110 technology for applications that may not require its full range of capabilities. Another goal is to produce the first truly open, license-free IP video specification for the ProAV market (in contrast with NDI, SDVoE and HDBaseT).

Since its publication in 2017, SMPTE 2110 has been deployed extensively throughout the broadcast industry. Across the globe, the standard has become a staple in IP-based television facilities and many of today’s major sporting and broadcasting events, including the 2020 summer Olympics and 2022 World Cup. This trend shows no sign of slowing in the upcoming year.

The next-generation IP broadcast workflow at the Dell booth focused on how to simplify the adoption of SMPTE ST 2110 standards for the broadcast industry. NVIDIA and Dell teamed up to showcase IP-based content-creation capabilities and deployment of AI in the broadcast pipeline from workstation to the edge.

At the RED booth, NVIDIA networking technologies (Rivermax, ConnectX, NVIDIA BlueField DPU, NVIDIA RTX GPU) enabled real-time 8K raw video over ST 2110. In this demo, NVIDIA and RED showcased a direct connection that allows cinema-quality RED V-RAPTOR 8K content to feed into an IP broadcast-production workflow.

If you work for a broadcaster, you know that distribution over IP is supplanting SDI as the best practice, both for in-studio and remote activities. IP is simply the “better mousetrap,” with more flexibility than SDI, at costs that are no greater and often less.

One of the interesting benefits of working in an IP production environment is that it is better understood by corporate IT departments than the traditional way of working in an SDI “island” that is strictly the concern of the television engineering staff. At a time when skilled broadcast engineers are retiring in great numbers, the transition to IP production infrastructures could not have come at a better time.

As media operations move toward all-IP connectivity and content delivery the IP Showcase will focus on progress in SMPTE ST 2110, AES 67 and IPMX. IP Showcase organizers are hosting both technical presentations and demonstrations that provide useful guidance and examples to media organizations making this critical shift. Along with technical paper presentations, the IP Showcase will feature basic tutorials tailored to newcomers in the field of IP video production, as well as case studies from real-world installations.

In short, PTP is a proven protocol that can (and does) readily deliver the performance essential for media over IP. Fear of implementation shouldn’t be an obstacle to moving forward with an IP migration. The industry’s continued and successful shift is evidence of that.

The Video Services Forum is pleased to announce major industry interoperability demonstrations of the latest technologies for transporting video and audio over IP networks. These interop events will take place during VidTrans 2022 which will be held at the Marina del Rey Marriott in Los Angeles, CA, June 14 to 16.

The first-of-a-kind demo will take place at AIMS Booth W1067 and will feature networking equipment and hardware and software nodes running both IPMX and SMPTE ST 2110, the standards suite on which IPMX is based. The demo will also highlight gateways between IPMX and other protocols, developer kits, and elements of IPMX-enabled AV-over-IP workflows.