EBU calls for NMOS adoption to prevent delay in IP migration

Public broadcaster organisation the EBU has called for an accelerated adoption of the AMWA Network Media Open Specifications (NMOS) by equipment manufacturers and the wider TV industry.

NMOS specifies protocols for unit discovery, registration and connection management in IP production environments based on the SMPTE ST-2110 standard.

The EBU had already named NMOS as a minimum technology requirements to facilitate the building and management of IP-based media facilities for the end-user.

The organisation’s Technical Committee has now asked manufacturers and trade associations to send a clear message by making a commitment to the relevant AMWA IS-04 and IS-05 specifications, and by including them in their product roadmaps. According to the EBU, the intention is to both drive the maturation of the multitude of products that have emerged and to support the continued growth of the ecosystem and market around the ST 2110 standard.

“We realised that, in a serious deployment, ST 2110 alone requires a huge amount of manual configuration work. We need NMOS support across all devices to get closer to the ease of use and plug-and-play usability of SDI,” said Félix Poulin, director of engineering lab services at CBC/Radio Canada.

“We need to see a confident leap from the R&D lab to available product. The delayed implementation of a common control standard is holding up the widespread adoption of ST 2110 product,” said Mark Patrick, lead architect at BBC major products infrastructure.

“The first major IP projects are now setting the best practice parameters for the next wave of adopters, and it is important that those projects are based on open standards and specifications. Without the discovery, registration and connection management functions offered by NMOS, progress would be slowed,” said Hans Hoffmann, head of media production technologies at EBU technology and innovation.