Reliance on a mixture of standards-based and proprietary technologies has both shaped and constrained the Pro AV industry, sometimes tying users to specific vendors or manufacturers and their solutions. While single-vendor-ecosystem models offer benefits such as vertical integration and consistent user experiences, they can also limit organizations’ agility in adapting to change. Locked into closed systems, organizations often find it challenging to integrate solutions from multiple vendors, whether to realize specific functionality, take advantage of new capabilities, or de-risk the supply chain. In the worst cases, they lack the interoperability they need to deploy the best combination of systems for their workflow requirements.
Standards and open specifications built over time by many industry peers aren’t always as quick into the market as new siloed products, but they try to deal with the systems-of-systems interoperability problem in ways no single-vendor solution can. Designed to support media transport over IP, SMPTE ST 2110 is a standard that has been tested and proven in broadcast applications worldwide. IPMX builds on ST 2110 with additional open specifications designed to enable media transport for many industries. For organizations across these industries, the transition to AV over IP yields significant benefits, including the ability to move content over longer distances and manage large systems, introducing new synergies between data, communications, and rich media.
With traditional performance media infrastructures, the common link between professional and studio equipment, AV routing and signal management equipment, and PC/IT equipment was video/audio connectivity in the form of HDMI, SDI, or other. IPMX deals with restoring the connection between these different asset classes while remaining in IP versus connecting them the conventional way through HDMI.
Bridging what HDMI can bridge is no small feat. The standards need to accommodate the different types of processing available in different equipment, and this means supporting many protocols, codecs, and conversions. Everything from uncompressed content at higher bit rates through to internet-friendly high-compression solutions that leverage processing blocks in chips found in PCs, phones, and tablets must be accounted for.
In addition to enabling compatibility with a wide array of products and technologies, the IPMX standards soon will add profiles and an improved labeling system to help potential users easily navigate product capabilities and how to mix and match products from different brands most effectively. IP-to-IP gateways to change media formats and/or protocols can and will handle the rest of the needs for organization-wide interoperability.
Because standards belong to everyone, the move to include even single-vendor solutions in IPMX networks has started. Two examples include gateway products that allow the conversion of HDBaseT to/from IPMX and NDI to/from IPMX, for starters. IPMX also gives users the ability to mix equipment operating on different types of networks. For example, professional studio equipment operating on tightly synchronized network including ST 2110 and AES67 products that don’t require synchronization can reach display, speaker, and other output targets on an organization’s broader network.
As IPMX matures, expanding vendor support for the standard is fueling the release of more IPMX-capable products for broadcast and Pro AV. New encoders/decoders and new software solutions are being introduced to the market to bring IPMX flows into and out of a PC and the software running on it. Using a mini driver, for example, a user could easily bring an IPMX stream into a PC and connect it to popular applications for communications, design, production, and more. At the same time, display technologies are increasingly able to support IPMX and ST 2110 natively. These include projectors and commercial displays supporting Intel Smart Display Modules (SMD), as well as LED walls.
Facilitating numerous modes of compatibility, IPMX, ST 2110, AES67, NMOS, and other interwoven standards and open specifications are creating an ecosystem in which users have access to a much broader array of AV and transport technologies, and more flexibility in how they’re deployed. As the standard continues to mature, IPMX will not only simplify AV system design and operation but also drive greater collaboration and innovation.
