Next Steps of Broadcast Camera Integration into Full IP Infrastructures

Since early days of broadcast television there has been an ongoing evolution of the signal transmission between the camera heads and the camera base stations or CCU?s.

Multicore cables where replaced by Triax cables in the 70?s and latest with the introduction of the UHD standards SMPTE hybrid Fiber cables became the de-facto standard for most of applications. At the same time the signals transmitted over the camera cables migrated from analogue signals to digital video signals and since a couple of years the most advanced broadcast cameras uses IP signals over the camera cables.

The use of IP signals over the camera cable offered new ways of camera signal transmission over long distance as required for remote of REMI production workflows. More or less at the same time IP connectivity became used for broadcast infrastructures replacing the previously used base band connections by a format agnostic and more future proof solution.

One can ask what?s next?

At a full IP infrastructure the camera base station does not provide much more functionalities as a power supply for the camera head. But since an IP connection over a LAN or WAN network does not carry the power from the base station to the camera what is the use of the camera base station then. The paper is explaining the challenges and the potential solutions for a direct integration of a system camera as used for live broadcast applications into a full IP infrastructure. This next step in the evolution of camera signal transmission and connectivity will allow to establish new workflows and offer a much more flexible use of the cameras.

Klaus Weber | Grass Valley Germany GmbH | Weiterstadt, Germany
Ronny van Geel | Grass Valley Nederland BV | Breda, Netherlands