This article primarily makes the case for using IP in production, but also
mentions IP in delivery. Here's a telling couple of sentences:
"Consumers and electronics manufacturers are now driving the technology.
Companies like Netflix are positioning themselves to take advantage of this and
utilize IP technology to supply direct to screen delivery for everything from
small screens to 4K. With the technology now accessible to broadcasters as
well, they won't have to pin their future solely on ATSC 3.0."
Although as I read it, ATSC 3.0 is heavily IP-reliant too. The broadcast
aspects should predictably become steadily less important, over time, IMO.
The other thing is this comment:
"Meyer said that people continue to underestimate the shear power of Ethernet.
'It's an amazing technology that is designed to be scalable,' he said, adding
that such scalability will provide broadcasters a platform that will more
easily grow and change with their needs."
Essentially all of the innovation now occurring with Ethernet is at the
physical layer, i.e. building ever faster transceivers and modulation schemes,
and switches. What's left that can be considered historically "Ethernet" is
only the format of the frame. The contention avoidance protocol is still there,
for old time's sake, but unused for all intents and purposes. If it gets used
at all, it no longer fills its intended purpose anyway. That CSMA/CD protocol
would not scale, is the problem.
Ethernet adopted the fast cell switching technology invented for ATM, now used
with 1500-byte Ethernet frames instead of 53-byte ATM cells, discarded all the
other ATM complexities, and all the heavy lifting is otherwise the job of IP or
of non-Ethernet working groups of the IEEE (e.g. VLANs, link layer security,
access control, even link aggregation now, are not Ethernet wg responsibility).
So you throw frames at switches as fast as you can, they get directed through
the switch according to the local Ethernet destination address (MAC address) in
the frame, and if the switch is busy when the frame arrives, you simply create
a queue. At most, you can optionally send a signal upstream to hold off sending
frames.
The power of Ethernet is that its popularity as a vessel for carrying IP
packets can justify the investment in creating ever faster link speeds. IP has
to emulate all of those hardware functions used previously for TV production,
and Ethernet's role is to come up with cost-effective link speeds. Just to put
things in perspective.
Bert
-------------------------------------------
http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0086/ip-for-broadcast-the-time-is-now/275499
Ian Macspadden / 04.21.2015 12:00 PM
IP for Broadcast: The Time Is Now
LAS VEGAS-It's hard to believe that broadcast production and distribution
chains were once dominated by hardware-based systems.
"There isn't much in the broadcast ecosystem that isn't already IP, except the
baseband tier of live production," said Chuck Meyer, chief technology officer
for Grass Valley. He points to the fact that most facilities follow a
file-based workflow for production, their traffic systems are automated, and
the transmission end has all signals encoded in some form before heading to the
transmitter.
"It's about changing the workflow environment from being hardware based to
software; that is where the operational flexibility comes in." said John
Maihot, IP solutions architect with Imagine Communications. Maihot says that
the time has come for completely IP-based facilities to emerge, with the
software component being key.
ENTER 10G
Using Ethernet and Internet Protocol to move media around a plant is not new,
but the level of maturity in the technology now is energizing manufacturers to
pursue solutions for new systems, including replacing the venerable facility
video router. One of the greatest enablers to this change has been the
availability of 10GbE IP network hardware. A 1.5 Gbps uncompressed HD-SDI
signal would never fit down a 1GbE Ethernet cable, but with 10GbE you can now
fit four to six. And because Ethernet is bidirectional unlike SDI, that means
more signals in both directions.
This dramatic increase in signal count and the inherent scalability of Ethernet
provides a possible future proof solution to the growing port count and higher
resolutions requirements of the core video routing system.
Systems integrators are seeing high levels of interest in IP infrastructure by
the number of requests. John Wesley Nash, executive vice president of
engineering and chief operating officer for CEI, a Newington, Va.-based SI,
says that most of its near-term projects have clients considering an IP
transport solution. "Clients want to know what are the operational limitations
of going IP versus how I am used to working, and what advantages does IP bring
to the table," he said.
WHY IP?
"Unless you are watching off-air ATSC, you are probably watching video over
IP," Meyer said. He highlights this, as most Americans are watching some form
of IP-based video chain whether they are viewing cable, satellite or OTT video
streams. He says the reason broadcasters need to consider the holistic IP
approach is because IP allows you to go straight to the customer, emphasizing
the fact that content is what media companies are all about. Successful OTT
providers produce very little content of their own and in fact distribute
material mainly from other companies. By creating a more flexible IP
distribution chain, he envisions broadcasters and content owners being able to
play a bigger part in direct to customer distribution.
Al Kovalick, founder of Media Systems Consulting in Santa Clara, Calif., points
to compelling technical reasons why IP will replace many current baseband
systems. "The industry wants flexibility to move and combine any streams or
elements of those streams the way they want." He is working with several
standards groups on an IP-based system that will provide all the current
flexibilities of SDI routing with the scalability offered by IP. Their goal is
to answer the question, "What does it take to replace SDI with Ethernet?" he
said.
Currently different manufacturers are taking slightly different approaches on
their implementation of IP and existing standards. Many are following SMPTE
2022-6, which stipulates how an SDI payload is transported over Ethernet, but
doesn't yet address functionality issues like how to do audio breakaways or
other typical routing duties currently available under an SDI system.
Nash's team at CEI is seeing a more mature generation of offerings this year
from equipment manufacturers, but still not an interoperable offering across
brands. "We see manufacturers taking slightly different approaches and
philosophies," he commented. He is optimistic and says, "I can see within the
next year, systems' compatibility between vendors and the issue of a common
standard being behind us."
Meyers adds his concern for broadcasters' readiness, "Some engineers are not
familiar enough with the technology and the tool sets for monitoring," he said.
Not only will moving to an IP plant change workflows, but quality control and
monitoring requires sophisticated new tools. The test and measurement component
will move from the waveform scope to IP packet analyzers. This is not a bad
thing, but it needs to be taken into consideration.
WILL IP ENABLE UHD?
One of the greatest motivators for choosing IP-based routing is to accommodate
4K production. Today it takes four HD-SDI cables to carry a single 4K signal. A
10GbE cable can take that same signal with a light compression. There is
already talk of 40 and 100G switches that would enable even more signals or
greater resolutions.
Imagine Communications has partnered with Sony to tackle 4K over 10GbE, as
40GbE infrastructure is slightly cost prohibitive at the current time. "For the
case of UHD 60 we are going with Sony's LLC codec to be fully interoperable in
the Sony camera and switching environment," Maihot said. He sees 4K being a key
player in sports production, so adopting a partnership with Sony provides a
working solution today. "25GbE will support UHD 60 uncompressed," he said.
"Expect to see vendors announcing support for this in the next year or two."
Meyer said that people continue to underestimate the shear power of Ethernet.
"It's an amazing technology that is designed to be scalable," he said, adding
that such scalability will provide broadcasters a platform that will more
easily grow and change with their needs. For 4K he says that "IP islands" can
be built around an existing router to support higher resolution production
without having to migrate an entire plant over.
FINALLY FUTURE PROOF?
During the transition to digital, broadcast and production buildouts often
built their facilities with an added expense to be 3G-capable. This meant that
their plants could transport 1080p60 (highest level HD) signals-which most
never took advantage of as 720p and 1080i remain the broadcast standard.
Because of this, accountants and managers may question the viability of 4K.
"It's about changing the workflow environment from being hardware based to
software," said Maihot, who sees stations and facilities building out a
high-performance computing infrastructure and laying over software-based
solutions to implement the workflows that fit their needs. Similar to how
channel-in-a-box options have changed master control, he sees software taking
over management of all core processing and distribution needs of a facility.
Meyer noted that, "broadcasters are really no longer in control of the TV
anymore." Whereas 20 years ago the signal originating from a studio camera was
kept intact all the way through to the home set by ATSC standards, today, there
is no government regulation on 4KTV technology. Consumers and electronics
manufacturers are now driving the technology. Companies like Netflix are
positioning themselves to take advantage of this and utilize IP technology to
supply direct to screen delivery for everything from small screens to 4K. With
the technology now accessible to broadcasters as well, they won't have to pin
their future solely on ATSC 3.0.
While the HD transition began for many in 1998, it is just wrapping up in some
places almost 17 years later. The transition to IP, however should take a lot
less time, with Meyer predicting it will be accomplished in or under five years.
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