By Rafael Fonseca, V.P Product Management, Artel Video Systems
By Jenny Priestley
Published: June 4, 2020
By Rafael Fonseca, V.P Product Management, Artel Video Systems
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> By Rafael Fonseca, V.P Product Management, Artel Video Systems
https://www.tvbeurope.com/ip-migration/tackling-the-complexities-of-ip-based-broadcast-operations title=Share via Email class=share-email>
When broadcasters shift to media over IP, they merge two worlds: audiovisual/media and IT. In doing so, they increase the complexity of their infrastructure tremendously - to the point that traditional management methods involving heavy human interaction are no longer viable.
Prior to the IP migration, a broadcaster's workflow effectively stayed at the application layer because the network layer was straightforward. After all, SDI is very deterministic. SDI cables are run here and there, and maybe there is a switcher or other device in the middle. It's just not a dynamic environment.
Following their migration, broadcasters must deal with an infrastructure layer, the IP network, that makes decisions based on a programmed series of conditions. And those conditions change. If not now, then at some point in the future, the behaviour of the infrastructure layer might change based on time of day and day of the week, as well as other factors. These might also include issues, such as congestion or denial-of-service attacks, that can affect network performance or security.
Despite the added complexity of IP-based operations following the merging of AV and IT, the broadcaster must connect these two sets of devices and components so they can work together to fulfil a mission, such as a live broadcast. To make this happen, broadcasters are necessarily turning to automation and orchestration.
Automation Geared primarily to the infrastructure layer, or IT layer, automation helps broadcasters to address and overcome the complexity of dealing with smart, addressable devices that can advertise their capabilities. For the infrastructure to support operations effectively, thousands of elements must be provisioned, and it's not humanly possible to keep track of the immense volume of IP addresses and addressable names involved.
When broadcasters connect these addressable elements, the first thing that they do is find that first layer that gives them permission to participate in the network. After the capabilities of an element are advertised, it is connected to the application layer.
Automation is the only practical way to tackle that challenge - and to avoid the issues that would inevitably arise from human intervention and error. The task of connecting the infrastructure layer to the application layer is enabled by intrinsic intelligence, and the results of these connections are displayed for operators on a control console dashboard.
Orchestration Working at the application or media layer, orchestration leverages automation to ensure that the IT side of things properly supports signal flows and needed services.
Thanks to orchestration, the people working on a project can control and define the many elements of the production - receivers, microphones, cameras, and other sources, all providing different angles and shots - without having to deal with what's under the hood, the IT infrastructure.
This model effectively decouples users (with the exception of IT staff) from knowledge of how the network is set up. It's so magical, almost nonexistent from their perspective, that they don't even need to think about it. Through this decoupling, production and broadcast professionals gain greater freedom in exercising creativity and in developing content that will engage audiences. In short, they can create a better and more valuable product.
Monitoring, Diagnostics, and Troubleshooting The standards used at the application layer are critical to making all of this work. They include not only SMPTE ST 2110 and other standards, but also the IT standards dictated by the IETF and IEEE. While many of them have been around for a while and have become familiar, vendors making IP-based systems for broadcast can make different choices that affect interoperability at the networking level. Thus, for the broadcast engineer, it may seem that there is an issue at the application layer when in fact the problem stems from a fault in the fundamental networking infrastructure.
This is why monitoring, diagnostics, and troubleshooting capabilities are critical for broadcasters working in IP. With intelligence comes complexity - more knobs to be adjusted and more signals to be monitored and verified. Broadcasters need smarter, better tools because they're no longer just looking for the absence or presence of a flow or signal. They must be able to consider many other nuances pertaining to utilisation of a resource at the IP level.
Such nuances might include utilisation of a link, how much bandwidth is available in that link, and the bandwidth in that link based on what is being put through it. Consider an audio VLAN, for example. Audio really should not consume that much bandwidth compared to video. So, if ports handling audio suddenly are flooded and maxed even though a gigabit or 10 gigabits of bandwidth are available, something has clearly gone wrong.
Ideally, the monitoring dashboard will reflect not only absence or presence of flows and signals, but also information on resource utilisation and other factors that indicate network health. Such tools make it possible to see trends or patterns of degradation that often precede larger failures. Predictive alerts thus can alert operators to take appropriate action. While IP networks never will be deterministic, sophisticated monitoring tools can help broadcasters make their new infrastructure more visible and
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
22/01/2026
Last November, Ed Sheeran returned to his musical roots for an intimate, one-nig...
22/01/2026
Every delay costs. When a subtitle fails QC, even the smallest issue can mean missed deadlines, extra vendor costs, or frustrated teams. The new Accurate.Video ...
22/01/2026
Rohde & Schwarz, Qualcomm, and Motorola demonstrate successful 5G Broadcast comp...
22/01/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
21/01/2026
Wednesday 21 January 2026
Backing Britain on the global stage: Sky becomes an o...
21/01/2026
Fox Corporation Executives to Discuss Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Financial Resul...
21/01/2026
Baselight v7 brings colourists and post-houses smarter mattes, faster workflows and deeper control
FilmLight, known for its detailed colour toolset and longsta...
21/01/2026
RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Jackie Fox as its new Washington Correspondent. Jackie is a multimedia journalist with RT News and has repor...
19/01/2026
Monday 19 January 2026
Sky News reinvents News at Ten for the modern audience with The Wrap
Sky News today announces The Wrap, a bold evolution of its 10pm ou...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones is striking a new chord in piano miking with the debut of its DPK2015 Piano Stereo Kit, an out-of-the-box, plug-and-play miking solution that ta...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones will present its 4099 CORE Instrument Microphone and redesigned...
19/01/2026
Trianel relies on Arvato Systems for future-proof data center operations
Moving to the cloud: Arvato Systems implements extensive IT migration project
Migrat...
19/01/2026
Celebrating 21 Years of the RT Choice Music Prize
RT Choice Music Prize
In association with IMRO and IRMA
Irish Album of the Year 2025 - Shortlist Announce...
18/01/2026
January 18 2026, 21:30 (PST) Dolby Cinema Arrives in Bengaluru: Dolby Laborator...
16/01/2026
The start of a new year brings fresh possibilities. Whether you're diving in with big goals or simply setting new intentions, audiobooks can bring inspirati...
16/01/2026
In 2025 we launched the Spotify Partner Program to give creators more ways to tu...
15/01/2026
The SGL Carbon site in Bonn has a long tradition of training. For many years, young talent has been successfully trained here, regularly achieving excellent exa...
15/01/2026
The JEC Composites Innovation Awards annually honor the most innovative and ambi...
15/01/2026
X-energy Reactor Company, LLC ( X-energy ) and SGL Carbon LLC ( SGL ) have signed a 10-year framework agreement to provide graphite for the deployment of X-ener...
15/01/2026
RT is tonight announcing that Mari Hurley has decided to leave her role as RT 's Chief Financial Officer to take up a new position outside RT . Mari will r...
15/01/2026
15 Jan 2026
VEON's Kyivstar Reaches 3.0 million Customers with Starlink Dir...
15/01/2026
Views to free streaming service U grew by 15%, average monthly active users by 23% and registrations by 18%
UKTV's channels achieved record viewing share, ...
15/01/2026
Thursday 15 January 2026
Sky Sports to show Final Stage of inaugural FIFA Women's Champions Cup
Sky and FIFA have agreed an exclusive new partnership whi...
15/01/2026
Thursday 15 January 2026
The official trailer for the second season of Seth Mac...
15/01/2026
Wuppertal January 15, 2026
Riedel RefCam Takes Center Court in German Basketba...
15/01/2026
Arvato Systems Named Launch Partner for AWS European Sovereign Cloud
As a launch partner for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, Arvato Systems enables customer...
14/01/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 13th January, 2026 ITV, one of the UKs leading broadcasters, has selected Yospace, the global leader in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), to ...
14/01/2026
Steiger Media's adoption of Calrec's compact Argo M console not only makes its innovative new hybrid truck faster, more efficient, and agile, but also e...
14/01/2026
Press Release: The Boston Globe Names Cartesian a Top Place to Work in 2025
January 14, 2026
News
Cartesian - January 14, 2026 - EINPresswire.com - Sp...
14/01/2026
Comscore and Marcus Theatres Announce Five-Year Extension for Cinema ACE and Ent...
14/01/2026
Comscore and Santikos Entertainment Announce Five-Year Circuit Wide Commitment t...
14/01/2026
Wednesday 14 January 2026
Sky News announces Cathy Newman to lead flagship new political programme
Sky News today announces that award-winning journalist and ...
14/01/2026
The first stamp of An Post's 2026 Stamp Programme, marking 100 Years of Broadcasting, was unveiled at the GPO by Patrick O'Donovan TD, Minister for Cult...
14/01/2026
It's official! Beverley Callard has landed in Carrigstown. The beloved actor, known for her unforgettable roles and iconic screen presence, is joining the c...
13/01/2026
Independent media in Brazil and Colombia is facing an urgent crisis of traditional business models alongside a deteriorating security environment, according to ...
13/01/2026
Some days you want your music to reflect a specific feeling, memory, or vibe that goes beyond a single artist or genre. You want to do more than listen. You wan...
13/01/2026
Luxembourg, December 17, 2025 - SES S.A. ( SES or the Company ), a leading spa...
13/01/2026
Written and executive produced by Steve Lightfoot and Angela LaManna, produced b...
13/01/2026
New updates to Hitmaker Expansion from Celemony and Softube Edit pitch-perfect vocals with Melodyne Essential and get radio-ready guitar tones from Softube...
13/01/2026
Live broadcasts from RT 2FM Breakfast with Carl, Roz & Aisling, RT Radio 1 Tod...
12/01/2026
Spotify's new co-CEOs, Alex Norstr m and Gustav S derstr m, start off the new year with a message of renewed leadership, creative responsibility, and what&#...
12/01/2026
At Spotify, we listen to a lot of music. And every year, our global editors and artist partnerships teams come together to spotlight the emerging voices we beli...
12/01/2026
Spotify's global editors and Songwriter & Publisher Partnerships team spend their days immersed in new music, tracking the writers behind the songs breaking...
12/01/2026
Rohde & Schwarz opens larger office in Japan and increases its support for the J...
12/01/2026
X-Rite and Rhopoint Launch Rhopoint PANTORA Aesthetix to Streamline Creation of...
By Rafael Fonseca, V.P Product Management, Artel Video Systems
