With the whole media industry transitioning to an IP infrastructure, a major destination for attendees to IBC2018 will be five days of the IP Showcase and the IP Showcase Theater hosted for the second year by the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) and fellow industry organizations.

“This is the first IP Showcase since the publication of the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards,” Mike Cronk, vp of core technologies at Grass Valley and chairman of AIMS told me during our interview for The Broadcast Bridge. “So unlike previous IP Showcases where we were focused on demonstrating interoperability, this year we will have 8 display areas showcasing the practical benefits of IP systems interacting with each other.”

In fact there will be over 100 pieces of equipment from over 60 vendors that emphasize everything industry vendors have achieved in support of IP standards and specifications.

“These demonstrations will be providing proof of performance of systems based on ST 2110 IP being able to handle any format in the broadcast industry,” Cronk said. “ So we will be seeing UHD at 50P and 59.94 with 720P and 1080i, all traveling through one switch and all seen in one multiviewer simultaneously.”

The opportunity of witnessing so many different systems working together will be an opportunity for visitors to IBC2018 to get an idea of best of breed in this new era of IP.

Mike told me that attendees will see the breadth of product that can operate with SMPTE ST 2110 from many companies and how the NMOS (Networked Media Open Specifications) specifications developed by the AMWA (Advanced Media Workflow Association) such as IS-04 that enables applications to discover networked resources and IS-05, a specification providing an HTTP API for establishing, and removing, flows between senders and receivers, are being becoming very practical with multiple vendors’ control systems.

Visitors will also see how SMPTE 2022-7 provides for link-loss and packet-loss protection for enhanced reliability beyond what we came to expect from HD-SDI systems.

“Devoting part of your IBC2018 schedule to the IP Showcase will be a valuable investment of your time because I think you will see how important IP is becoming,” Cronk said, “and the way it is enabling computer-based processing. It may be one of the most important stops of your time at the RAI.”

IP Showcase Theater

One of the most eagerly awaited events during the IP Showcase will be the IP Showcase Theater, which will be filled with educational demonstrations.

Wes Simpson, president of Telecom Products Consulting is selecting the content for the 30 hours of live presentations during this year’s IP Showcase Theater.

“The theme will tie into the IP Showcase, of course. Over the five days of the Theater, in the morning of three of those days (Friday, Sunday and Tuesday) we will have presentations on the basics of SMPTE ST 2110 for those who need to get acclimated to its intricacies,” Simpson told me. “This will give somebody new to this technology a chance to get a ground floor understanding of it.”

Then in the middle of every day the Theater will present case studies of actual IP implementations, 10 in total, such at a look at the BBC Wale’s new Cardiff Central Square installation, and Telemundo who has gone on air with SMPTE 2110 and stories from the FIFA World Cup broadcasts.

“We’ll also have panel discussions,” Simpson said, including "one with Matthew Goldman of MediaKind who is also president of SMPTE, and an extensive amount of content on the new generation of network management (NMOS) on which there will be 12 presentations alone.”

There will even be a Super Session on IP test and measurement.

“We’ve tried to structure the topics of the IP Showcase Theater to appeal to a wide spectrum of interests,” Simpson told me. “It will give visitors the ability to hear from people who are deeply involved with the realities of SMPTE ST 2110, SMPTE ST 2022, and AMWA NMOS. There will be something for everyone.”

The IP Showcase and Theater is open to anyone attending IBC2018.

When the official agenda is available, look for it here on The Broadcast Bridge.

You can find it in conference room E-106 to the right of Hall 10, on the first level above the ground floor of the RAI.

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More information about the sponsoring organizations is available at the websites below:

• Audio Engineering Society (AES): http://www.aes.org
• Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS): www.aimsalliance.org
• Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA): www.amwa.tv
• European Broadcasting Union (EBU): www.ebu.ch
• Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers^® (SMPTE^®): www.smpte.org
• Video Services Forum (VSF): http://www.videoservicesforum.org

More information about standards and open specifications is available at:

• AIMS: https://www.aimsalliance.org/white-papers/
• AES67: http://www.aes.org/standards/blog/2018/4/aes67-2018-published
• AMWA: https://www.amwa.tv/specifications.shtml
• EBU: https://tech.ebu.ch
• SMPTE ST 2110: www.smpte.org/st_2110
• VSF Technical Recommendations: http://videoservicesforum.org/technical_recommendations.shtml