units on a broadcast network has been drastically optimised with respect to overall footprint. But with an IP infrastructure, what do you do if something malfunctions? Where do you start looking for the problem? What clues point you in one direction (device lost due to a severed connection) rather than another (conflicting IP addresses or PTP error)? From the perspective of a traditional broadcast engineer who is very knowledgeable about an SDI-backboned service playout, master control or transmission operation, it is common to find a gap of understanding when those services traverse an IP-switched network. Such an engineer may be totally unaware of time-sensitive concepts, such as min, max and mean inter-packet arrival times of ST2110-20/30/40 streams, along with RTP packet losses and packet jitters; determining the essence RTP stream offset with respect to PTP; relative offsets between video, audio; and ancillary RTP streams. Historically, the direct approach to solving these challenges has been to invest in broadcast and network tools, each purpose-built for the application and user. Tektronix and Leader, for instance, are major players in the SDI broadcast space, with specialised tools for signal verification and validation. UNPLUGGING AN RJ45 OR OPTICAL CABLE WILL TELL YOU ALMOST NOTHING ABOUTWHICH DEVICE ISMALFUNCTIONING
Information capturing
Information to action
Transfer via systems
Physical
Digital
Synthesis and analysis
Other solutions are considered by network engineering and operations to be best-practice enterprise monitoring software. Unfortunately, they provide zero visibility with respect to the essence of data streams that flow across those network planes. SHARPEN YOUR VIEW Traditional broadcast and network monitoring tools do not provide the depth of inspection necessary to visualise and understand a root cause. This is where experience and knowledge from both broadcast and network engineering becomes a vital part of a corrective action strategy. One reason for migrating towards IP is to steer clear of lock-in. Open interoperability standards – like ST2110, AES67/RAVENNA, etc – have been developed to allow users to choose best-of-breed for a job, regardless of manufacturer. Software providing full network and media flow visibility across the broadcast infrastructure must also be vendor-agnostic.
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