What is SMPTE ST 2110?
SMPTE ST 2110 is a set of standards for IP-based media transportation
ST 2110 is a series of standards to enable the elementary essence transport of video, audio and associated data over IP networks. It is best deployed in applications where users require maximum flexibility and reliability.
ST 2110 is a fundamental improvement over previous IP video transport protocols:
- It is based on openly available & easily accessible standards
- Technology is openly available, users are not tied to any vendor
- It is extremely flexible to adapt to many use cases and workflows
- It supports high-quality / high-resolution audio / video formats (up to 8k)
- It can also work on 1Gb IP networks with compressed video
What makes SMPTE ST 2110 different?
Bundled data
Most IP video standards and solutions (i.e. ST 2022-6, MPEG-TS, etc.) bundle all the video, audio, and ancillary data together. This is then divided up into packets and sent over the network as a single stream.
In order to access the individual essences of that stream, the whole signal has to be received and de-embedded, even if there is only interest in one particular essence (i.e. audio).
Example of ST 2022-6 bundling all essence into one stream
De-embedding the whole signal
The differences of SMPTE ST 2110
Essence based data
ST 2110 transports all the essence data as separate streams. Each stream can be routed individually as required.
All streams are kept in sync using the IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP).
Users can pick up what streams they want without having to de-embed the entire signal. This requires less hardware for de-embedding and uses less bandwidth across the network. Bandwidth to each node on the network is taken up on an as-needed basis, rather than sending everything when only need a part of it is needed.
SMPTE ST 2110 and network bandwidth
ST 2110 is more efficient in its use of bandwidth than other IP-based media transport protocols, as only relevant essence data is transported in individual streams; consequently, more streams can be run on a given network bandwidth.
For example, ST 2110-20 running HD (1080p50) video uses a bandwidth of 2.143Gbps, the same stream using ST 2022-6 uses 3.047Gbps. In that case, ST 2110 gives a 30% saving in bandwidth. A significant bandwidth saving is because it only transports the active data of a video signal, leaving out the ancillary data transported in the horizontal and vertical blanking.
| Scan Format | 2022-6 (Gbps) | 2110-20 (Gbps) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2160p @ 59.94 |
12.282 |
10.280 |
-16.3% |
|
1080p @ 59.94 |
3.071 |
2.570 |
-16.3% |
|
1080i @ 29.97 |
1.535 |
1.285 |
-16.3% |
|
720 @ 59.94 |
1.535 |
1.143 |
-25.6% |
|
2160p @ 50 |
12.295 |
8.755 |
-30.3% |
|
1080p @ 50 |
3.074 |
2.144 |
-30.3% |
|
1080i @ 25 |
1.537 |
1.072 |
-30.3% |
|
720p @ 50 |
1.537 |
0.953 |
-39.9% |
What hardware is required to run ST 2110?
No specific hardware is needed to support ST 2110 in a network environment; only a 10Gb bandwidth for transporting uncompressed raw video. In large-scale instances, it is recommended to have a PTP grandmaster clock for total synchronisation, but for smaller productions it is not necessary.