Meeting Topic: UHD-1 full-IP OB-van in operation
Moderator Name: Gabriel Leuzinger
Speaker Name: Adrian Hilber - tpc and Stefan Ledergerber - tpc consultant
Other business or activities at the meeting: --
Meeting Location: Zurich, Switzerland
About 30 members of AES including some guests of VdT gathered at SRF's main location in
Zurich on the sunny evening of the 25th of April 2019. The event first started with the theoretical
part in the large meeting room on the top floor of SRF's office building.
In his presentation Stefan Ledergerber built a bridge between small IP systems for audio only
and big IP systems usually used for video together with audio. He explained some major
differences between video and audio requirements. And he also stressed the evolving IPstandards and that marketing is often ahead of development and real, tested products. The legacy
synchronization mechanisms were compared to the PTP principle, which distributes absolute
time. Stefan showed an overview of the very important SMPTE 2110 standard used in the
broadcast industry, which consists of AES67 for the audio part. He explained the latencies in IP
networks and their causes. Eventually he cleaned up the myths about "slow" networks.
In the following presentation Adrian Hilber provided insights into the project of UHD-1. A lot
of human and technical resources were involved in this challenging project. During the time the
OB van was planned, none of the actual SMPTE 2110 standards were available. And even
today, no COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) IT equipment is able to fulfill the demanding
requirements. That means for example high performance data center switches in redundant setup
are used. Despite all the problems, he would decide again for a full IP implementation, Adrian
answered positively. The new OB-van is now running reliable and pays back the investment
very quickly.
After the presentations the group moved over to the tpc garage for the practical demonstration of
UHD-1. On the way to the garage, they stopped shortly in front of the new Metechno-building.
This is another large ongoing project were the experience gained during the UHD-1 project is
very welcomed. The event finished with demonstrations and explanations inside of UHD-1.
Afterwards many of the group continued discussions in a nearby restaurant.
AES Swiss Section would like to thank both speakers for their very interesting presentations.
Many thanks also to Alfio Di Fazio and tpc ag for the reservation of the OB van that evening,
which had to fit with the tight booking schedule of UHD-1.
Written By: Gabriel Leuzinger
