Introduction to the 5G Media Action Group (5G-MAG) - $15
Date: April 26, 2020Topics: 2020 BEITC Proceedings, Using 5G Technologies for Media ProductionThe 5G-MAG has recently been launched as an asociation that will take the emerging 3GPP 5G standards and turn them into viable solutions for use by media companies around the world. The establishment of the group was facilitated by the EBU in Geneva and its early membership includes many of Europe’s public service broadcasters along with some global manufacturers.
The 5G-MAG aims to ensure to represent the interests of the world-wide media industry in the various 5G stakeholder groups including; 3GPP and DVB and the ATSC for standardisation, the European Commission and ITU for regulation and a wide range of industry bodies.
Its main aim is to ensure that these emergent standards meet the needs of media companies for both production and distribution and to hep facilitate and promote trials for these use cases. It will also investigate and help design networks which are best suited to the distribution of media includng hybrid 5G/broadcast networks.
Gregory Bensberg | Digital 3&4/ITV | London, United Kingdom
IP Network Operations Center (IP NOC): The Future for Broadcast - $15
Date: October 9, 2021Topics: 2021 BEITC Proceedings, SMPTE ST2110 / IP-based FacilitiesIP NOC brings together the state of the art in IP-based signal acquisition and cloud-based MAM. Driven by these enabling technologies, the IP NOC moves away from traditional broadcast models.
Claudio Lisman | ProximaVision Corporation | Bal Harbour, Florida, United States
IPMX for Broadcast Installations - $15
Date: October 9, 2021Topics: 2021 BEITC Proceedings, SMPTE ST2110 / IP-based FacilitiesHow the proposed adaptations made to the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards by the AIMS-backed IPMX initiative could benefit broadcast operations
Jean Lapierre | Matrox Video | Montréal, Canada
Andre Testa | Matrox Video | Montréal, Canada
Is Synchronous Ethernet a Must Have or just a Gimmick for the Broadcasting Industry? - $15
Date: April 3, 2024Topics: 2024 BEITC Proceedings, Timing Solutions for BroadcastersOver the last few years, the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) has evolved to become the preferred method of choice for accurate time transfer over Ethernet networks for every application domain. PTP being an IEEE standard (IEEE1588) has helped but was by no means the only reason for this development. Semiconductor and device manufacturers alike have been adding PTP hardware support to their network products – a mandatory requirement to reach sub-µs accuracies. Most importantly, PTP can be tailored to the specific requirements of an application domain via PTP Profiles – a feature many industries made extensive use of. The All-IP Studio, for example, uses the PTP broadcasting profile (SMPTE ST 2059-2) for accurate time transfer.
As a physical transport medium, Ethernet has superseded legacy solutions which were commonly used for many applications in the past. Ethernet is inherently asynchronous with only two adjacent nodes being synchronized with each other. This feature greatly simplifies deployment and maintenance and was possibly the driving factor of its success. When it comes to time and frequency transfer there is an obvious drawback. Accurate time must be transferred via a constant stream of packets, while frequency transfer cannot. Every end node must regenerate the frequency derived from the time information. This method has proven to be sufficiently accurate for many applications and is widely deployed, yet it has its limits concerning overall accuracy. If the quality of the time information deteriorates, the quality of the re-generated frequency will suffer as well. Specifically-optimized digital phase-locked loops can mitigate that effect but only to a certain extent. If end devices require accurate as well as highly stable frequencies for their operation, this limitation must be carefully considered.
To circumvent this problem, the local synchronicity of Ethernet can be extended to provide a common frequency for the complete network. How can this be accomplished? Whenever two devices establish a communication channel via a physical medium, a transport frequency must be provided by either of the two nodes to which the other must synchronize to. In standard Ethernet, the selection of the respective devices taking over that role is arbitrary. If, however, the selection process is made user-definable, a common frequency can be propagated through the complete network.
In this paper, we will describe synchronous Ethernet’s (SyncE’s) basic principles as specified by ITU. We will highlight the prerequisites of network devices to comply with SyncE requirements. Furthermore, we will focus on the software and system aspects of deploying and maintaining a SyncE network. Special consideration will be taken on how to best combine SyncE and PTP to improve both the accuracy and the resiliency of time and frequency transfer. Although SyncE was primarily designed to provide highly accurate time and frequency for modern telecom applications, we will analyze whether and to which extent the broadcasting industry can benefit from this technology. The paper concludes with real-world measurement in networks with SyncE and PTP support. We will highlight its performance under different operating conditions and demonstrate the impact of different failure modes. We will compare the performance of PTP with SyncE-assisted PTP.
Nikolaus Kerö | Oregano Systems; Nvidia; European Broadcasting Union | Vienna, Austria; Geneve, Switzerland
Thomas Kernen| Oregano Systems; Nvidia; European Broadcasting Union | Vienna, Austria; Geneve, Switzerland
Ievgen Kostiukevych | Oregano Systems; Nvidia; European Broadcasting Union | Vienna, Austria; Geneve, Switzerland
Is The Cloud There Yet? - $15
Date: October 9, 2021Topics: 2021 BEITC Proceedings, AI and Cloud Technologies for Broadcasting(Winner, 2021 BEIT Conference Proceedings Best Paper Award)
Workflow Step-by-Step: This session will examine how the cloud can enable different application workflows, and how to ensure high reliability while building and maintaining systems in the cloud.
Peter Wharton | TAG Video Systems | Tel Aviv, Israel
Is the Technology Ready Yet for Live Standards Conversion in the Cloud? - $15
Date: April 26, 2020Topics: 2020 BEITC Proceedings, Using the Cloud for Live ProductionBroadcasters and media companies engaged in live international content distribution are familiar with the need for standards conversion.?Multiple broadcast frame rates and formats are in use throughout the world, and with an ever growing number of standards to support in mobile and streaming services, high quality live standards conversion is an essential part of many businesses.
The prevailing hardware model has been successively refined to the point of motion compensated HD standards conversion available in compact 1U and 2U form factors or as single modular cards for commonly available infrastructure racks.?A wide variety of workflow tools have been added to these converters including audio shuffling and routing, high dynamic range and wide colour gamut mapping, picture enhancement tools, video/audio delay compensation, and metadata management.
Connection and control of hardware standards converters is easy.?Multiple SDI and/or SFP input/output connectors enable the unit to be connected to the facility router, and settings can easily be modified via front panel buttons or a web interface.?A video confidence monitor on the front panel enables the operator to make a quick check of continuity, and audio headphones sockets enable audio quick checks.?Remote operation via a control interface or SNMP allows the unit status to be visible at all times, including feeding into automated control and monitoring systems which can raise alarms if any problems arise.
The workflow complexity of attempting to use an on-premise converter within a live cloud-based workflow is daunting enough, even before the costs are considered.?Therefore, access to a software-based standards converter service in a cloud environment is a tempting prospect for broadcasters. Capital expenditure on physical hardware can be replaced with operating expenditure which is only charged when the conversion is needed.?A cloud-based converter can be accessed from any location within the broadcaster’s network as physical content delivery via BNCs is replaced by logical signal flow into software input/output processes.?
However, here we encounter our first challenge. The SDI signal is now streamed data, wherein audio, video and metadata are multiplexed within a transport stream, controlled by a streaming service protocol.?The essence (audio and video) may be compressed and therefore need to be decoded before the standards conversion can be applied, and re-encoded on the output.?This implies the availability of the appropriate codecs and sufficient processing resource for transcoding.
Our next challenge arises when monitoring the inputs and outputs to the converter.?Since the operator will not be co-located with the equipment, proxy audio and video signals needs to be delivered to a control room, with attendant issues of available bandwidth, security and latency.
The biggest technical challenge is the decomposition of the complex motion compensated processes into a new architecture which can take advantage of the parallel processing capabilities offered by cloud instances.? Many years of refinement have led to highly efficient processing capabilities in hardware converters, but how do we replicate high quality real-time performance in software-only solutions??It’s tempting to use GPUs but cost and availability are an issue in rapid deployment services.
However, implementation in software can also bring advantages.?As new standards and requirements emerge, modifications can be deployed in prototype (test) services which enable easier switchover into the live transmission path.?The hardware model required removing the converter from use while firmware upgrades were made, whereas a test software service can run in parallel to the main path.
Rental models become much easier in software.?Provision of rental hardware for live events could become problematic if the broadcaster had not planned far enough ahead or had unexpected breakdown of equipment close to a major event.? Since software services can be spun up on cloud processing platforms at short notice, additional event provision becomes more feasible.
Paola Hobson | InSync Technology Ltd | Petersfield, United Kingdom
