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.

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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: JPEG XS in Action for IP Production

JPEG XS is a new intra-frame compression standard delivering JPEG 2000 quality with 1000x lower latency – microseconds instead of milliseconds. This codec provides relatively low bandwidth (visually lossless compression at ratio of 10:1) with very-low and fixed latency, which makes it ideal for remote production of live events.

In this video Andy Rayner from Nevion shows how JPEG XS fits in all-IP broadcast technology with SMPTE ST 2110-22 standard. Then he presents the world’s first full JPEG-XS deployment for live IP production created for a large sports broadcaster. It was designed for pan-European WAN operation and based on ST 2110 standard with ST 2022-7 protection.

Andy discusses challenges of IP to IP processing (ST 2110-20 to ST 2110-22 conversion) and shows how to keep video and audio in sync through the whole processing chain.

This presentation proves that JPEG-XS is working, low latency distributed production is possible and the value of the ST2110-22 addition to the 2110 suite.

You can see the slides here.

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Speaker

Andy Rayner Andy Rayner
Chief Technologist
Nevion Ltd.

Video: Uncompressed Video over IP & PTP Timing

PTP and uncompressed video go hand in hand so this primer on ST 2022 and ST 2110 followed by a PTP deep dive is a great way to gain your footing in the uncompressed world.

In the longest video yet on The Broadcast Knowledge, Steve Holmes on behalf of Tektronix delivers two talks and a practical demo for the SMPTE San Francisco section where he introduces the reasons for and solutions to uncompressed video and goes through the key standards and technologies from ST 2022, those being -6 video and -7 seamless switching plus the major parts of ST 2110, those being timing, video, audio and metadata.

After that, at the 47 minute mark, Steve introduces the need for PTP by reference to black and burst, and goes on to explain how SMPTE’s ST2059 brings PTP into the broadcast domain and helps us synchronise uncompressed essences. He covered how PTP actually works, boundary clocks, Grandmaster/Master/Slave clocks and everything else you need to understand the system,

This video finishes with plenty of questions plus a look at the GUI of measurement equipment showing PTP in real life.

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Speaker

Steve Holmes Steve Holmes
Senior Applications Engineer,
Tektronix

Video: JPEG-XS and ST 2110

JPEG XS is a brand-new, ultra-low latency standard delivering JPEG 2000 quality with 1000x lower latency; microseconds instead of milliseconds. This mezzanine compression standard promises compression ratios of up to 10:1, resolutions of up to 8K plus HDR and features frame rates from 24 to 120 fps.

Jean-Baptiste Lorent from intoPIX shows how JPEG-XS can be used with SMPTE ST-2110 stack. Part -22 of ST 2110 allows for transport of compressed video essence as an alternative to uncompressed essence – all the other elementary streams stay the same, just the video RTP payload changes. This approach saves a lot of bandwidth and keeps all the existing advantages of moving from SDI to IP at the same time.

Based on TICO which arrived in products four or more years ago allowing HD products to support UHD workflows, JPEG XS was also designed for visually lossless quality and maintaining that quality over multiple re-encoding stages. The combination of very-low microsecond-latency and relatively low bandwidth makes it ideal for remote production of live events.

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Speaker

Jean-Baptiste Lorent Jean-Baptiste Lorent
Director Marketing & Sales
intoPIX