New tech launches, interactive demos, and acquisitions have become an NAB Show expectation, and this year’s event delivered in full. Across the Las Vegas Convention Center, exhibitors showcased new tools for media and entertainment workflows, and attendees test-drove them, while both debated the industry’s next chapter. While the conversation varied depending on the hall you were in, the IP transition, interoperability, and demand for rapid streaming innovation were three recurring themes.
Hybrid solutions are in high demand as ST 2110 takes off
At NAB, it became clear just how far the industry has progressed in its baseband to IP transition. New SMPTE ST 2110 solutions were visible at every turn, each addressing an emerging workflow need.
However, many facilities, video engineers, and production teams expressed interest in hybrid solutions that enable them to move between different IP video codecs, protocols, and standards, as well as SDI and HDMI equipment.
Exhibitors answered this demand with new tools like BRIDGE LIVE IP. The ST 2110 IP video solution illustrated just how easy it can be to stream, transcode, encode, and decode compressed IP media into and out of 2110 networks. At the same time, they showcased production-proven technology like the BRIDGE LIVE SDI models, which support mixed SDI/compressed IP environments with flexible encoding, decoding, and transcoding capabilities.
An IP25-R Mini-Converter update from AJA unlocks even more flexible ST 2110/baseband conversion functionality with new transmit functionality, adding to the device’s existing receive capability. With this free update, professionals can now use IP25-R to convert ST 2110 signals to 12G-SDI and HDMI or convert SDI sources for use with ST 2110 networks. Innovations like these demonstrated the industry’s commitment to accelerating IP transitions, lowering barriers to entry, and making it more intuitive to deploy different flavours of IP and SDI across hybrid pipelines and facilities.
Open ecosystems are a priority for streamlined workflows
Given the complex nature of today’s productions, interoperability prevailed as another core NAB theme. Attendees reinforced their need to scale, but with a smaller rack footprint, less cabling, remote-control capabilities, and interoperability across vendor technologies. They expressed a desire to work with different gear, without running into interoperability issues between equipment. To this end, open, high-density infrastructure solutions, like openGear, proved popular.
This prioritisation of open ecosystems is a natural industry progression. With today’s IP and higher resolution workflows, there is more gear in play across studios, trucks, and pipelines than ever, and rack space comes at a premium. Being able to pack the functionality of 20 standalone devices from different vendors into a 2RU with redundant power and easy control is not only convenient; it is smart.
Several manufacturers debuted new openGear-compatible IP and baseband solutions during the show. For instance, AJA launched the OG-GEN10, providing sync gen across baseband devices. An HD/SD/AES-11 sync generator that solves common timing challenges, it boasts nine HD/SD reference outputs and one AES-11 reference output, allowing users to lock more equipment to a master clock for reliable audio and video sync in mission-critical settings.
Demand for accelerated streaming innovation is not slowing
Streaming is now part of our everyday lives, whether scrolling through social media, logging into a video meeting, binging the latest series, or tuning into a championship game. The quality of those streams is only getting better, especially in the realm of live sports, driving up audience streaming quality expectations across platforms.
Creators are improving the quality of their streams. At the same time, broadcasters and AV teams are looking at how they can leverage some of the more desirable aspects of creator content — like vertical video, another trending topic — to entice viewers. Behind the scenes, both are juggling more mixed media formats in production and delivery, making streaming innovation a must to keep pace.
During NAB, evolutions like AJA’s BRIDGE LIVE IP proved attractive to attendees, while AJA’s acquisition of Comprimato drew excitement. The deal will unify the AJA and Comprimato development teams behind the BRIDGE LIVE family of IP streaming products. It is poised to accelerate innovation to bring customers enhanced workflow efficiency and improved content monetisation opportunities.
Overall, NAB reinforced just how fast our industry is evolving, from the IP pivot and hybrid middle ground we are seeing now, to the push for more open infrastructure, and demand for scalable streaming innovation.
What comes next may be difficult to predict, but from the looks of it, production is only going to get more seamless, and content, even more dynamic.
