Because SDI is only used by the broadcast and production industries, manufacturers and users have been unable to take advantage of the massive developments and economies of scale prevalent in the computer industry, which spends 1,000 times more money than the broadcast industry annually.

The lure of transporting MoIP with greater flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency led the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE) to develop and publish two industry standards with input from leading industry groups. The first, ST 2022, involved converting SDI video and audio to MPEG-2 compressed, packetized data, and transporting it over lower bandwidth TCP/IP networks. Based on this foundation, SMPTE then developed ST 2110 in 2017, specifying the transport of high bitrate professional media over high-bandwidth, managed IP networks in real-time.

For greater bandwidth efficiency, ST 2110 separates video, audio, and data into separate streams. This allows users to only send and/or receive the streams they need rather than the entire SDI package. The typical high-definition ST 2110 implementation often uses a 10Gb/s network connection, managed by powerful, yet less costly Common Off-the-Shelf (COTS) IP network switches.

ST 2110 is actually a suite of standards describing the following specifications:

• ST 2110-10: Carriage of video, audio, and data, such as closed captions, as separate essences
• ST 2110-20: Uncompressed video transport
• ST 2110-30: Uncompressed PCM (AES67) audio transport
• ST 2110-40: Ancillary data
• ST 2110-21: Defines traffic shaping and delivery timing for uncompressed video
• ST 2110-22: Transport of constant bitrate, compressed video over IP
• ST 2110-31: Real-time Protocol (RTP) AES 3 IP transport referenced to a network clock

IP-based video is supported by the next-generation ATSC 3.0 DTV broadcast standard, as well as smart phones and other IP-connected computer and mobile devices. Its also being rapidly adopted by broadcast and production facilities, many of which currently operate a hybrid SDI/IP environment. Unlike the forklift upgrades common with dedicated hardware-based video systems, IP networks can usually be upgraded by updating software. And IP networks are proving to be robust and reliable for demanding live broadcast and streaming productions.

Be sure to check out our Hitachi CU-HD1300FT series camera control units (CCUs), which are available with ST 2110 I/O signals, as well as our multi-part series of Short Takes videos about ST 2110. And watch for our next blog, which will take a deeper dive into the technical parameters and requirements of ST 2110.