NewTek NDI revolutionizes and democractizes IP Production workflows
Videoguys by Gary Bettan
Sometimes the most important new product announcements aren't about actual products at all, but new technologies that have the potential to revolutionize an industry. With the announcement of their Network Device Interface (NDI), a new open standard for live production IP workflows over ethernet networks, NewTek has done just that. By making it an open standard, and giving away the SDK developer kit, NewTek NDI will democratize IP based production workflows, lower the barriers to entry and address one of, if not the biggest challenges, of transitioning live production environments from HD to 4K and beyond.
A little background information for you. At last year's NAB show I had the chance to spend a few minutes talking to NewTek's president and CTO Andrew Cross about new technologies. We started talking about 4K and how it was everywhere at NAB. The conversation soon led to the biggest issue for 4K, namely the bandwidth required for transmission and the limitations of the current SDI/Fibre based routing systems in place in facilities all over the world. Dr. Cross and I talked about the "right" solution being to migrate to an IP based infrastructure. He was pretty adamant that IP was the technology that would revolutionize broadcast, and that 4K was just a step along the way.
It was only about a 15 minute conversation, but I left it realizing that he was committed to this strategy and already working on IP for his products. I knew then that NewTek would be taking a leading role in IP based production and switching workflows. What I didn't know at the time was that he wasn't working on a proprietary solution that would just work for TriCasters, but an open standard that would democratize IP workflows. NewTek NDI is a solution for a very complicated and complex transition, that is built on open standards, interoperability and lowering the technical and cost barriers to a 4K world. Not only providing the needed bandwidth, but allowing all the switchers, mixers, cameras and gear on the network to communicate with eachother; sharing video, metadata and other content/ information that will streamline the entire production process.
I am sure we are going to see a bunch of technical papers and analysis of this new standard, and I'll blog about them as I find them. I have provided a link to the press release below. NewTek already has support from industry leaders such as JVC Professional, AJA, Vizrt, ChyronHego, Matrox, Wowza, PESA and Teradek. I'm sure we'll be seeing several new partners announced shortly after IBC. If Newtek can build on their momentum and get the major camera vendors to adopt NDI as their IP transition standard, we could see the revolution really take off.
NewTek Announces NDI – Open Protocol for IP Production Workflow
—Expected to be the widest adopted IP standard on the market at launch in Q4— SAN ANTONIO, September 8, 2015 — NewTek™ today announced Network Device Interface (NDI), a new open standard for live production IP workflows over Ethernet networks. NDI allows multiple video systems to identify and communicate with one another over IP, and to encode, transmit and receive many streams of high quality, low latency, frame-accurate video and audio in real-time. This new protocol can benefit any network-connected video device, including video mixers, graphics systems, capture cards, and many other production devices. NDI connectivity will be available in Q4 as a royalty free software developer kit (SDK) for anyone wanting to enable IP workflows in their facilities, or in production devices and systems they manufacture. read more...
NewTek NDI Supporting Partner Quotes
AJA "IP-based workflows represent a very important arm of the future of video production and the prospect of a unified IP video system as represented by NewTek’s open NDI protocol is very exciting. We're pleased that NewTek will be supporting NDI on all our KONA, CORVID and Io product lines, opening up opportunities for their customers and ours to use existing infrastructure to rapidly engage in new workflow opportunities almost immediately.”
– Nick Rashby, President, AJA Video Systems
ChyronHego “IP is a true game changer in video infrastructure. ChyronHego is very proud to have been pioneering graphics/switcher integration over IP together with NewTek since 2012 and to continue to push forward with NewTek in this space.”
– Sören Kjellin, Chief Technology Officer, ChyronHego
Vizrt "IP-based workflows are without a doubt the future of video production, and we are excited to work with NewTek on opening the standards to allow any company or customer change their workflow."
– Petter Ole Jakobsen, Chief Technology Officer, Vizrt
JVC Professional Video “We are excited to be working with NewTek to make video over IP happen now. This collaborative move between JVC Professional Video and NewTek opens up opportunities for our customers, many of whom are now enjoying the benefits of IP video.”
- Lon Mass, Vice President, JVC Professional Video
Wowza Media Systems “NewTek’s innovative NDI standard and unified IP video systems are completely aligned with Wowza’s vision for broadcaster production and delivery. NewTek’s approach will help complete the end-to-end digital workflow and simplify the creation and distribution of HD quality production video and delivery over the Internet. Together Wowza and NewTek provide a seamless streaming experience to any device, anywhere.”
– Carlos E. Perez, Chief Revenue Officer, Wowza Media Systems
CharacterWorks “NewTek’s vision for a standard, simplified IP video system is unlike any other being proposed today. It promises to move the industry towards IP faster than most might expect. CharacterWorks is excited to be participating in this effort with NewTek as it gives customers a new form of creative freedom that’s unique and unprecedented.”
– Gökhan Sönmez, Chief Creative Officer, CharacterWorks
PESA “PESA has a long history of integration and interoperability with many of the NDI partners. Our recent collaboration with NewTek has had a positive impact on both of our customer bases as we have worked to make our products operate seamlessly together. We look forward to expanding that partnership along with the others that are part of this new development.”
– John Naylor, VP Global Sales & Distribution, PESA
LiveXpert “We were among the first to use NewTek IP connectivity with our graphic solution dedicated to sport and live production. This collaborative move between our companies clearly opens up opportunities for our customers and for us to work with others on making this technology available today.”
– Franck Lafage, Chief Executive Officer, LiveXpert
Gnural Net "IP-based workflows will advance the art of video production in ways the industry is just starting to appreciate. With IP technologies being core to our products, Gnural Net is excited to be working with NewTek and their partners in pushing that boundary even further with NDI. We definitely look forward to the exciting new capabilities it will let us bring to our clients."
– John Mahoney, CEO & Founder, Gnural Net
MEDIA 5 “We believe in the coming years, all video will be transferred by IP. MEDIA 5 is proud to be associated with NDI, which unlike other IP protocols will be supported by many thousands of devices already in use today. Our collaboration with NewTek opens up new opportunities for our customers and for our company.”
– Moisés Martini, Chief Executive Officer, MEDIA 5
LiveU “IP-based workflows are the future of our industry. We are excited to work with NewTek on NDI to open a standard that allows any company or customer to take advantage of the flexibility and power that it brings to our solutions.”
– Samuel Wasserman, Chief Executive Officer, LiveU
ClassX "ClassX is a proud early adopter of the iVGA protocol. NDI will leverage IP-based workflow and will allow us to raise the bar of the graphics productivity of our products in the world of NewTek solutions."
– Alessandro Messineo, ClassX
DELTACAST “The vision for a unified IP video system that is easy to work with and goes beyond just piping video around is truly exciting to DELTACAST and we are excited to be working with NewTek and the huge number of other companies that are looking to fundamentally change this space.”
– Christian Dutilleux, Chief Executive Officer, DELTACAST
Brainstorm Media “NewTek’s NDI protocol will greatly benefit and complement Brainstorm’s latest developments of our virtual studio and on-air graphics products as well as simplify the hardware requirements, resulting in cost reductions. A feature of NDI that we particularly like is that it facilitates the long distance transmission of content with embedded data. This capability is extremely useful for our TrackFree and augmented reality technology whereby a presenter can be ‘teletransported’ to a remote location and integrated into a live event.”
– Ricardo Montesa, Founder and CEO, Brainstorm Multimedia
NewsMaker “This is an exciting time for the industry and working with NewTek and their partners on NDI is truly exciting because it presents a vision for the future of IP-based workflows that is not just an extension of what we have now.”
– Dean L. Kolkey, President, NewsMaker
Matrox Video “We are pleased to partner with NewTek to enhance our VS4 multi-channel input card with support for NDI. Any VS4-equipped system can now be used as remote IP-based inputs to NewTek’s live production and streaming systems or as a frame-accurate multi-channel ISO ingest solution with our VS4Recorder Pro software. NDI is the type of innovation Matrox enthusiastically supports as we promote productivity, creativity and new opportunities for our customers.”
– Alberto Cieri, Senior Director of Sales and Marketing, Matrox Video
Teradek “Teradek is proud to continue developing to the NDI standard, in conjunction with NewTek, to streamline solutions for creating a more capable production environment. Our integration with NewTek has been worth it since we have seamlessly incorporated our Cube, Bond and other IP-based Teradek encoders as networked sources using our Stream Reader plug-in. In addition, our latest collaboration has allowed NewTek TriCasters to receive zero-delay wireless video over USB 3.0 with Teradek Bolt's GRAB engine.”
– Nicol Verheem, Chief Executive Officer, Teradek
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