Video: SMPTE Technical Primers

The Broadcast Knowledge exists to help individuals up-skill whatever your starting point. Videos like this are far too rare giving an introduction to a large number of topics. For those starting out or who need to revise a topic, this really hits the mark particularly as there are many new topics.

John Mailhot takes the lead on SMPTE 2110 explaining that it’s built on separate media (essence) flows. He covers how synchronisation is maintained and also gives an overview of the many parts of the SMPTE ST 2110 suite. He talks in more detail about the audio and metadata parts of the standard suite.

Eric Gsell discusses digital archiving and the considerations which come with deciding what formats to use. He explains colour space, the CIE model and the colour spaces we use such as 709, 2100 and P3 before turning to file formats. With the advent of HDR video and displays which can show bright video, Eric takes some time to explain why this could represent a problem for visual health as we don’t fully understand how the displays and the eye interact with this type of material. He finishes off by explaining the different ways of measuring the light output of displays and their standardisation.

Yvonne Thomas talks about the cloud starting by explaining the different between platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and similar cloud terms. As cloud migrations are forecast to grow significantly, Yvonne looks at the drivers behind this and the benefits that it can bring when used in the right way. Using the cloud, Yvonne shows, can be an opportunity for improving workflows and adding more feedback and iterative refinement into your products and infrastructure.

Looking at video deployments in the cloud, Yvonne introduces video codecs AV1 and VVC both, in their own way, successors to HEVC/h.265 as well as the two transport protocols SRT and RIST which exist to reliably send video with low latency over lossy networks such as the internet. To learn more about these protocols, check out this popular talk on RIST by Merrick Ackermans and this SRT Overview.

Rounding off the primer is Linda Gedemer from Source Sound VR who introduces immersive audio, measuring sound output (SPL) from speakers and looking at the interesting problem of forward speakers in cinemas. The have long been behind the screen which has meant the screens have to be perforated to let the sound through which interferes with the sound itself. Now that cinema screens are changing to be solid screens, not completely dissimilar to large outdoor video displays, the speakers are having to move but now with them out of the line of sight, how can we keep the sound in the right place for the audience?

This video is a great summary of many of the key challenges in the industry and works well for beginners and those who just need to keep up.

Watch now!
Speakers

John Mailhot John Mailhot
Systems Architect for IP Convergence,
Imagine Communications
Eric Gsell Eric Gsell
Staff Engineer,
Dolby Laboratories
Linda Gedemer, PhD Linda Gedemer, PhD
Technical Director, VR Audio Evangelist
Source Sound VR
Yvonne Thomas Yvonne Thomas
Strategic Technologist
Digital TV Group

Video: ST 2110 Test and Measurement Super Session

This IP Showcase super session consists of six presentation from six different vendors which focus on specific aspects of test or measurement that is unique for ST 2110 environment. It is worth noting that these are technology presentations, not product presentations.

The session is led by Willem Vermost from EBU. He describes what kind of issues we need to solve in a SMPTE ST 2110 environment in terms of testing and monitoring. He speaks about PTP accuracy, traffic shaping (SMPTE ST 2110-21) and SMPTE ST 2022-7 redundancy.

Next, Michael Waidson from Tektronix focuses on Precision Time Protocol (PTP) which is a cornerstone of synchronisation of IP media networks. He walks us through Best Master Clock algorithm, boundary and transparent clocks plus PTP fault finding. (You might also want to watch the Monitoring and Measuring IP Media Networks presentation by Michael which we recently published on The Broadcast Knowledge.)

Furthermore, Jack Douglass from PacketStorm talks about ST 2110-21 traffic shaping measurements. He also shows how to use network emulation tools for testing ST 2022-7 link redundancy (the same data is sent through two separate paths of network emulation that are synchronised together, then burst loss are generated using RTP sequence number, with the least important bit different on both paths).

The next speaker is Ståle Kristoffersen from Bridge Technologies. He focuses on live performance monitoring in a ST 2110 network – does the signal make sense? (IP headers, RTP headers, ST 2110-20/30/40 essences), do all of the signals arrive? (packet loss, monitoring packet loss on 2022-7 links), does the signal arrive on time? (late can be just as bad as a packet loss) amongst others.

Moreover, Kevin Salvidge from Leader shows the differences in monitoring in an SDI and an all-IP facility. He compares single essence per BNC with multiple essences per fibre, synchronous and asynchronous transport and causes for errors (cable loss and impedance mismatch vs error packet loss and network overload). He also emphasises the need for accuracy of PTP and explains how to measure it.

Last but not least, Adam Schadle from Video Clarity walk us through video / audio performance and quality methods. He shows how to use picture and sound quality objective tests to understand network behaviour.

The presentations are followed by Q&A session.

See the slides here.

Watch now!

Speakers

Willem Vermost Willem Vermost
Senior IP Media Technology Architect
EBU
Michael Waidson
Application Engineer
Tektronix
Jack Douglass
VP Marketing and Business Development
PacketStorm
Ståle Kristoffersen Ståle Kristoffersen
Lead Software Developer
Bridge Technologies
Kevin Salvidge
European Regional Development Manager
Leader
Adam Schadle
Vice President
Video Clarity