AV-over-IP simply means transmission of audio-visual information via data packets over an Internet Protocol. In the AV industry it refers to using the network rather than using traditional audio-visual signal transmission. It has been around for quite some time now, primarily within the AV industry. Unfortunately, it is a topic that is often misunderstood, simply because it's primarily been seen from the perspective of AV technologies, traditionally dominated by proprietary and specialized hardware devices. This has left many with a shortsighted view of AV-over-IP that doesn’t capture the full potential of the technology.

It's time to address this because we are now in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution. Driven by breakthroughs in AI, IoT, big data, automation, AR and VR, it has changed the way organizations use screens to engage, educate and inform and, has put AV-over-IP in a critical position to drive transformation in today’s business world. This article aims to help IT professionals better understand AV-over-IP and thereby help them leverage the transformative opportunities the fourth industrial revolution has created. 

AV has Converged Into IT

Digital transformation has made operations at all business levels more network-centric, and as anyone undertaking a digital transformation project knows, screens and the data and information displayed on them are vital to the operational efficiency of an enterprise. Organizations are significantly increasing their use of visual display applications for a wide variety of needs—from screens in training rooms and huddle rooms to screens used for team KPIs, process automation, network and security monitoring for mission-critical operations and more.

In today’s business landscape, information is accessed and shared primarily through network protocols.  This of course includes AV and the visual content displayed on screens throughout an enterprise. The networks as well as services and applications dependent on the networks have come increasingly under the domain of IT. In other words, AV and IT use shared infrastructure: the network, which in every enterprise is owned by IT. The result is that AV has converged into IT.

[ LG & Userful Offer Software-Defined AVoIP Solution for Enterprise ]

AV-over-IP is Growing Fast

The demand for visual content in all aspects of business is resulting in skyrocketing growth for AV-over-IP. In fact, AV-over-IP has come to dominate the AV industry and research reports have noted it is growing faster than just about any other segment in the AV or IT industry.

A 2021 Maia Research report about the global AV-over-IP market forecasts a growth from $3B to $51B by 2027.What’s even more interesting is that according to this report, 85 per cent of that market comprises enterprise organizations in the corporate, education and government sectors. AV-over-IP is enjoying rapid growth and that growth is driven largely by enterprise organizations seeking to leverage visual content to support their digital transformation projects--to engage, inform, educate and even entertain. Another worthy note, Maia research highlights the rapid growth of software-based AV-over-IP solutions, which it expects will grow significantly faster than incumbent hardware-based solutions. Among the reasons reports like Maia and HNY cite for this is the scalability, flexibility, and manageability of software-based solutions.

Many Solutions Use IP, But Not All are Built for IT

Any IT department today looking to distribute video content and display applications across their organization will of course be looking at an AV-over-IP solution, however there are a few important distinctions to keep in mind: not all AV-over-IP solutions are the same.

A traditional static AV approach to AV-over-IP involves proprietary hardware—encoders and decoders that connect over an IP network. An encoder sits on the content side and connects through the network to a decoder which is connected to the display. This is using IP but it is not using the IT infrastructure and standards that IT professionals rely upon to ensure a secure, scalable and efficiently managed operation.

Static AV-over-IP solutions are generally single-purposed and detached from the IT framework, resulting in siloed deployments that put unnecessary management burdens on IT teams, can increase costs in cabling and power, often carry additional risks around network security and leaves customers open to the risk of vendor lock-in. All of these add up to a higher Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)--a cost evaluation model that includes not just the upfront costs of a solution, but also the ongoing operating costs over time.

Alternatively, there are software-defined AV-over-IP solutions, which integrate directly with existing IT frameworks, operate on commercially available off the shelf hardware, and run over the network without additional encoders and decoders to transmit the signal. With this approach, the content source is connected directly through the network to the displays with no additional transmission layers.

Although all AV-over-IP solutions use both software and hardware, there are easy ways to differentiate software-defined solutions from hardware-defined solutions. First, the company behind a software defined solution should be focused on using software to drive features and functionality and not tie features to specific hardware. Second, the solution must operate on commercially available off-the-shelf hardware, rather than proprietary hardware. Finally, any software defined solution should allow for a management layer that gives end to end control over an integrated solution. 

A software defined solution of this kind offers more flexibility, is more open, and easier to integrate with third-party applications ensuring AV deployments are no longer siloed. By eliminating dependence on a specific set of specialized hardware it reduces vendor lock-in and avoids some of the unacceptable delays that supply chain issues have created for proprietary hardware. It also frees customers from expensive hardware lifecycle management issues. All of this results in a lower TCO.

Why a Software-defined Platform for AV-over-IP

IT professionals have known for years that it’s software that’s driving value and return on investment, not hardware, which has long been commoditized. The question however has been whether the higher resolution needed for video, and the real-time interactivity requirements of many AV applications could lend themselves to network delivery using commercially available off-the-shelf hardware and software.

The answer is that it certainly can. This has been made possible by the growth in compute power, storage, and bandwidth as evidenced by Moore’s Law (which accounts for the continued growth in processing power), Butter’s Law (relating to the increase in network transmission speeds) and Kryder’s Law (which accounts for increased storage capacity).

Those seeking AV-over-IP solutions for the enterprise today can count on software-defined solutions to deliver real-time content with UHD and larger video content over the network using commercially available off-the-shelf hardware. They can count on it not just for a single application, but across a wide variety of use cases, which is one of the reasons an AV-over-IP platform is attractive.

The benefits a platform brings to the enterprise is in scalability and manageability. An AV-over-IP platform is different than just an AV-over-IP application, because it can run multiple AV applications--supporting meeting room displays, signage screens, mission critical video walls. As a result, a platform can scale to meet a wide variety of visual display requirements across the enterprise. It also offers better management by separating the infrastructure layer, which IT should manage and control, from the applications themselves, which functional departments need to control in order to effectively deliver content and services. A platform gives IT end-to-end control and gives individual users more limited access to applications they need.

Essential Roles

AV and IT play essential roles in today’s enterprise landscape and AV-over-IP is a crucial element in converging the two. AV and IT professionals in charge of deploying visual display applications and services within their own organization or as system integrators, should now be looking to software-defined solutions that provide the security, scalability, interoperability and manageability enterprises need. Software-defined AV-over-IP solutions integrate directly with existing IT frameworks, operate on IT standards and run over the network without additional encoders and decoders to transmit the signal. As the Maia research report referenced earlier outlines, it is software that is driving value and return on investment in AV-over-IP which is why software defined-solutions are growing faster than hardware-based AV-over-IP, and a key reason they are expected to continue to do so into the future.

As the quality of video equipment increases, it’s now possible to have a very capable, broadcast-grade video setup for your enterprise’s streaming needs. We reached out to some industry leaders in the streaming space to get their take on the latest trends and equipment, how client needs are shifting, and how broadcast best practices are influencing pro AV.

With the rapid evolution of technologies and the blurred lines between enterprise-grade streaming and consumer applications, high-end streaming will likely look very different 18 months from now. This article is a snapshot of where we are now and an industry, and what could lie ahead.

Latest Trends

Video streaming has become a core communication tool in many corporate environments, and for some, a primary one. Just a few years ago, there was a mystique around capturing and transporting a high-quality video signal. Flash forward to today, and video streaming has become an indispensable medium across all kinds of enterprises, and for all kinds of reasons. So, perhaps the number one trend, simply put, is “more.”

As the practice proliferates, it is also helping to maximize operational efficiencies. Because video streaming has become a corporate mainstay, companies want to minimize their dependency on dedicated IT and AV staff to support their streaming needs, other than coordinating with IT to ensure streaming traffic is not blocked on the corporate network.

“Departments want to be as operationally self-sufficient as possible, and need easy-to-use tools that enable them to stream even with little technical experience,” said Nick Ma, CEO and CTO of Magewell. “This is better for the IT and AV teams too, who can spend more of their time on higher-value projects and tasks and less time on basic operational support. “

Ma also pointed out that there are two different use cases for corporate streaming: internal streaming within a corporation (for training, employee town hall meetings, global communications for large teams, etc.) and streaming from a corporation to external viewers (shareholder meetings, public announcements, product launch events, etc.). In most cases, it’s important to take both into consideration. 

Another trend is encoding for a broad audience. When it comes to external streaming, Kevin Ancelin, VP of worldwide broadcast sales for VITEC, said that a primary concern for his company is making sure their solutions offer the capability to ingest and encode SDI for transport to all the major OTT/social platforms. Social media has become essential both as a means of communication as well as a performance metric for many organizations.

Quality and Quantity

Having a consistent and dependable signal, no matter what the use case, is increasingly expected. Organizations are wise to the value of data and content, and they are making efforts to create better quality and more highly produced media for myriad applications ranging from training, to collaboration, to corporate culture development, and much more. 

“Livestreaming is being constantly optimized,” said Sam Recine, director of sales at Matrox. “The ability to deliver live streaming content on many different devices at any location on earth, while balancing quality, latency, bitrate, and interoperability, is constantly improving.”

Load Balancing

Matrox’s Recine goes on to discuss a recent streaming hot topic: load balancing. He sees a shift from doing only “core streams” to the cloud and then doing all transcoding there, to the encoders acting as the capture point. They send multiple resolutions straight from the encoder simultaneously to help offload recurring transcoding expenses. Doing so helps reduce loss of quality during transcoding in the cloud, and to help reduce latency in livestreaming applications. 

Similarly, on the recording side for on-demand streaming applications—which is still the bulk of the streaming market today—the ability to record in multiple resolutions during capture maximizes on-demand playback versatility.

Shifting Workflow Patterns

Multi-camera/multi-source workflows are attractive because they give audiences the customization of choosing different vantage points of a particular event, and allow you to easily weave camera feeds alongside presentation materials for a higher quality viewing experience. 

“Consumers are now more used to seeing 4K/Ultra HD and HDR across their everyday viewing platforms, and it enhances the picture quality of their streams; as a result, we’re seeing greater demand for better bandwidth availability to support both,” said Bryce Button, director of productd marketing at AJA. 

Looking specifically at standards, our experts agree that H.264 is still preferred, but as enterprises consider 4K, they’re starting to see more inquiries around H.265. While HEVC is appealing for internal corporate streaming applications because of its bandwidth efficiency, H.264 continues to be the go-to solution. H.264 is needed for compatibility with most external streaming applications and platforms (i.e. social media), and still offers the broadest viewing device compatibility for both internal and external uses. So 4K, while a big buzzword, currently remains more relevant for entertainment and sports streaming than for enterprise applications. In terms of sources, a majority of clients in enterprise want HDMI. But in the near future, expect to see a more hybrid approach with SDI and HDMI sources being converted into the IP space.

Latest Market Solutions

There were some themes that emerged when experts offered their opinions on recent market solutions in the space.

• More robust encoding capabilities on both the hardware and software side of the market;
• Shift to both PC-based and appliance based ecosystem for load balancing;
• Better cloud services for interfacing and delivering a wide range of UX experiences;
• Simplified image processing hardware and software, focused on feature extraction;
• More IP-capable hardware and software solutions to enhance participation in live and on-demand streaming applications.

At Magewell, Ma said “Our focus has been developing robust solutions that have plug-and-play simplicity, so even non-technical users can create high-quality streaming content. Our Ultra Stream standalone encoders, for example, allow users to stream to an internal server or to external third-party services with simple on-device buttons, or even through an intuitive smartphone app.”

VITEC’s Ancelin said his company has been rapidly responsive to evolving marketplace requirements. Recently, Facebook added the requirement of Secure RTMP streaming, aka RTMPS. VITEC quickly identified this requirement and added RTMPS to its line of T-21 OTT Streaming Media Solutions. That will continue to be priority for the solutions the company offers.

Hardware Offers Versatility

There so many paths you can take to livestream content. Some forward-thinking companies, like AJA, look to span the gamut of options. For example, Button pointed out the versatility of the company’s all-in-one device, AJA HELO. HELO has the added benefit of extremely low latency.

“HELO’s input can be easily sourced from a single source or from a switcher, which provides a line cut from multi-camera inputs,” Buttons said. “HELO then simultaneously streams the feed to your preferred platform (YouTube, Twitch, Facebook Live, etc.) while also producing an H.264 recording.”

In terms of sources, experts report a majority of clients in enterprise want HDMI. That said, the industry has developed a number of sophisticated approaches involving SDI, and IP is always a consideration. In the future, expect to see more hybrid approaches with SDI and HDMI sources being converted into the IP space. 

The Marriage of AV and IP

As hardware solutions proliferate, IP solutions are booming to an even greater degree—and anufacturers in the enterprise streaming space are taking note. In fact, this ongoing trend is driving many recent innovations at Matrox. 

“We are already supporting second- and third-generation applications of IP, including IP-to-IP capture and encoding workflows,” Recine said. “For example, we have products that can take in uncompressed video over 10G or 25G IP links. And we can share that video over high-bandwidth networks while simultaneously compressing and making that content available for low-bitrate portions of the ecosystem.”

No matter the solution options, clients still need compatibility with HDMI and SDI sources, as they don’t want to jettison their existing investments. As such, as the market transitions to AV-over-IP workflows, tools such as Magewell's Pro Convert family of NDI encoders and decoders are essential for bridging HDMI and SDI signals with the new IP architectures.

Broadcast and pro AV clients are also asking for simplicity and ease of use when building solutions so that components like capture and encoder products, cloud services, and delivery mechanisms well together, and without complexity or compatibility issues.

Broadcast Best Practices

Low latency has long been a requirement in broadcast, and it’s also quickly becoming the expectation in enterprise streaming—so it can help to use technology from companies with a strong history of providing solutions in broadcast environments.

By far, the best practice to focus on is “standards.” The early waves of AV over IP accepted single-vendor ecosystems, but that is rapidly changing. Now, sole source and/or proprietary encoding schemes work against AV providers. The market is demanding interoperability of legacy systems while fully leveraging the new wave of IP-based benefits. No enterprise wants to abandon systems that still provide tremendous value for them.

“IP-to-baseband and baseband-to-IP converters based on open standards are going to be very, very, very popular in AV, and begin replacing the AV matrix switch market,” said Matrox’s Recine. “SMPTE ST-2110 in particular has been adopted in live broadcast. There are hundreds of manufacturers building interoperable products. Now the attention has turned to AV, and organizations such as AIMS are beginning to promote the spec in the AV market while also collecting feedback to enhance the spec for AV-specific applications.”

Driving Momentum

As end users become more adept at mastering streaming technology (and let’s face it, they already are!), expect them to bring that expertise into the workplace. The wide array of solutions will likely converge into a few consolidated and universal platforms that nearly anyone can master. As the playing field levels, application of the technology can become more strategic and focused in terms of content quality, frequency, and technical superiority.

What Lies Ahead?

Nick Ma, Magewell: “Streaming will continue to become further entrenched in the enterprises’ internal and external communication strategies. That ease may ultimately lead to ‘technical invisibility,’ where the technology is so easy to use and pervasive that you don’t even notice it any more; you just use it naturally.”

Kevin Ancelin, VITEC: “Enterprise streaming will only continue to grow. The traditional streaming to TV set tops will decrease as more streaming is consumed to CE devices including, phones, tables, PCs, and smart TVs. We’ll see a proliferation of new OTT companies entering the marketplace.”

Bryce Button, AJA: “Video is one of the most powerful means of communication available for delivering a message, so we fully expect that the demand for video streaming in enterprise will continue to grow at breakneck speeds, with technology also growing to meet the demand.”

Sam Recine, Matrox: “The curated content market, also known as ‘enterprise video’ has so much value still to gain from machine learning and image processing technologies that we will see a gold rush for high-quality, low-bitrate content to record everything. I believe the content will be tested continuously to refine metrics of what people retain and what people enjoy consuming. And I believe the future of video is its usefulness.”

PowerPoint presentations used to be cutting-edge and exciting. So were VCRs, Walkman tape players and brick-sized mobile phones—back in the day.

But today’s sales teams need better. Their audiences are increasingly bored, sitting passively through slide deck after slide deck, and then forgetting whatever they heard as soon as they leave the briefing room.

What can salespeople do to update their presentations, close more deals and score more wins?

The key is to use immersive presentation tools, like the Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) 6K Series, recently introduced by Prysm, a leader in display and visual collaboration solutions. These seamless, super-sized interactive video displays offer sales teams new ways to deliver standard content, be more authentic and draw audiences in. More specifically, sales teams that use this innovative technology can:

• Easily incorporate several types of content, from multiple sources, even in real time
• Amplify a point by moving, re-sizing and annotating content on a single digital canvas (which isn’t possible in PowerPoint)
• Invite audience members to come up, touch the screen and interact freely with the video windows and their contents
• Deliver customized experiences that truly impress, particularly when used on a video wall

By manipulating simultaneous video windows on a panoramic, ultra high-resolution display, presenters can create an immersive experience that draws audiences right into the action on the interactive touch screen. There are no distracting bezels to break up the 6K by 2K video image, and the LPD 6K Series’ intelligent light engines deliver consistent and sharp images, with over one billion discrete colors and truly deep blacks up to a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1.

Prysm Collaboration Solutions Presentation

This 2:21 video shows the LPD 6K Series working with Prysm Collaboration Solutions to engage and excite viewers.

“LPD 6K Series displays will capture your audience’s attention and hold it throughout the presentation,” Hannah Grap, Prysm’s VP of Marketing, said. “Coupled with creative interactive scripts and visuals, the LPD 6K Series will put the wow factor back into your presentations.”

Close More B2B Sales

And getting more prospects to your office and engaged 1:1 can help you close more deals. In fact, The Washington Post reported that more than eight in ten executives prefer in-person meetings.

“Providing an immersive, interactive sales experience is an effective way to engage your prospect and impress them, and when your audience is having fun watching and interacting with what is being presented, you can’t help but get your message across,” Grap explained. “An LPD 6K Series display married to a great content experience will help close more deals – and more than repay the investment in this technology.”

Increase B2B Close Rates: Five Ways Immersive Presentations Help You Win

This short Prysm ebook highlights how immersive presentations can help close sales.

Improve Internal Collaboration

Prysm’s LPD 6K Series displays also help sales teams collaborate more effectively, by providing flexible visual tools that make it easy to share content and ideas, across the office or across the world. This blending of workspaces nurtures a culture of teamwork that can accelerate the pace of innovation and improve productivity.

“Enhanced collaboration means better results sooner for your company,” Grap said.

Prysm Drives Results

Companies as diverse as Standard Process, Schlesinger Associates and Under Armour are using Prysm’s LPD displays and Prysm Collaboration Solutions to engage audiences and close more sales.

As Kevin McDermond, program director for Under Armour’s brand creative team, explained, immersive presentation technology allows the company to tell a powerful visual story by bringing digital content to life. “We consider ourselves to be great story tellers,” McDermond concluded. “The Prysm wall is an incredible tool to help us deliver our message with passion and pride.”

Prysm’s LPD 6K Series Single-Panel Displays

This web page provides a detailed explanation of the LPD 6K Series display family, with many useful links.

Prysm Software Features

Prysm also makes advanced collaboration software, for use on the LPD 6K Series and other displays.

Prysm Customer Stories

Stories from the wide range of companies using Prysm video display and collaboration products.