16 TVBEurope
www.tvbeurope.com September 2014 Workflow
move to IP is less a technical decision than it is a business risk decision. Yet there is a pressing need for more flexibility. Encouraged by consumer trends for more electronic devices, everything from screen sizes to formats, pictures and audio is being revolutionised. Current TV structures in the production environment are not geared up for these changes. “We need an infrastructure that is more format agnostic, to cope with both current and future formats,” argues John Ive, director of business development and technology, IABM. “An IT infrastructure would offer the adaptability needed to cope with new formats, and it is scalable to allow increased storage. A growing number of channels and resources can be adapted according to requirements.” Another point: if you want to move any services to the cloud you have to go IP. There is no SDI in the cloud. And once in the IP domain the location of your infrastructure becomes secondary. IP simplifies disaster recovery and outsourcing, making them easier and cheaper than ever. SDI must die is symbolic of the move away from proprietary black boxes towards open, commodity IT-based solutions. Or, more to the point, from hardware to software. While broadcasters don’t have a standard to be able to broadcast UHD, the flexibility of the IT environment has allowed companies like Netflix and YouTube to distribute 4K content over the internet.
The missing link
A key motivation for broadcasters to move to IP technology sooner rather than later is the UHD production of live events. The missing link in the SDI to IP evolution are IP-enabled cameras. While two thirds of the cameras for recorded content on the market are capable of shooting 4K (Futuresource Consulting), when it comes to live the issue is very different. Sony has stated its intent to
add IP connectivity to its production products including F55 cameras within the year. Other vendors like Grass Valley have also made IP core to its future outside broadcast products but as it stands today there are no 4K cameras available for a like-for-like outside broadcast. You can certainly make it work, as Sony has proven at a range of events from War Horse live at the National Theatre to Papal canonisations and World Cup matches in Brazil, but OB suppliers and broadcasters are withholding investment. With no purpose-built live 4K cameras, UHD live tests to date have adopted a workflow around using a quad 3G-SDI connection. This has a number of inherent problems such as the difficulty in keeping signals in sync with one another and the sheer number and weight of cables. The number of connection points is multiplied, increasing the points of possible failure. In high availability applications such as live sport, any outage is serious. From production switcher to router or server, the use of quad 3G-SDI quarters the density of the products installed. A conventional 20 camera HD live event would be extremely tricky in 4K given the volume and cost of equipment involved.
“Using 3G-SDI connections as a crutch to bridge the intervening time period is a joke at best,” says Joe Weigner, CTO, Cinergy. “There are a number of open questions as to what the future holds in terms of the next generation SDI or HD-SDI,” says Ive. “Although the early trials of UHD have involved using multiple cables, this is untenable for mainstream use. It is too complex for real world situations, which is why a simpler, single cable solution has to be found.”
The answer of course is to move to IP, but outside of a few cutting edge greenfield builds, at ESPN in the US, for example, this infrastructure is rare. The BBC’s ground-breaking UHD over IP test
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