Key Things to Know
- The command-and-control room market is shifting from coax to IP video, with ST 2110 leading the transition.
- Hybrid workflows dominate outside of greenfield projects, adding new demands like discovery and connection.
- Precision time protocol (PTP) is mandatory for any ST 2110 build and requires its own planning.
- Gateway products keep mixed infrastructures secure while bridging formats like NDI and compressed video.
- Color management across diverse cameras is becoming a make-or-break factor in live production.
- Training your personnel is the single most important investment integrators can make right now.
What Is Changing in the Command-and-Control Room Market?
The biggest change in the command-and-control room market is the shift to IP video, with ST 2110 sitting front and center. Paul Turner, a 40-plus-year television industry veteran and former BBC studio design engineer, spoke with Commercial Integrator Senior Editor Alyssa Borelli about where control rooms are headed. Turner points out that outside of greenfield builds, most customers move gradually rather than switching everything at once. That reality makes hybrid workflows the norm and brings a set of control capabilities integrators have never had to manage before.
Why Do Hybrid Workflows Matter for Integrators?
Hybrid workflows matter because they introduce control tasks that simply didn’t exist in the coax-era. In the past, an integrator could run a coax cable from a camera to a monitor, and everything worked. IP video changes that. Now sources and destinations must be discovered and then connected, using technologies like NMOS, which relies on IS-04 for discovery and IS-05 for connection. Amber Plus also enters the picture. As Turner explains, understanding these control systems and their alternatives has become paramount for anyone building a modern control room.
What Does ST 2110 Actually Solve in a Control Room?
ST 2110 solves the problem of ubiquitous, standards-based media interchange, something the industry has pursued for years. Because each connection is bidirectional, ST 2110 can dramatically cut the cabling in a control room, and control rooms hold a lot of cable. It also moves signal routing into a software layer, which pays off with multiviewers. Turner offers a clear example: a display showing 24 sources once required 24 coax cables, but ST 2110 handles the same job with a couple of CAT5 or CAT6 cables.
Where Do Integrators Go Wrong With ST 2110?
Integrators go wrong when they fail to plan for the infrastructure ST 2110 demands. The standard needs switches that understand it, and Turner notes those are getting less expensive and easier to find.
The bigger stumbling block is PTP. Integrators also need to grasp what runs in band versus out of band and plan accordingly. Turner stresses that understanding the underlying technologies, rather than assuming a plug-and-play experience, separates a smooth deployment from a troubled one.
Why Is PTP Non-Negotiable?
Precision time protocol (PTP) is non-negotiable because ST 2110 does not work without it. PTP handles the timing that keeps an IP video system in sync, and its distribution and management require dedicated switches. Turner calls PTP distribution a major topic in its own right and warns integrators to allow for it from the start of any ST 2110 implementation. Skipping this step isn’t an option, it belongs in the plan early.
How Do You Keep Mixed Infrastructure Secure?
You keep mixed infrastructure secure by using robust gateway products that bridge traditional video and new IP interfaces. Turner recalls the coax days when nobody worried about security because no one was going to break into a coax cable to steal video. IP changes the stakes. Integrators now need secure, reliable gateways to translate between traditional infrastructure and standards-based interfaces like ST 2110, along with formats such as NDI. Turner says AJA created new versions of its BRIDGE LIVE gateway specifically to handle this kind of bridging.
How Do You Bridge NDI and Compressed Formats?
You bridge NDI and compressed formats with gateway products designed to move those signals bidirectionally. Turner clears up a common misconception here: while people often describe ST 2110 as uncompressed, a compressed variant does exist, even though most ST 2110 systems run uncompressed. That leaves integrators needing a way to handle compressed formats like NDI, which is widely deployed. Purpose-built gateways let integrators translate between formats and keep using the gear they already own.
Why Does Color Management Matter So Much?
Color management matters because a single production often mixes many cameras that don’t share the same color space. Turner describes shows that pair high-performance cameras for close-ups with PTZ cameras covering an auditorium. Cutting from a wide audience shot to a tight shot of a presenter can look jarring if the colors don’t match. That makes color space management, not just rough color matching, essential. Sponsorship raises the stakes further, since sponsors expect their logos to appear in the exact colors they’ve defined.
How Does HDR Complicate Color Management?
HDR complicates color management because not everyone watches a production on a high dynamic range display. Events increasingly use HDR and wide color gamut cameras, and those signals have to be managed through the system. Turner points out that a viewer may see a beautifully produced HDR show on a standard dynamic range display. Integrators have to make every display look pristine regardless of its capabilities, or the complaints will follow.
Which Emerging Technologies Should Integrators Watch?
The emerging technologies integrators should watch are the transport mechanisms moving media between processing points. Turner doesn’t expect the overall production workflow to change much: a source captures the picture, something cuts the shots together, graphics and branding get added and a delivery system sends it out.
What’s changing is how media travels between those points. That’s where SRT, RIST, ST 2110, NDI and IPMX come into play, and Turner flags those transport shifts as the developments worth studying.
What Is the Most Important Investment Integrators Can Make?
The most important investment integrators can make is training their personnel to understand these technologies. Turner is blunt about it: things go wrong during a show and during system design, so teams need to diagnose and fix problems quickly. He calls for a strong grasp of ST 2110, PTP, SRT, RIST, IPMX and NDI. That knowledge, he says, needs to be front of mind for anyone moving into IP-based control rooms.
How Should Integrators Approach This Wave of Change?
Integrators should approach this wave of change by embracing it rather than fearing it. Turner has lived through multiple industry transitions, from composite analog to component analog, from analog to digital, through the arrival of compression and the move to nonlinear editing and file-based workflows. Each felt daunting, and each became routine with education. “Change is always scary, but we make our way through it with some education and it just becomes the norm,” Turner says. “Don’t be afraid of the new technology. Embrace it. You’re going to have to.”
Watch the full video Q&A below:
