HDBaseT Alliance is joining the AV-over-IP bandwagon.
The HDBaseT Alliance, which is responsible for the development and extension of the HDBaseT standard, says it is developing an extension to that standard to support an HDBaseT over IP specification.
HDBaseT will be displayed in action at the Alliance’s stand during Integrated Systems Europe 2017.
Alliance member Valens proposed the concept of expanding HDBaseT to support distribution over the Internet and over IP networks, says Gabi Shriki, senior VP, head of audio video business for Valens.
With the HDBaseT existing alliance, with the HDBaseT strong standard and strong ecosystem that we have today with the introduction of HDBaseT over IP, I don’t see any need for a new alliance.
Gabi Shriki, Valens, HDBaseT Alliance
“This proposal was accepted and the Alliance board tasked the company to initiate a draft and to have a draft spec released by June [2017],” he says.
According to an HDBaseT Alliance press release, HDBaseT over IP brings several benefits:
- Availability of a standardized solution over Ethernet PHY, promoting 5Play interoperability among different vendors;
- Connecting the traditional ProAV and IP worlds, while leveraging existing installations;
- Increased versatility to integrate different products, from in-room, point-to-point to large-scale, cross-campus installations;
- ProAV-grade robustness and quality of service for unicast and multicast sessions, not yet available in alternative AV over IP solutions today.
- Compliance with HDCP
With HDBaseT over IP, Shriki says the Alliance is responding to the needs of integrators and demands of customers. He describes applications that HDBaseT over IP will address. “Basically, it is targeting the use cases and installations that require cross-campus or between buildings, things that the traditional HDBaseT is not capable of doing,” he says.
“It is going to help those pro AV and IT services to provide a more holistic, complete AV distribution system for their customers.”
[inpagepromo]
Meanwhile, Shriki says HDBaseT over IP remains true to core HDBaseT principles.
“Basically, we are maintaining the HDBaseT protocol, encapsulating it over IP. We are basically taking the same benefit that we had with the HDBaseT with its time-sensitive protocol design in order to maintain the benefits and high quality of HDBaseT over Internet.”
More from HDBaseT Alliance’s press release:
The introduction of HDBaseT over an Ethernet PHY is a key element towards accomplishing the Alliance’s goal of providing a holistic approach to all use cases and market sectors, simplifying the transmission of high-throughput content over any medium.
“HDBaseT over IP brings unprecedented modularity and breadth of scope to the existing HDBaseT solutions available today. Whether over a 10G, 5G, 2.5G, or even 1G Ethernet PHY, HDBaseT over IP expands the realm of possibilities for AV professionals. It allows our customers combining traditional HDBaseT installations with HDBaseT over IP deployment networking the in-room to the cross-campus, with increased ease and flexibility. By standardizing HDBaseT over IP, the Alliance continues to attend to the changing demands of our industry.” — Micha Risling, Chair of the HDBaseT Alliance Marketing Committee
AV over IP at ISE 2017
During ISE 2017, HDBaseT Alliance will demonstrate some capabilities of HDBaseT over IP.
“What we will be showing there is actually taking a couple of source devices connected to HDBaseT over IP encoders, going through a standard off-the-shelf IP switch and one of them [going] to the HDBaseT over IP decoder, and the other one is going actually through a bridge device into these legacy or traditional, existing HDBastT network,” Shriki says.
“So you could see there the mix of the two worlds. The new HDBaseT over IP as well as bridging between the existing infrastructure of HDBaseT to the new one.”
HDBaseT Alliance won’t be the only group discussing AV over IP during ISE 2017. [related]
Recently announced Software Defined Video Over Ethernet (SDVoE) Alliance is at ISE 2017 discussing its approach to speeding up and standardizing the transition to AV over IP.
For its part Valens and HDBaseT Alliance are still learning about SDVoE.
“We saw that recently,” Shriki says.
“We’ve been still looking at that and trying to figure out what this alliance is all about. I don’t know much about them, but what I do know is that with the HDBaseT existing alliance, with the HDBaseT strong standard and strong ecosystem that we have today with the introduction of HDBaseT over IP, I don’t see any need for a new alliance.”
