SRT Trailblazers: Why Bridge Technologies, Globo, and Red Bee Media are so Excited About SRT

If you’re looking for some SRT trailblazer inspiration, look no further! Globo and Red Bee Media, along with recent SRT convert, Bridge Technologies, generously shared their SRT stories at the SRT Technical Panel at IBC last month. You can read the panel highlights in the post below, or, if you want to hear firsthand what these video experts have to say, you can watch the full panel discussion here. 

SRT Champions and Enthusiasts

Marc Cymontkowksi, Haivision’s VP of Engineering kicked off this year’s panel by acknowledging the importance of such a strong community. 

“I’d really like to give a shout out to the community… If you look at the GitHub project, how many people are following the project and how many people are starting to contribute to the project… it’s awesome!” 

Marc goes on to gives an overview of SRT updates that have happened in the past year, specifically the most recent SRT update: version 1.4. To learn more about what new features SRT 1.4 includes, and what’s next on the roadmap, you can read an update here. 

“Some of the Coolest Code on the Planet”

Simen Frostad, Chairman and co-founder of Bridge Technologies, which specializes in analytics and monitoring, readily admits that the company was late in the game to try SRT, but when the engineering team finally tested it, they were very quickly impressed. As a result, Bridge Technologies has been able to implement SRT in a very meaningful way in its existing probes and is now, as Simen explains, “deeply committed to SRT” moving forward.  

“We know that SRT is going to be extremely important for the future of contribution… we know SRT will fuel a new explosion in live content because of its ubiquity.” 

 

From Satellite to the Internet Using SRT

Leonardo Chaves, Transmission Technology Manager from Globo, the largest media group in Latin America, shares how making the switch from satellite to internet for distribution of its content to viewers in Europe, is being made possible thanks to SRT. Using traditional satellite was a limiting factor, impacting Globo’s ability to form partnerships with new OTT players. Thanks to a new operation that uses SRT to safely transport content over the public internet to 12 headends, this is no longer the case and, with the prohibitive costs of satellite, using the public internet has been a much more efficient way to distribute content.

“In terms of opex, it’s just one-third of the cost, moving from satellite to internet.”

 

Rock Solid SRT

Steve Russell, Head of OTT & Media Management Portfolios, from managed service provider, Red Bee Media, explains why he’s excited about SRT and how it fits into the services the company offers. Red Bee Media uses SRT as one of a blend of different technologies to bring signals into their network, giving it the ability to be far more dynamic and flexible in how it delivers live services such as remote production to its customers.

“We’re excited about SRT…it’s enabling us to provide rock solid services, you never lose a piece of video, you always get video to screen but starting to work at different price points because we’re using internet rather than traditional fixed networks as a way of carrying streams.”

To find out more about the latest technical developments of the SRT open source protocol and how it’s transforming media workflows, watch the full panel discussion from IBC2019.