Professional Video, Audio and Data over IP

Designed to replace the long-lived Serial Digital Interface (SDI) that has been used to build TV stations, Outside Broadcast facilities, and interconnect for Global video networks, SMPTE ST 2110 is the result of collaboration and years of work from many Broadcasters, Facilities, Studios, Vendors, Trade Associations, User Groups and a global team of engineers.

The Video Services Forum (VSF) created document TR-03 titled "Technical Recommendation for Transport of Uncompressed Elementary Stream Media Over IP" and brought it to SMPTE in an industry effort to create a new suite of IP standards. The document suite grew to cover accurately timed, independent flows of media across managed IP.

In addition to the foundation provided by the VSF, liaison with the IEEE for Precision Time Protocol (IEEE 1588 PTP) has resulted in updates within SMPTE and IEEE to improve PTP operation. Liaison with Audio Engineering Society (AES) has improved carriage of audio on the networks. Liaison with the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) has resulted in adoption of the Networked Media Open Specifications (NMOS), an open-source set of protocols and associated software for discovery, registration, connection, and management of ST 2110 networks. Liaison with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has created user requirements and testing protocols to ensure the interoperability of equipment manufactured to the standards. 

Together these groups, and others from the Joint Taskforce on Network Media (JT-NM), coordinate key efforts in helping the world of broadcasting transition from circuit-switch SDI working to more flexible, multi-purpose IP workflows suitable for delivering content to today's multi-platform, mixed-consumption, IP-savvy consumers.

The SMPTE ST 2110 standards suites specifies the carriage, synchronization, and description of separate elementary essence streams over IP for real-time production, playout, and other professional media applications. Each stream is individually timed by the ST 2110 system and can take different routes over the networked fabric to arrive via unicast or multicast at one or more receivers. The audio-video-data synchronization using PTP clocks ensures that the accurate synchronization of all streams regardless of how the packets were routed.

The SMPTE ST 2110 Professional Media Over Managed IP Networks suite of standards is a major contribution factor in the movement towards one common internet protocol (IP) based mechanism for the professional media industries.