Video: Securing NMOS Apps

The still-growing NMOS suite of specifications from AMWA defines ways in which your IP network can find and register new devices plugged in to it (e.g. camera, microphone etc.), manage their connections and control them. They fit neatly along side the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards which define the way that the essences (video, audio, metadata) are sent over networks intended for professional media.

As such, they are core to a network and as the market for uncompressed media products matures, the attention is on the details such as whether they scale and security.

In this talk, Simon Rankine from BBC R&D starts by explaining the objectives which means looking at the different aspects of security which is split into three; securing data transfer, ensuring data goes to the right place, ensuring only authorised people can act.

TLS, standing for Transport Layer Security, is the same protocol used for secure websites; those which start with https://. It is also referred to by the name of the protocol it replaced, SSL. Given the NMOS APIs are sent over HTTP, TLS is a perfect match for the use case. TLS provides not only the ability to encrypt the connection but also provides the basis for certificate exchange which allows us trust that the data is being sent to the right place. Simon then covers ciphers and TLS versions before talking about certificate management.

This talk was given at the IP Showcase at NAB 2019.

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Speaker

Simon Rankine Simon Rankine
Research Engineer,
BBC R&D

Video: Routing AES67

Well ahead of video, audio moved to uncompressed over IP and has been reaping the benefits ever since. With more mature workflows and, as has always been the case, a much higher quantity of feeds than video traditionally has, the solutions have a higher maturity.

Anthony from Ward-Beck Systems talks about the advantages of audio IP and the things which weren’t possible before. In a very accessible talk, you’ll hear as much about soup cans as you will about the more technical aspects, like SDP.

Whilst uncompressed audio over IP started a while ago, it doesn’t mean that it’s not still being developed – in fact it’s the interface with the video world where a lot of the focus is now with SMPTE 2110-30 and -31 determining how audio can flow alongside video and other essences. As has been seen in other talks here on The Broadcast Knowledge there’s a fair bit to know.(Here’s a full list.

To simplify this, Anthony, who is also the Vice Chair of AES Toronto, describes the work the AES is doing to certify equipment as AES 67 ‘compatible’ – and what that would actually mean.

This talk finishes with a walk-through of a real world OB deployment of AES 67 which included the simple touches as using google docs for sharing links as well as more technical techniques such as virtual sound card.

Packed full of easy-to-understand insights which are useful even to those who live for video, this IP Showcase talk is worth a look.

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Speaker

Anthony P. Kuzub Anthony P. Kuzub
IP Audio Product Manager,
Ward-Beck Systems

Video: Scalable IP Architectures for Live Production and Playout

For many building a good network for a 2110 or other media-over-IP standards is new and a bit scary. But if there’s one person who knows how to do it, it’s Arista’s Gerard Phillips who’s here to go through the basics and build up the network needed for a large and scalable network.

Scalability is the heart of this, because life does change – your company grows, technology pushes you from SD to HD to UHD etc. So you need to build scalability in from the beginning. Getting this right comes down to choosing the right hardware and having the right architecture.

Gerard looks at switch architecture and bandwidth both in the switch and of the network cables. He then looks towards ‘hub and spoke’ Vs monolithic switch design. What are the pros and cons to each and which is right for you?

SDN – Software Defined Networking – is also a key ingredient in such a network. This is where the routing decisions of the switch infrastructure is taken out of the switches because they have automatic and blinkered algorithms and takes it to a server which has a complete overview of the whole system. For a broadcaster who deals with critical signal chains – this is usually the best approach to give determinism and safety to the network.

PTP – Precision Time Protocol – provides the foundation of the 2110 standard and is therefore very important to studio installations being used to replace black and burst. What are the best ways to distribute this and how can you deal with redundancy?

These topics and more are all covered at this IP Showcase presentation from IBC 2018.

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Speaker

Gerard Phillips Gerard Phillips
Systems Engineer,
Arista Networks

Video: AMWA NMOS State of Play

With all the talk of the SMPTE ST 2110 standards suite, it’s sometimes forgotten that it only deals with content. If you want a working system, you’ll need to do a few more things – find new devices on the network, work out what they can do, control them, guarantee the bandwidth and often deal with metadata that arrives separately like tallies.

This is what the AMWA NMOS specifications do. Peter Brightwell and Thomas Edwards have been heavily involved in creating them and in this video lead us through what each one does and how they are used.

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Speakers

Peter Brightwell Peter Brightwell
Lead Engineer,
BBC R&D
Thomas Edwards Thomas Edwards
VP Engineering & Development
Fox NEO