Appear’s development of hardware acceleration for SRT overcomes many capacity, efficiency, flexibility and density challenges to make Internet video transport viable for primary delivery.
Appear has developed a hardware accelerated video transport system over the SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) protocol, an open standard that transports video at high quality over regular Internet links.
Media and entertainment providers are currently competing for consumers who expect more choice. But achieving this often means making lists of long-tail video available, which presently costs as much to transport as higher-value content that brings a greater return on investment. Providers have lacked a method of using Internet video transport for content delivery with enough efficiency, flexibility and density to make it viable.
Quality and Cost
“The increase in video transport performance that our hardware accelerated SRT implementation now achieves, makes it possible for providers to work more efficiently, increase their ROI and gain flexibility by transporting high-quality video over the Internet. Companies that move video, and need to control quality and overheads, can deploy our SRT systems to make significant reductions to their video transport operating costs,” said Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen, CEO of Appear.
Internet connections that use hardware accelerated SRT can result in significant savings in video operating costs, according to Appear. As a contribution example, existing SRT gateways can only support HEVC with a limited number of cameras before more servers are needed, while one SRT-enabled Appear X Platform unit can support up to 22 UHD camera feeds. On the distribution side, channel transmission over the public internet when using Appear’s SRT system also keeps costs relatively low, and serves as a practical way for operators to replace expensive satellite links and dedicated fibre circuits.
In a single 1RU chassis, Appear’s X Platform deployed as an SRT gateway can handle more than 192 SRT connections and 18 Gbit/s throughput, saving space and power consumption at a lower cost base. An associated advantage would be reducing the transport budget of moving studio functionality such as media asset management to the cloud, thereby shifting the economics of migration to the cloud in the user’s favour.
Optimised for Primetime
“Today’s Internet video transport server-based SRT systems are simply not optimised for primetime. The Appear launch of hardware acceleration for SRT can change that,” Thomas Lind, Director Product Management, Appear, commented. “We expect long-tail content to rapidly move to SRT. When it makes sense to do so, some higher value content may be transported using SRT alongside existing traditional transport links. Critically, Appear’s launch of high-density SRT systems finally enables M&E organisations to align video transport costs with content value.”
Appear’s X Platform is used for live contribution, remote production and distribution. Users can blend encapsulation formats such as MPEG TS, ST2022-6, ST2110, Zixi and now high capacity SRT, with various codecs and video processing functions. Ultimately, the platform makes it possible to send signals from cameras at a location to a cloud production platform, instead of dispatching a mobile unit and production team. For primary distribution, and video transport to and from the cloud, X platform enhances cost-efficiency through transport over the Internet.
Appear’s hardware-accelerated SRT system will be launched on its X Platform at NAB Show 2023, 15-19 April in Las Vegas. www.appear.net
