Home / Blog / Wired IP vs. Bonded Cellular: What’s Best for Live Video Production

Wired IP vs. Bonded Cellular: What’s Best for Live Video Production

Share This Post

An essential part to a successful broadcast and live production workflow is having a flexible and resilient streaming setup for video contribution. Whether you’re broadcasting from inside a studio, a remote location, or both, your streaming workflow needs to be adaptable to a wide range of conditions and environments.

When covering live breaking news or producing a multi-camera sporting event, your live video contribution infrastructure should be able to adapt to both the reliability of wired IP video connections (fixed-line internet connections or fiber) and the flexibility of video over bonded cellular (sending your live video over cellular or WiFi networks), as both methods of connectivity have their benefits.

In this post we’ll be diving into how both types of live video workflows can improve the reliability of your production, how to successfully leverage and manage both for your broadcast, and how Haivision’s live video contribution ecosystem powers both of these workflows.

When should you use a wired IP connection for live productions?

A wired IP workflow for video contribution leverages a physical network connection, like Ethernet, to transmit video. Video is sent over an IP network to be streamed live or recorded. A wired IP connection offers consistent, low latency transmission ideal for fixed locations and stationary cameras, making them perfect for studio environments, centralized production facilities, and for broadcasts where cameras don’t need to be mobile.

When do you use bonded cellular connections for live productions?

Workflows for sending video over bonded cellular use multiple cellular connections at combined together into a single “pipe” to transmit high-quality video. Combining signals from different providers and networks (like 4G and 5G) allows broadcasters to stream live video from remote locations without the need for a satellite truck or a physical network connection.

This type of setup provides the flexibility to easily go live from anywhere. A wireless workflow enables remote teams to contribute high-quality video from nearly any location, while dealing with unpredictable conditions. With bonded cellular workflows, broadcasters aren’t restricted to the physical limitations of cables and have the mobility to cover events of all sizes including capturing breaking news as it happens.

The benefits of using both wired IP and bonded cellular connections together

A combination of both a wired IP and bonded cellular connection approach enables production teams to be agile, maintain consistent video quality, and allows for continuous video delivery regardless of the network conditions. Creating a hybrid workflow of both wired and bonded cellular connections allows you to:

  • Stream from fixed locations like studios, OB trucks, or sports venues using Ethernet or fiber for consistent quality, while producing roaming content with wireless solutions. Fixed cameras can cover different angles from the field, while mobile cameras leveraging a bonded cellular connection can be used to conduct live interviews with athletes or in fan zones.
  • Simultaneously support mobile teams with wireless connectivity, such as bonded cellular or WiFi.
  • Seamlessly switch between wired IP and bonded cellular, improving reliability and flexibility.

Leveraging a hybrid wired IP and bonded cellular workflow

Deploying an ecosystem that leverages both IP and bonded cellular connectivity requires solutions that support a wide variety of inputs, allows for real-time monitoring, and can output to multiple destinations for a traditional broadcast infrastructure and cloud-based production platforms.

A successful hybrid workflow requires a few key capabilities:

  • Interoperability across streaming protocols for both the field and studio feeds.
  • Adaptive bitrate encoding to adapt to real-time network fluctuations.
  • Centralized control and monitoring for managing all incoming and outgoing streams from a single interface.
  • Low latency switching between sources to ensure a seamless viewing experience.

These capabilities are important for maintaining high-quality video across all inputs, simplifying operations, and to scale productions without the need for extra costly infrastructure.

Haivision ecosystem for wired IP and bonded cellular workflows

Haivision’s award-winning line of Makito X4 video encoders and video decoders are key to any wired IP video workflow. Makito X4 video encoders work in tandem with the Haivision-pioneered and Emmy Award winning Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) protocol to send video over any IP network, including the public internet, to video decoders and Haivision SRT Gateway receivers for distribution.

SRT is a cost-effective alternative to dedicated fiber and satellite and by being codec agnostic, it can support 4K video, HEVC, and HDR. SRT is an open-sourced technology and is continuously being improved on by the community.

Haivision mobile video transmitters are made for wireless live streaming. With support for bonded 5G, 4G, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet, the Haivision Pro series, Air series, and Falkon X2 field units offer versatility and ultra-low latency and allow broadcasters to go live from anywhere. Haivision mobile transmitters are ideal for on-the-go live video contribution of sports, events, and breaking news over cellular networks and have been used to cover high-profile events such as the Coronation of HM King Charles III, the TCS New York City Marathon, and more.

Another important tool for over a wireless network is Haivision MoJoPro, the versatile and easy-to-use mobile camera app that allows broadcasters to go live quickly from anywhere by bonding a smartphone’s cellular network connection with Wi-Fi for transmitting contribution video to broadcast production. Mobile journalists, broadcasters covering sports, and field operators have powered their wireless workflows with the award-winning app including at big events like the games last summer.

In order to provide reliable broadcast-grade video over cellular networks, Haivision mobile video solutions leverage the two-time Emmy® award-winning Safe Stream Transport (SST) protocol. SST technology aggregates multiple IP and cellular network connections, including 5G, to overcome unstable network conditions, while dynamically adapting video encoding bitrates and retransmitting any lost packets.

For receiving, decoding, and redistributing contribution streams, Haivision StreamHub offers a robust set of features for broadcast professionals. StreamHub, which can be deployed both on-premise and in the cloud, provides users with flexibility by supporting SST, SDI, NDI, ST 2110 and SRT, and has a user-friendly interface to make it an easy-to-use solution for content reception and distribution.

To centrally manage a hybrid workflow made up of both wired and wireless video sources, there’s Haivision Hub 360, the cloud-based master control solution for remotely managing field units, encoders, decoders, and receivers.

Hub 360 allows users to build and manage several live video contribution workflows at once for live productions, from any location. Broadcasters can route live video over the internet with SRT and cellular networks with SST and can manage their Haivision mobile video transmitters, Makito encoders, MoJoPro apps, and StreamHub receivers for contribution to both IP and SDI production workflows.

Not sure which workflow is a good fit for your live production?

Our experts are always here to help

Read more from our blog

Learn about the latest video technology trends and insights from the leading provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and visual collaboration solutions.

Ready to Learn More?
Contact Us to Get Started

Get the latest updates