Imagine Communications Cassidy Phillips argues that IP systems built on COTS hardware and SMPTE ST 2110 standard are not a science project
By Contributor
Published: July 5, 2022
Imagine Communications' Cassidy Phillips argues that IP systems built on COTS hardware and SMPTE ST 2110 standard are not a science project
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
IP, SMPTE ST 2110, 4K, UHD, remote production. These are tech terms that have headlined white papers and webinars across the electronic media industry for the last few years. What I want to talk about is real-world, practical applications that show these technologies are ready and relevant not a science project.
It was back in 2018 that Imagine Communications was the lead technology partner on two major ST 2110 UHD projects: the 24/7 production and broadcast centre for QVC Japan and the live production truck for tpc Switzerland.
While QVC and tpc are both forward-thinking media organisations, they embarked on these projects not simply because they were at the bleeding edge of technical development, but because they believed this new architecture was technically practical and made good business sense.
Three years of solid, consistent, reliable output later, what can we learn from the experience?
Scaling up and out Today, the capability for UHD production - 4K and high dynamic range (HDR) - is expected at the top end. Major sports and cultural events, typical of the assignments for tpc's truck, will be broadcast in 4K today and archived for future re-use. But UHD is extremely demanding of bandwidth: four times that required for HD (even more with High Frame Rate).
This need to scale up and out is one of the biggest drivers in the move to IP. We needed to find a way to handle 12 Gb/s signals without racks full of big-iron routers, tie-lines and distribution amplifiers. Outside broadcast engineers, in particular, cannot afford the additional weight in trucks that are always close to the limit.
SMPTE ST 2110 is the answer. With it, you can fit up to eight UHD streams on just one strand of single-mode fibre. And that fibre can carry the signal as far as 40 kilometres without the need to re-amplify.
That fibre can be routed in enterprise-class, off-the-shelf ethernet switches - capable today of hosting the equivalent of a 384 x 384 UHD router per rack unit. Double that if the edge devices are bidirectional.
This means much more than just reducing the size of the switch in the truck, vital though that is. It means you can put the cameras and the production equipment at a greater distance. Any distance, given access to the fibre.
And that means remote production - cameras at the venue, control room at the broadcaster's base - is now perfectly feasible, without limiting technical or creative quality in any way. The director sees the pictures in real time; the video engineer tracks the cameras in real time; audio stays in sync with the video. The router and the production switcher act just as they always did: With smart systems engineering, the most complex system can sit under a single control panel.
Incidentally, some may try to tell you that IP is power hungry. Do not be fooled. A 512 x 512 SDI router will occupy at least 25 rack units and draw more than 9kW of power. A 2RU COTS switch will handle 768 x 768 UHD sources and destinations and draw only 3.6kW.
You may not need that much capacity now, but with a 100 gigabit ethernet switch scaling is simple. Scaling an SDI infrastructure will, sooner or later, require a significant investment in more hardware, rack space, power and air conditioning.
Proven in the real world As our friends at tpc and QVC Japan have found over the last three years, ST 2110 and COTS technologies continue to prove themselves time and again. And we continue to put the valuable experience we gained in those pioneering ST 2110 deployments to good use in customer installations around the world.
For example, we recently provided Sinclair's Tennis Channel with core infrastructure for a large-scale ST 2110 live production centre featuring a cloud-based environment for pop-up live events. This allowed Sinclair to spin up live channels around the 2021 Miami Open tennis tournament, marking the first time that any broadcaster had supported such a high-profile live sporting event via live real-time cloud playout. They used the same platform for coverage of the 2021 French Open from Roland Garros.
In short, IP systems built on COTS hardware and the recognised SMPTE ST 2110 standard are proven in challenging real-world environments. They guarantee performance today and seamless scalability for the future. And they're definitely not a science project.
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Thursday 2 July 2026
Tea with Judi Dench returns to Sky Arts with legendary guest, Sir Ian McKellen
Sky today confirms Tea with Judi Dench will return this su...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
LEXINGTON, Kentucky - July 2026 -Tyler Childers' seventh and latest studio record, Snipe Hunter, is an adventurously sprawling collection of tunes that span...
01/07/2026
** MEDIA ALERT **
BLEACH Comes to Life in Los Angeles with First-of-Its-Kind...
01/07/2026
UKTV has today announced the appointment of Matt Berry to the newly created role of General Manager - Marketing, effective 1 July.
Matt will take on this senio...
01/07/2026
Sky Zero Footprint Fund-backed TV campaign featuring Deborah Meaden challenges consumers to rethink everyday bathroom wasteWednesday 1 July 2026
Fussy asks Bri...
01/07/2026
Constituency-level analysis reveals where girls miss out most on sport - and where targeted action could unlock more than £640 million in economic and health be...
01/07/2026
Wuppertal July 1, 2026
Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive IntegrationRiedel Communications today announced an expanded collaboration wit...
01/07/2026
Apple today introduced power-packed updates to Apple Creator Studio, a groundbre...
01/07/2026
Nectar360, the Retail Media, Loyalty and Insights business of the Sainsburys Gro...
01/07/2026
9.2 million streams on RT Player between 11 and 28 June
Reach of 2.9 million viewers during Group stages of FIFA World Cup on RT 2
23 million video views acr...
30/06/2026
Could your journalism reach an international stage?
Entries are now open for the Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2026, one of the most prestigi...
30/06/2026
Brings together saturation & lo-fi effects
Following on from the release of their Voxcraft vocal-processing plug-in, UJAM have announced the launch of Retro...
30/06/2026
New IR reverb engine, Juno-inspired chorus & more
The latest version of Rapid Flow's hardware-emulation synth plug-in expands on its predecessor with a ...
30/06/2026
Excels at heavy-handed VCA compression
For their latest release, Shy Audio have recreated the crunchy' sound of a rackmount compressor that found its w...
30/06/2026
Component scarcity drives cost increases
Shortly after Apple's CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that cost increases would soon be inevitable , the company hav...
30/06/2026
Hitachi and Bank Pekao S.A. have completed the installation of the first Hitachi...
30/06/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/06/2026
Four-layer instrument aimed at dark electronic music
Excite Audio's latest software instrument has been designed with dark drum and bass, atmospheric te...
29/06/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
29/06/2026
Details environmental policies & results
The Focusrite Group have just announced that following a long audit process, they have published their 2026 sustain...
29/06/2026
Arvato Systems Achieves AWS Cloud Operations Competency
The team behind the AWS Cloud Operations Competency (from left to right: Philipp Hellmich, Johanna Bod...
29/06/2026
RT today announced that Ger Gilroy will join the RT Podcasts team to present a daily sports podcast. Launching later this year, the new show will set the spor...
29/06/2026
RT Commercial announced OUTsurance as sponsor of the Oliver Callan show on RT Radio 1 from Wednesday 1 July.
Oliver Callan doubles the fun, delivering two ...
28/06/2026
Half-size model joins Console 1 line-up
Shortly after the release of their new Flow Studio controller, Softube have announced the launch of another new surf...
28/06/2026
New EXO Series DSP control software announced
EVE Audio's EXO Series monitor range has just gained a new software element that provides remote access to...
27/06/2026
Brings together saturation & lo-fi effects
Following on from the release of their Voxcraft vocal-processing plug-in, UJAM have announced the launch of Retro...
26/06/2026
Virtual session musician plug-in gains new percussion options
Celemony's latest update for their virtual session musician platform complements the exist...
26/06/2026
Half-size model joins Console 1 line-up
Shortly after the release of their new Flow Studio controller, Softube have announced the launch of another new surf...
26/06/2026
ELT Group and Rohde & Schwarz sign a cooperation agreement to explore commercial...
26/06/2026
Flicker Productions to produce five-part docu-reality series following women who have fallen for men in prison and have become TikTok sensations, with brands an...
26/06/2026
Catch up on the latest developments across Baselight and Daylight v7, Nara and F...
26/06/2026
26. June 2026 News
DFT is pleased to announce that a second Polar HQ film s...
26/06/2026
A fresh look at how the Irish helped shape the foundations of the United States
...
Imagine Communications Cassidy Phillips argues that IP systems built on COTS hardware and SMPTE ST 2110 standard are not a science project
