Sky Italia Migrates to ST 2110 Video Infrastructure and JPEG XS Connectivity with Imagine

Sky Italia, Italy’s largest pay-TV operator, has migrated its Rome operations center to SMPTE ST 2110 video infrastructure with NMOS integration and JPEG XS compression based on Imagine Communications’ Selenio™ Network Processor (SNP) and Magellan™ Control System. Part of Sky Group Limited — Europe’s leading media and entertainment company — Sky Italia will also leverage the flexible Imagine infrastructure to provide high-quality, low-latency connectivity from the Rome facility to its headquarters in Milan.

Sky Italia used a planned technology refresh as an opportunity to migrate to more flexible and scalable ST 2110 IP-based infrastructure. Working with local systems integrator Allyn Srl, Sky Italia deployed a turnkey, open-standard solution that supports uncompressed IP video and audio signal routing within the facility; JPEG XS compression for high-quality, low-latency inter-facility connectivity; and NMOS-based orchestration of all networked connected devices. 

“Migrating to a modern, IP-based infrastructure as part of a planned facility refresh was a forward-looking but practical decision that has delivered multiple, immediate benefits,” says Gabriele Ubertini, Director of Group Origination & Distribution Platform, Sky. “The flexibility of the 2110 standard and NMOS protocol inherent in the Imagine platforms enabled the fast, easy deployment of a best-in-class, seamlessly integrated system that has improved our operational efficiencies and will enable us to easily scale as our business requirements evolve in the future.”

At the core of the new system, Imagine’s SNP serves as an IP gateway, a signal converter and a JPEG XS encoder/decoder, enabling ultra-low-latency, production-quality signal transfer from Milan to Rome and vice versa. A Calrec audio router featuring native ST 2110 connectivity seamlessly integrates into the system to handle audio shuffling and mux/demux of the high number of audio tracks within the video streams. The routing infrastructure leverages an Arista spine-leaf architecture, with uplink to central cores. 

Fabio Mattei, Sky Technical Project Lead, adds, “The SNP’s support for JPEG XS standard is a real value-add that will enable us to lower the costs of video connectivity between our two facilities by using less bandwidth for signal transport.”

Quality of service is guaranteed via the bandwidth management API supported by Imagine’s Magellan Control System, which provides orchestration of multiple streams and control of ST 2110 devices across the network through NMOS. Imagine is now using NMOS in nearly every project deployment to integrate ST 2110 endpoints from other leading vendors, enabling customers to build best-of-breed solutions leveraging the cameras, switchers, audio, and replay technologies that their creative teams prefer.

Mathias Eckert, Senior Vice President & General Manager EMEA and APAC at Imagine Communications, adds, “The benefits of advancements such as NMOS and JPEG XS are motivating media companies to consider ST 2110 for new infrastructure projects and enabling them to deploy and manage multi-vendor IP media workflows with much greater confidence and ease. Imagine is committed to open, standards-based systems and working with partners around the industry to enable best-of-breed systems that benefit our customers like Sky.”

For more information on the complete range of Imagine Communications’ products and solutions, please visit https://www.imaginecommunications.com