IP infrastructures in television: six critical areas to improve

José Manuel Menéndez, professor of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, identifies four essential improvements that IP infrastructures must face to consolidate their position in broadcast environments, achieving in the future the stability provided by the SDI route.

RTVE, Telemadrid, CCMA y RTPA are the first explorers states of a universe still under construction. IP infrastructures are beginning to permeate broadcast environments studio by studio, center by center. The goal, possibly, will be set by the last link in the chain: continuity. Until now, no agent has decided to take that leap, a milestone that will come when the final confirmation of their suitability for the highest demands in television environments occurs.

Each development in a broadcast environment, adapted to the idiosyncrasies of television networks accustomed to preserving their technological skeleton based on convergent technologies (contemporary or not), allows us to recognize the limitations of the IP environment. Yes, it works and provides important operational benefits, although its “incipient” nature, as Menéndez acknowledges, demands more stress tests. The experience is a degree, and perhaps the definitive condition that will allow the IP world to be seen as a possibility for the vast majority of media infrastructures in Spain, whatever their dimensions, ambitions or expectations.

The set of standards SMPTE ST 2110 y 2022 allows establishing a common framework to which broadcast manufacturers and suppliers have joined to minimize problems associated with broadcast exploitation over IP. Jose Manuel Menendez, professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, allows us to better understand the idiosyncrasy of this set of standards. In addition to shedding light on the reason for the standardization of option 2110-2022, explains what, in his opinion (knowledge acquired after conversations with the pioneers of this technology in Spain and his extensive academic work), are the most critical areas of the IP infrastructures that must be improved.

The SMPTE 2110 and 2022

The transition process to IP that broadcast is exploring was undertaken several decades ago in the world of telephony, an environment in which flows of circuit switching to packet accumulation: "Many years ago, everything changed to IP. As long as the network allowed it, packets were transmitted at a certain speed. Then, from the receiver, this was decoded so that it sounded as if there was a permanent circuit connection," Menéndez recalls.

The SDI world looked in this mirror, but found a drawback: the high bit rates of broadcast audio and video environments. IP infrastructures came to solve this problem, replacing the physical connections of SDI by sending packets. These may go different ways, but if the network is fast enough, the receiver will be able to rearrange them, decode them “and reproduce the signal and sensations as if you had that physical connection.”

"We must not forget that the SMPTE is an American association with tremendous strength, which has been making specifications for 40 years in the field of magnetic recording, cinema or television”.

What was needed, however, was a mechanism that would allow transmitting what the SMPTE ended up defining as essences: video, audio, metadata…In this way, the group of experts from the US organization proposed two main instruments to the industry: the SMPTE 2022, which allows the entire process of sending and receiving IP assets to be carried out together, and the SMPTE ST 2110, which divides the delivery into its variable ST 2110-10 (system and synchronization), ST 2110-20 (video), ST 2110-30 (audio) or ST 2110-40 (supplementary data).

“We must not forget that the SMPTE is an American association with tremendous strength, which has been making specifications for 40 years in the field of magnetic recording, film or television,” Menéndez explains to explain the adoption of 2110 and 2022 as an industrial standard, although it also recognizes that it would not be possible without the contribution of other organizations such as CLOTHING.

The evolution process

IP infrastructures represent a minuscule percentage of the global broadcast industry. Manufacturers try to continue perfecting products and solutions, waiting for tangible applications from broadcasters who find themselves with tools that are far from the comfort, ease of use and expected transparency: “When they tell me what it means to add a new device, I wonder if there could be another way to simplify the process, because I think it adds great overhead and complexity to the system.”

“When they tell me what it means to add a new deviceI wonder if there may be another way to simplify the process, because I think it adds a great system overload and complexity”.

After being launched in 2017, the SMPTE ST 2110 and 2022 standards have been receiving small improvements. Currently, the pace of updates has stagnated to favor large-scale adoption, both by providers and broadcasters. Menéndez considers that the solutions provided by SMPTE are sufficiently solvent so that they are not required future revolutions at the IP level in the near future. Updates will be given, but to "incorporate other options, not more": "It's like when in SDI the signaling was made to use MPEG-2 as an encoder and, suddenly, H.264 comes. The necessary labels were added for this arrival of HD, and the same with H.265."

Between the arrival of updated specifications from the SMPTE, the experience of televisions with IP infrastructures allows us to know some of the most important needs. pressing that must be resolved to help the consolidation of the standard. Menendez identifies six aspects to improve; key issues (and opportunities) linked to the IP world.

**1 – Designs IP Fabric more complex**

“All IP infrastructures start from a very meticulous network design; a basic cabling infrastructure designed in a very meticulous way that they call IP Fabric. In it, they try to minimize the number of hops and reduce latency as much as possible. It is something obvious: we have very high binary flows and we have to try to ensure that, suddenly, we lose a packet.”

“These designs will evolve with different architectures, just as the telephone network has done. At first it was a basic Ethernet network and then MPLS emerged (Multiprotocol Label Switching) and another series of acronyms that have been providing new services and functionalities to the network. I think something similar is going to happen.”

2 – Synchrony simple and without intermediate algorithms

"A problem that we did not have with the SDI centers is synchronization. In the control center we had a master clock that reached all the devices. And the matter was solved! Not here: we have a PTP protocol that is a candle”.

"All devices are stuck because it is the master clock; you have to define an algorithm defined in TTP that is providing an important system overload and complexity. This is something that needs improvement, as it is a very important element in a production center: all devices must start the video frame at the same instant so that when we do live transitions there is no glitches nor strange things in the audio or video.”

3 – Best algorithms compression

"Both the 2110 and the 2022 carry signals that, especially if we talk about video, have very high bit rates and admit a certain input compression. They are already beginning to add algorithms such as JPEG XS, an evolution of Tico that supports 2:1 understanding. It is slight, but when we talk about going from 1.5 GB to 750 MB, it is already a very important improvement.”

"That pre-transmission understanding part will improve as we improve compression schemes. If you have to transport a 4K signal and you need 12GB, and you manage to reduce that amount by half..."

4 – More and better tools and processes cybersecurity

"The cybersecurity It begins to become something essential, because the moment you have IP centers, you are so subject to possible hackers like the rest. It is not the same that they hack our PC, which is a tremendous task for us, than that, suddenly, they do it with television equipment and something that you do not want begins to be broadcast nationally, regionally or locally, which is extremely dangerous”.

"So the issue of cybersecurity has to enter these systems no matter what. There is no other way. In fact, we want to start a master's degree dedicated exclusively to the sector and will include extensive training on IP computer networks and cybersecurity.”

5 – Orchestrators based on AI

“Current orchestrators are based on CLOTHING (Advanced Media Workflow Association), and its current evolutions, for me, are very basic. We are talking about first implementations that have a level of intelligence that is more similar to what in electronics they call a “finite state automaton.” “This is going to evolve thanks to artificial intelligence.”

"In recent years there has been a revolution with Chat GPT and all the possibilities they allow. It is a matter of time before intelligence neural networks, with terms like deep learning o machine learning, begin to participate in the intelligence of the orchestrator to provide him with much more capacity to find or manage elements, as well as to be more resilient to problems that may exist on the network.”

6 – Tools subjective quality measurement

"Normally, in central control there are different elements to measure the quality of the signal, such as waveform monitors and vectorscopes. They are elements that provide objective quality. But now, using artificial intelligence, we can begin to carry out subjective quality measurements such as perceived quality or user experience, and the moment we have signals directly in IP will be even easier to do”.

"They are solutions that are going to begin to be deployed immediately, because they allow you to know in real time how the user is perceiving your signal; what feelings they have regarding your product. It is something very relevant, because the people who work in this sector depend on the client being happy: if the soccer game looks sad, I change operators."

**What separates the broadcasters del IP?**

Although today the vast majority of Spanish broadcasters are interested in IP infrastructures as a future card to obtain greater versatility in their daily operations, very few have decided to take the step of implementing it on a full scale (RTPA) or partially (RTVE, Telemadrid, TV3). The cost of this installation, and an SDI amortization still in the minds of CTOs and the financial department, are relevant conditions, but possibly not definitive. "All the equipment in the production environment is expensive. By the mere fact of having the last name "broadcast", they have one or two zeros on the right. I don't think that the price is what is preventing the jump to IP from happening: what I see as difficult is the transition itself, with the abrupt change that it implies, to the new production concept," says Menéndez, who assures that it is very possible that "the machines they have been buying for the last six or twelve months already have IP capabilities."

“I remember the bodegas that pass under Mediaset, full of colorful cables that indicate directions of road or types of signs. All that happens to be meaningless”.

The professor justifies the reluctance to jump in the change of philosophy and logic from the production center; a change "so drastic", that you cannot do it progressively: "I remember the warehouses that pass under Mediaset, full of colorful cables that indicate directions of path or types of signs. All of that becomes meaningless."

For Menéndez, it is a matter of time before the “chip change” that allows us to understand the need to “stop making migrations or purchases in SDI to start planning for IP.” The next step will be to establish a full stop. It is not simple, not at all: "I remember that a few years before the pandemic Víctor García and David Valcarce from RTVE showed me the building they call "the triangle". Suddenly, a tremendous thing struck me. Víctor puts me in a room and tells me: this is where we are going to have network control. (...) IP implies a very drastic change that is seen even in the physical infrastructure of spaces."

Hay dozens of conditions that can make a television think that the moment has not arrived. But the IP is a decision that must be made sooner or later.