Application of Multicast NAT on a Production and Broadcasting Network
Service Description
In the broadcasting and TV industry, especially in TV stations or media centers, IP-based production and broadcasting networks are gaining in popularity. Related IP standards are being formulated, which is an important step in the development of the 4K industry. Traditional production and broadcasting networks can be divided into three key domains according to service function, as follows:
- Production domain: produces programs and outputs video/audio stream signals to the control matrices of the control domain.
- Control domain: schedules video/audio stream signals between departments in TV stations or media centers.
- Broadcast domain: plays the programs of each channel.
Network Description
The following figure shows a traditional production and broadcasting network.
Video streams are switched based on SDI matrices.
The following figure shows an IP-based production and broadcasting network.
On an IP-based production and broadcasting network, routers configured with multicast NAT can be used to replace the traditional SDI switching matrices. These routers can output multicast streams to the control matrices or from the control matrices to the broadcast domain.