Using SAM's IP-Edge - An SDI to IP live signal routing transition for all

Transcription

1 Using SAM's IP-Edge - An SDI to IP live signal routing transition for all Tim Felstead - Head of Product Marketing Introduction. This paper seeks to offer a sensible, risk free, measured approach to an SDI to IP transition for live, real time streams. It will describe an upgrade and migration path that will allow businesses to expand in both SDI and IP based stream counts (read router sizes) with complete interoperability between the two types of stream. This approach avoids a fork-lift upgrade of infrastructure and the associated massive investment required, while at the same time preventing a standards dead-end. It will show that, by novel SDI router design, coupled with rigidly standards based interface development, SAM has been able to solve this dilemma and reduce the risk of investing in equipment that should have an economic lifetime somewhere between 5 and 10 years. Building a future in IP can start right now using SAM's IP-Edge capability, and without wasting the investment you ve already made in SDI live infrastructure and operations. What is the dream of IP in live production? Much has been spoken about moving to IP based routing of live signals for broadcast and media production use. Commercial off the shelf (COTS) products from the IT industry help us avoid using proprietary industry specialist technology that is automatically more costly. To avoid this cost to our businesses is surely the main objective of a move to IP based systems. In addition, complete interoperability between vendors through agreed open standards from bodies such as SMPTE or VSF, software based infrastructure, using standardized structures like FIMS, offers an allure and attraction hard to resist. SAM's IP-Edge technology adhere's to the goals and objectives of open and interoperable standards from organizations such as the SMPTE or Video Services Forum, consequently SAM has also helped form AIMS, the Alliance for IP Media Solutions, as a promotional vehicle for this important philosophy. Putting the issue of IP standardization to one side, let s draw a picture of the ideal IP and IT based infrastructure for live production. Live IP feeds from OB and contribution Studios D9093/4 AVC LL Co-dec Studio-to-Studio D9896 AVC 10 Bit 4:2:2 Decoder Data center based processing of media streams and files Media Asset Management Exception based reporting Broadcast Automation & Control Virtualized Playout Media Biometrics TM Figure 1 : Notional concept of production infrastructure over IP 1

2 Fully software and IP - still issues to overcome. The creation of live production centers is still a distance away from completely using commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware and software architectures. This is because of the amount of processing required in that environment; for example 50 synchronous sources at 4K or 12Gb/s being processed in real time is a massive task for any infrastructure, and source numbers continue to rise as cameras and sensor technology becomes more and more ubiquitous. Complete virtualization to Virtual Machines, (VM s: pure software implementations separating the process from its COTS hardware ), is not yet available in all live production circumstances and this is the key for true cloud realization of processing signals. GPU support for high intensity processing is available in the cloud, but this does not yet solve the economic model issues associated with implementation, making dedicated hardware remain a necessity. Deterministic switching completely in IP systems does not make sense due to the fact that the IP network itself is not made for that purpose. Attempts have been made to create synchronous switches at the network level but they either create new types of IP routers or reduce the issue to layer 2 in the OSI stack therefore negating any benefit of IP and layer 3 itself. Not to mention these special switches also avoid the benefits of scale that come with using common off the shelf products. Furthermore, the cloud is not a single IP router and that in itself presents a problem: If only one router is required, and that is entirely under the control of your local SDN, (Software Defined Network, in order to manage traffic), then the issue is simpler. However, the reality is that networks for production systems, both internal and external to a production environment, will be more than one IP router and will in fact be a network of IP routers from different manufacturers. Trying to make such a network of heterogeneous IP routers work in a synchronous way (for timed switching) is one of the major reasons why destination switching is the right technology for the future. In addition to this, choosing specific capabilities from specialist router manufacturers that may support particular types of SDN or other media oriented protocols, reduces the volume and price benefits that the adoption of IP is meant to bring the media business. Through great product achitecture and standards openness. The key to the way forward is to choose technology that is working today, and yet does not block a transition to IP in the future. SAM has technology such as this available today and we will not recommend investments to our customers that don t make sense for both them and us. In today s world that often means SDI infrastructure - which offers elegant upgrade paths in both SDI signal and IP signal counts. In addition, the same infrastructure should offer conversion from SDI based infrastructure to IP based infrastructure without making earlier investments in SDI worthless and avoid any massive upgrade or capital investment. SAM is a founder member of the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) and philosophically agrees with its objectives and goals. We believe in the use of standards that foster open competition as we move into an IP and software based world. Consequently we deploy our IP-Edge technology using standards and recommendations from the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) and the VSF (Video Services Forum). We continue to develop our equipment and systems around IP-Edge enabling our customers to either evolve already existing SDI systems or deploy fully in IP as their economics and risk profile dictate. Beyond this we need to offer systems that provide elegant migration through hybrid environments that can evolve with our customers business at a pace of investment ideally suited to them. To that end, both sides of the equation, signals in SDI and IP, must be able to change in order to offer such business flexibility. Why would there be change in both SDI and IP going forward? Business is about growth and change. More work, for more customers more efficiently creates the leverage of scale that can reduce costs per job and drive up profits. In addition, the number of signals being used in live production has increased hugely in the past few years; when once an 8 camera set up was suitable for a premium sports event, now viewer demand, enabled by production and technology innovation, has driven vast increases in source numbers. Couple that with the number of events and the increasing importance of making money from live events for Broadcasters and you start to understand why live is so important. SDI is a great format where synchronous signals from the same live event demand to be kept synchronous while being moved and processed. Keeping video and audio in sync is very difficult without a common timing plain, and as an industry we have become very good at managing such an environment and have consequently invested massively in equipment, processes, workflows and people to support it. We know it works, it s reliable and it s trusted. IP on the other hand has not yet been through that length of economic development in this enviroment. For reference please read the SAM White Paper Starting the transition to IP Infrastructures, Parts 1 and Part 2 and notice the significance of edge devices and peripherals required to make IP routers function in the same way as SDI only. 2

3 The most significant cost driver is the peripherals around the IP environment. Until we have a position where the economics can be improved there remains a compulsion to continue with what works today, or bear greater economic risk. Saying that, there is no denying that we anticipate IP stream counts to increase, sometimes directly from cameras, from servers, as graphics, as audio and SDI over IP and every other variation conceivable. Open routes to any future vision. So, let s look at scenarios that offer expansion pathways from an SDI core to both greater SDI source counts and routing capacity AND offer a transition pathway to IP based routing either in parallel or as part of a future development. 1. SDI Only expansion Begin with Sirius 850 lightly populated inputs and outputs Expand Advanced Hybrid Processing for baseband signal manipulation Increase input and output counts to 576 inputs x 1152 outputs Add 2nd frame while frame A is on-air to 1152x1152 SDI Greater expansion is possible up to 2304x2304 In this diagram the expansion capabilities of the Sirius Router is explained. On Air expansion is enabled in the SDI domain via the use of dedicated additional redundant expansion cross points and dedicated expansion inputs and outputs. We use a specific multiway cable to transport multiple SDI signals simultaneously between chassis and can add levels of expansion while the system is live. 3

4 2. Hybrid SDi and IP expansion In this scenario we enable both the expansion of the SDI routing core, and the IP parallel core, enabling all sources from both cores to be fully available on the other both SDI and IP. This relies on increasing the numbers of IQ Modular conversion cards between the two cores, and the additional internal and external routing capabilities in the Sirius router. Without the combination of facilities this ability to expand each without disruption of the other would not be possible. The IQ modular SDI/IP/SDI conversion cards handle multiple signals simultaneously and massively reduce the cabling required by an order of magnitude. This is enabled by excellent design and forethought in the SAM routing and modular systems group. All sources are available in both SDI and IP cores. Expansion is enabled in both areas simultaneously. Both signal types are available to the Advanced Hybrid Processing inside the Router (synchronization, de-embedding, input embedding etc). On air operation is not disturbed during expansion. 3. Further expansion in either core. Beyond the expansion methods described above, the Sirius connects with its sister products, IQ Modular and Kahuna IP Switcher, to enable further expansion. This year SAM will be introducing native IP input cards to the Sirius router following our published IP signal philosophy IP-Edge (please see other documents describing this), and our Kahuna IP, introduced at IBC 2015 will already use IP interfaces for all of its inputs and outputs (if required by the customer). Native IP input/output cards on the router can allow the migration of a large router from SDI to IP in a gradual sense by replacing either input or output cards with IP versions. A hybrid environment will very likely continue for many years to come because of the financial amortization required, and expansion through the addition of sources and destinations will be one of the following types: 4

5 Equipment with native IP inputs can be added to the IP core and then receive all sources (IP and Baseband) on the Hybrid system once it has been registered with the control system. Equipment with HD-SDI only I/O can be added directly to the IP core using our modular IP interfaces. All equipment added to the IP core will have the HD- SDI sources on the Sirius 850 available to it and be able to be routed to any of the HD-SDI destinations on the Sirius 850. Equipment with HD-SDI only I/O can be added to the HD-SDI Sirius 850 core. This would not be the preferred expansion route as additional IP interfaces would also be required, but it does become attractive as some of the initial sources and destinations are moved off the Sirius 850 core and free up I/O that can then be used for new expansion of HD-SDI only equipment. Change in business is about people, not technology. For our SAM systems in the domain of live production, this change to IP directly affects four major product groups, specifically switchers like Kahuna, routers like our Sirius 800 series, signal processing like our modular IQ range, control systems and other signal infaces. The impact of making a transition to IP requires that the operational performance must not be affected in areas where customers working actions are time critical. Furthermore, where operators in pressurised environments require familiarity of action, it s important (for example) to ensure that a Kahuna remains a Kahuna switcher both before and after the change to IP. Additionally, that control and monitoring of the opaque world of IP is just as easy to manage as SDI environments where easy watching and listening in real time can provide required operational confidence. For these reasons SAM has embarked on a program of careful migration to IP systems via hybrid environments. We do not want to jeopardize our own customers pleasure of experience based on technological adventures, nor do we want to encourage our customers to make unnecessary business risks in uncharted waters. Conclusion. These are interesting times; our industry is in the throes of momentous change which brings risk and opportunity to our businesses. Media companies can be the content channels to which viewers turn in the world of Over the Top provision and mass social media consumption. However, the transition from dedicated broadcast technology to one of software over standard IT platforms is fraught with danger. Avoiding risk while enabling future workflows and business models is what we have sought to illustrate in this paper. We believe we have a pathway to offer our customers which is both risk free to future developments and fit for purpose today. Furthermore we believe our promotion of agreed standards via AIMS and our implementations as IP-Edge technology is entirely consistent with the goals of our customers too, a true winwin scenario. 5