EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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IP-based Media Systems are governed by a multitude of standards and specifications from different organizations, including AES, AMWA, EBU, IEEE, IETF, SMPTE, VSF. Each of the standards and specifications involved is conceived and developed to serve multiple use-cases across multiple industries; many are extremely flexible in nature.

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For the purposes of engineering, constructing and maintaining professional media facility infrastructures (including OB vans), the industry requires the ability to easily integrate equipment from multiple vendors into a coherent system. This Technical Recommendation summarizes relevant standards and specifications, and documents some specific additional constraints related to this domain of use. In addition, certain device behaviors are documented which facilitate the deployment of a manageable system. In some cases, this document specifies behaviors or features more strictly than is specified in the underlying standards.

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The goal of this document is to enable the creation of network environments where an end-user can take delivery of new equipment (compliant to this recommendation), connect it to their network, and configure it for use, with a minimum amount of human interaction. Specifically, the interaction ought to be limited to acknowledging the equipment’s existence (for security reasons), assigning operational names to the signals the equipment generates, and defining any grouping relationships the signals might have with other existing signals. Technical configuration of the equipment in regards to timing, signal transport, and routing interactions is automated by the behaviors and management systems described in this recommendation.

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The EBU has developed a TECH document titled, “The Technology Pyramid for Media Nodes”1 which contains a helpful graphic titled, "Minimum User Requirements to Build and Manage an IP-Based Media Facility using Open Standards & Specifications" which is included below. This Technical Recommendation addresses some of the elements listed in the graphic, but with a particular focus on the system environment and device behaviors for ST 2110 Media Nodes in engineered networks. It does not attempt to address all areas shown in the EBU graphic below. Specifically, this version of this document does not address security, monitoring, or configuration management; these remain as potential topics for future work across the organizations of the JT-NM.