NAB 2023: Appear to launch hardware accelerated SRT technology on X Platform

Appear has launched its hardware accelerated video transport technology over the SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) protocol, the open standard that enables media and entertainment organisations to transport high-quality video over cost-efficient internet links. The technology will be launched on Appear’s X Platform at NAB Show 2023.

“Media and entertainment organisations face a conundrum: consumers expect more and more choice, while transporting long-tail video presently has a similar cost-base to that of high-value content,” said Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen, CEO, Appear.

“The quantum leap in video transport performance that our hardware accelerated SRT implementation now provides, enables media and entertainment companies to revolutionise efficiency, ROI and flexibility through transporting high-quality video over the internet. If you’re moving video and both quality and cost matter, our SRT solutions can make significant reductions to your video transport opex costs.”

Hardware accelerated SRT enables cost-effective internet connections to make serious opex savings. For example, in contribution, existing SRT gateways can only support HEVC with a limited number of cameras before having to add more servers, while one SRT-enabled Appear X Platform unit can support up to 22 UHD camera feeds.

In distribution, Appear’s SRT solution provides the lowest cost for channel transmission over the public internet, enabling operators to confidently replace expensive satellite links and dedicated fibre circuits. Additionally, SRT empowers operators to reduce the transport budget of moving studio functionality such as media asset management to the cloud. In a single 1RU chassis, Appear’s X Platform as an SRT Gateway can handle more than 192 SRT connections and 18 Gbit/s throughput, saving space and power consumption at a much lower cost base. SRT also enables organisations to change the economics of migration to the cloud in their favour.

“Today’s internet video transport server-based SRT solutions are simply not optimised for primetime; the Appear launch of hardware acceleration for SRT changes that forever,” said Thomas Lind, director product management, Appear.

“We expect long-tail content to rapidly move to SRT, while some higher value content will be transported using SRT alongside existing traditional transport links when it makes sense. Critically, Appear’s launch of high-density SRT solutions enables media and entertainment organisations to at last be able to align video transport costs with content value.”

Appear’s X Platform is used around the world for live contribution, remote production and distribution. It offers the ability to blend encapsulation formats such as MPEG TS, ST2022-6, ST2110, Zixi and now high capacity SRT, with an array of codecs and video processing functions.

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