Staying Ahead of the Curve: Evolving Broadcast Facilities from Baseband to IP

Transcription

1 Staying Ahead of the Curve: Evolving Broadcast Facilities from Baseband to IP Abstract High-quality moving images are the most demanding signals to deal with in real-time applications, creating the need for customized broadcast equipment hardware environments to produce, process, store and play out broadcast signals. SDI was introduced in IP-centric IT technology became a mainstay of the broadcasting plant in the 1990s and 2000s. Although compressed and file- and stream-based workflows have improved operational efficiencies, the last decade or more has seen a hybrid workflow environment that includes both IP and SDI baseband formats. The continued perpetuation of the two interoperable yet inefficient networks paradigm is increasing costs and limiting growth opportunities. When will this duplication finally be eliminated? As broadcast and media companies transition into a new era of software-defined workflows and nonproprietary platforms for real-time signals, the key to their success will be a well-defined, stair-stepped integration of IP technology that replaces the remaining SDI baseband-centric infrastructure. This will create an efficient network architecture and provide media companies with greater flexibility for distributing and monetizing their content. White Paper Summary Workflows have traditionally been created using hardware and connectivity, which historically offered the best performance and efficiency for real-time baseband video and audio signals Most non-real time processing is already based on digital technology and IP connectivity, improving the efficiency of nonreal time broadcast workflows With the rapid evolution of 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) and high-density datacenter-grade switching infrastructures, IP connectivity and switching capacity can now easily carry uncompressed, synchronous high definition video and audio essence, as well as data and metadata, through the broadcast plant High-performance computing platforms are quickly achieving the same cost/latency/quality performance that baseband SDI systems deliver today Ongoing standardization work includes addressing all technical challenges related to carrying synchronous, high bandwidth real-time signals over IP, and ensuring the interoperability of equipment from different manufacturers Software Defined Networking (SDN) provides the necessary tools to gradually migrate current SDI-based infrastructures to IP, enabling the introduction of new IP-based technology in phases SDN also supports migration scenarios where IP-based infrastructure is introduced alongside existing equipment, thus leveraging investments in current systems and operational experience acquired over time The ability to connect non-real time and real-time elements of a workflow via IP elevates broadcast operations to a new level; networks are able to deploy new services faster, add scalability and elasticity to their operations, and increase their overall efficiency MultiService SDN is an Imagine Communications Software-Defined Networking (SDN) framework that enables flexible, dynamic mapping of workflows into hybrid SDI/IP and all-ip environments The Magellan SDN Orchestrator is an overarching software control system for managing hybrid baseband and IP networks, enabling a network based on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) IP switches to provide the real-time quality performance that SDI-based systems deliver today

2 Introduction Dramatic increases in computing power over the past few decades have enabled the broadcast and media industries to quickly adopt file- and stream-based workflows using computers instead of video tape recorders (VTRs). Typical functions were to store and play video, to cut and edit video, and also to create and insert graphics all tasks that could be performed offline and do not require real-time handling of signals. While connecting these computer-based workflow elements via IP has been common practice for many years now, several critical parts of the baseband workflow continue to use SDI connectivity because of challenging bandwidth, processing, and real-time performance requirements. The maintenance of both IP and SDI baseband in broadcast plants has created a bifurcated, and restrictive workflow and restrictive workflow and network environment. Network operators must maintain and operate two different networks SDI and IP. They require customized equipment to manage the protocol, format, and signal variations to enable interoperability between the two networks. Quality suffers as signals often have to traverse multiple encoding and transcoding steps between SDI and IP throughout the workflow. But the biggest drawback of a bifurcated network is that broadcasters flexibility is greatly reduced. All of the discrete equipment to perform various baseband or IP tasks must be located in brick and mortar facilities, where the equipment is physically interconnected. This historical anachronism has tied broadcasters to a specific location, effectively limiting the distribution of their content and the potential to reach wider audiences and thus improve their monetization potential. Comparison of Broadcast vs. Online Video % of People Watching by Demographic 2014 New York Times study Figure 1: Broadcast vs. Online Video Viewership From a competitive perspective, broadcasters are facing new media entrants that are increasingly pulling subscriber and customer eyes away from broadcast networks. All new media entrants have a clear and distinct advantage over broadcasters in that they are solely utilizing IP technology in their workflows from start to finish. This enables them to have the ultimate in technology flexibility and provides inherent cost advantages. If for no other reason, broadcasters must adopt all-ip infrastructures to stay competitive with the heady and aggressive new media entrants. Fortunately, a perfect storm of positive factors has arisen that enable broadcasters to move all of the broadcast workflow, non-real-time and real-time, to IP networking technology and highly reliable COTS IT hardware: 1. The declining cost and increasing capability and availability of commercial IT equipment 2. 10GbE IP switching, capable of transiting uncompressed HD baseband signals over IP at a reasonable cost, has achieved market reality and significant scale 3. IT-based workflow technologies and tools have matured and are now mainstream 4. Flexible, enterprise-class Cloud (private and public) environments are proven, reliable and used globally for mission-critical applications Figure 2: SDI vs. Ethernet link bandwidth over time

3 Driving Technology Change in Broadcast The economics of Ethernet and IP technology are driven by the IT industry and the development of large-scale datacenters and hosting environments. The combined size of that economic ecosystem dwarfs the traditional television equipment industry. The broadcast industry can benefit by leveraging the favorable pricing decline (Moore s Law) of the IT industry. Ingest, playback and editing systems are already based on IT computing technology and IP connectivity. Non-real-time processing is based on computing technology with IP connectivity and IP will be increasingly utilized for real-time synchronous processing because of its ability to provide secure and consistent connectivity between all devices for real-time and non-real-time broadcast workflows. Gigabit Ethernet Switch Port Shipments 2014 Devoncroft BBS Survey; Units in Billions Currently, most enterprise-based IP infrastructures are built on 10GbE, which is ample bandwidth for aggregating and routing multiple uncompressed streams of baseband (pixeldomain) video. Recording, playing out, editing, graphics insertion and video processing, such as scaling, frame rate conversion, transcoding from one file type to another, and transcoding in real-time are all processing steps that, by deploying 10GbE, can flexibly be combined in a workflow based on IP connectivity. Figure 3: Gigabit Ethernet Switch Port Shipments Capability/Benefit Baseband IP Geo-Diversity Limited w/o conversion LAN or WAN - same method (room, building, city or world) Equipment Required Broadcast specific proprietary COTS IT HW many vendors Cost Proprietary HW very little changes in cost over time COTS IT HW nice cost curve provides significant savings over time Scalability Usually has a finite Max Size COTS IT solutions are highly scalable Reliability Partial Redundant Systems (I/O not usually redundant) Fully Redundant Systems (even I/O can be redundant) Virtualization & Cloud Limited requires specific baseband I/O interfaces Fully supported both private & public cloud Figure 4: Capabilities of a baseband infrastructure vs. an IP-based infrastructure IP Connectivity and Live Real-Time Broadcast Signals An Imagine Communications white paper details how playout technology is moving from localized, hardware-based platforms to virtualized functionality, utilizing cloud computing and storage from public or private data centres. Playout in the Cloud is inherently IP-based, and presumes that content live streams and files transits and/or is managed via IP. As more and more workflow functions become virtualized, connectivity via IP becomes even more important. Not surprisingly, many broadcast engineering teams are working on migration plans to an all-ip intra-plant environment.

4 Figure 5: Cloud-ready integrated channel playout solution consisting of virtualized components with IP connectivity Standardization Efforts To prepare for this transition, a number of standards are in effect or being developed that provide the technical framework for all- IP broadcast plant. The two most relevant standards are SMPTE ST 2022 and IEEE 1722, also known as Audio Video Bridging (AVB). Capability/Benefit SMPTE /6 (uncompressed over IP) IEE 1722 Audio-Video Bridging (AVB) Available Support Widely supported (most COTS IT HW) NOT Widely supported (small #-of vendors & sizes) Protocol Methods IP Multicast, no special features required by Layer-2 protocol (not IP), requires support in every switch switches QOS (Quality of Service) QOS implemented as part of system design Good fixed QOS model when using AVB-aware switches (no spec. method) Bandwidth High uncompressed over IP High uncompressed over IP (cost of 10GE low & dropping) (cost of 10GE low & dropping) Scalability & Geo-Diversity Works over LAN or WAN Works on specific LAN only (rack, room, NOT city or world) (room, buidling, city or world) Ability to Switch Cleanly (act like a broadcast router) Yes Vid., Aud. & VANC wrapped together like SDI Yes Vid., Aud. & VANC wrapped together like SDI Costs Low Most COTS IT HW & med. footprint at network devices Medium Specific COTS IT HW & med. footprint at network devices Figure 6: Capabilities/benefits of SMPTE 2022 and IEEE 1722 standards for uncompressed SDI over IP Although the two standards are not compatible in many aspects, they both refer to the emerging SMPTE ST /2 standard for timing and synchronization. SMPTE ST /2 is based on Precision Time Protocol (PTP), which is used to synchronize clocks throughout a computer network. On a local area network, it achieves clock accuracy in the sub-microsecond range. PTP is defined in the IEEE standard, and SMPTE ST /2 is essentially the professional broadcast profile of PTP.

5 SDI-to IP Transition Challenges 1. Economic SDI is here today, and it works well. However, the favorable price/capability trend in IP networking and IT processing technology continues due to Moore s Law, and the cost of these technologies for broadcast purposes is approaching that of the traditional options. Processing tasks can be performed today on high-performance computing platforms, but the cost, latency and quality metrics of today s leading (SDI-based hardware) baseband processors must be factored into the equation as the transition is made to IP. In applications that can tolerate relaxing one or more of these factors (cost, latency, quality), the parity will come sooner. For a fully functioning IP infrastructure, all devices from the camera to the production switcher will need to provide IP interfaces. In many networks, this transition will take several years and will not occur overnight with one big forklift upgrade. Much like the evolution from SD to HD, most facilities are starting with a small island of all-ip interconnected devices connected to an IP switch, with devices that encapsulate and de-encapsulate SDI signals bridging to the existing SDI routing system. This requires that the overarching control and monitoring solution will make everything operate in a familiar way. As time progresses, the IP island will grow and eventually overtake the SDI plant. The existing investment in SDI will be leveraged through the natural expiry of that equipment, making the transition as affordable as possible. 2. Operational Today, the heart of an SDI-based facility is the central baseband router that connects video and audio sources to various destinations, feeding signals to multiple locations through the different stages of a workflow. Switching is provided either manually by operators using control panels, or automatically, using standard switching protocols, such as from an automation system controlling a whole playout operation for one or multiple channels. Since the final product (e.g., a TV program) does not change, in an IP-based environment, the operational practices developed and optimized over decades should not change either. There also are a number of peripheral systems supporting the operation, including Under-Monitor-Display (UMD) systems and tally systems, which do not need to change and will ideally be kept intact in the new world. The most important operational aspect of any transition is the ability to maintain a non-disruptive, gradual cutover to IP-based technology. This will allow for continued monetization of content without disruption and minimal personnel retraining or costly operational retooling. 3. Technical The industry is accustomed to the performance delivered by SDI-based systems. A transition to IP must deliver similar or better performance levels regardless of economic advantages. With respect to the transition to IP, it is critical to achieve similar or better performance levels regardless of economic advantages. Some of the standard performance parameters in SDI are difficult to achieve in IP-based networks, including timing and synchronization, signal latency, and the ability to switch cleanly and deterministically between sources. Live Production: These applications are technically the most challenging and may take the longest to move to IP. Signals must be timed synchronously and moved within the infrastructure with the lowest possible latency, while all the processing must happen with close-to-zero latency to achieve the desired results and quality Playout Center: For playout, the real-time requirements are not quite as strict. For some processes, signals must still be timed and synchronous, but a small amount of latency can be tolerated as long as it is known and constant, and cleanswitching at a precise point in time can be achieved. The arrival of virtualization and cloud technology for playout systems will accelerate the transition to IP in this area over the next few years Head-Ends: In many cases, head-ends provide the aggregation and conditioning of program streams for a particular distribution channel. Timing, synchronization, clean switching or missing a few frames of latency are typically not mission critical, and IP is now in common use in head-ends. For connectivity between devices processing compressed video streams, 1GbE networks that carry compressed signals according to SMPTE /3 are already widely deployed

6 UHD / 4K Although IP interconnectivity for baseband HD and 3Gb/s signals is now possible and even practical, the evolution to UHDTV is also taking place at the same time. IP at 10GbE cannot carry the UHDTV bandwidth, and multi-link 10GbE or 40GbE links are not yet economically favorable. As a result, the market is ripe for a visually lossless, low latency compression (aka mezzanine) to serve the UHDTV case until such time as favorable 40GbE economics are in place. A suitable mezzanine codec would allow a 10GbE interface to carry one or two UHDTV1 signals, and flexibly intermix into an IP-based plant of other (HD) signals. Work on the mezzanine codec is currently underway in the industry, but to fully complement the transition to uncompressed over IP for HD and SD signals, it would be ideal if the mezzanine codec is standardized, guaranteeing interoperability of equipment across different manufacturers. Evolving the Bitflow, Enhancing the Workflow Imagine Communications Software-Defined Workflows (SDW) are based on the SDN framework, enabling flexible, dynamic mapping of workflows into hybrid SDI/IP environments. This hybrid approach offers content providers the flexibility benefits of dynamic workflows, utilizing the SDI technology of today while adding IP/IT workflow elements for the future. Implementations can start small and grow gradually to facilitate migration. With the introduction of the award-winning Magellan SDN Orchestrator an overarching software control system for managing hybrid baseband and IP networks Imagine Communications offers media companies a solution that ensures the smooth transition to a hybrid or all-ip facility. Figure 7: IP capability can be added to an existing SDI infrastructure, keeping the existing workflows while creating a hybrid SDI-IP infrastructure to support the transition to an all-ip facility. A key advantage to the cost-effective and easy adoption of the Magellan SDN Orchestrator into any network is that it instantiates predefined workflows through COTS IP switches, providing professional broadcast performance for all connections. By leveraging evolving, data center-grade COTS switching technology, the Magellan SDN Orchestrator enables media companies to ride the improving cost/performance curve of the IT industry while facilitating seamless on-ramps and off-ramps between legacy and IP networks. The Magellan SDN Orchestrator provides a rich set of bandwidth modeling and control functionality, allocating workflow steps into the sea of equipment and capabilities, and organizing a management view for operational monitoring. It also enables the integration of physical operator control panels and traditional routing control devices, as well as automation systems, multiviewers, master control panels, and anything else in the facility that needs to know what is connected to what. As more functions of a broadcast workflow get virtualized and become software-based services that run on COTS hardware, the Magellan SDN Orchestrator will be the tool utilized to manage the real-time signal workflows in the network and provide operational control through well known and familiar devices and interfaces. This will minimize disruption in today s broadcast workflows as the transition to IP progresses.

7 Figure 8: Broadcast facility of the future: All functions are virtualized to run on COTS IT hardware, workflows are softwaredefined and all connectivity is IP Conclusion The technologies to enable an all-ip infrastructure are mostly in place, but the industry s full and complete transition to IP is likely to take many years. For real-time baseband synchronized video, audio, data and metadata, all devices from the camera to the production switcher will need to add IP interfaces. The proposed SMPTE ST 2059 standard needs to be adopted across the infrastructure. SMPTE 2022-/5/6/7 will continue to roll-out as the new interconnectivity standard for synchronous video, audio and time code. IP-based infrastructures and the migration to COTS IT computing hardware enable a new degree of flexibility within the television facility signal flows and workflows will become more dynamic as the move from dedicated, specialized hardware for video and audio processing moves to COTS software-based processing. As proprietary, specialized hardware is removed over time, new investments are being focused on COTS computing, COTS 10GbE networking, and software. Facility capital planners will need to grapple with this economic reality, in particular the depreciation rules regarding software and IT infrastructure. The slowest-evolving part of the television facility is often the staff. As broadcasters upgrade and transform their infrastructure, they will have to invest in educating and training their staff on how to design, commission, operate and maintain the new devices. During the transition, it is anticipated that many facilities will begin with measured investments in all-ip interconnected devices connected to an IP switch, keeping intact the equipment that handles SDI signals. This will enable a hybrid broadcast environment that can be effectively managed by an intelligent, end-to-end control layer like the Magellan SDN Orchestrator, ensuring workflow integrity and disruption-free broadcast operations, as well as buying time while operational staff adjust to new, all IP-based workflows. The Top 10 Reasons to Go IP 1. Savings Improving the connectivity between real time and non-real time parts of a workflow in one IP network creates synergies and helps reduce costs 2. Speed With 10GbE switches being widely deployed and 40GbE switches already available, data rates in IP networks have overtaken SDI data rates 3. Cloud IP connectivity is the foundation for the use of cloud resources and COTS hardware in the future 4. Scalability Networks based on IP connectivity can connect to cloud resources and COTS hardware easily and are more scalable 5. Software-Defined Workflows In IP networks, new workflows can be software-defined and instantiated within seconds 6. Performance Utilizing COTS computers and IP switches, the broadcast industry can directly benefit from performance improvements in the IT world 7. Spread Using IP connectivity, a workflow can be geographically dispersed no location limitations 8. Elasticity Cloud-based resources can be added to or taken away from a workflow as needed 9. Responsiveness Software-defined new workflows and channels can be spun up in a copy-paste fashion 10. Simplicity Less cables are required in IP, a single cable can carry multiple signals and is bi-directional Imagine 2015 Imagine Communications Proprietary and Confidential WP_TRANS_TO_IP_0115