The Definitive Guide to Prepping for the IP Transition · 2020-03-06 · THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO...

15
The Definitive Guide to Prepping for the IP Transition A PARTNER OF

Transcript of The Definitive Guide to Prepping for the IP Transition · 2020-03-06 · THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO...

The Definitive Guide to

Prepping for the IP Transition

A PARTNER OF

IntroductionWhile the industry has long relied on dependable and robust SDI solutions, IP, the newest networking solution on the horizon, is proving to be agile, reliable, interoperable, and cost-effective—especially for broadcast environments.

Yet the real-world challenges of implementing an IP infrastructure are vast and complex.

This white paper will explore the considerations that broadcasters should keep in mind when attempting to transition successfully to IP, namely:Key differences between IP and SDIUnderstanding the real strength of IP: improving workflows, cutting costs�How facility type impacts an IP transition (including those looking

at UHD, aka “4K”) Skills and training needed for an IP futureNext steps to take in the transition to IP

By Karl Paulsen, SMPTE Fellow, CTO at Diversified

The Definitive Guide to

Prepping for the IP TransitionDeploying IP in a live production environment requires a unique set of tools, skills, and methodical planning. Here’s how to modernize your facility to take advantage of all the benefits of an IP infrastructure.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 3

It was back in the 1970s when the term Internet Protocol (IP) grew from conventions and procedures that allowed compute devices to communicate across interconnected networks.

Today, this ubiquitous networking protocol is finding its way into media and entertainment workflows. IP technologies are evolving such that they have a positive impact on the way content is captured, ingested, edited, and delivered. And live productions are the major benefactors of this flexible networking infrastructure. Fortunately, the transition to IP will be a gradual evolution—engineers, operators, managers, and administrators will be able to adapt to new technology at a pace that is appropriate for each organization.

While a transition to IP offers many opportunities, there are also challenges— and many of these challenges are related to live production. This white paper examines these opportunities and challenges and offers real-world guidance in the form of specific steps to take to ensure a successful transition.

FACTORS CRITICAL TO MAKING THE TRANSITION TO IP

The 2017 study “Broadcast Workflow and Architecture Trends,” conducted by Gatepoint Research, surveyed nearly 100 broadcast systems respondents on the factors that were most critical for you to make the transition to IP. Here are some key takeaways:

The IP transition is well on its wayThirty-one percent of respondents reported that the transition from SDI to an IP-based workflow will take between one and three years, while 34 percent believe it will take only slightly longer: between three and five years. Only two percent of those surveyed thought transition would take nine years or longer.

Support for hybrid designSeventy-two percent of TV production manufacturers said they are committed to shipping products in 2017 that support bridging between SDI-based and IP-based equipment.

The preparedness of engineers for an IP worldForty percent of respondents said they did not believe they possessed the skills and training to transition from SDI to a virtualized IP-based workflow.

Standards adoption is paramountSeventy-eight percent of those surveyed said industry adoption of standards was paramount to a transition to IP, while 34 percent pointed to the availability of open-source software as being a deciding factor.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 4

GRASP THE KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN IP AND SDI

Over the last three decades, SDI has shown itself to be a robust, reliable point-to-point network. But by its very

nature, serial digital interface is inhibited by the boundaries of an SDI video matrix.

That means that SDI is constrained to the physical premises where that matrix resides. Simply put, “SDI-based workflows are very strict,” says Chuck Meyer, CTO at Grass Valley. SDI infrastructures are fundamentally based on a fixed-size video switching matrix, or router. When the router ports reach capacity—beyond the frame size or I/O card structure—the next phase of growth development proves to be disruptive, complicated, and expensive.

To grow beyond the limits of the router framework, one can replace an SDI router, add another frame with blocking-based tie lines for interconnection, or construct another island of functionality.

Simply put, SDI-based digital video infrastructures have parameters that constrain rapid changes in workflows or system expansion in an economical and/or functional fashion.

Compare these limitations with the principles at work in an IP network.

When properly engineered, an all-IP network system can expand easily and remain a non-blocking, non-bandwidth-constrained, and expandable solution that has significantly less physical and cost impact than SDI. It’s also much easier to expand an IP system, and implementing IP is generally less costly than expanding a fully formed, maximum capacity, matrix-based SDI solution. IP also allows for increased flexibility and modification of the entire system using, in most cases, commercial off the shelf (COTS) IT equipment and methods.

Because of these advantages, the broadcast industry has begun to migrate away from SDI and to embrace IP capabilities. “IP workflows are much more programmable and flexible,” Meyer says.

Step1

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 5

However, along with all the advantages that IP-based systems bring, potential users must be aware that there are many different networks and applications to consider when adding real-time live/active video over a network with specific constructs. This white paper addresses two advantages specific to IP: improved applications and workflows for live video operations and significant cost efficiencies.

UNDERSTAND THE REAL STRENGTH OF IP: IMPROVING WORKFLOWS, CUTTING COSTS

Two of the most significant features driving the adoption of IP networks are improvements in a live video production’s

workflow and reduction in costs.

Workflows with an SDI-based network were built upon a uniform, single-signal-per-connection protocol, which encumbered users when they needed

Step2

CON

SIDE

R TH

AT S

DI…

UNDERSTANDING KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN IP AND SDI

CON

SIDE

R TH

AT IP

…n Constrains growth—which is disruptive, complicated and expensive when the router ports reach capacity.

n Is fully formed, maximum capacity, matrix-based solution.

n Requires purpose-built or single-use hardware constraints.

n Provides for increased flexibility and modification of the entire system using commercial off the shelf (COTS) IT equipment and methods.

n Allows for expansion when new services for a new production area must be added, such as a studio, control room, or editing system.

n Allows broadcasters to add new video production workflows, such as high dynamic range (HDR). This includes features in video rasters that are not in 4x3 or 16x9.

n Can scale production capacities flexibly and easily, without undue additional expense or lengthy reconfiguration periods.

n Accommodates new workflows and applications that leverage commodity IT-like solutions.

n Accommodates software-defined and cloud-based technologies (compute, storage, networking) that leverage these IP-based architectures.

n Can implement workflows that can be adjusted to suit evolving business needs and changing audiences.

n Enables users to add full HD (1920 x 1080 progressive) and Ultra High Definition (UHDTV/4K) consistently on a managed network infrastructure.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 6

to expand or add new services. These systems—fastened around a single-stream, single-carriage medium—were bound by bandwidth limits. The hardware-based switching prevalent in legacy video routing switchers constrained the number of signals that could pass through and get to other devices. As a result, making adjustments in live studio or production situations with a fixed or constrained SDI infrastructure has just not been practical.

With an IP infrastructure, however, those boundaries can essentially be abandoned. New IP-based systems are not controlled and managed by physical cables, routing controllers, and patch-panel connections. Instead, these systems use specifically designed, insulated networks with open protocols that look and react differently than the digital video infrastructures broadcasters began migrating to after the analog-to-digital transition some 20-plus years ago.

With video over IP, however, there are opportunities to add programs, create more content, and address evolving workflows and applications.

“An IP infrastructure means moving away from dedicated single-purpose vendor solutions built and managed carefully by broadcast engineers into a flexible, virtualized technology stack that looks identical to a cloud-scale data center—built and managed by IT and media technologists,” says Charles Sevior, APJ CTO at Dell EMC. “It will be open architecture, built on software-defined principles and capable of easy repurposing as the application technology needs of the business shift more frequently than they did in the past.”

The cost efficiencies realized by installing IP components constitute another key benefit that drives the transition in a live-production environment.

One of the more noticeable changes in switching to IP is that multiple signals can be carried on the same physical medium (some copper, but mainly fiber-optic media), and they can be carried in both directions on the same cable. For a 10G link, this means up to three 1920 x 1080p60 HD signals—in each direction—can be managed on a single fiber-optic link, reducing a similar coaxial cable implementation from six unidirectional co-axes to one fiber.

The cost efficiencies realized by installing IP components constitute another key benefit that drives the transition in a live-production environment.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 7

By using readily available and off-the-shelf IT technologies, including familiar, commonly configured hardware, change becomes easier and faster. When media systems become less dependent upon proprietary, purpose-built systems, equipment is more readily available and costs are reduced.

Deploying an all-IP environment amplifies a company’s ability to deploy new services faster and at a lower cost, says James Corrigan, solutions architect at Dell EMC. “A shorter time to market and reduced cost for content are the X and Y axes of the IP transition,” he says.

HOW FACILITY TYPE IMPACTS AN IP TRANSITION (INCLUDING FACILITIES LOOKING AT UHD)

There are clear reasons why more facilities—from large-scale broadcasters to sports facilities—have taken up the

challenge over the last several years to either build out new IP-based facilities or augment existing ones.

Depending upon the type of facility, the age of its equipment, and the growth expected near term, there are unique options particular to each facility that should be considered.

UNIQUE CONSIDERATIONS FOR UHD

Step3

MOBILE TELEVISION

For production vehicles, using IP to carry monitoring signals reduces SDI routing. IP further enables mobile units to extend their connectivity to other mobile units or out to the edge of the event, as in golf tournaments where announcers and camera platforms can be several thousand feet from the base mobile unit compound.

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Because many on-campus services are separated geographically by hundreds or thousands of feet, fiber-optic interconnections are quite common. As a result, employing a hybrid approach to transport media-centric signals between locations allows the facilities to retain their existing SDI production resources.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 8

1 https://www.smpte.org/webcasts/Standards-SMPTE-ST-2110

LARGE-SCALE BROADCAST

New broadcast facilities, especially those with multiple studios, control rooms, and production systems, have proven ideal venues for IP-based systems. Starting out with an IP core future-proofs the enterprise for growth and expansion. Replacing legacy SDI infrastructures with an IP routing core enables the user to expand without the constraints of a fixed-size SDI router. Users may also then scale back on the gateways between legacy SDI-based production systems as subsystems make the move to native IP solutions.

In a hybrid model, IP gateways become the on-ramps to IP, meaning you can gradually transition from SDI by using these gateways. The standards to be aware of are SMPTE ST 2022-6 or, in the near future, SMPTE ST 2110. This latter standard is expected to be the standard for packetizing elementary essence streams and transporting them over a professional media network (PMN) using real-time transport protocol (RTP) networking and technologies.

GREENFIELD/MAJOR UPGRADE

While traditional HD-SDI (including 3G-SDI) has its merits, a full-IP transition may be the best approach for new greenfield facilities or major facility upgrades.

Prior to 2016, some facilities deployed 3G-SDI for 1920 x 1080-progressive production. This directive prepared them for the capabilities of quad-SDI or dual 3G-SDI for UHD (the two choices for UHD when based on SDI). In many cases, users held off from actually including IP routing and UHD production, but the technology and production directions began to shift in late 2016 as IP and UHD products and capabilities became more achievable.

Today, many of those building new facilities or expanding existing facilities with a ‘go-live’ scenario in 2018 or later are planning for an IP backbone. There are expectations that the SMPTE ST 2110 standard may be complete by IBC 2017.1

LIVE-EVENT VENUES

A significant share of the new stadium and arena builds begun in the past year, and most of those planned for the next two years and beyond, intend to deploy IP-based UHD. Take, for example, Super Bowl 50. Mobile units covering that event successfully embraced the technology. By using an IP infrastructure, a live-event venue can manage a network—particularly one that remains a closed-loop environment—with relative ease. Some facilities are combining IP with 3G-SDI-based architectures in preparation for UHD broadcast within the venue.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 9

The most obvious drawback when planning UHD facility upgrades is that UHD will require four HD-SDI ports for each UHD signal in and out of the router, thus reducing the usefulness of the HD-SDI router from 100 percent down to 25 percent. If a 3G-SDI router is present, the available video routes are reduced by half.

Typically, facilities get one shot to build their core infrastructure and make sure that the facility remains cutting-edge for five or more years before significant upgrades can be built into the budget. This means that owner/operators need to put in the IP backbone, routing, and distribution first—even if they convert the IP back to SDI just ahead of the production switcher or conversely, as the signals leave the camera control unit and enter the packetized IP-switched network.

New network architectures, such as software-defined networks (SDN), allow a more flexible and agile approach to provisioning video bandwidth. Using SDN, Ethernet fabrics composed of multiple 10 and 25 GbE links can be formed just in time for a specific video flow and carefully orchestrated so as not to oversubscribe available bandwidth. When the flow is no longer required, the links are repurposed by the orchestration layer into another fabric, or mesh of links.

SKILLS AND TRAINING NEEDED FOR AN IP FUTURE

Engineers, administrators, and owner/managers will need to employ substantially different approaches to operating,

managing, expanding, or altering next-generation video media infrastructures. This will mean a culture change for both

traditional broadcast engineers and IT professionals, who must update and harmonize their respective areas of expertise.

Is the industry prepared? According to the Gatepoint Research survey, 40 percent of respondents say they do not believe they possess the skills and training to transition from SDI to a virtualized IP-based workflow.2

Fortunately, these professionals don’t need to acquire this experience, training, and high-level expertise overnight. This transition will take time and evolve gradually, which will allow engineers, operators, managers, and administrators

Step4

2. Pulse Report: Broadcast Workflow and Architecture Trends, Gatepoint Research, 2017.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 10

to adapt to the new technology as it’s implemented at a pace that’s appropriate for each organization. “Now is the time where the VPs of engineering and CTOs from these organizations need to open up the possibility of hiring from non-traditional broadcast backgrounds so that they have a blend of skills on the team,” says Robert McNeal, Dell EMC solutions architect manager.

Regardless of how prepared industry professionals are for this shift, the transition is already happening. Fifty-six percent of survey respondents said that shifting operations to an IT environment was critical to the success of future broadcast operations.3

This transition is likely to necessitate ongoing education and training as professionals gain a deeper understanding of the depths of IT systems and IP networking. Even for the well-trained IT professional, this migration is going to require training in new Ethernet architectures and experience with tools to monitor IP jitter and latency, as the nature of broadcast operations in a network environment is nothing like traditional IT.

If you’re a broadcast engineer, you probably will need to get up to speed on networking fundamentals, VLANs, multicast, encapsulation and packetization, and real-time protocols. While it’s not necessary to become a network-certified engineer, you should follow the technology trades and attend webinars, and it will be particularly important to learn the terminology. AIMS, SMPTE, VSF, AMWA, EBU, and others directly involved with the standards and implementation of IP are continually presenting webinars to help industry professionals understand the technologies and terminology.

If you’re an IT professional, you will certainly need to understand compressed video formats (MPEG, H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC) and the real-time nature of live video (SDI, HD, UHD); audio formats (MADI, Dante, Ravenna, AES uncompressed and compressed); and how workflows and operations depend upon these technologies.

The hardest part of the transition, says Dell EMC’s Corrigan, “is evolving your broadcast engineer into an IP technologist.” Seventy-eight percent of respondents in the Gatepoint Research study agree: the industry adoption of standards and well-trained people are the two essential factors necessary for the successful transition to IP.

Engineers, administrators, and owner/managers will need to employ substantially different approaches to operating, managing, expanding, or altering next-generation video media infrastructures.

3. Pulse Report: Broadcast Workflow and Architecture Trends, Gatepoint Research, 2017.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 11

These specific areas are key to understanding IP and its successful implementation in a facility.

1. Network Management, Workflows, and Control

Among the many skills necessary for the jump to IP, some implementation will require an understanding of the following fundamental areas:

n How and which factors will impact the proper management of the (essence) flows.

n What will control the local and peripheral IT and video-edge equipment, and how.

n How to properly manage network bandwidth to prevent oversubscription of signals or latencies in delivery.

Companies that are making IP-based equipment for professional media network-enabled facilities have already been adopting a software-defined networking (SDN) style management and control system that allows their own network-connected products and devices to perform in a way similar to a traditional SDI environment. Maintaining current functionality is extremely important to the user, as it allows existing workflows to act as expected.

An ultimate goal is to harmonize file-based workflows (including storage and asset management) and network control systems with real-time IP-based solutions for live television production, but that is not without its challenges.

2. Software-Defined Networks (SDN)

Ideally, SDN will enable operators to use the same familiar work surfaces while taking advantage of IP-based video systems. Thus, SDN systems must be highly scalable and

leverage the utilization of high-bandwidth switching mediums so that media organizations can harness the true potential of the professional media network (PMN).

Software-defined workflows are on users’ radar, yet 43 percent of those in the survey who were asked, “SDN is part of your workflow upgrade?” said no.4

As Chuck Meyer, Grass Valley’s CTO, explains, “SDN provides increased flexibility by managing bandwidth and multiple signals per connection.”

3. Documentation of Workflows and Network Control

Workflows can be complicated and should be documented. Since patch panels and coaxial cables will become a thing of the past in the IP world, establishing a method for documenting IP and addressing specifics about the PMN architecture, which will now include flow management, workflow diagrams, and bandwidth—things that look different than what many broadcast engineers are used to seeing—are important.

Help is on the way, however. Many control systems being developed by broadcast equipment manufacturers include Web-enabled real-time documentation services that show how the system is interconnected at a virtual level.

4. Watchdog and Trending Techniques

Nothing can be more damaging than a collapse of the network, and such an event would be devastating in a facility where a redundancy plan is not in place. Properly provisioned PMNs

Key Areas to Understand in the IP Transition

4. Pulse Report: Broadcast Workflow and Architecture Trends, Gatepoint Research, 2017.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 12

should prevent issues that might lead to a potential shutdown or collapse of the system.

Broadcast equipment manufacturers who are actively developing IP-based products (routers, controllers, or gateways) recognize that users will need new and different forms of monitoring to ensure “five nines” uptime and reliability. Some suppliers are implementing software-based systems that collect data about the performance of the network and can assess and report to the administrator/engineer about how the system is working using statistical systems that humans alone cannot possibly capture. The services also track flows and capture errors so that anomalies can be traced back and corrective actions can be taken.

5. Network Data Analysis in Real Time

The goal of some broadcast IP solution providers is to deploy software that offers 360-degree observations of the network. This software can track, record, analyze, and/or suggest re-pathing of flows when applicable. It is expected that these will be subscription-based resources that will be conduits for local engineers and manufacturer specialists, to assist them in diagnosing network anomalies.

6. Virtualization

The media industry will increasingly leverage many of the IT-based solutions that are becoming mainstream services and applications. But the industry will do so in ways that bracket the real-time needs and nature of moving deterministic real-time video over a broadcast or professional media environment.

One of those ways is through virtualization. Virtualization offers an increase in agility, is scalable without significant cost or infrastructure

impacts, and provides flexibility in adding, adjusting, or removing services. By combining compute resources into groups of servers in this way, capital and operating costs are reduced and hardware utilization is increased.

Eighty-one percent of those surveyed reported that less than 40 percent of their existing infrastructure is virtualized.5

Yet we’re already seeing applications that support this evolution being configured, tested, trialed, and deployed. The capabilities of virtualization are of particular interest to IT professionals and video engineers. Virtualization is expected to become, eventually, a must-have structure for IP environments, says Eric Carson, senior business development manager, North America, for Dalet.

“Virtualization is definitely one of those shiny carrots that people are looking to leverage [from the IP transition],” says Charles Sevior, APJ CTO at Dell EMC.

7. Precision Network Timing and Reference

Precision Time Protocol (PTP) emerged from the IEEE 1588 standard. Conceptually, PTP will use a system of grand-master and/or best-master clocks that will let all the entities on the network know what the time-clock reference is and how to attach (or slave) to that reference throughout the network.

SMPTE created a broadcast-centric application of PTP with a suite of standards designated as ST 2059-1 and ST 2059-2. As the transition to IP continues, some equipment components may still rely on video black burst (analog video on coaxial cables) as the means to synchronize SDI equipment as sources or destinations.

5. Pulse Report: Broadcast Workflow and Architecture Trends, Gatepoint Research, 2017.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 13

Step5

NEXT STEPS TO TAKE IN THE TRANSITION TO IP

For content producers and broadcasters, best-practice approaches to addressing workflows have continued

to evolve, driven by both the growth in IT (networking, compute, and storage) and by increased demands to produce

more with less.

Beginning with the video server evolution in the mid-1990s (which followed on the heels of the introduction of non-linear editing on generic computer platforms), it became apparent that IT technologies would start to dominate workflow processes, even though the term itself did not really catch on until a decade later.

In the early days, the technologies that supported media and broadcast workflows were purpose-built, appliance-based devices that were already constrained by the physicality of the containers in which they were housed. Today, emerging systems utilize COTS components including servers, switches, routers, and storage. Of course, production equipment and imaging devices (cameras) are not generally considered off the shelf—especially if they’re employed for UHD or have native IP connectivity. It’s clear that forward-thinking companies need to consider how they will make this transition.

GET TO KNOW WHO KNOWS ABOUT IP VIDEO

Select a knowledgeable entity (e.g., a well-qualified systems integrator) that has designed, built, and made operable at least four to six facilities with systems from at least two different core vendors. This SI should have built facilities that match what you plan to do (e.g., updating a broadcast station or specialty news organization) and should have experience in your specific area.

Most likely you’ll find an SI who has built hybrid IP/SDI. If this is the case, review the variations discussed in this white paper to ascertain if the SI has a track record for building what you are planning. Finding an organization that has already built an all-IP facility may be difficult, given that there are very few native all-IP components available now.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 14

REMEMBER 1080P OR UHD

If you have a strong commitment to moving in the direction of UHD, ask the hard questions about how to proceed. Specifically, make sure that the designers/engineers know the differences between quad-SDI and dual SDI architectures. Get to know what the encumbrances are when mixing compressed and uncompressed transports. Find out if they really get the message of 10/25/40/50/100 GbE, ask which switch vendors they’d use (and know why), and see if they’ve built any of the types of systems you might be contemplating.

THINK ABOUT DESIGN PRACTICES

If your facility is to operate in a mission-critical scenario, such as a major playout center or television master control, then ensure that there’s a resiliency plan for the core architecture (including high-availability storage), especially when it comes to the main and secondary IP switches. As for maintenance, all network and compute-centric systems will require updates.

Also consider updating your file-based storage to accommodate real-time video flows. Transforming your file-based storage to take advantage of high-speed IP networks configured as an Ethernet fabric allows facility designers to re-factor live and file-based workflows for greater efficiency.

When the facility is built from the ground up with a plan for future changes, migration, or software updates, the network design most likely will include certain features: redundant Ethernet switching, a mesh of primary aggregation switches, and the ability to isolate individual network segments from others should one section need to be upgraded or repaired.

CONSIDER A HYBRID DESIGN

There is certainly support for a hybrid environment. Seventy-two percent of TV production manufacturers in a recent survey said they are committed to shipping products in 2017 that support bridging between SDI-based and IP-based equipment.6 Facilities should consider looking to a hybrid environment where portions of the infrastructure will be IP-based and others, such as cameras and vision mixers, will remain SDI-based.

6. http://aimsalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/AIMS-GUIDELINES-TO-PREPARING-BROADCAST-FACILI-TIES-FOR-IP-BASED-White-Paper.pdf

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO PREPPING FOR THE IP TRANSITION 15

UNDERSTAND SECURITY

From a security standpoint, on-ramps and off-ramps to and from the network (between SDI and IP) must be designed so that spoofing and malicious attacks are never allowed to infiltrate the media network. Any attack to any path can have a catastrophic impact on the system.

As Karl Kuhn, senior video applications engineer at Tektronix, points out, “Security is that elephant in the room, something that everyone should be scared of, but they’re not.”

However, with all the values that systems based in IP will bring, users must be cognizant of the differences that they must consider when adding “real-time” live/active video over a network with specific constructs. This network is currently referred to as a professional media network (PMN), engineered and operated in ways that ensure broadcast-level performance and quality. Despite the protective nature of the PMN, broadcasters should consider security issues that relate to PMNs, content management, and any of the broadcast services on the network.

SUMMARY

The transition will not happen overnight; it took years for users to understand, buy, and install SDI, non-linear editors, video servers, and shared storage systems.

But the transition to IP-based systems is already offering broadcasters vast improvements in the way the way content is captured, ingested, edited, and delivered. It’s clear that IP is the path to the future, providing values that will sustain the modernization of applications and workflows in the digital age.

DELL EMC Dell EMC manufactures high-performance computing, networking, and open software storage solutions for broadcasters. The manufacturer enables organizations to modernize, automate, and transform their facilities using industry-leading converged infrastructure, servers, storage, and data protection technologies. Dell EMC services customers across 180 countries with a comprehensive and innovative portfolio from edge to core to cloud. www.dellemc.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karl Paulsen is a Fellow of the SMPTE and the CTO of Diversified. Karl has more than 40 years of experience in all facets of broadcast engineering, station and systems integration management, and media-based communications systems. He participates in the SMPTE Standards Community, one of the Standards Development Organizations that is responsible for many of the international standards for the professional media industry. He has also contributed a long-standing column to the leading industry magazine TV Technology. Contact Karl at [email protected]

© 2017 NewBay Media Inc. Logos and trademarks are the property of their respective companies. All rights reserved.