NAB Show: Evertz Continues Cloud Transition

Evertz Microsystems, a global provider of media and entertainment technology, will head to the 2022 NAB Show (April 23-27 in Las Vegas) at Booth N5907 to showcase its growing portfolio of new cloud solutions that support a significant shift away from CAPEX broadcast hardware to innovative virtualized solutions that align OPEX with flexible workflows in the Cloud.

Evertz continues to push the cloud transition forward by designing an end-to-end broadcast ecosystem that focusses on cloud-agnostic versions of major contribution and production elements within its workflow, while supporting both on-premise and distributed hardware within the content-train.

A key element within Evertz’ cloud-based solutions is providing customers with a powerful, low-bandwidth Cloud on-ramp option for easy and convenient contribution of high-quality video with ultra-low latency for production and streaming applications. Evertz’ XPS Live Video Encoder/Decoder Series can be deployed to the edge to feed live video, audio and data to Reflektor, Evertz’ Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) IP distribution (IP DA) platform. Offering comprehensive processing and transcoding directly in the Cloud, Reflektor is a valuable tool in managing the expanding number of signal formats (MPEG-TS, NDI, ST 2110, HLS, MPEG DASH, etc.) that can be produced by a traditional broadcast.

Reflektor uses licensed microservices in the Cloud to normalize signal types to best suit the needs of the end user or final application, making it an ideal cloud solution for UHD/4K field contribution, remote production, return feed monitoring, remote collaboration and cloud production.

“Reflektor can simultaneously distribute, stream and playout multi-signal content directly to broadcast centers, remote operators, CDNs and more,” says Harjinder Sandhu, Evertz director of business development, compression. “Using common transport protocols, like SRT, RIST and Zixi, an XPS device at a venue can send a low-bandwidth HEVC signal to Reflektor for immediate transcoding into a format best-suited for the endpoint. Reflektor can also accommodate bi-directional support for the XPS encoder/decoder, meaning this process can be replicated in reverse, ensuring video content is distributed instantaneously to and from the Cloud using reliable transport protocols.

For live event production, Evertz continues to expand and enhance its award-winning BRAVO Studio Virtualized Production Suite platform, which provides broadcasters and content creators with all the traditional elements of a production control room directly in the cloud. Remote users located anywhere can use BRAVO Studio’s web-based interface to access live video streams hosted by any cloud provider in order to complete standard live production functions, including live switching, live graphics, slow motion replay, clipping, and more. BRAVO Studio supports SRT, RIST, and Zixi to ensure live UHD/4K video and audio signals are reliably and securely sent and received directly from the cloud with minimal latency.

Evertz has also developed cloud-based multiviewing and monitoring solutions that can combine multiple broadcast signal formats into a unified multi-image layout for unrivaled density and performance. The cVIP Cloud-Based Multiviewer and the sVIP High Density IP Multiviewer are Evertz’ latest generation of multiviewer platforms for media companies, with both supporting comprehensive monitoring of the IP payloads including video, audio, closed captions, subtitles and more. cVIP allows customers to leverage on–prem or cloud hardware platforms, with the flexibility to run cVIP software on a wide range of Intel-based hardware options depending on the number of inputs and outputs required. cVIP allows monitoring of NDI, JPEG XS or AWS CDI signal channels and support for multiple unique mosaic outputs using NDI, JPEG XS or H.264/HEVC for an unmatched multi–image display.

Meanwhile, sVIP combines the compute power of FPGA, CPU, and GPU processors to allow customers to leverage datacenter class servers provided by Evertz or the customer, without sacrificing density and performance. sVIP is ideally suited for on-premise datacenters or off-premise cloud services, allowing users to monitor both uncompressed (SMPTE ST 2022–6 or ST 2110) and compressed (MPEG–2, H.264, HEVC, JPEG 2000, or JPEG XS) IP streams.