Gently does it: How Pebble is helping in the transi on to IP workflows

By Alison Pavi , Director of Sales and Marke ng at Pebble

The broadcast industry has gone through several transitions in recent decades as the pace of technological change has accelerated. We’ve had changes in formats, from SD to HD and now 4K HDR; we’ve had changes in distribution, from a handful of linear channels to the current cornucopia of streaming content on demand; and we’ve had changes in consumption, from living room TVs to a multiplicity of devices and platforms. And now we’re currently in the midst of one of the most farreaching of them all, the transition from SDI-based broadcast workflows to IPbased ones, from dedicated video technology to tech based on IT and COTS products.

The operative word here is ‘transition’. There is a temptation in any great step change in any industry to think of it as a ‘big bang’ moment, where a switch is thrown and the old is swept away to be replaced by the new. Real life is a lot messier than that, however, and such sweeping changes are rarely successful. Rather a slower and steadier migration typically takes place; one where an industry moves through several transition stages to reach an end goal.

This is where we are now with IP and embracing such a process has distinct advantages. The hybrid environments that are produced as a result of this process are a costeffective way of managing change. If set up in the appropriate manner, with a careful eye on the eventual IP-only future, they help businesses take steps along the path rather than giant leaps, allowing them to obtain maximum ROI out of legacy equipment and move towards IP as a staged process without having to commit to costly infrastructure investment in the here and now.

The eventual destination is not in doubt. IP brings multiple advantages to broadcasters; it allows them to scale and adapt easily, quickly spin up new services to meet changing audience demands for content and flexibly configure and manage devices and workflows. It is very much where the industry is going, probably within the next decade as a working timeframe. However, not everybody is in a position to move at the same speed to this SDI-free future, and so there are distinct benefits to allowing the current hybrid IP/SDI infrastructures that we are seeing taking shape in the industry to not only flourish but be encouraged.

Building hybrid SDI and IP playout

Let’s look at a couple of examples of this sort of approach.

We recently worked on a major project for a customer who was moving to a new location in the heart of London.

Its seven financial news channels (including two web streaming channels) needed to support fast turnaround workflows and be remotely controlled from New York production facilities when the US markets were open. The goal was to have as little SDI infrastructure as possible. The solution chosen features Pebble Automation controlling 14 integrated playout channels (7+7) and 64 Integrated Channel ingest and review channels. Each of the playout channels can select from one of four inputs for live pass-through (essentially the local feed for EMEA, USA or APAC, plus a spare) or they can play out prerecorded content from either local or network storage. Crucially, they can support a hybrid mix of either ST 2022-6 or SDI for video input and output.

It is exactly this ability to build a bridge between SDI and IP and maintain flexibility in the here and now that is the key to success in the current hybrid era. As an illustration, this particular client wanted to continue to use its existing SDI-based Viz Engine, which was able to connect directly into the workflow as a result of the hybrid solution offered.

What this successfully installed solution recognizes is that SDI may remain the best choice, for now at least, for certain mixes of equipment and technologies, or for organizations of certain sizes and budget levels. Solutions like this need to be forward-thinking too, however. While many organizations are transitioning to IP-based systems using their existing SDI infrastructure, the danger is that this can create isolated areas of IP.

One of the most important meta trends of broadcast engineering of the past two decades has been the breaking down of these sorts of silos. Installations need to consider how to integrate IP into their current infrastructure and bridge between these resulting islands in order to move forward and eventually convert everything to IP.

It should be pointed out that the resulting hybrid solutions are not handicapped in any way and can represent the most powerful and flexible option available in the current climate. An existing Pebble customer came to us with a requirement to set up an IP-based Disaster Recovery system outside its base in the Middle East. Its playout center had a traditional playout system using Pebble Automation, video servers, master control switchers, and graphics.

The solution we architected enabled the operator to continue to play out its channels with Pebble Automation controlling traditional devices (SDI), with everything synchronized across to the new IP and cloudbased European DR facility 24/7, where a virtualized deployment of Pebble Automation controlled Virtualized Integrated Channel devices running in a private cloud. Following the initial system implementation, additional features were added to handle live sources, run 3D graphics with a best-ofbreed graphics plugin, and add capacity to support all 23 of their channels.

The interoperable heart of the matter

One of the key enablers of a smooth transition to IP workflows is interoperability. To achieve true IP workflows, interoperability is essential to unlocking the benefits of using off-the-shelf IP networking technology to route signals from any source to any number of destinations on a network.

It is also essential where multiple vendors are involved, as is commonplace on most RFPs nowadays and was certainly the case in the examples above, that creating solutions which stick to standards and best practices is of the utmost importance.

There are two key ones to talk about when it comes to hybrid IP and SDI deployments: the SMPTE ST 2110 protocol (the set of SMPTE standards for sending digital media over an IP network and an evolution of the previously mentioned ST 2022-6); and the AMWA Networked Media Open Specifications (NMOS) suite of protocols. Together, these two advancements help join those islands together, and do so both now and in the future. Many manufacturers, us included, are working within the SMPTE and NMOS protocols to simplify establishing IP native workflows. These open standards are also critical in enabling hybrid workflows to run smoothly today in 2023 as well as providing a roadmap to future deployment. For example, the ability to emulate legacy index-based matrices or routers means that any

IO or container can be connected using an SDI router protocol.

All this makes the hybrid IP/ SDI environment possible and provides a seamless roadmap to the IP future that an organization can traverse at a speed that suits them rather than at a speed someone else says they need to follow.

As an example that can be achieved at the end of the process, we were recently awarded the contract to provide playout solutions for the largest uncompressed IP project in Europe at a greenfield site where the broadcaster is building an all-IP facility. It is utilizing ST 2110 technology to its full potential, splitting up video/audio/aux signals for much greater capacity, efficiency and flexibility compared to ST 2022-6, while the four-channel playout solution we are providing features Pebble Automation and Integrated Channel.

One of the key requirements in the RFP was to use as many open standards as possible, so the project makes heavy use of the new NMOS specifications including IS04, IS-05, and IS-07 (Pebble chaired the IS-07 initiative). When complete, the facility will be all HD with the ability to upgrade to UHD when the outbound infrastructure supports it.

This user will be one of the first playout customers to use ST 2110 to its full potential, with multiple audios and multiple auxiliaries.

Managing migration

For the moment this facility remains an outlier. Undoubtedly more IP-native facilities will be built over the coming years, but we suspect the other examples we have mentioned will still be more commonplace for the next decade or so.

The benefit of hybrid infrastructures though is that they can transition too in the fullness of time. With a degree of foresight now, they have the ability to integrate existing workflows and technologies with new devices and technologies as part of a managed transition at a pace and time that suits them.

The future of broadcast is very much IP, but the path to it can be a gradual and cost-effective one. 