Tektronix recently participated with the AIMS Alliance in the Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM) to help guide prospective purchasers of IP-based equipment with greater insight into how industry equipment aligns to SMPTE standards. Testing of vendor-supplied equipment was administered by the EBU and IRT. Tektronix assisted with the development of tests and supplied testing equipment and experts for the event held at Fox Networks in Woodlands, Texas.

According to Mike Overton, Principal Engineer at Tektronix, the goal of the program is to provide meaningful depth for decision-makers to consider which devices actually address the SMPTE 2110 standards.

“Every architecture, implementation or customer application is different,” Overton said. “By establishing trust in which devices meet the test criteria, we’re helping strengthen confidence in the standards and, ultimately, advancing their effectiveness. Tektronix was pleased to participate with the JT-NM and the AIMS Alliance in advancing the idea of industry cooperation and standards, and we recognize the outstanding contributions of the EBU and IRT. We look forward to continuing our participation for many years.”

As the industry migrates toward IP-based workflows, the JT-NM Tested program provides media professionals with guidance on which devices can currently be specified and deployed in a SMPTE 2110 environment. The program provides transparency on the products tested and the tests. Thirty-five companies with 72 products participated in this most recent event.

In the testing, the Tektronix SPG8000A was used as the PTP grandmaster to provide accurate timing across the media network. The Prism IP/SDI Hybrid Media Monitoring and Analysis platform was used to monitor IP streams and provided verification of the various parameters being tested by the EBU and IRT during the event.

For those IP gateway devices providing an SDI output, the WFM8300 was used to monitor the video and audio signal to ensure correct decoding of the streams.

About the JT-NM Tested Program at NAB 2019:

Sponsored by the JT-NM and administered by the EBU and IRT — two top European technical bodies — the JT-NM Tested program offers prospective purchasers of IP based equipment greater, more documented insight into how vendor equipment aligns to the SMPTE ST 2110 and SMPTE ST 2059 standards. Vendors who submitted equipment to be tested and agreed to make their results public are listed, with their products’ test results in the JT-NM Tested catalog which was publicly available at the IP Showcase booth at NAB 2019. This catalog provides transparency, describing the test criteria and testing methodology, as well as the hardware and software versions of the products that were tested. While JT-NM Tested is not a certification program, it will provide a snapshot in time of how vendor equipment aligns to key parts of SMPTE standards, providing prospective purchasers and users with a reference as they begin their equipment evaluation and qualification process.