NDI Archives – Page 2 of 2 – The Broadcast Knowledge

Video: Remote Production in the Cloud for DR and the New Normal

Posted on 7th September 2020 by Russell Trafford-Jones

How does NDI fit into the recent refocussing of interest in working remotely, operating broadcast workflows remotely and moving workflows into the cloud? Whilst SRT and RIST have ignited imaginations over how to reliably ingest content into the cloud, an MPEG AVC/HEVC workflow doesn’t make sense due to the latencies. NDI is a technology with light compression with latencies low enough to make cloud workflows feel almost immediate.

Vizrt’s Ted Spruill and Jorge Dighero join moderator Russell Trafford-Jones to explore how the challenges the pandemic have thrown up and the practical ways in which NDI can meet many of the needs of cloud workflows. We saw in the talk Where can SMPTE ST 2110 and NDI co-exist? how NDI is a tool to get things done, just like ST 2110 and that both have their place in a broadcast facility. This video takes that as read looks at the practical abilities of NDI both in and out of the cloud.

Taking the of a demo and then extensive Q&A, this talk covers latency, running NDI in the cloud, networking considerations such as layer 2 and layer 3 networks, ease of discovery and routing, contribution into the cloud, use of SRT and RIST, comparison with JPEG XS, speed of deployment and much more!.

Click to watch this no-registration, free webast at SMPTE
Speakers

	Jorge Dighero Senior Solutions Architect, Vizrt
	Ted Spruill Sales Manager-US Group Stations, Vizrt
	Moderator:Russell Trafford-Jones Editor, TheBroadcastKnowledge.com Director of Education, Emerging Technologies, SMPTE Manager, Support & Services, Techex

Video: Where can SMPTE 2110 and NDI co-exist?

Posted on 16th January 2020 by Russell Trafford-Jones

When are two video formats better than one? Broadcasters have long sought ‘best of breed’ systems matching equipment as close as possible to your ideal workflow. In this talk, we look getting the best of both compressed, low-latency and uncompressed video. NDI, a lightly compressed, ultra-low latency codec, allows full productions in visually lossless video with a field of latency. SMPTE’s ST-2110 allows full productions with uncompressed video and almost zero latency.

Bringing together the EBU’s Willem Vermost who paints a picture from the perspective of public broadcasters who are planning their moves into the IP realm, Marc Risby from UK distributor and integrator Boxer brings a more general view of the market’s interest and Will Waters who spent many years in Newtek, the company that invented NDI we hear the two approaches of compressed and uncompressed complement each other.

This panel took place just after the announcement that Newtek had been bought by VizRT, the graphics vendor, who sees a lot of benefit in being able to work in both types of workflow, for clients large and small and who have made Newtek its own entity under the VizRT umbrella to ensure continued focus.

A key differentiator of NDI is its focus on 1 gigabit networking. Its aim has always to enable ‘normal’ companies to be able to deploy IP video easily so they can rapidly benefit from the benefits that IP workflows bring over SDI or other baseband video technologies. A keystone in this strategy is to enable everything to happen on normal, 1Gbit switches which are prevalent in most companies today. Other key elements to the codec are: free, software development kit, bi-directionality, resolution-independent, audio sample-rate agnostic, tally support, auto-discovery and more.

In the talk, we discuss the pros and cons of this approach where interoperability is assured as everyone has to use the same receive and transmit code, against having a standard such as SMPTE ST-2110. SMPTE ST-2110 has the benefit of being uncompressed, assuring the broadcaster that they have captured the best possible quality of video, promises better management at scale, tighter integration into complex workflows, lower latency and the ability to treat the many different essences separately. Whilst we discuss many of the benefits of SMPTE ST-2110, you can get a more detailed overview from this presentation from the IP Showcase.

Watch now!

This panel was produced by IET Media, a technical network within the IET which runs events, talks and webinars for networking and education within the broadcast industry. More information

Speakers

	Willem Vermost At the time, Senior IP Media Technology Architect, EBU Now, Design and Engineering Manager, VRT
	Marc Risby CTO, Boxer Group
	Will Waters Formerly Vice President Of Worldwide Customer Success, Now Head of Global Product Management, VizRT
	Moderator: Russell Trafford-Jones Exec Member, IET Media Manager, Support & Services, Techex Editor, The Broadcast Knowledge

Video: How IP is Revolutionising Sports Video Production

Posted on 20th August 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

IP Production is very important for sports streaming including esports where its flexibility is a big plus over SDI infrastructure. This panel discusses NDI, SMPTE ST 2110

eSports, in particular, uses many cameras, Point-of-video cameras, PC outputs and the normal camera positions needed to make a good show, so a technology like NDI really helps keeps costs down – since every SDI port is expensive and takes space – plus it allows computer devices to ‘natively’ send video without specific hardware.

NDI is an IP specification from Newtek (now owned by VizRT) which can be licenced for free and is included in Ross, VizRT, Panasonic, OBS, Epiphan and hundreds more. It allows ultra-low-latency video at 100Mbps or low-latency video at 8Mbps.

The panel discusses the right place and use for NDI compared to SDI. In the right places, networking is more convenient as in stadia. And if you have a short distance to run, SDI can often be the best plan. Similarly, until NDI version 4 which includes timing synchronisation, ST 2110 has been a better bet in terms of synchronised video for ISO recordings.

For many events which combine many cameras with computer outputs, whether it be computers playing youtube, Skype or something else, removing the need to convert to SDI allows the production to be much more flexible.

The panel finishes by discussing audio, and taking questions from the floor covering issues such as embedded alpha, further ST 2110 considerations and UHD workflows.

Watch now!
Speakers

	Philip Nelson President, Nelco Media
	Mark East Chief Problem Solver, 090 Media
	Victor Borachuk Director/Executive Producer JupiterReturn
	Jack Lavey Operations Technician, FloSports
	Jon Raidel Technical Operations Manager, NFL Networks

Webinar: What to See at NAB

Posted on 21st March 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

Date: Friday, March 29th 2019
Time: 11am PT / 2pm ET / 18:00 GMT

NAB is coming around again and the betting has started on what the show will bring. Whilst we can look to last year for hints, here editors from Streaming Media come together to discuss the current trends in the industry and how they will be represented at NAB.

Some highlights of the conversation will be:

What HEVC solutions people are showing – the ongoing codec wars are captivating to most people as AV1 tries – and gradually succeeds – to break its ‘too slow’ label, whilst HEVC continues to grow acceptance with its ‘ready to deploy’ label despite the fees.
UHD production and delivery – We know that production houses prefer to capture higher resolution as it increases the value of their content and gives them more options in editing. But how far is UHD developing further down the chain. Is it just for live sports?
Live Streaming – SRT is bound to keep making waves at NAB has Haivision plans its biggest event yet discussing the many ways it’s being used. SRT delivers encrypted, reliable streams – while there are competitors, SRT continues to grow apace.
NDI – This compressed but ultra low latency codec continues to impress for live production workflows – particularly live events, though it’s not clear how much – if at all – it will make its way into top-tier broadcasters.

Much more will be on the cards, so register now for this session on Friday March 29th.

Speakers

	Troy Dreier Senior Editor, Streaming Media
	Steve Nathans-Kelly Editor Streaming Media
	Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen VP & Editor-in-Chief Streaming Media

Subscribe to get daily updates