AV over IP: At home on the network

• Features

• 02/06/2023

Is it time to slap the ‘mature’ label on to AV-over-IP technology? We have all seen the product vertical develop and become stable. We have seen the initial messaging and education efforts around AV-over-IP technology be accepted by the AV market. And over the course of the last few years adoption of AV over IP has accelerated and it has become a staple in the toolboxes of integrators.

Kenny Liow, director at Global Vision Multimedia [GVM], says: “One of the key hurdles when it came to AV over IP was IT. They have operating procedures and concerns about security and network vulnerabilities which were a hindrance to AV-over-IP adoption at the start. But I would say that AV has become fluent in speaking IT now. We are able to address these concerns better and we have answers because AV is becoming more and more proficient with IT.”

Despite the wins, it seems like it is still too early to say ‘mission accomplished’ when it comes to AV over IP. Equilibrium has been reached regarding certain issues but there is further work to be done to fully realise the potential of AV on IP networks.

The consensus

One matter that has been settled is the ‘1Gb vs 10Gb’ debate. The consensus is that both have their uses and applications. Rob Muddiman, vice president EMEAI at ZeeVee, says: “For ZeeVee, our 10Gb sales outstrip our 1Gb sales at the moment and the ratio is approximately 60 to 40 [in favour of 10Gb product sales]. This has been primarily because of the projects that we are getting, like medical research spaces, high-end applications where they need perfect image quality with zero latency. These require 10Gb. And there is the fact that with 10Gb you have features such as being able to connect directly to an LED videowall, multi-view and much more. That being said, 1Gb networks are still dominant, so in order to address this we decided to release an upgraded 1Gb solution in the shape of the ZeeVee ZyPerUHD60 encoders and decoders that tick all the boxes for end user demands. We moved to the HSPA chip, and we support USB and 4K60 4:4:4. We are projecting that 60 to 40 split to move rapidly in favour of 1Gb in the future.”

Mike Brandes, senior product marketing manager at Q-SYS, says on the matter: “1Gb solutions offer the best option for mass deployment, providing significant infrastructure savings compared to 10Gb solutions. There will be a need for 10Gb solutions for certain applications, but for most installations, 1Gb solutions offer the right blend of quality, latency, and bandwidth savings, meeting customer needs without costly infrastructure.”

Fine tune

A sign of how far AV over IP has come is the number of products available on the market. The AV-over-IP product vertical is competitive with a large variety of options to choose from. Coupled with the facts that the basics of sending packets across IP networks do not change and that the choice of compression codecs boils down to a few select options, differentiation becomes difficult to achieve. It also becomes crucial to success.

According to Muddiman from ZeeVee, despite the basics of AV over IP being constant, there are gains to be made with optimisation. He elaborates: “What differentiates ZeeVee is the fact that we focus on technology, we get into the nuts and bolts of it. When it comes to AV-overIP encoders and decoders, there are a set number of chip manufacturers you can reach out to in order to build your product. ZeeVee has been in the game for eight years, and we know the shortcomings of the reference designs these chip manufacturers provide. More importantly, we know how to optimise these designs for higher levels of performance. The building blocks can be the same, but the outcomes ZeeVee products can achieve are vastly different.”

Brandes details how Q-SYS is pushing the envelope: “There’s tremendous innovation taking place, for example Q-SYS Shift is a compression engine based upon some of the principals of H.264 and H.265. We optimised it to deliver high-quality, low-latency video distribution within a 1Gb network. Since its initial release, Shift has been updated, providing additional feature enhancements and stability improvements.”

Encoders and decoders are not the only components that make up an AV-over-IP system. The pieces around these products offer manufacturers another opportunity to differentiate. Management and monitoring platforms in particular are highlighted and Muddiman says: “What sets our 1Gb offering apart is the fact that it is a native part of our ZeeVee management platform. Not only can we monitor and manage the full deployment of ZeeVee AV-over-IP products, but we can also do the same for any device that is on the network. This means that if new technologies emerge in the future, like NDI for example which is gaining traction at present, these can be incorporated into our management platform which can provide you an overview of everything.”

Brandes from Q-SYS also highlights the advantages of a platform: “The Q-SYS NV series products are native Q-SYS devices; beyond offering incredible image quality and low-latency distribution for HDMI and USB-C devices, they’re part of the Q-SYS platform. This simplifies configuration, deployment, and management at scale, creating frictionless no-code deployments and saving time and money in the installation phase. Further, as a software-definable endpoint, a user can configure a single piece of hardware to be either an encoder or decoder, simplifying the specification and procurement phases and limiting hassles brought about by changing customer requirements.”

Work is also being done to enhance the functionality of AV-over-IP encoders and decoders. The latest development seems to be the addition of USB-C and full USB2.0 connectivity. Muddiman from ZeeVee says: “The incorporation of USB is being driven by integrators. A majority of systems being deployed by integrators, especially when it comes to AV over IP, are for corporate meeting spaces and the trend for those spaces is to use sound bars and cameras, BYOD or BYOM which leads us towards USB connectivity. And this means that we need to support full USB bandwidth connectivity. USB might not be the preferred connectivity standard for AV, but it most definitely is the connectivity standard on the end user’s device.”

Brandes from Q-SYS offers his viewpoint: “System requirements are being condensed into fewer and fewer ‘black boxes’ to simplify installation and programming while users are excited to take advantage of more capability in fewer pieces of hardware. The Q-SYS NV- 21-HU offers a single cable connection to their device for audio and video distribution, audio and video bridging and device charging. This removes the traditional HDMI encoder, a separate USB bridging interface and the need for a physical power plug to power their device.”

Muddiman from ZeeVee further expands on why the simplification and ownership of USB is something that is beneficial for manufacturers: “AV systems are business critical. If they go down support is required immediately, and long periods of downtime are not accepted by end users. Of course, USB connectivity can be added to a system without it being a part of the encoder/decoder. But, when there is system failure, fingers get pointed first at the major technology components of the system, such as our encoders and decoders. Rather than troubleshooting these issues by getting the integrator involved as well as the other OEMs that might be part of the complete deployment, it makes more sense for ZeeVee to take ownership of the USB connectivity and making sure that we reduce the instances of failure from the very beginning.”

Better tomorrow

Further developments for AV over IP will require evolution from the entire AV industry. Muddiman from ZeeVee shares some of his thoughts regarding how we can move forward: “The messaging around AV over IP has been received by the market. I remember a time when speaking to AV professionals about AV over IP and they reacted like you were talking to them in an alien language. We have come a long way from then. The industry as a whole has worked on upgrading skills and understanding core components of AV over IP like multicast, multiview, and IGMP snooping.”

He continues: “But there is still a lot left to learn. I think the next big leap is going to be around AV’s understanding of how to handle and configure network switches. They are difficult to configure for AV-over-IP applications and Netgear is a particular switch manufacturer that is lending a helping hand by pre-configuring its switches for AV-over-IP applications. And of course, there is the monitoring side of things. One of the main benefits of having AV on the network is that it can be monitored and managed remotely. ZeeVee’s management platform is already realising a lot of this potential value for clients, but there is more than can be done as the industry matures.”

The need to continue learning is recognised by integrators as well and Liow from GVM concludes: “I think integrators need to have more experience [with AV over IP] and we need to improve our knowledge of IT further. At GVM, we’ve worked hard to get the expertise and we have IT engineers who have the capabilities to fully leverage network infrastructure for our projects. We hired IT experts and then decided to upgrade their skills with regard to AV. As a result, we have no issues deploying switches for AV. At the same time, these IT experts allow the rest of AV team to also start becoming proficient in IT which means that AV over IP becomes easier for us as we move forward. The learning has to go both ways.”

Image: Shutterstock.com/Blue Planet Studio