TVN’s Road to IP

Television broadcasters may wish to leverage IP technology, but they cannot simply abandon their paid-for baseband infrastructures. Rather, most will look for ways to introduce islands of IP into their existing workflows with the help of IP gateways. Four early applications for IP in this type of hybrid environment have emerged. (Graphic: Imagine Communications)

One camp known as ASPEN (Adaptive Sample Picture Encapsulation) is led by Evertz and has the support of more than 30 vendors, OEMs and end users. A second, AIMS (the Alliance for IP Media Solutions), also has serious industry backing. While both have set out in their own direction, each acknowledges that it is the achievement of a performance threshold in the IT world that makes it possible to jettison traditional SDI designs and workflows and transition to IP. The groundwork for ASPEN was laid while Evertz prepared an IP networking strategy for ESPN‘s Digital Center 2, above. (ESPN photo)