In an industry that simultaneously complains that it has too few standards and too many acronyms, SDVoE has something for everybody.
The Software Defined Video Over Ethernet (SDVoE) Alliance aims to speed up and optimize the transition to AV over IP by bringing manufacturers together around a standardized hardware and software platform.
SDVoE network architectures are based on off-the-shelf Ethernet switches, according to the alliance’s site, which it says results in substantial cost savings and greater system flexibility and scalability over traditional approaches including HDBaseT. All AV distribution applications that demand zero-latency, uncompromised video can benefit from SDVoE technology.
Recently the Alliance has named its founding members.
SDVoE Alliance founding members bring different perspectives to the SDVoE initiative, spanning the entire ecosystem with expertise in chipsets (AptoVision, Aquantia), switches and storage (NETGEAR), and AV end points (Christie Digital, Sony and ZeeVee).
“My concept in going to recruit this membership is No. 1 it only succeeds as an eco-system,” says Justin Kennington, strategic and technical marketing director at AptoVision. “If there were just a few box manufactures there are limits to the value that has. When we can expand that and bring in hardware manufacturers, software manufacturers, switch vendors … bringing them all together, it makes it much more powerful to the IT guy.”
SDVoE is both a hardware and software platform and the alliance says it enables matrix switches, KVM extenders, video wall controllers and image processors. It can also be integrated into sources and displays, according to SDVoE.org.
Beyond the home, markets that can benefit from SDVoE technology include education, healthcare, enterprise, entertainment, hospitality, retail, houses of worship, government, military, industrial and security.
The integration industry has spent the last several years focusing on creating new AV transport technologies, says Kennington. “AV over IP enables us to be more flexible. You don’t have to have dedicated cables. We wanted to standardize on a set of performance requirements for AV over IP.”
More about the technology from SDVoE’s website:
As the AV industry inevitably transitions to AV-over-IP solutions, simple AV switching and signal distribution are commoditized by the ultimate bit-moving technology – Ethernet. So where will AV manufacturers add value? Creating powerful endpoint signal processors and software applications are key. Endpoints that convert between AV signals (HDMI) and Ethernet may contain processing engines that reformat and reconstruct audio and video signals (scaling to a display, establishing a video wall, downmixing audio, etc.). The software that creates user experiences by managing those endpoints is the other area ripe for innovation.
SDVoE technology is the standardized interface between endpoints and software. It provides the momentum to create new classes of applications. By eliminating the bulky matrix switch, which is so costly to develop, the barrier to market entry is dramatically lowered. New players will enter and create applications for broad adoption, as well as for specialized niches not addressable with hardware-based solutions.
SDVoE technology is:
- The most widely adopted networked AV standard in the industry, delivering HDMI over Ethernet with zero latency
- The only turnkey solution for zero-latency AV over IP available to AV equipment manufacturers
- Complete with an API that allows OEM software to define a wide range of AV applications
The SDVoE Alliance will officially debut at Integrated Systems Europe 2017 with free training available.
If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!
