NAB 2017: Media Companies Begin the Transition to IP With Vizrt
Vizrt (SL2416), the leading creator of software-based media solutions, has made it a priority to support media companies on their journey to IP. The focus is on live productions, supporting open and future-proof solutions. With hardware partners, Vizrt is constantly extending the functionality of production platforms to be the central part of the IP ecosystem for customers.
IP-Format Agnostic
The core of Vizrt’s IP production and playout workflows is Viz Engine, providing graphics rendering, clip players, downstream keyers, and DVEs. The system is format-agnostic, giving media companies the flexibility to move forward with quickly evolving IP standards, ensuring that video and graphics systems will continue to perform no matter what they decide to use as their house format.
“The Viz Engine real-time compositor is open to any input and output format,” says Gerhard Lang, chief engineering officer, Vizrt. “We allow media companies to choose the input format — be it SDI, IP streams, clips, or even graphics — to be taken just before playout. This gives media companies flexibility in using any format that meets the requirements of the moment. The end result is very easy usage that is future-proof.”
Matrox X.mio3 IP Powers Viz Engine
At NAB 2017, Vizrt will also show Viz Engine integrated with the Matrox X.mio3 IP multichannel video I/O over 10 GbE card to run SMPTE 2110 with video, audio, and 2059-2 PTP timing. The Matrox X.mio3 IP offers multichannel, IP-encapsulated HD, 3G, and UHD1 video I/O; support for all IP transport protocols, including ST 2110, ST 2022-7, ST 2022-6, and ASPEN; and hardware-based on-board de-interlacing, scaling, and compositing.
Matrox will have product experts on hand at both the Matrox (SL6316) and AIMS (N4824) booths to discuss the capabilities of the X.mio3 IP integrated with Viz Engine.
“With SMPTE-2110 and the AIMS Alliance,” Lang explains, “our pursuit of one unified standard supported by all vendors is close to a reality. We have implemented video, audio, and ancillary data to be shown at NAB 2017. Thanks to the AIMS Alliance and all of its members, interoperability, the key to a successful ecosystem, is tested on a regular basis. All vendors and media companies will benefit greatly from this.”
Low-Cost, High-Quality Productions
The costs of creating a live production are dropping, but viewers still expect to see a high-quality product, whether they are consuming media on-air or online. Vizrt has teamed with NewTek to promote their groundbreaking NDI technology that can accommodate efficient, multi-source live IP video switching over a standard GigE LAN infrastructure for low-cost but high-quality productions. Vizrt will support NDI at NewTek’s booth (SL5016).
Complete Virtualized Solutions
Virtualized solutions are a major step toward creating a sustainable and cost-effective IP ecosystem. Vizrt’s efforts toward this goal have already enabled Viz Engine to be completely virtualized with video and graphics playout from the cloud using Azure and Amazon.
Vizrt’s complete IP capabilities will be displayed at these booths at NAB 2017:
- AIMS (N4824), featuring SMPTE-2110 with video, audio, and 2059-2 PTP timing
- NewTek (SL5016), featuring NewTek NDI protocol. The NewTek NDI protocol will also be used for IP capabilities on the Vizrt booth.
- Arista Networks (SL11509), featuring SMPTE-2022-6 together with EVS as a video source
- Evertz (N1503), featuring a SMPTE-2110 configuration
- Harmonic (N628FP), featuring a SMPTE-2110 configuration