AJA Bridge Live

Overview
The BRIDGE LIVE family are the broadcast quality, low latency turnkey systems for REMI, Synchronous Multi-Channel Video Contribution, Remote Collaboration, Direct to Audience Streaming, and Multi-Bitrate/Multi-Format Delivery via a wide range of IP video standards and/or SDI. New to the BRIDGE LIVE family is the BRIDGE LIVE 3G-8, a high-density HD version of BRIDGE LIVE, which supports up to 8x bi-directional 3G-SDI I/O.

BRIDGE LIVE and BRIDGE LIVE 3G-8 were developed as a collaboration between AJA and Comprimato to deliver the performance, reliability, and ease of use necessary for critical live encode, decode, or transcode needs. Equipped with either 12G-SDI I/O or 3G-SDI I/O with the power and flexibility to enable real time, bidirectional encoding, decoding, and transcoding for critical UltraHD or HD workflows, BRIDGE LIVE is an essential part of any modern video production toolkit. A compact and robust 1RU form factor, with redundant power supplies, and a three year warranty, means peace of mind even when dealing with the most demanding applications.

Whether facilitating remote production, interviews, live event streaming, synchronous multi-camera backhaul with HDR, cloud contribution, program return, confidence monitoring, collaborative production, or ABR ladder profiles to hand off for OTT packaging, BRIDGE LIVE ensures simultaneous, secure, and reliable workflows over purpose built dedicated lines or the public internet.

BRIDGE LIVE FAMILY I/O Overview
The BRIDGE LIVE family of products, BRIDGE LIVE and BRIDGE LIVE 3G-8, support the most widely used IP video compression schemes and transport protocols to solve your workflow needs. The BRIDGE LIVE family supports conversion to/from SDI to numerous IP video solutions and well as pure IP conversion and distribution workflows.

Simultaneous Bidirectional Encoding and Decoding
BRIDGE LIVE supports simultaneous bidirectional encoding and decoding from UltraHD (BRIDGE LIVE only), HD, and SD sources. Both models support up to UltraHD from IP-based sources.

For example, with a pair of BRIDGE LIVE systems, a broadcast facility can receive three incoming encoded camera sources from a remote location and decode them back into SDI for editing and production while simultaneously providing program return to the remote location. This example shows 4 channel capability on BRIDGE LIVE, while BRIDGE LIVE 3G-8 supports up to 8 HD channels.  

NDI Encode/Decode/Transcode
BRIDGE LIVE includes support for NDI (Network Device Interface), the high quality, real time, low latency IP video standard developed by NewTek. BRIDGE LIVE can support up to 8x simultaneous 60p HD NDI encodes/decodes or 1x 30p UltraHD NDI encode/decode to/from SDI (BRIDGE LIVE model dependent). BRIDGE LIVE’s NDI functionality offers:

• SDI to NDI (encode)
• NDI to SDI (decode)
• IP Video Streams to NDI (transcode)
• NDI to IP Video Streams (transcode)
• Multiple Discovery Servers

Used in conjunction with BRIDGE LIVE's broad codec and protocol support, collaboration between geographically separated (remote) NDI facilities can be realized. BRIDGE LIVE provides broad NDI compatibility with 3rd party NDI software and hardware transmitters and receivers.

Synchronous Multi-Channel Transport
BRIDGE LIVE and BRIDGE LIVE 3G-8 support independent SDI source inputs and maintains their synchronous relationship while transporting the content to end-point destinations.

This functionality can take place between a pair of BRIDGE LIVE units for a synchronous end-to-end SDI workflow, often referred to as SDI backhaul, or site-to-site SDI workflows.

BRIDGE LIVE’s synchronous multi-channel capability is also supported for cloud contribution, whereby a BRIDGE LIVE system can send signals to a Comprimato Live Transcoder cloud instance, thereby ensuring multi-source synchronicity for delivery to various CDNs, platforms, and cloud services as IP video.

Furthermore, Synchronous Multi-Channel Transport can be scaled up from a single BRIDGE LIVE pair to additional BRIDGE LIVE pairs to enable workflows where multiple BRIDGE LIVE systems can receive SDI and send to multiple BRIDGE LIVE systems outputting SDI, all in synchronicity.

HDR is also supported for end-to-end SDI workflows.

SRT Ready
SRT is an open source video transport protocol and technology stack that optimizes streaming performance across unpredictable networks with secure streams and easy firewall traversal, bringing the best quality live video over questionable networks. The SRT Alliance is a collaborative community of industry leaders and developers striving to achieve lower latency internet video transport by continuously improving open source SRT. Encryption built into the SRT protocol ensures secure streaming video content delivery with low latency and secure reliability.

BRIDGE LIVE SDI
Video Formats
(UltraHD) 3840x2160p 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, 60
(2K) 2048x1080p 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 47.95, 48, 50, 59.94, 60
(HD) 1080p 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, 60
(HD) 1080i 50, 59.94, 60
(HD) 720p 50, 59.94, 60
(SD) 625i 50
(SD) 525i 59.94
12G-SDI, SMPTE ST 2082, 10-bit
6G-SDI*, SMPTE ST 2081, 10-bit
3G-SDI, SMPTE ST 424, 10-bit
1.5G-SDI, SMPTE ST 292M, 10-bit
270 Mbit/s SDI, SMPTE ST 259M-C, 10-bit
*Only Ultra-UltraHD 2160-line single link is supported, as defined in SMPTE ST 2081-1 and ST 2081-10

Video Color Component Sampling
SDI
YCbCr, 4:2:2, 10-bit
Transport Streams
YCbCr, 4:2:2, 10-bit/8-bit
YCbCr, 4:2:0, 10-bit/8-bit
NDI
P216, 4:2:2, 16-bit
UYVY, 4:2:2, 8-bit

Video Codecs
H.264 (AVC, MPEG-4)
H.265 (HEVC)
JPEG 2000 (VSF TR-01)
MPEG-2
NDI
JPEG XS (VSF TR-07)

Audio Streams/Codecs
AAC-LC (ADTS, LATM)
AAC-HE (ADTS, LATM)
AAC-HE v1 & v2 (ADTS, LATM)
AC3
E-AC3 (input)
Dolby E pass-through
MPEG-2 Audio
NDI (uncompressed float)
Uncompressed PCM multi-channel (SMPTE ST 302M-2007)

Metadata
MPEG-2 ancillary packet support (SMPTE ST 2038)
HDR over SDI end-to-end via VPID signaling for SDR/HDR Transfer Characteristics, Colorimetry, and Luminance 
Closed Captioning (EIA-608/708)
Line 21 Captions
Metadata pass-through
SCTE-35, SCTE-104
Subtitles embedded within H.264 SEI messages
Timecode embedded within HEVC and H.264 SEI messages
Electronic program guide (EPG) on input

Containers and Protocols
HLS (input)
AVC TS segments
Fragmented MP4
HLS (output)
AVC TS segments
MPEG-TS
MPTS (input)
RTMP
RTMPS (output)
RTP, UDP
SRT (including encryption)
VSF TR-01
VSF TR-07

Video Processing
Auto Color Component Sampling based on I/O settings
Cropping / Padding
Color adjustments
Deinterlacing
Frame rate 50% down-conversion (60p->30p, 59.94->29.97, 50p->25p)
Frame rate up-conversion (50i->50p)
Logo insertion 
Resizing
Audio Processing
Channel Remapping
Gain
Sample Rate conversion
Up/Down-mixing (e.g. 5.1 to stereo and vice versa)

Synchronization
Input PCR
Global configuration (in separate transport stream)
Local configuration (in each transport stream)
Output PTS
Pass-through
Add offset to input PTS
NTP
Encoder Synchronous Multi-Channel Transport
PCR
Decoder Synchronous Multi-Channel Transport

Audio Input Digital
16-channel, 16 and 24-bit SDI embedded audio, 48 kHz sample rate, synchronous per SDI connection

Audio Output Digital
16-channel, 16 and 24-bit SDI embedded audio, 48 kHz sample rate, synchronous per SDI connection

Configuration and Monitoring
Local “Kiosk” interface (keyboard, mouse, and monitor)
Remote access via Browser
REST API
SNMP

BRIDGE LIVE Form Factor
1RU turnkey system
4x full-size BNC (12G/6G/3G/1.5G-SDI compatible)
2x 10 GigE
Local interface via Display Port and USB
OS custom image
Update and license via download

Size (w x d x h)
17.2” x 16.9" x 1.7" (436.88 x 429.26 x 43.18 mm)

Weight
28 lb. (12.7kg) in box
18 lb. (8.2kg) server only

Power
100-240 VAC 50/60 Hz (Dual, redundant power supplies) 
190W typical, 245W Maximum

Environment
Safe Operating Temperature: 5 to 35 C (41 to 95 F) 
Safe Storage Temperature (Power OFF): -40 to 60 C (-40 to 140 F) 
Operating Relative Humidity: 8-90% noncondensing 
Nonoperating Relative Humidity: 5-95% noncondensing

Warranty: 3 Years
AJA's technical support is recognized as among the best in the industry, and together with support from Comprimato, BRIDGE LIVE Annual Maintenance customers have the best of both hardware and software expertise to ensure installations and projects are executed smoothly and with confidence. BRIDGE LIVE hardware is also backed with a generous three year warranty as standard.