SMPTE ST 2138: A Standardized Approach to Control
Media operations now span hybrid on-premises and cloud environments, across many vendors and platforms that must interoperate. While the industry has made progress moving media over IP, the control plane–how devices and services are managed–remains fragmented. End users want best-of-breed systems that work together, and the shift to microservices increases the urgency. Today's environments rely on dozens or hundreds of proprietary control protocols, typically without built-in security–an unacceptable risk now that systems are network-connected. SMPTE, through Open Services Alliance (OSA) and the Standards Community, is addressing this gap with Catena. SMPTE ST 2138 defines an open, scalable, and secure approach that enables the industry to move from today's control plane complexity to a simpler, interoperable solution.
- Print ISSN
- 1545-0279
- Electronic ISSN
- 2160-2492
- Published
- 2026-05
- Content type
- Original Research
- Keywords
- catena, control plane, smpte, osa, interoperability
- DOI
- 10.5594/JMI.2026/HLCK3638