Here’s another product debut planned for the 2018 NAB Show in Las Vegas.
The second generation of GatesAir’s content stream transport solution, now a standalone half-rack hardware device for data protection capability to a broadcaster’s audio contribution and distribution network, is getting its official unveiling April 9.
The configurable platform, Intraplex IPConnect, addresses the growing trend of data transport over IP networks by enhancing network resilience and security.
As a standalone device, IPConnect works with a wide variety of IP data originating from IP audio codecs, HD Radio streams and remote control applications via SNMP or the web. It can be used as an IP Gateway or local area network bridge device to support point-to-point applications (STL, studio-to-studio, remote contribution) as well as multipoint distribution (SFNs, DAB/DAB+ networks, content syndication).
IPConnect fortifies data transport across IP networks by minimizing data loss associated with dropped packets, employing a combination of packet protection schemes with network/time diversity and packet-level forward error correction.
In addition to strengthening data transport, GatesAir’s new IPConnect device adds new built-in monitoring features such as SafeIP to manage redundancy for external IP sources and bandwidth measurement capability tools to help broadcasters confirm network health and capacity before launching an application.
At the NAB Show, GatesAir will demonstrate how IP Link Connect and its SafeIP application can safeguard again packet and data loss in HD Radio Gen4 Exgine network architectures. These losses are especially vulnerable in the E2X (exporter-to-exciter) connection, where audio and data from several channels are multiplexed before being delivered to the transmitter site(s).
“The HD Radio E2X connection is very sensitive, with an audio gap of more than one second resulting from each packet loss,” said GatesAir Chief Product Officer Rich Redmond. “In this scenario, the IPConnect protects against losses of E2X packets with network redundancy, forward error correction and encapsulation using GatesAir’s protocol wrapper to harden the data payload. Additionally, IPConnect can monitor two redundant exporters at the studio and provide automatic failover between them to enhance the overall application reliability. In any IP network topology, be it for HD Radio, FM or even remote control and web traffic, IPConnect relieves our customers from concerns of packet or network loss, increases security, and offers an unrivaled level of protection against what has typically been a single point of failure.”
For network protection, IPConnect enhances security through the ability to tunnel all IP data between one or more sites, eliminating concerns of outside interference. IPConnect’s software provides extra protection through packet encapsulation, which encloses the external IP data packets in a GatesAir protocol wrapper as it moves across IP networks. IPConnect uniquely provides this protection for studio-generated data, as well as IP data from external sources. While the former might include RDS data or SNMP control signals to trigger a command at the transmitter site, the latter may incorporate program or control data coming from a network operations center, satellite feed or advertising service.
GatesAir will demonstrate IPConnect alongside its complete range of Intraplex intelligent networking solutions at its booth, including the complete range of Intraplex IP Link codecs.
GatesAir exhibits at Booth N3703.
