Playing in the same Sandbox

Broadcast 

When multiple vendors come together to deliver a pair of world-first video over IP projects this year, their collaborative approach was in stark contrast to the wider picture in the sector.

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The most publicised IP project was led by the EBU and conducted at Belgium broadcaster VRT as part of its Sandbox technology programme. The remote production of a live music concert in January claimed to be the first to use IP across the entire chain.

While the project has achieved its goal of showcasing how multiple vendor systems could create an SDI-style of reliability for mixing a live event, there are discussions about continuing it perhaps to focus on virtualistion or moving software to the cloud.

Other avenues to explore include marrying the two timing mechanisms for audio and for video over IP which are currently distinct. “The dream is to have only one PTP (Precision Timing Protocol) clock,” says Keon Meyskens, open innovation manager, VRT Sandbox, of SMPTE 2059-2 and AES67. “It looks possible but we need it to be a standard.”

Sandbox only worked with HD 1080i - since that was the practical requirement for VRT - and was consequently uncompressed, but as broadcasters look to Ultra HD a form of compression might be tested by the project participants. The favourite codec in this regard is TICO, a scheme devised by IntoPix. However, Sandbox consultant Michel de Wolf, says compression may not be needed if bandwidth connections higher than 10GigE are used.

Yet another course of action would see the EBU collaborators examine splitting the audio, video and metadata into separate streams rather than a single combined route demonstrated to date. This approach, dubbed TR-03, is favoured by lobbying group AIMS which has come out in support of Sandbox. 

While the emphasis of Sandbox was on a practical solution to live IP there are cracks in the make-up. In its conclusions to the project, the EBU admitted that the project made it “very clear that more collaboration was essential”.

IABM director of technology and strategic insight, John Ive comments, “Many people talk about live IP production as if it were already a done deal. In reality there are many issues to be solved and hurdles to be overcome.”

Jan Eveleens, CEO at project participant Axon, agrees: “We are still in a phase where some big companies are trying to set the market with their proprietary systems and the standardisation is trying to catch up. We have multiple solutions for one single problem which, for a manufacturer, is unsustainable.”

While some aspects have been ratified into international standards others only carry the status of recommendations. Even where standards have been agreed they are not being universally adopted.

ASPEN, a rival proposal to EBU / AIMS, is led by router systems manufacturer Evertz. Its video over IP pipeline is based MPEG-2 and its roadmap includes a separation of audio, video and metadata similar to TR-03.

Indeed, Evertz can point to IP live deployments since 2014. “ESPN is the first real facility built using an IP core and running the ASPEN framework,” says Goyal. “This year the Superbowl was the first major event to be produced using an IP infrastructure based on an ASPEN framework (from NEP's facilities for CBS Sports).” CBS made similar use of the tech for coverage of Masters golf and NBC Sports is trialling ASPEN for production of the Olympics.

Yet another system, proposed by server vendor NewTek, promotes compressed IP video over 1GigE pipes while Sony wants customers to use its own codec.

Opinions differ as to whether these seemingly inoperable approaches risk splintering the industry's migration to IP.

“We have a strong belief in open standards not linked to any vendor and broadcasters are not helped with a mess of different protocols,” says Meyskens. “ASPEN dictates its standards and then makes them free to use which is not the same as an open standard.” 

AIMS member Imagine Communications also takes aim at ASPEN. “Evertz [system] has compromises that are not aligned with the longer term vision of the industry,” says CTO Steve Reynolds. “It’s evident that ASPEN was a short term solution to a short term problem.”

Mo Goyal, product marketing director, Evertz hits back: “The big difference between AIMS and ASPEN is that we’ve used a proven standard … while AIMS is promoting TR-03 as a possible path for IP [and] it’s not proven.”

Understandably, kit vendor trade body IABM, takes a diplomatic tack. “Industry standards remain important and should continue to be one benchmark of stability,” says Ive. “However, looking for a single standard is no longer tenable for every aspect of the industry. The value of standards is increasingly in the open documentation of important parameters, ensuring that more than one supplier can produce systems that will be compatible or operate in a consistent way. If one standard leads others, this will come from popular use.”

It would be wrong to paint this is a VHS versus Betamax argument. Evertz in particular is concillatory. “It is easy for us and our customers to deploy ASPEN today but that's not to say if and when something down the pipe is proven and has commercial value that we can't make adjustments to it,” says Goyal. “It's all software and we have the flexility to adapt.”

Benelux leads the way

The second major recent live IP first was a multi-camera production of magazine show Carlo's TV Café aired by Dutch broadcaster RTL4. All production operations were centralised in data centers at the Media Park in Hilversum, fed by IP-streamed media over a fibre network from the event, studio and centralised galleries and played out fromDutchView Infostrada’s cloud system. The demonstration illustrated how IP connectivity can be used to reduce on-location and in-studio resources.

That these pioneering activities have taken place in the Benelux raises a question as to whether this is by coincidence, or perhaps proximity to funding in Brussels, or if there's anything special in the region's waters. 

High-tech industries in the Netherlands can take advantage of Amsterdam's location on top of one of the world’s largest internet hubs: the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX). One of them, Dutch encoding specialist Mobile Viewpoint, has had its technology exclusively chosen by the EBU as part of EBU Flex, an all-IP delivery network marketed as a lower-cost alternative to satellite or fibre for contributing live links. Already deployed by the EBU for coverage of the US Presidential campaigns, the system will provide live links for the voting of all 28 countries in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest from Stockholm.

Belgium physicist Ingrid Daubechies is credited with inventing wavelet compression which is core to the JPEG2000 codec and work that Belgium's IntoPix has advanced with TICO. There are strong image sensor developers in the country too, including super-motion outfit IMovix and projection manufacturer Barco. The sports and news server solutions firm EVS is headquartered near Liege.

While the BBC conducted IP tests form the Commonwealth Games in 2014, the low-lands reputation for innovation could simply rest on its inhabitants ability to collaborate.

“It is in our DNA to work together as a small community with different nationalites,” says Michel De Wolf, former EVS CTO and consultant to the EBU. “US companies are less used to working with people from Europe, while the Japanese have to overcome the language barrier.”