Periodic Reporting for period 3 - VIRTUOSA (Scalable Software Defined Network Architectures for Cooperative Live Media Production exploiting Virtualised Production Resources and 5G Wireless Acquisition)
Période du rapport: 2021-09-01 au 2022-02-28
5G-VIRTUOSA - Exploring 5G and Virtualisation in broadcast production.
Live content is of cultural and social interest for all citizen in Europe and globally; such content includes for example sport or music events, daily news, governmental speeches, or historical events. The market of live content is on the rise globally.
VIRTUOSA addresses the needs of the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry to increase efficiency and reduce costs for media production to meet the growing consumer demand for more live content on more channels and more devices.
VIRTUOSA transforms traditional live media production through Virtualisation of network and production resources. It is a new generation of media networks based on IP technology, software-defined networking (SDN) technology, high performance computing, and cloud computing. In addition, VIRTUOSA uses mobile 5G technology for live media production.
Our VIRTUOSA solution makes live media production more effective, simply scalable, and less costly. It enables sharing production facilities, equipment, resources, and talents across locations that could be separated by 1000 km or more in distance. Production costs can be reduced by up to 40% while more live content can be produced simultaneously.
Our VIRTUOSA product consists of three core elements (see photo 2):
1) Architecture: a tailor-made Network Architecture solution for SDN-based LAN (Local Area Network) & WAN (Wides Area Network) and 5G acquisition;
2) Equipment: high performance SDN-based Media Server and Media router (Ethernet/IP switches);
3) Software for Media Network Management and Service Orchestration.
According to the need of our end-users (broadcasters, content producers, media service providers), tailor-made solutions are designed for installation at their facilities, optionally with the connection to remote locations (remote studio, stadium, event).
The overall objective of the VIRTUOSA project has been to demonstrate and validate our new VIRTUOSA product in operational environment and to complete commercial and production preparations for product launch within this project.
The key objective has been to validate our VIRTUOSA products in a live production set-up combining broadcast facilities and remote studios connected by IP networks (both LAN and WAN), combined with remote live contributions from professional broadcast cameras connected via a 5G network (see photo 3). Our VIRTUOSA solution involves VIRTUOSA products developed by NEVION and MELLANOX as well as 3rd party equipment from various vendors.
This project has been carried out in three phases:
Phase 1: LAN pilot system for LIVE Media Production at a broadcast facility using IP based LAN to connect studio, control room and studio equipment.
Phase 2: WAN pilot system for LIVE Remote Media Production using IP based LAN and WAN o connect a broadcast facility with a remote location (for example a studio or a sports event).
Phase 3: 5G pilot system for Live Remote Media Production including 5G wireless content acquisition to connect to a professional broadcast camera using 5G wireless networks.
Live content is of cultural and social interest for all citizen in Europe and globally; such content includes for example sport or music events, daily news, governmental speeches, or historical events. The market of live content is on the rise globally.
VIRTUOSA addresses the needs of the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry to increase efficiency and reduce costs for media production to meet the growing consumer demand for more live content on more channels and more devices.
VIRTUOSA transforms traditional live media production through Virtualisation of network and production resources. It is a new generation of media networks based on IP technology, software-defined networking (SDN) technology, high performance computing, and cloud computing. In addition, VIRTUOSA uses mobile 5G technology for live media production.
Our VIRTUOSA solution makes live media production more effective, simply scalable, and less costly. It enables sharing production facilities, equipment, resources, and talents across locations that could be separated by 1000 km or more in distance. Production costs can be reduced by up to 40% while more live content can be produced simultaneously.
Our VIRTUOSA product consists of three core elements (see photo 2):
1) Architecture: a tailor-made Network Architecture solution for SDN-based LAN (Local Area Network) & WAN (Wides Area Network) and 5G acquisition;
2) Equipment: high performance SDN-based Media Server and Media router (Ethernet/IP switches);
3) Software for Media Network Management and Service Orchestration.
According to the need of our end-users (broadcasters, content producers, media service providers), tailor-made solutions are designed for installation at their facilities, optionally with the connection to remote locations (remote studio, stadium, event).
The overall objective of the VIRTUOSA project has been to demonstrate and validate our new VIRTUOSA product in operational environment and to complete commercial and production preparations for product launch within this project.
The key objective has been to validate our VIRTUOSA products in a live production set-up combining broadcast facilities and remote studios connected by IP networks (both LAN and WAN), combined with remote live contributions from professional broadcast cameras connected via a 5G network (see photo 3). Our VIRTUOSA solution involves VIRTUOSA products developed by NEVION and MELLANOX as well as 3rd party equipment from various vendors.
This project has been carried out in three phases:
Phase 1: LAN pilot system for LIVE Media Production at a broadcast facility using IP based LAN to connect studio, control room and studio equipment.
Phase 2: WAN pilot system for LIVE Remote Media Production using IP based LAN and WAN o connect a broadcast facility with a remote location (for example a studio or a sports event).
Phase 3: 5G pilot system for Live Remote Media Production including 5G wireless content acquisition to connect to a professional broadcast camera using 5G wireless networks.
VIRTUOSA has successfully tested and demonstrated its 5G pilot system in a live TV production trial using LAN/WAN and wireless 5G acquisition and signals from five different remote locations in Germany and UK (see photo 4-9).
The 5G pilot system has been a complete VIRTUOSA product solution tailor-made to connect three broadcaster’s sites: ARD-Sternpunkt (Frankfurt, Germany), WDR (Cologne, Germany) and SWR (Baden Baden, Germany) for all IP-based multi-site remote live productions with two private 5G-campus networks: one located at Adastral Park (Ipswich, UK) and another one located at MEDIA BROADCAST GmbH (Nauen, Germany); both serving as a remote ‘event’ location for live contributions captured by 5G-connected professional broadcasting cameras (for example for an interview with a soccer player in a stadium).
In practice, we have extended the successfully tested WAN pilot system (Phase 2) by two private 5G campus networks.
This has involved integrating equipment from multiple vendors: video cameras, a vision mixer, and a server from Sony; a multiviewer from TAG Video Systems; an audio mixer from Stagetec provided by SWR and WDR; a media analyzer from Telestream; measurement equipment from Leader and Bridgetech; a PTP-compliant time and frequency synchronization from Meinberg; IP switches from Mellanox; software-defined media nodes from Nevion; and all of it managed by an orchestration and SDN control system from Nevion.
Previously in Period 1, the LAN pilot system (Phase 1) has been successfully tested and validated by IRT according to relevant industry standards (SMPTE, NMOS, AES).
Previously in Period 2: the WAN pilot system (Phase 2) has been successfully tested by LOGIC according to relevant industry standards. The test results have proven that the WAN pilot system and its components are fully compliant with the relevant SMPTE, NMOS, AES and IEEE standards. On top, it has demonstrated an extremely high stability, suitable for high quality live media production. The technical tests did not show any critical problems in the whole system. All components have worked problem-free and has shown a high reliability.
In Period 3: the 5G pilot system (Phase 3) has been successfully tested by NEVION and LOGIC according to relevant industry standards and in particular for its 5G performance. We have characterized in depth the native 5G performance capabilities as well as the Application layer of the professional Video- and Audio that sits on top of it. By this, we have successfully demonstrated an amazing number of opportunities for future applications within the broadcast-Industry leveraging 5G-technology.
In parallel, the Consortium has promoted the VIRTUOSA project (5G-VIRTUOSA) and its success through various communication and dissemination activities focusing to gain traction in Europe and abroad as one of the frontrunners in the Use of Virtualisation and 5G.
Of particular note has been VIRTUOSA’s reach out to international industry associations (i.e. IABM, International Trade Association for the Broadcast & Media Industry), international industry working groups (i.e. AIMS, Alliance for IP Media Solutions), and standardisation working groups (AES, AMWA, SMPTE, VSF).
The 5G pilot system has been a complete VIRTUOSA product solution tailor-made to connect three broadcaster’s sites: ARD-Sternpunkt (Frankfurt, Germany), WDR (Cologne, Germany) and SWR (Baden Baden, Germany) for all IP-based multi-site remote live productions with two private 5G-campus networks: one located at Adastral Park (Ipswich, UK) and another one located at MEDIA BROADCAST GmbH (Nauen, Germany); both serving as a remote ‘event’ location for live contributions captured by 5G-connected professional broadcasting cameras (for example for an interview with a soccer player in a stadium).
In practice, we have extended the successfully tested WAN pilot system (Phase 2) by two private 5G campus networks.
This has involved integrating equipment from multiple vendors: video cameras, a vision mixer, and a server from Sony; a multiviewer from TAG Video Systems; an audio mixer from Stagetec provided by SWR and WDR; a media analyzer from Telestream; measurement equipment from Leader and Bridgetech; a PTP-compliant time and frequency synchronization from Meinberg; IP switches from Mellanox; software-defined media nodes from Nevion; and all of it managed by an orchestration and SDN control system from Nevion.
Previously in Period 1, the LAN pilot system (Phase 1) has been successfully tested and validated by IRT according to relevant industry standards (SMPTE, NMOS, AES).
Previously in Period 2: the WAN pilot system (Phase 2) has been successfully tested by LOGIC according to relevant industry standards. The test results have proven that the WAN pilot system and its components are fully compliant with the relevant SMPTE, NMOS, AES and IEEE standards. On top, it has demonstrated an extremely high stability, suitable for high quality live media production. The technical tests did not show any critical problems in the whole system. All components have worked problem-free and has shown a high reliability.
In Period 3: the 5G pilot system (Phase 3) has been successfully tested by NEVION and LOGIC according to relevant industry standards and in particular for its 5G performance. We have characterized in depth the native 5G performance capabilities as well as the Application layer of the professional Video- and Audio that sits on top of it. By this, we have successfully demonstrated an amazing number of opportunities for future applications within the broadcast-Industry leveraging 5G-technology.
In parallel, the Consortium has promoted the VIRTUOSA project (5G-VIRTUOSA) and its success through various communication and dissemination activities focusing to gain traction in Europe and abroad as one of the frontrunners in the Use of Virtualisation and 5G.
Of particular note has been VIRTUOSA’s reach out to international industry associations (i.e. IABM, International Trade Association for the Broadcast & Media Industry), international industry working groups (i.e. AIMS, Alliance for IP Media Solutions), and standardisation working groups (AES, AMWA, SMPTE, VSF).
The VIRTUOSA project has ended and we are proud to report that we have three market ready product solutions, full-scale tested and technical, operational, and economical validated, and a supply, sales, and service team ready for market launch.
The VIRTUOSA project will enable scalability of our business towards European and global business opportunities, while creating new jobs.
VIRTUOSA will aid solving the industrial and societal challenges of the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry to increase efficiency and reduce cost for media production to meet the growing consumer demand for more content on more channels and more devices and for more live content, which will make the European M&E industry more competitive. Moreover, VIRTUOSA supports EC’s Media Policies that empower European citizens to enjoy seamless and interactive experiences and letting them access any content from anywhere in Europe.
VIRTUOSA will support H2020 objectives to strengthen the industrial leadership in Information and Communication Technologies (i.e. Digitising European industry, HPC, Cloud, 5G, Future Production Networks).
The VIRTUOSA project will enable scalability of our business towards European and global business opportunities, while creating new jobs.
VIRTUOSA will aid solving the industrial and societal challenges of the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry to increase efficiency and reduce cost for media production to meet the growing consumer demand for more content on more channels and more devices and for more live content, which will make the European M&E industry more competitive. Moreover, VIRTUOSA supports EC’s Media Policies that empower European citizens to enjoy seamless and interactive experiences and letting them access any content from anywhere in Europe.
VIRTUOSA will support H2020 objectives to strengthen the industrial leadership in Information and Communication Technologies (i.e. Digitising European industry, HPC, Cloud, 5G, Future Production Networks).