IBC2024 Accelerator Project: IP networks: Finding the needle in the haystack

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Proposed by Eviden and supported by Champions BBC, EBU, IMG and Solent University, ‘IP networks: Finding the needle in the haystack’ looks to identify and solve the challenges around IP infrastructure within broadcast facilities created by the orchestration of media flows – namely, how to find the correct device, sender or receiver when there might be thousands in a facility.

As broadcasters transition from traditional hardware to IP and cloud-based systems, they are faced with the daunting task of managing tens of thousands of IP senders, receivers, and nodes, each identified by complex numerical codes. This complexity makes it difficult for operators to locate and manage these devices, leading to increased operational costs, inefficiencies, and sustainability issues. This challenge is compounded by the lack of standardized solutions, with many broadcasters relying on ad-hoc, vendor-specific workarounds that are neither scalable nor reliable.

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Peter Brightwell, BBC

Peter Brightwell, Research Engineer at the BBC and one of the leaders of the project, speaks to the complexities faced in this new environment: “Many broadcasters are now planning or building IP and cloud-based facilities, where previously they would have used dedicated video and audio connectivity and routers,” he says. “This promises great flexibility and scalability for future operations. But it also brings challenges of identifying devices, senders, receivers, and other resources. Technical operators might be presented with screens of cryptic identifiers, and if it’s difficult for them to find what they need, businesses won’t be able to respond to change quickly and there is also the danger that equipment will be left on when unused because of worries that it can’t be found again easily, with consequent sustainability implications.”

Polly Hickling, the Learning and Development Lead at Eviden, and another project leader, describes how actual industry demand has driven the creation of this Accelerator project: “When it comes to sustainability and confidence in systems, our data gathering from those involved in the accelerator and beyond, has shown us that there is significant daily impact for broadcasters when updating, managing or maintaining complex systems, with one contributor saying the length of time it takes to identify and label an unmanageable and time-consuming process for already time-limited teams.”

The Challenge

The project team will gather data from across the industry to establish current obstacles and utilise it to test and implement solutions incorporating IS 13 and dynamic routing for orchestrated infrastructure will then take place. A collaborative group will include key broadcasters and industry standards movements such as the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), who will work together towards an accelerated approach to this industry challenge.

The POC Objectives:

• Understand the challenges of identification with large numbers of networked media devices in broadcast facilities.

• Assess NMOS “resource labelling” specifications (BCP-002-02 and IS-13) and for tackling these challenges.

• Assess current implementations and encourage new ones.

• Demonstration at scale of the benefits of the approach.

Project goals

The primary goal of this Accelerator Project is to simplify and standardise the management of IP resources within broadcast networks. As the broadcast industry increasingly adopts IP-based infrastructures, the complexity of these systems has grown exponentially. This project aims to streamline the identification and management of these IP resources, making them easier to locate, manage, and maintain. By developing and implementing the AMWA IS-13 NMOS Annotation Specification and BCP-002-02 NMOS Asset Distinguishing Information, the project seeks to reduce operational burdens, improve efficiency, and enhance the sustainability of broadcasting operations.

Hickling stresses the industry’s need for the project: “This accelerator came about after conversations with broadcasters about the increasing challenges surrounding complex IP broadcast facilities and resource management,” she says. “The goal of the accelerator is to address the challenges and explore resolutions to this.”

Unique approach and technological integration

This project is unique in its collaborative and standardised approach to solving the IP identity crisis. Unlike other solutions that rely on fragmented, vendor-specific methods, this initiative aims to create a unified, industry-wide standard for IP resource management. By extending the existing NMOS specifications, particularly the AMWA IS-13 NMOS Annotation Specification, the project offers a consistent and scalable method for labelling and tagging IP resources. This standardisation is critical for reducing complexity and ensuring broadcasters can manage their networks efficiently and sustainably.

Polly Hickling Photo

Polly Hickling, Eviden

Explaining the reasoning behind this approach, Brightwell says: “There are lots of individual ‘workarounds’ happening in facilities to provide human-friendly information about resources, but these are ‘brittle’ and vendor-specific,” he says. “We believe there is a need for a common approach. AMWA IS-04 and IS-05 (NMOS Discovery & Registration and Connection Management) are becoming an important part in new IP builds and extending NMOS to provide such information should not be difficult. In fact, the new BCP-002-02 NMOS Asset Distinguishing Information combined with a new proposal IS-13 NMOS Annotation Specification do this, so the challenge is about getting them adopted.”

The project’s emphasis on real-world testing and hands-on workshops further sets it apart, as it seeks to validate these standards in actual broadcast environments before promoting them for broader industry adoption. Hickling highlights the collaborative nature of the project: “Feedback from our contributors highlights the real need for formal consistency around this process, workarounds are not what is wanted by those implementing and incompatibility issues create challenges. It has been clear to me for a long time that the solutions that really help always work best when everyone facing them feels listened to. That’s really what we’ve been trying to do here - collaborate with all the relevant parties as much as possible.”

Implementing and solving the IP identity crisis requires a combination of specialist technologies, resources, and expertise. At the core of the solution are the NMOS specifications, specifically the AMWA IS-13 NMOS Annotation Specification and BCP-002-02 NMOS Asset Distinguishing Information. These specifications provide the technical foundation for labelling and managing IP resources in a standardised manner.

In addition to these technologies, the project relies on the expertise of a diverse group of industry stakeholders. This includes broadcasters who provide insights into the practical challenges of managing IP networks, vendors who are responsible for integrating the NMOS specifications into their products, and system integrators who ensure that the solutions are implemented effectively across different environments.

The project also leverages resources from leading industry organisations, such as the BBC, EBU, dB Broadcast, and IMG, who are contributing knowledge and experience to the initiative. These collaborations are essential for ensuring that the solutions developed are both technically sound and practically viable.

Brightwell emphasises the importance of these contributions: “The accelerator is using specifications and implementations being developed within the AMWA NMOS community and available as open source,” he says. “The challenge needs vendors to incorporate these in their NMOS solutions and system integrators and broadcasters to adopt them.”

Stressing the project’s desire to create something that actually meets the needs of the industry, Hickling adds: “With this in mind, our exploration of how we can address this is taking into consideration all the feedback we have gathered in a hope to come up with a process that doesn’t add to the already short time scales those we have spoken with have,” she says.

Showcase at IBC2024

The project has focused on a use case involving the management of IP resources in a live broadcast environment. This was selected to demonstrate the practical challenges that broadcasters face when managing large networks of IP devices and to validate the effectiveness of the proposed NMOS specifications in addressing these challenges.

During the IBC demo, the project team will showcase a fully functional system that integrates the new NMOS specifications. This system will demonstrate how broadcasters can use standardised annotations to efficiently manage and identify IP resources within their networks. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with the system through interactive sessions, gaining hands-on experience with the new features and understanding how they can be applied in their own workflows.

The demo will also highlight the collaborative efforts between broadcasters and vendors, showcasing how these NMOS specifications have been integrated into existing products. This collaboration is a key aspect of the project, as it ensures that the solutions developed are not only technically feasible but also practically implementable across different broadcasting environments.

Brightwell explains: “We’ve had input from broadcasters and system integrators about how they currently use spreadsheets, etc. as workarounds for dealing with large numbers of devices, sources and destinations in their facilities,” he says. “We’re experimenting with AMWA BCP-002-02 and IS-13 as a more manageable alternative, and at IBC we’ll present how this has progressed, give a simulated demonstration of a large facility, and discuss what more is needed for industry adoption.”

Hickling concludes: “Our demo for IBC will be the opportunity for us to showcase solutions based on the feedback we have gathered. Hopefully showing that by listening to those facing the challenges, it is possible to come up with solutions to these complex challenges faced in our transition of technologies, and encompassing the essence of these accelerators - collaboration!”