NAB 2023: Arkona and Manifold Technologies debut manifold Cloud

Arkona technologies and Manifold Technologies, providers of IP core infrastructure solutions for top-tier broadcast productions, have launched manifold Cloud, the first ever Tier-1 live production core infrastructure service-based ecosystem built on private cloud COTS infrastructure.

The core architectural concept of manifold Cloud is that of an on-demand configurable pool of shared resources allocated within a private cloud environment. Simply put, manifold Cloud is designed to provide the benefits of cloud for Tier-1 live production.

manifold Cloud is a 100% software solution which runs on COTS FPGA programmable accelerator cards (PAC).

Designed for Tier-1 clients, it is capable of handling the most demanding live sports, entertainment and news productions while at the same time providing the benefits of scalability, resiliency, quick deployment and unified control.

The capacity and performance of manifold Cloud scales linearly depending on how much compute is allocated and utilises COTS FPGA accelerators which takes advantage of the fast development cycles of chip and server manufacturers while at the same time lowering the capex investment required.

manifold Cloud scales with the total aggregated bandwidth of all the accelerators in a cluster. As of the current generation COTS FPGA PACs reaching 1.6Tbps per RU, manifold Cloud can, for example, handle up to 512 3G multiviewer sources in one RU and continues to scale linearly as more compute is added.

manifold Cloud services are virtualised on top of the underlying compute hardware and are automatically restored in case of failure. Services can also run on top of the arkona AT300 PAC which provide easy ingress/egress to legacy SDI systems while at the same time performing processing services such as multi-viewing or up/down/cross conversion. There’s no need for dedicated SDI gateways that only perform SDI/IP conversion.

The solution also benefits from simple control through a centralised web UI and RESTful API, and quick deployment with Infrastructure as Code. It also offers rigid security and authentication based on proven IT standards.

At NAB booth C4345 arkona and Manifold are showcasing manifold Cloud with the multiviewer service running on COTS FPGA. With current COTS FPGA PACs capable of up to 1.6Tbps per RU, manifold Cloud offers up to 128 UHD services in a single RU and scales linearly across a private cloud infrastructure.