Global survey reveals transition to IP broadcast infrastructure will take up to 10 years to complete for majority of broadcasters
Full-scale IP and 4K adoption will be considerably slower than many would have us believe
Quantel and Snell today released the results of a global survey into the industrys views on IP and 4K adoption. More than 1000 people responded to the survey from small, medium and large-scale public and private broadcast and post organizations across more than 80 countries. The result is a highly informative, real-world review of where the industry is - and where its going - with IP and 4K.
The headline findings on IP are that only 19% of respondents thought that SDI routers would be completely replaced by IP within two years, 42% within five years and 27% only seeing this happen within ten years. Interestingly, 9% of respondents predicted that SDI will never be completely replaced. When asked if they would be using live signals over IP in 2016, 20% said not at all, 47% somewhat and 29% extensively - with just 4% indicating that they are going fully IP next year.
On 4K, 60% of respondents saw it as relevant only in the future, with the majority of predictions spread across the two to five year timescale. We also asked whether High Frame Rate (HFR) or High Dynamic Range (HDR) would bring the most economic benefit to respondents; 47% saw HDR as a potential revenue generator, only 22% HFR, with 31% seeing no potential benefit from either.
Finally, to learn where IP and 4K fit in the priorities of broadcasters, we asked what is the top feature they look for in production switchers. 44% chose multi-format, multi-program production, with 20% and 16% concerned with IP and 4K readiness respectively.
"Broadcasters and media organizations have been bombarded with IP and 4K now messages over the last year," said Quantel and Snell CEO, Tim Thorsteinson. "This has led to a great deal of uncertainty, which I know our customers have fed back to us time and again. The results of our survey will go a long way to dispelling the myths and claims around IP and 4K. It clearly shows that broadcasters see these as key future concerns, but for the vast majority, a full-on infrastructure lift-out and replacement with IP and 4K is not going to happen any time soon.
"Rather than trying to tell our customers what to do, our position has always been to align our product offerings with their business requirements. The survey confirms our own ongoing research among our customers - what broadcasters need are future-flexible solutions that can meet their current needs and give them a progressive path to IP and 4K adoption as dictated by their individual business needs. At Quantel and Snell, we have just that," Thorsteinson concluded.
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Global survey reveals transition to IP broadcast infrastructure will take up to 10 years to complete for majority of broadcasters 
