The revolution is already here. I’m not speaking about geo-political upheaval. I’m talking about the revolution of media over IP. Learn all you can about it now. This technology will be presented to you as a solution the next time you’re looking to upgrade your existing video production hardware. The wise church technical leader will heed this advice or find yourself unprepared to lead your ministry. This is the situation I discovered myself in at the early stages of the last revolution. The digital audio revolution.
The IP revolution in video production is like the digital audio explosion that occurred in the early 2000s.
Twenty-five years ago, the major manufacturers were preparing to release the first digital audio consoles built for live events. Yamaha, Digico, and Midas were some of the first to begin releasing these consoles in 2001. Once these consoles hit the market, the digital audio revolution spread like wildfire.
I remember thinking back then that I didn’t need to educate myself on this new technology. “I have time,” I told myself. “I’ve got too much to do to try and learn this radical approach to live mixing. Plus, I won’t be able to get my hands on it for a while.” I was certainly wrong. When I started using a digital console regularly in 2007, I was already behind the curve and had to play catch up. I told myself I wouldn’t let the next revolution take me by surprise.
The revolution with video production is like the digital audio explosion that occurred in the early 2000s. Video production gear is coming out for the church market at all price points with video-over-IP features. This gear includes: cameras, switchers, routers and more. It’s no longer an enterprise or broadcast-level, bleeding-edge technology. It is quickly becoming an entrenched emerging technology.
SDI-based video engineering is getting blown into smithereens.
Why is video over IP such a big deal?
Consider how digital audio protocols have transformed our live and studio spaces to transfer many channels of audio data over one ethernet or fiber cable. Think about how software has replaced large racks of hardware-based processing gear. The same technology is now here for video. Some feature sets of video-over-IP products include scene-based video switchers that are no longer patched one-to-one. Why? Because multiple SDI video feeds can be transmitted over a single ethernet or fiber cable using video over IP. Throw into the mix that control, audio, and intercom can also be sent over one cable using IP protocols, and you begin to see how coaxial, SDI-based video engineering gets blown into smithereens. Let’s take things a step further.
Off-site switching of events is already happening…
Consider how video over IP is transmitted over ethernet and fiber-based networks with minimal cables compared to coaxial SDI. Video or IP can even be sent over the internet to be engineered, switched, and directed by a crew or even an individual off-site. Off-site switching of events is already happening for news programs and even sports in our country. I know of a small production company based in North Texas that regularly switches and directs live Mexican professional soccer games happening in Mexico from his Texas studio and then transmits the program feed back to Mexico for broadcast. Wow!
So, how do manufacturers do video over IP?
Three protocols have risen to the top in the broadcasting world. The first protocol is NDI. NDI (Network Digital Interface) was developed by Newtek and was introduced in 2015. It transmits up to and beyond 4K video, audio and meta/control data over an ethernet cable. It’s bidirectional, low latency and free to use. In their product lines, many broadcast manufacturers currently include NDI as a video over IP option.
The second protocol to note is DanteAV. DanteAV is a software solution that brings the power and flexibility of Dante to H.264/H.265 video environments. In 2021, the first family of products that use DanteAV was introduced. Like NDI, DanteAV is bidirectional, has low latency and has high-quality 4K encoding. DanteAV is also compatible with existing audio-based Dante networks, ensuring a wide range of capabilities with existing Dante networks and workflows.
The final protocol that Church Technical Leaders should know about is the one that has been adopted by the professional media industry and is called SMPTE ST2110. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) comprises more than 9,000 members and decides on the standards and documentation for TV production. The ST2110 standard has been adopted as the IP standard for broadcast production, where quality and flexibility are more important than how efficiently the network bandwidth is managed.
The ST2110 protocol can transport uncompressed and compressed video, audio, timing and control data while being bidirectional with very low latency. Major professional video manufacturers like Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, Ross, and Grass Valley, among others, are bringing to market ST2110 products in more significant quantities. But the biggest splash in the ST2110 space that impacted the house of worship market happened at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) 2023 Convention. Blackmagic Design introduced an ST2110 converter at a price point that is friendly to a more significant part of the church media ministry market. ST2110 is now for more than just the networks and large production companies. It has entered the church media world of possible video production solutions.
Suppose you’re one of the church technical leaders who has already educated themselves on the video-over-IP protocols. In that case, you’re probably wondering if I will talk about the caveat… the one thing making most churches slow to incorporate this revolution in video production. Well, the caveat to using video over IP is network infrastructure, and it’s something that cannot be ignored.
Can any church network jump into Video Over IP?
Not every church and ministry network can support these video-over-IP protocols. We ran into this at my church when we first started using NDI. When utilizing video over IP, you must be mindful of network configuration issues that can cause video not to be transported correctly. Certain network switches and router settings can cause issues with moving video over IP around your network, not to mention the network hardware and its technical specifications. There are potential bandwidth and throttling problems you may or may not be aware of on your internal network that would interfere with transporting video over IP. Make sure you work with your IT administrator at your church before you start depending on video over IP, especially if you plan to transport video over IP on your already existing ethernet network. My church has a second, hardwired network to handle our Dante audio, lighting control, video over IP and media asset storage traffic. But you can use video over IP without going to the length of network redesign that we did. Studying and knowing your network before deploying video over IP will save you time troubleshooting problems and get your production equipment up and running faster.
Video over IP is the present and future of video production and engineering. However, be wise and prudent. Before you jump into deploying video over IP, you must educate yourself on what quality you’re looking for from your cameras, control functions, routing functions, etc. Right now, it’s not a technology for every church, everywhere. But like the introduction of the digital audio mixing console, video-over-IP products will soon be the standard in the market. Church technical leaders should educate and prepare themselves for this inevitability to make the best decisions for the ministry they lead and the church they serve.
The next revolution is here, and it’s beginning to spread like wildfire. Be ready for it.
