Video: IPMX Makes Networks Easy

IPMX is bringing a standards-based, software deployable connectivity solution to ProAV. It stands itself in contrast to hardware-based IP technologies such as Zeevee and SDVoE which both aim to create de facto standards by building large alliances of companies based on their chips. IPMX’s aim is to open up the market to a free-to-access technology that can be implemented in hardware and software alike. In this way vendors have more freedom in implementation with the hope of wider interoperability, depending on IPMX adoption. These are amongst some of the business reasons behind IPMX which are covered in this talk Matrox’s David Chiappini.

In today’s video, Matrox’s Jean Lapierre looks at the technical side of IPMX to answer some of the questions from those who have been following its progress. AIMS, the Alliance for IP Media Solutions, are upfront about the fact that IPMX is a work in progress with important parts of the project dealing with carriage of HDCP and USB still being worked on. However, much has already been agreed so it makes sense to start thinking about how this would work in real life when deployed. For a primer on the technical details of IPMX, check out this video from Andreas Hildebrand.

 

 

Jean starts by outlining the aims of the talk; to answer questions such as whether IPMX requires a new network, expensive switches and PTP. IPMX, he continues, is a collection of standards and specifications which enable transport of HD, 4K or 8K video in either an uncompressed form or lightly compressed, visually lossless form with a latency of <1ms. Because you can choose to enable compression, IPMX is compatible with 1GB, CAT5e networks as well as multi-gigabit infrastructure. Moreover, there’s nothing to stop mixing compressed and uncompressed signals on the same network. In fact, the technology is apt for carrying many streams as all media (also known as ‘essences’ to include metadata) is sent separately which can lead to hundreds of separate streams on the network. The benefit of splitting everything up is that in the past if you wanted to read subtitles, you would have to decode a 3Gbps signal to access a data stream better measured in bytes per second. Receiving just the data you need allows servers or hardware chips to minimise costs.

Jean explains how multicast is used to deliver streams to multiple receivers and how receivers can subscribe to multiple streams. A lot of the time, video streams are used separately such as from a computer to a projector meaning exact timing isn’t needed. Even coming into a vision mixer/board doesn’t always need to be synchronised because for many situations, having a frame synchroniser on all inputs works well. There are, however, times when frame-accurate sync is important and for those times, PTP can be used. PTP stands for the Precise Time Protocol and if you’re unfamiliar, you can find out more here.

The upshot of using PTP with IPMX is that you can unlock perfect synchronisation for applications like video walls; any time you need to mix signals really. IMPX relaxes some of the rules of PTP that SMPTE’s ST 2059 employs to reduce the load on the grandmaster clocks. PTP is a very accurate timing mechanism but it’s fundamentally different from black and burst because it’s a two-way technology that relies on an ongoing dialogue between the devices and the clock. This is why Jean says that for anything more than a small network, you are likely to need a switch that is PTP aware and can answer the queries which would normally go to the single, central switch. In summary then, Jean explains that for many IPMX implementations you don’t need a new network, a PTP grandmaster or PTP aware switches. But for those wanting to mix signals with perfect sync or those who have a large network, new investment would reap benefits.

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Speaker

Jean Lapierre Jean Lapierre
Senior Director, Advanced Technolgies
Matrox

Video: JT-NM ProAV Technology Roadmap for IPMX – Panel Discussion

Building on our coverage of IPMX to date, we see that this push to create a standard for IP for the ProAV market has been growing in momentum. With activity now in AIMS, AMWA, VSF and SMPTE, it’s important to bring together the thinking and have a central strategy which is why the JT-NM have released a roadmap. This has started by defining what is meant by ProAV: “The market for audiovisual (AV) communication equipment used in professional, industrial, commercial, and retail environments as a means to communicate with people.” As is noted by today’s panel, this is a wide definition and helps us understand why this is such a different proposition compared to the related ST 2110 and NMOS work for the broadcast market. There are lots of silos in the Pro AV space with many solutions being developed to cater to just one or two. This makes requirements capture difficult and has led to the fragmentation seen to date and partly why strong manufactures tend to be the ones pushing the market in a certain direction in contrast to the broadcast market where strong, early adopters set the direction for vendors.

 

 

The roadmap itself sets the aims of IPMX, of instance that is secure from the start, it will scale and integrate with 2110/AMWA broadcast installations and be able to be a software only solution. Phase 1 of the roadmap identifies existing standards and specifications which underpin the three IPMX tenents of security, Media, Control. Identified are NMOS IS-10 for access authentication and encryption, relevant 2110 standards, NMOS IS-04,-05, -07 and capabilities to use EDIDs. Phase 2 then adds HDCP support, support for ProAV audio formats, enhanced control such as for audio mapping (IS-08), legacy camera control via RS-232 etc. and then phase 3 will bring in media compression for WAN links, error correction techniques and closed captioning & subtitling. For control, it will add USB HID and a training and certification scheme will be launched.

The panel concludes discussing how IPMX is very much at home with live production which, of course, should help it dovetail well into the broadcast space. IPMX is seen by the panel to simplify the implementation of a 2110-like infrastructure which should allow easier and quicker installations than 2110 which are seen as larger, higher risk projects. IPMX could, it’s suggested, be used as an initial step into IP for broadcasters who seek to understand what they need to do organizationally and technically to adopt IP ahead of perhaps developing 2110 systems. But the technology is seen as going both ways allowing broadcasters to more readily adopt compressed workflows (whether JPEG XS or otherwise) and allow Pro AV players to bring uncompressed workflows more easily into their productions for those that would benefit.

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Speakers

Karl Paulsen Karl Paulsen
CTO,
Diversified
Andrew Starks Andrew Starks
Director of Product Management,
Macnica America’s Inc.

David Chiappini David Chiappini
Chair, Pro AV Working Group, AIMS
Executive Vice President, Research & Development,
Matrox Graphics Inc.

Richard M. Friedel Richard Friedel
Executive Vice President, Technology & Broadcast Strategy,
21st Century Fox

Video: IPMX for Broadcast Installations?

IPMX, the new ProAV IP challenger spec, is taking shape promising to tame SMPTE’s ST 2110 standards, make PTP useable and extend AMWA into managing HDCP. Is this a tall order and can it actually deliver? Taking us through the ins and out is Jean Lapierre from Matrox.

With or without IPMX, ProAV is moving to IP whether with SDVoE, ZeeVee or something else. There are a number of competing technologies, but we hear from Jean that IPMX is the only software-defined one. This is important because if you don’t require a chip to be an IPMX product and participate in ProAV workflows, then anything can support IPMX such as PCs, Laptops and mobile phones.

 

 

IPMX based on RTP, ST 2110, ST 2059 PTP and AMWA specifications IS-04, IS-05, IS-08 (audio channel mapping), IS-11 for EDID handling as well as NMOS security and best practice guidance. This seems like a lot, but to cover media transfer, registration, control, security and interfacing with display screens, this is the range of tech needed.

Compared to SMPTE ST 2110, the PTP profile is easier to deploy and produces less traffic, explains Jean, and IPMX even works without PTP which support for asynchronous signals. Support of HDCO is included along with a lower-latency FEC mode for those that find 2022-7 too costly or impractical to deploy. Lastly, Jean points out that thanks to the in-built support for JPEG XS, IPMX can support UHD workflows within a 1GbE infrastructure.

Jean continues by discussing the compatibility between 2110 and IPMX. In principle IPMX and 2110 senders and receivers are interchangeable. Jean goes into more detail, but the example would be that IPMX is managing the HDCP encryption of the source using AMWA NMOS IS-11. IS-11 is, naturally available to be used with any other technology including ST 2110. If it’s adopted, then HDCP-protected material can flow between the two systems.

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Speaker

Jean Lapierre Jean Lapierre
Senior Director, Advanced Technologies,
Matrox

Video: IPMX – Debunking the Myths

2110 for AV? IPMX is an IP specification for interoperating Pro AV equipment. SMPTE’s 2110 standard suite is very powerful, but not deployable easily enough to rig for a live event. At the moment the is no open standard in Pro AV that can deliver IP. Whilst there are a number of proprietary alliances, which enable widespread use of a single chip or software core, this interoperability comes at a cost and ultimately is underpinned by one, or a group of companies.

Dave Chiappini from Matrox discusses the work of the AIMS Pro AV working group which is developing IPMX. Dave underlines the fact that this is a pull to unify the Pro AV industry to help people avoid investing over and over again in reinventing protocols or reworking their products to interoperate. He feels that ‘open standards help propel markets forward’ adding energy and avoiding vendor lock-in. This is one reason for the inclusion of NMOS, allowing any vendor to make a control system by working to the same open specification, opening up the market to both small and large companies.

The Pro AV market needs more than just swift deployment. HDMI is pervasive and is able to carry more frame rates and resolutions than SDI so HDMI support is to of the list of features that IPMX will add on top of 2110, NMOS and PTP. HDMI also uses HDCP so AIMS is now working with the DCP on creating a method of carrying HDCP over 2110. TVs are already replacing SDI monitors, such interoperability with HDMI should bring down the costs of monitoring for non-picture critical environments.

Timing can be pricey and complex if PTP and GPS are required. A lot of time and effort goes into making the PTP infrastructure work properly within SMPTE 2110 infrastructure. Having to do this at an event whilst setting up in a short timespan is not helpful to anyone and, elaborates Dave, a point to point video link simply doesn’t need high precision timing. Not only does IPMX relax the timing requirements, but it will also support asynchronous video streams.

David explains that whilst there are times when zero compression is needed in both AV and Broadcast, a lot of the time we need video that will easily fit into 1Gbps. For this, JPEG XS is being used which is a lightweight codec that can be run in software, FPGA and more. This supports 4:4:4 video for maximum fidelity. For more about JPEG XS, have a listen to this talk. Some good news for bandwidth fans is that all new Intel chips support 2.5Gbe networking using existing cabling which IMPX will be supporting.

Pro AV needs the ability to throw some preview video out to an iPad or similar. This isn’t going to work with JPEG XS, the preferred ‘minimal compression’ codec for IPMX, so a system for including H264 or H265 is being investigated which could have knock-on benefits for Broadcast.

David finishes by underlining that IMPX will be an open standard that can be implemented in software on a server, on a desktop or on a mobile phone. It’s scalable and ready to support the ProAV and events industry.

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Speakers

David Chiappini David Chiappini
Chair, Pro AV Working Group, AIMS
Executive Vice President, Research & Development,
Matrox Graphics Inc.