The transition to IP has been one of the key themes of this year but it will be 2025 before IP-based production is universal, says research from Futuresource Consulting.
The study, commissioned by IP media transport firm Nevion, found that fundamentally the use of IP within the broadcast environment is gaining momentum and that already more than a third of broadcasters are using IP in live production. A further two-fifths have begun the transition to IP. Only 7% of respondents said they had no plans to transition to IP in live production.
What makes this more interesting, revealed the survey, was that these projects includes production types like the broadcasting of large set-piece events, such as the Olympic Games or World Cup — where in all of the identified workflows the transition had been started — regular large events, such as festivals and weekly football matches (63%), and production of live, studio-based TV shows (33%).
Moreover, the research found that it was such huge set piece events and TV shows recorded as live that will lead the transition, with half of respondents anticipating the move by 2020.
“IP equipment and software has been present within the broadcast industry for well over 15 years now, with file-based workflows used widely around the world,” explained Adam Cox, Futuresource senior analyst, broadcast & professional video equipment. “The last area holding out from the transition to IP-based system and architectures is live production, the most precious but also most complex form of content production.”
Added Nevion CEO Geir Bryn-Jensen: “We may still be the in early days of the transition to IP across the whole production but the trend is gathering pace. So while they’re not replacing their SDI infrastructure wholesale in their facilities, the change is happening and the foundations for a migration to IP are being laid now.”