Flexible SDI - The Universal Transport for Streamed Media

SDI was invented to carry all commonly used professional digital video formats in a single data rate of 270 Mb/s. With HDTV it added a 1.5Gb/s layer to carry all HD formats. SDI infrastructures automatically carried both 270 Mb/s and 1.5 Gb/s signals, and so were universal. — In 2005 a 3Gb/s layer was added, and UHDTV has recently raised the game once again, by increasing the data rates, and also with an explosion of different formats. — SDI has responded with multi-link 3G-SDI, and by adding layers at 6Gb/s and 12Gb/s, with a 24 Gb/s layer in the pipeline. — This paper describes how SDI is used to transport all streamed media, from SD to UHD. In particular it highlights the use of gearbox technology for seamless zero-latency bridging between SDI layers. This flexibility allows an evolutionary move from HD to UHD without wholesale replacement of expensive and mission-critical infrastructure.

Published

2016-10

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

SDI, UHDTV, HDR, HFR, Infrastructure, Standards

DOI

10.5594/M001698

ISBN

978-1-61482-957-7