Is This The Future Of Content Production Industry?
Today I came across an interesting read about the sustainability factor in content production that could change they way the industry operates. Here is a summary of the same.
Dr. Ciro Noronha, president of the RIST Forum and CTO of Cobalt Digital, explains how IP multicasting, a technology from the mid-1980s, can help media companies reduce power consumption in content production, contributing to sustainability goals.
How IP Multicasting Works
IP multicasting sends identical data packets to multiple devices that opt to receive them, reducing bandwidth and power usage. This receiver-driven method ensures only one copy of the content is transmitted, minimizing the need for high-capacity equipment.
Application in Content Production
In live event production, such as football games or Formula One races, multiple cameras send feeds to a production facility. Remote editors also need access to these feeds. Without multicasting, each editor would require a separate stream, increasing bandwidth and power consumption. Multicasting allows a single stream from each camera, reducing network load and saving power.
Challenges and Recent Advancements
Multicasting adoption has been slow due to technical challenges. Initially, reliable IP transmission was problematic. RTMP, based on TCP, wasn't suitable for multicasting. RTP, running on UDP, supports multicasting but lacks reliability. Proprietary protocols like SRT don't support multicasting either. Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) now offers a multicast-capable, reliable, open standard solution.
The internet doesn't support native multicasting, so unicast tunnels (often VPNs) are used between multicast segments. VPNs supporting multicast have made the technology more accessible. Multicast routing protocols like PIM, DVMRP, and MOSPF, and the simpler RIST Multicast Discovery, provide necessary network intelligence.
Sustainability and Operational Benefits
With recent advancements, multicasting can now effectively reduce power consumption and optimize resources in content production, aligning with sustainability strategies by minimizing the need for duplicate data streams and lowering environmental impact.
In conclusion, IP multicasting, though an old technology, is now more viable than ever for reducing power consumption in media production. The convergence of reliable IP transmission, multicast-over-unicast solutions, and intelligent network protocols make it a practical option for media companies aiming to enhance operational efficiency and support sustainability goals.
#contentproduction #IP #sustainability
