What does IP Video really mean, why there is such hysteria and where it’s all going? At annual industry trade shows, like IBC and NAB, there is often a single ‘buzzword’ which floats to the top of conversations between vendors, broadcasters and consultants. Over the last year or so, that word has been ‘IP Video’, and with each day that passes, IP Video hysteria grows. In this article we will try to rationalise what IP Video actually means in practice, and ask questions about how it will start to play a role in the day to day lives of broadcasters. We will question the ongoing debate around choosing which IP Video protocol is going to become “the standard” and we will conclude that in fact we need more than one protocol to realise the opportunities offered by working with Video in an IP world.
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I was discussing yet another IP transport protocol with the President/CTO of a well-known technology vendor and “The State of the State” of the move to IP when I had an Epiphany! These usually happen at inopportune times like in the shower or when you wake up, but this time it was in the middle of an appropriate conversation.
This year’s Super Bowl 50 live telecast, on CBS, will feature the typical grandiosity that is “The Big Game,” with roughly three dozen “traditional” broadcast high-definition cameras, 36 more POV HD cameras and a few 4K versions as well capturing the action. As in past years, there will also be some “pioneering” technology that usually exemplifies the world’s most watched single day sporting event. Last year’s Super Bowl was the most watched television program in US history, reporting more than 114 million viewers, and Super Bowl 50 looks to top that.
The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) has made several alterations to its AS-11, MXF for Contribution Media File Format.
The great promise of IP is to create a truly open and interoperable environment for the smooth plug and play of best of breed technologies. A bit like SDI in fact, but with greater potential for economic and creative benefit. There are a number of overlapping initiatives trying to solve the same problem: IP in the Live Production environment. Some fuse proprietary technologies with open standards, others are attempting to work with a mix of standards and technical drafts before committees at SMPTE. There isn’t one which has all the pieces of the puzzle to genuinely claim to be fully open, end-to-end and standards based. Here we take a close look at one of them, the ASPEN initiative, founded by Evertz and backed by over 30 end-users and manufacturers.
Dolby Laboratories has announced major partnerships that will bring Dolby Vision to your living room HDR TV faster than 4K video is becoming available. Look for it in home movie releases and theaters, too.
The pressure to reduce the TCO of today’s SDI broadcast infrastructures makes an all IP infrastructure solution appealing. But to reach that goal, a facility needs to leverage existing technology with new software-based media processing applications on COTS servers. Here are some suggested steps.
