IP10 is Blackmagic’s lightweight, low-latency codec designed to address a specific challenge in ST 2110 environments
Bridge Technologies will use the upcoming IBC Show (Booth 1.A71) to announce that its flagship VB440 production probe now supports monitoring of Blackmagic Design’s IP10 codec
Bridge Technologies will use the upcoming IBC Show (Booth 1.A71) to announce that its flagship VB440 production probe now supports monitoring of Blackmagic Design’s IP10 codec
Bridge Technologies will use the upcoming IBC Show (Booth 1.A71) to announce that its flagship VB440 production probe now supports monitoring of Blackmagic Design’s IP10 codec. Visitors to the show will not only be able to see IP10 monitoring in action on the Bridge booth, but will also find Bridge Technologies tools operating on the Blackmagic booth itself – a reflection of the two companies’ shared commitment to open, interoperable IP production workflows.
IP10 is Blackmagic’s lightweight, low-latency codec designed to address a specific challenge in ST 2110 environments: fitting high-frame-rate Ultra HD video through a 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection while maintaining broadcast-quality, 10-bit 4:2:2 colour performance. With a latency of just eight-pixel samples and an extremely small FPGA footprint, IP10 is license-free and open, allowing broadcasters to deploy ST 2110 workflows without the expense of 25GE or 200GE switching infrastructure. For broadcasters operating in OB trucks, remote locations, or smaller facilities where high-speed network infrastructure is not available, IP10 offers a pragmatic path to uncompressed-quality IP production over widely available 10GE links.
The VB440 itself is equipped with dual 200 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, capable of handling uncompressed ST 2110 streams at the highest data rates. But in contexts where the wider network infrastructure is operating on smaller bandwidth channels – with IP10 being used precisely to address that limitation – the VB440’s native support for the codec means engineers can monitor IP10-encoded streams with the same depth of visibility they expect from uncompressed workflows. This ensures that even in bandwidth-constrained environments, the VB440 remains a viable and powerful monitoring presence.
Facilities using IP10 as an underlying codec will thus have full access to the extensive range of tools present within the VB440, which itself represents a uniquely powerful production tool that combines both network monitoring and a full suite of practical production tools within a single RU appliance, thus drastically truck roll weight, energy consumption and the cost and space associated with screens and cabling.
For camera painters, it delivers full waveform, vectorscope and histogram displays, HDR monitoring with SDR preview, and colorimetry tools, as well as AV and ancillary sync monitoring both within a flow and across redundant sources of the same flow. For audio engineers, it supports 64 channels per flow across unlimited flows, with LUFS and Gonio meters, Dolby Atmos® monitoring, single-channel isolation and stereo downmix listening, and direct IP speaker control. And for network engineers it provides signal generation for equipment-free network setup, as well as packet capture, PTP timing analysis, ST 2022-7 redundancy monitoring, and event logging, all visually intuitive and easily accessible through the Canvas interface, which allows each user to build custom workspaces, combining scopes, audio meters, and video previews on a single screen. Crucially, all of this is accessible via any HTML5 browser, in real time, for up to eight simultaneous users from anywhere in the world.
The addition of IP10 as a usable standard speaks to the close relationship maintained between Bridge Technologies and Blackmagic, with both sharing the same fundamental belief: that the industry’s progress depends on open standards, interoperability, and collaboration rather than proprietary lock-in.
Commenting on the announcement, Bridge Technologies Chairman Simen Frostad said: “IP10 is an elegant solution to a real-world problem. For broadcasters who want the benefits of ST 2110 but don’t have 200GE infrastructure, it removes the barrier. And for those who do have 200GE, it doesn’t get in the way. Supporting IP10 is not about picking a side, it’s about ensuring that wherever broadcasters are on their IP journey, the VB440 can be there with them. That’s how we see the industry: not as a collection of competing ecosystems, but as a shared project. The more we can make tools that work together, the more the industry as a whole can move forward”.
Hersh Burston, Principal Architect – Advanced Systems, Blackmagic Design stated: “Bridge Technologies’ VB440 is quickly becoming the industry standard for analysing and generating ST 2110 signals. We’ve worked closely with them to ensure a smooth integration of our lossless IP10 compression codec. IP10 enables customers to send 2160p59.94/60 12G video and audio over a much more affordable 10G network infrastructure. The 8-sample latency of Blackmagic’s IP10 codec is incredibly low, and it’s an open standard with no license fees. Bridge Technologies’ implementation of our codec demonstrates both companies’ goal to advance ST 2110 in the broadcast market, and to develop even more high-end products with easy installation and even better interoperability with third-party systems.”
More information about Bridge Technologies and its products is available at www.bridgetech.tv or by phone at +47 22 38 51 00.