The transition to an all-IT infrastructure for live production is a hot topic at IBC this year, with many new products and demonstrations being shown. This transition promises to bring many benefits to content producers, such as more flexibility, new workflows and a reduction in costs, all which are needed to adapt to ongoing business reconfigurations.

On this occasion, the EBU/SMPTE/VSF Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM) published its interim report on the progress of the development of its reference architecture for networked media.

While the broadcast industry already has a pretty good understanding of how to build a live production plant using traditional infrastructure based on SDI and specialty hardware, it is less clear how to achieve the same functionalities using IT technologies like IP networks and off-the shelf servers and storage components.

The goal of the Task Force for Phase 2 is to provide a general model of such a networked media system. This model will be a key tool that can be used to guide the industry towards interoperability by making it possible to map the different technologies available. For example, the technologies collected during Phase 1 (see the JT-NM Gap Analysis Report). It will also help identify the missing parts and where standardization is required.

The group takes an interactive approach to explore different avenues of solutions in small subgroups. By following this approach, the group is able to build a common understanding of the issue while continuously producing elements for the final solution along the way.  There are currently three subgroups working on different aspects of the reference architecture. These are described in the report and listed below:

  1. The System Group - Works on a high level overall view of a networked media system.
  2. The Modeling Group – Working to create a UML model based on an analysis of the user stories published in the Gap Analysis Report.
  3. The Minimum Viable Approach Group – Working to define a minimum viable system that supports a known operational scenario of live, in-studio, multi-camera sports commentary show.

Find the interim report here .

Latest news