Sony shows live transmission of HD video over IP

Using the Internet Protocol (IP) to move pre-recorded video signals around facilities and across the country has become almost commonplace, saving broadcasters, content distributors and venues that use video, significant amounts of money in cabling costs and installation time in installation.

Sony is taking this idea a step further and saying it can offer a special signal processing box that converts live HD-SDI baseband signals coming directly from a camera into IP packets for delivery over affordable Cat-6 Ethernet cable. These packets are then compressed — using proprietary algorithms — before going on their way.  Distance limitations can be overcome on site by piggybacking onto a fiber-optic camera cable.

Using the IEEE 15888 Position Time Protocol (PTP), the unit time stamps the video packets in order to ensure that they are in sync with other cameras as part of a multi-camera production. It’s critical that all camera feeds are properly synchronized. Sony says it can send four HD signals over a single Cat-6 cable without degrading the quality.

Such a live IP video system could have significant benefits to production crews working at a venue that has already been wired with Cat-5/6. Sony’s technology was tested this year at a major tennis tournament, at which its robotic cameras were positioned at numerous courts to allow the broadcaster to look in on different courts by using a standard data switch.

(Broadcast Engineering)