Ten things you need to know about IP before IBC

IBC

Video over IP for live production is set to be the most pressing issue at IBC2015 and the months beyond. At stake, a new methodology for transporting AV data from site to plant, in and around a studio and live to air. The reasons are many and include promised costs savings in a move to COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) technology, speed to spin-out new channels, a scalable path to resolutions of 4K and anything else the industry throws at it, and new techniques like remote production.

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IBC will be buzzing with video over IP. Here are some pointers which may help put the noise into context:

• IP reaches tipping point: IP will not just be hot news at IBC Content Everywhere Europe but across the wider IBC exhibits and IBC Conference, signifying that IP has reached a turning point. IP workflows already impact storage, archive, contribution and distribution. The last step is live production. No longer an experiment, this is the most fundamental technical change to sweep broadcast in decades. Expect the first IP live technology ready to buy on the IBC show floor.
   
• Re-skilling is not to be underestimated. Ripping out base-band SDI is not for the faint-hearted. Who wants to move from a proven technology where everyone knows what a signal is doing, and where it is in the chain, to an environment that some people feel is as yet unproven and in which everyone understands new skills are required? “If you've been working in SDI for thirty years and all of a sudden it's based on servers, this requires different skill sets,” says Adam Cox, Head of Broadcast Equipment, Futuresource Consulting. “The lack of skill sets are a big barrier to IP live.”
   
• Does IP live switching work? Yes, says Imagine Communications: “We are saying that the interaction feels the same as it did when audio/video was run over SDI.” Not yet, says Quantel Snell.  “Where SDI routers were very reliable with straightforward verification of what was happening, IP systems are more opaque. This creates a lack of confidence.” The industry decides at IBC.
   
• SMPTE 2022-6 is a short-term solution: SMPTE 2022-6 is the first incarnation of realtime video over IP and the standard on which most manufacturer's starter IP kit is based. However, 2022 is a mirror of copper-wire SDI functions in Ethernet form and is a way of easing the transition to IP for broadcast engineers. If you want to freely mix and match different camera, metadata or audio streams – the prime advantage that IP offers - then a new standard is required. SMPTE and the Video Services Forum are among those working on it. Expect demonstrations from next year.
   
• The codec conundrum: While HD 1080p can fit snugly down 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections, working in 4K UHD will need mezzanine compression. But which to choose? Contenders include IntoPix' Tico Alliance; J2K; VC2 and Sony's Low Latency Video Codec. Using multiple proprietary codecs, however, might negate much of IP's supposed cost-savings.
   
• The net result is interoperability: Standards are either not common enough or are proliferating, neither of which is suitable for the cross-vendor interoperability with which IP should match SDI. For a successful implementation of IP it is important that one standard is adopted to allow interoperability between systems. The industry needs scale to reduce costs and that will not be achieved with closed vendor specific solutions.
   
• Weigh the velocity of Moore's Law: IP connections capable of 40GbE and 100GbE are already out of the labs and will eventually reduce in price. But where SDI routers are based on a price per port, IP routers are typically based on amount of bandwidth. You can put video over IP unconstrained in bandwidth but the cost of doing so quickly becomes an issue, especially at 4K. 
   
• Migration to IP is more compelling than Ultra HD. In practical terms there is a relationship between IP and 4K but a move to IP is not predicated on 4K. The increased bandwidth requirements of 4K production means choosing between the relatively clunky use of 3G-SDI bundles, looking towards higher bandwidth SDI (12G-SDI or above) implementations or moving to high bandwidth Ethernet technologies. Most organisations are using 3G-SDI as a stop gap while planning and evaluating the Ethernet options for the future. 
   
• SDI isn't dead: Broadcasters could still upgrade with SDI, the roadmap for which includes a 24G standard capable of 4K at 120 frames a second. It is likely that SDI islands will remain for at least a decade. After all it took 11 years since introduction of the first file-based media in 2003 for sales of tape to be erased in the professional European market.
   
• Broadcast vendors have a crucial role: Estimates of the broadcast routing switcher market run to about $300 million; the IP switch market exceeds $12 billion. Broadcast equipment vendors need to adapt their technologies to IT and not the other way around, but they are also set to play a crucial role as the interface between broadcast engineers and new IP methodologies.