Media Networking Alliance, Bothell, Washington, USA, 16 May 2017. Terry Holton, Vice Chairman of the Media Networking Alliance (MNA) – the non-profit trade association, established to promote the adoption of the AES67 standard – has described the participation of more than 10 MNA member companies in the IP Showcase event, held throughout the recently concluded NAB Show in Las Vegas, as “the most impressive and effective event the MNA has participated in”.
As a member of the IP Showcase Board, Holton – aided by MNA Marketing Working Group Co-Chair Angi Roberson and MNA Administrator Tina Lipscomb – managed the MNA’s role in developing and staging the IP Showcase with eight other broadcast and professional audio industry organisations, and coordinated the participation of MNA member companies in the event during NAB.
“I would like to thank and congratulate all of the MNA members who participated in the very successful IP Showcase event,” said Holton. “I believe that all members who were involved in the IP Showcase would agree that this was the most impressive and effective event the MNA has participated in, since its inception nearly three years ago.
“The IP Showcase was a collaboration between a number of highly respected and influential industry organizations and it was a great honor for the MNA to be included among them.”
The event was organized in collaboration with the Audio Engineering Society (AES), the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), IABM (the international trade association for suppliers of broadcast and media technology), PILOT, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Video Services Forum (VSF).
Participating MNA member companies’ products were incorporated in the equipment racks that formed an extensive broadcast IP interoperability demonstration. These included ARG, Calrec, Digigram, Focusrite, Lawo, Merging Technologies, Riedel Communications, Telos Alliance, Ward Beck Systems and Yamaha. The demonstration highlighted interoperability of four parts of the new SMPTE ST 2110 standard, pertaining to video, audio, control and metadata. SMPTE ST 2110 is currently at an advanced draft stage and is widely projected as a fundamental development in a transition to full IP workflows in broadcast, based on common open standards.
The large IP Showcase booth in the North Hall of the LV Convention Center, incorporated both the interoperability demonstration and the ‘IP Showcase Theater’, as well as providing a focus for expert advice, information and discussion on all aspects of industry alignment, action, and transformation with respect to production, contribution, and primary distribution workflows over internet protocol. Personnel from several member companies, including Andreas Hildebrand of ALC NetworX, Antony David of SSL, and Nestor Amaya of Coveloz, gave technical presentations in the IP Showcase Theater. Presentations in the IP Showcase Theater were extremely well attended and well received.
The MNA was established in 2014 for the purpose of promoting awareness and adoption of the high-performance AES67 AoIP interoperability open standard. The inclusion of AES67, in defining the audio element of the new SMPTE ST 2110 standard, acknowledges the rapid and widespread adoption of AES67 in providing signal interoperability across all of the current leading IP based audio networking protocols.