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Video: Beyond SMPTE Time Code — the TLX Project

Posted on 1st July 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

SMPTE Timecode, created in the 1970s, has been a tremendous success – so is there reason to reinvent it? SMPTE says yes, and SMPTE Fellow Peter Symes explains why.

SMPTE Timecode is in constant use globally in the broadcast industry, but also in many other industries. The standard SMPTE ST12 is still much he same as the first version of the standard, but it has been updated over the years to deal with new frame rates and to adapt to new technology. However there are limits to what it can achieve without being re-defined and some of the original technologies and restrictions that originally guided the way it was created are outdated and superseded.

Peter Symes explains the TLX project which is in progress to create a successor to ‘SMPTE Timecode’. The new requirements pushing the TLX project forward are moving away from ST 12’s audio-based format, supporting any frame rate, having no 24-hour duration limit and work with the legacy timecode.

TLX stands for Time Label Extensible and is delivering on its promise of an extensible standard – as so many are nowadays – and already has ways of working with ST 2059 (PTP synchronisation) and ST 2110 (for uncompressed video over IP).

Watch now, and find out more!

Speaker

Peter Symes
SMPTE Fellow

Video: ST 2110 – From Theory to Reality

Posted on 30th May 2019 by Adam K

Delivering an all-IP truck is no mean feat. tpc explains what they learnt, what went well and how they succeeded in delivering a truck which takes no longer to fire up than a traditional SDI truck.

A common question among people considering a move to IP is ‘do I need to?’ and ‘how can I get ready?’. Here at The Broadcast Knowledge we always say ‘find a small project, get it working, learn what goes wrong and then plan the one you really wanted to do.’ The Swiss broadcasting service provider ‘Technology and Production Centre’, known as ‘tpc’, has done just that.

tpc is currently working on the Metechno project – a large, all-IP news, sports and technology centre for Swiss radio and television. In order to acquire necessary experience with the SMPTE ST 2110 standard, tpc designed the UHD1 OB van ahead of time which has been used in TV production for 6 months now. In this video, Andreas Lattmann shares the vision of the Metechno Project and, critically, his experiences related to the design and use of the truck.

The UHD1 is a 24-camera OB van with all IP core based on Arista switches with non-blocking architecture. It is the equivalent of an 184-square UHD SDI system however, it can be expanded by adding additional line cards to network switches. The truck is format agnostic, supporting both HD and UHD formats in HDR and SDR. IP gateways are incorporated for SDI equipment.

The SMPTE ST 2110 specification separates video and audio into discrete essence streams which boosts efficiency and flexibility, but we hear in this talk that more attention to latency (lip-sync) is required compared to SDI systems. Andreas talks about the flexibility this truck provides with up-/down-conversion, colour-correction for any video plus how IP has enabled full flexibility in what can be routed to the multiviewer screens.

Andreas spends some time discussing redundancy and how IP enables full redundancy – an improvement over many SDI infrastructures and how SMPTE’s ST 2022-7 standard makes this possible.

The main GUI is based on a Lawo VSM control system which aims to deliver a familiar experience for operators who used to work in the SDI domain. Network training has been provided for all operators because troubleshooting has changed significantly with the introduction of essences over IP. This is not least because NMOS IS-04 and 05 standards were not mature enough during the design of the truck, so all IP connections had to be managed manually. With more than 50 thousand IP addresses in this system, AMWA’s NMOS IS-04 which manages discovery and registration and IS-05 which manages the setup and take-down of connections would have helped significantly in the lean management of the truck.

Lattmann emphasizes the importance of using open standards like SMPTE ST 2110 instead of proprietary solutions. That allows you to choose the best components and not rely on a single manufacturer.

The learning’s the Andreas presents us involve difficulties with PTP, IP training, the benefits of flexibility. From a video point of view, Andreas presents his experiences with HDR->SDR workflows, focussing in HDR and UHD.

Watch now!

Speaker

Andreas Lattmann
CTO, Head of Planning & Projects
tpc Switzerland AG

Video: Building a Large OB Truck Using SMPTE ST 2110

Posted on 15th May 2019 by Adam K

OB vans have been notable early adopters of Video over IP, both in the form of SMPTE ST 2110 and ST 2022-6. The reasons are simple, all new vans are ‘green field’ sites, weight and space are at a premium and many need more weekly flexibility than SDI has been giving them.

In this case study, Hartmut Opfermann discusses design considerations for all IP large OB trucks dedicated for sports, music and entertainment production and explores the decisions that have been made for ORF’s new FU22 OB tuck including the drivers behind switching to IP technology and SMPTE ST 2110 for media transport.

Interesting to note is the proportion of SDI Vs IP in new IP installations. BBC Cardiff, for instance, has a minimum quota for IP-enabled endpoints but isn’t assuming it can reach 100%. There are few IP installations which are 100% IP.

In ORF’s truck we also see that, although the truck is fully based on IP technology, SDI-IP gateways have been provided to keep compatibility with existing baseband infrastructure. Keeping all internal processing in the IP domain simplifies cabling, reduces cable weight but, importantly, enables the use of flexible FPGA based processing platforms – functionality thus depends on software and can be changed on fly.

The broadcast control system provides a single point of control over complex infrastructure of the truck and provides a seamless experience for operators who used to work in the SDI domain. However, configuration and troubleshooting of IP systems requires a very different skillset, so training had to be provided to ORF engineering team.

Some other points discussed in this video are audio channel management, failover of PTP and B&B synchronisation and IP address management using the JT-NM’s TR 1001-1, which has been covered here on The Broadcast Knowledge before.

Watch now!

Speaker

Hartmut Opfermann
Head of Division Broadcast IT,
BFE Studio und Medien Systeme GmbH

Video: Building Large SMPTE ST 2110 Systems Using JT-NM TR-1001-1

Posted on 12th April 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

With the SMPTE 2110 suite of standards largely published and the related AMWA IS-04 and -05 specifications stable, people’s minds are turning to how to implement all these standards bringing them together into a complete working system.

The JT-NM TR-1001-1 is a technical recommendation document which describes a way of documenting how the system will work – for instance how do new devices on the network start up? How do they know what PTP domain is in use on the network?

John Mailhot starts by giving an overview of the standards and documents available, showing which ones are published and which are still in progress. He then looks at each of them in turn to summarise its use on the network and how it fits in to the system as a whole.

Once the groundwork is laid, we see how the JT-NM working group have looked at 5 major behaviours and what they have recommended for making them work in a scalable way. These cover things like DNS discovery, automated multicast address allocation and other considerations.

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Speaker