Will IP sink or swim on a lack of standards?

IBC

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. But competing paths to this goal risk sending the industry back to the bad old days of siloed workflows.

There are a number of initiatives which appear to be in an arms race to mass industry support. Some fuse proprietary technologies with open standards, others are attempting to work with a mix of standards and technical drafts before committees at SMPTE. 

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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.

Sony was first out of the box launching its Networked Media Interface (NMI) for live IP production at IBC2014. Its 42 backers include Cisco, Evertz, EVS, Imagine, Matrox, Rohde & Schwarz DVS and Vizrt.

Sony NMI adheres to SMPTE standard 2066 for transport of uncompressed media over IP in a single multicast stream but promotes Sony's own codec for compressed 4K/UHD over a network. The company says that interoperability and compatibility with its protocols can be achieved “by gaining technical information under license”. The IP Live codec is in the process of becoming an open industry standard through SMPTE – but is not yet a standard. 

The TICO Alliance, founded in April 2015, has united organisations including Grass Valley, EVS, Imagine Communications, Nevion, Ross Video and Tektronix to establish
the TICO codec, devised by IntoPix with a similar aim to Sony, at the heart of a IP live production ecosystem.

Although use of this codec also requires a licence, the TICO Alliance says it is working on an “open and collaborative way with industry organizations, including SMPTE, Video Services Forum (VSF), and the EBU's JT-NM (Joint Task Force on Networked Media) with the aim of “guaranteeing an interoperable adoption”.

ASPEN (Adaptive Sample Picture Encapsulation) is led by Evertz and officially launched at IBC2015. It has the backing of 30 broadcasters, media companies, and kit makers including AJA, ChryonHego, Cinegy and Sony, with whom it has a joint customer for introduction of video over IP in NBC Sports. While criticised for being an initiative of one vendor rather than cross industry, Evertz describes ASPEN as the only field proven, open framework for IP-facilities available. It differs from other approaches in working with uncompressed media over MPEG transport streams. This is currently documented via a draft technical document before SMPTE.

AIMS (Alliance for IP Media Solutions) was founded last December by Grass Valley, Imagine Communications, Lawo, SAM, and Nevion (Cisco and EVS have since joined) as a lobbying group to “encourage interoperability within emerging all-IP based infrastructures based on existing open standards. 

Like Sony, it wants to use SMPTE standard 2022-6 as a building block but unlike Sony wants to do this by splitting the video, audio and metadata into separate paths using the VSF devised TR-03. However, once again TR-03 is a draft recommendation and not yet a standard.

Any confusion is understandable. You don't have to be eagle eyed to spot the same names cropping up as members of different bodies. Sony, for example, is a member of VSF and AMWA but not (yet) a member of AIMS which says its only goal is to promote VSF/AMWA concepts. Sony and Evertz support each other's initiatives. Imagine and EVS support Sony, TICO and AIMS but not Evertz. Grass Valley says it supports the open approach of AIMS but also backs the proprietary approach of TICO.

All manufacturers have a vested interest in selling more of their kit if certain video over IP routes are chosen, whether these routes are proprietary or open. Vendors backing multiple approaches are sensibly keeping abreast of all the options so that they are in a good position to move once technologies or standards gain critical momentum. It is also worth pointing out there would appear to be wriggle room among key signatories to AIMS and at Sony and Evertz with regard to adapting their approach when standards finally coalese.

Yet while standards remains unratified vendors will look to sell solutions to customers that need an answer to IP installation today and cannot afford to wait. The danger is that this gap is filled by approaches that incompatible down the line