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What is SMPTE ST 2110?

Category: FAQ

Released: 2019-04-10

SMPTE ST 2110 is a standard from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) that describes how to send digital video over an IP network.

SMPTE ST 2110 permits granular transport of individual separate essence streams supporting video, audio, and metadata. As such, unlike ST 2022-6, the data is not simple packetization of SDI. ST 2110 incorporates the following in three or more different IP packet streams:

• Audio: Multiple channels of audio may be transmitted in a single packet stream, or split up into different groups of audio channels in different streams.

• Video (from active area)

• Metadata

The different streams of audio/video/metadata are all synchronized with each other using RTP timestamps.

When mapping from an SDI source to SMPTE ST 2110, since the data in the blanking is not implicitly included in the packetized video stream, the only way to transmit ancillary data such as timecode, closed captioning, etc. is in the metadata stream. Any data that is not in the metadata stream is NOT transmitted.

There are several parts that comprise SMPTE ST 2110, the parts currently supported by Io IP are:

• SMPTE ST-2110-10: system timing and synchronization or the standard formerly known as SMPTE ST 2059 parts 1 & 2 (PTP, or Precision Time Protocol).

• SMPTE ST-2110-20: uncompressed video or VSF TR-03 or IETF RFC 4175.

• SMPTE ST 2110-23: single video essence transport over multiple ST 2110-20 streams.

• SMPTE ST-2110-30: uncompressed PCM Digital Audio or AES67.

• SMPTE ST 2110-40: Ancillary Data called SMPTE ST 291 or RTP. Captions, subtitles, active format description, time codes, dynamic range and more.

It’s important to note that each channel of ST-2110-20, ST-2110-30, and ST-2110-40 are carried over separate IP streams or essences. Inside an Io IP transmitter, the video, audio, and metadata are handled separately and sent out IP streams along with PTP timing information. On the receiver, they are reassembled and aligned with the timing information provided in each stream essence.  

For more information, please see https://www.smpte.org/st-2110.

Related Product(s): Io IP