AV Over Global Networks

AV over IP is a fantastic concept and technologies like SDvoe are rapidly becoming established in the industry, but SDvoe relies on super-fast, super-optimised 10G networks, and the data-rate needed to send video this way is much too high to bridge distant locations, so for this purpose a different technology is required.

New Technology for Secure Transmission

SRT stands for Secure Reliable Transport and it’s an open source video transport protocol that optimises video streaming performance across unpredictable networks. Developed by Haivision to provide secure video streams. SRT is so good at getting video from point to point some wags have name it ‘Satellite Replacement Technology’ in reference to the TV Satellite trucks which used to dominate live events for the broadcast industry, but in reality an SRT encoder can now be the size of a pack of cards.

SRT uses end-to-end 128/256-bit AES encryption so valuable content is protected from contribution to distribution. The reliable part of SRT is where some clever network features are utilised that protect the video stream against problems like jitter, packet loss, and bandwidth fluctuation, ensuring the best possible video quality arrives at the destination rather than a pixelated smeared mess.

From Hollywood to AV

Teradek have just released Prism which allows encoding and decoding of up to 9 streams of video into SRT and each stream can be up to 4K in resolution at 50 or 60 frames per second with beautiful HDR. Prism can encode in H264 or the latest HEVC codecs. The range consists of either a 3 encoder 1 RU rack, or a 9 encoder 2 RU rack. The 2RU Prism includes redundant power supplies and dual gigabit ethernet ports for increased network flexibility. It can be configured locally from your mobile phone or desktop computer, or remotely from your web browser through Core, Teradek’s cloud-based management platform. The encoding quality is so good Hollywood is using them in these difficult times to let a director or producer working from home see the editing of feature films live on a 4K HDR TV and the secure part of SRT ensures each video file can only be seen by its intended recipient. With Teradek’s Core Cloud platform, Prism can stream multiple destinations simultaneously, even direct to Apple TV, iPads and smartphones.

Overcoming AV bottlenecks

Using SRT and Prism, content can be sent to satellite offices and customers on the other side of the planet with low latency and with perfect HDR colour reproduction. The video received is exceptionally high quality, preserving your brand values and enhancing communications. The low latency aspect of SRT means that it’s also possible to set up high quality 2-way video links to unite geographically distant locations: it’s secure, very high quality (good enough for broadcast TV), but considerably easier to use and much more cost-effective than satellite links. For the ultimate test of SRT’s robustness and reliability you might have to look a little further than usual. Teradek have supplied some of the first Prism encoders to SpaceX to cover their Falcon 9 Rocket testing. As a technology it truly is out of this world.

Article by Richard Payne
Head of Technology at Holdan