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Macnica Takes Flight for InterBEE as IPMX Buzz Rises
- 06 November, 2023
New accelerated, high-capacity SMPTE ST 2110 and IPMX workflows enable new applications,
including integration with more technologies and end points.
USA: Macnica is bringing its message of open standards interoperability to its first InterBEE show, where the company will offer demonstrations and insights into how the SMPTE ST 2110 and IPMX standards can together open doors to more media workflows. Macnica demonstrates at Stand 5205 during InterBEE, which takes place November 15-17 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.
Andrew Starks, Director of Product Management for Macnica, says the timing is right to show how the two standards can come together and complement each other as the IPMX suite of standards inches closer to ratification, which is expected in 2024. While the proven SMPTE ST 2110 standard has very stringent specifications for the transport of video, audio and ancillary data over IP links, the IPMX suite of standards shares many SMPTE ST 2110 attributes with more flexibility.
For example, IPMX allows for greater freedom in technology choices, including the ability to work with asynchronous signals, compressed or uncompressed video, and with or without PTP. That opens lanes for new media workflows that will fuel delivery to more end points at much lower price points.
“SMPTE ST 2110 and IPMX interoperability reached something of a fever pitch at the recent IBC show in Amsterdam, where we unveiled new demonstrations that showed how simple it is for product developers to add both standards to their products,” said Starks. “That includes how Macnica’s core IP transport technologies can power highly flexible multi-vendor, multi-platform and even multi-gig workflows. With IPMX standards ratification approaching and product development soon to follow, Macnica’s enabling force in the broadcast industry will help manufacturers and product developers bring IP media systems to a much broader market.”
Highlights for Macnica’s InterBEE stand include demos that show the company’s SMPTE ST 2110 and IPMX solutions interacting with HDMI and SDI sources, which Starks says essentially “condenses a small, integrated broadcast production and conference room within our stand”. Macnica will also demonstrate the high performance of its M2S Software Development Kit (SDK) for multi-platform streaming scenarios, and how its integration with the Intel N6000 100GbE SmartNIC brings new benefits for network capacity, redundancy and acceleration.
New Technology Integrations
Macnica’s M2S SDK is designed as a simple and unified interface for real-time video streams, enabling implementations of software-based or FPGA-accelerated ST 2110 and IPMX systems on general-purpose servers. This provides a great solution for broadcast systems that operate “All-IP” workflows whether deployed on-premises or in the cloud.
The M2S SDK can be used with a variety of NIC cards, providing users with more flexibility to build products with optimal specifications. When used with Macnica’s upcoming 100 Smart NIC solution, developers have a bridge to IPMX with scalable hardware and software infrastructure options for 1Gb to 100 Gb networks. Macnica’s 100G Smart NIC solution marries the Intel N6000 SmartNIC network interface controller (NIC) card with Macnica’s FPGA IP Cores to enable high-performance, low-latency ST 2110 and IPMX flows for up to 32 video flows with very low CPU/GPU usage.
Macnica will demonstrate how leveraging the Intel N6000 SmartNIC within its high-performance hardware will also support ST 2022-7 “hitless merge”, which enables network path redundancy across advanced media workflows.
InterBEE audiences will also learn how the M2S can interface with Unreal Engine, a high-performance engine best known as a tool in the gaming industry for real-time creation of graphics and special effects. The media and entertainment industry has increasingly adopted these technologies for live production and high-bandwidth video workflows, perhaps most notably for virtual set productions. This is among the latest examples of how Macnica is enabling connectivity to more technologies and end points across the media ecosystem.
Macnica will also show its flagship, ME10 SoC solution, and IPMX Product Development Kit with open APIs as part of their standards-based technology demonstrations. Macnica will also preview a new IPMX to HDMI AV over IP gateway device for HDMI sources and destinations.
