ISE 2016: NewTek caters to IP-savvy A/V industry with Advanced IP Workflow
As the broadcast industry takes its first steps into the IP world, the A/V industry finds itself in an interesting spot: it has been using IP technologies and workflows for years. At ISE 2016, NewTek showed off its Advanced IP Workflow — unveiled at IBC2015 and now ready for release — which continues the company’s commitment to IP within this market.
“We have been doing video-over-IP since the very first TriCaster. We looked at this last year and said our customers need to be able to have more: they need to be able to do more for less because their budgets are being cut. How can they move sources from one place to another, and how can they gain more content or more sources to tell the story?” says Will Waters, director of professional services, workflow design, NewTek. “This was an opportunity for us to take something we’ve been using within our products and ready in our network inputs.”
NewTek demonstrated its Advanced IP Workflow, now ready for release, in Hall 11.
NewTek’s Advanced IP Workflow uses standard Gigabit Ethernet to move video from device to device within a live-production ecosystem. Making use of the Network Device Interface (NDI) open IP standard announced at last year’s IBC, the workflow allows production switchers to communicate with cameras and other video sources. NDI allows any enabled device on a standard Ethernet connection to be recognized as a video source and assigned as inputs, enabling users to boost the number of available sources for A/V needs.
“We have four sources coming into our TriCaster Mini product here — baseband sources — but a person [operating the TriCaster] can also see any of the other sources along the network,” Waters explains. “It really allows for a very broad, a very versatile live-production workflow. … One of the great things about this is, [the operator has] the video that may be coming from, say, a TriCaster or some type of camera or device source while also being able to pretty much grab application windows out of a PC. … And all of this is happening on a single Gigabit connection.”
According to the company, NewTek Advanced IP Workflow does not require a 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch; instead, a standard GigE LAN infrastructure can accommodate the multi-source switching. Waters sees the NewTek Advanced IP Workflow operating within a sports venue, where building and maintaining physical connections between the production switcher and multiple camera sources can be difficult.
“The idea,” he says, “would be, you could basically plug a TriCaster Mini, for instance, with the SDI, connecting the cameras in one part of the stadium and only running single Gigabit Ethernet over long distances [and with] everything able to have multiple sources and multiple switch points available for expansion on very cost-effective infrastructures.”