At Cisco, we strongly believe in the power of partnering. Whether it’s IP Fabric for media, cloud innovations or data center solutions, our Media Blueprint is fully integrated with major ecosystem partners’ equipment tested end-to-end, validated, and qualified with design guides to simplify integration.
We recently teamed up with Imagine communications to help Texas A&M University’s (TAMU) 12th Man Productions transition from legacy standard digital interface routing technology (SDI) to an IP-based infrastructure using Cisco IP Fabric for Media and Imagine Communications Selenio Network Processors at the four heaviest load venues, all in alignment with SMPTE’s ST 2110 suite of standards.
12th Man Productions is the in-stadium broadcast and post-production house for the TAMU Athletics Department. It provides post-production coverage for every NCAA athletic team the university hosts, as well as in-stadium productions for seven different sports across five different venues. The team also produces a majority of the TAMU athletics’ broadcasts for ESPN and more than 100 live events every year.
In an IP-based infrastructure, a single cable has the capacity to carry multiple bi-directional traffic flows and can support different flow sizes without requiring changes to the physical infrastructure. In 2018, SMPTE announced a new suite of standards, ST 2110, to define how video, audio, and ancillary data are carried over IP. In order to move its live production to IP within this new set of standards, 12th Man Productions needed a workflow that would offer reliability, flexibility and control over all aspects of its network and signals.
With this use case the goal was to create a dynamic, easy to scale and agile infrastructure, to allow set up, tear down and resource allocation for remote sites to be performed quickly. The transition also allows greater throughput between venues via fiber consolidation, and improved flexibility with all venues networked versus point-to-point.
The 12th Man Productions team at Texas A&M sought after a networked media fabric that offers reliability, flexibility and control of its network with signals that could be expanded as facilities moved to a native ST 2110 workflow. Cisco’s IP Fabric for Media offers a highly reliable, scalable and secure network to transport ST 2110 signals, giving the broadcast team peace of mind to trust that the network will be able to scale and deliver richer media experiences with low latency to its viewers.
A few weeks ago, I got together (virtually) with 12th Man Productions’ Chief Broadcast Engineer, Zack Bacon, to discuss the team’s transition to IP. Hear more on what motivated Zack and team to take the leap here.
The media industry needs reliable, scalable and flexible networks, along with tools to efficiently operate those networks. We’re proud to be able to help teams like 12th Man Productions transition their network to IP. We have the solutions that allow you to reimagine your content workflows, enabling you to accelerate your ideas to audience.
Learn more about this project in our case study here or visit our media and entertainment solutions page.
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