Aperi’s V-Stack – a new kind of live production infrastructure
Aperi developed V-Stack as the enabler for a different way of creating live programming. Content producers use V-Stack as the basis for software-based operations, removing the need for content producers to rely on hardware for coverage from the world’s most important live programming. It provides a way of working that makes live media functions run faster, with less latency and complete security.
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More than a piece of technology, the wider deployment of Aperi’s V-Stack is indicative of a increasingly far-reaching industry shift from hardware to software. And the recognition that comes with an award like the Peter Wayne Golden BaM Award would act as proof of Aperi’s goal to enable content creators to put in place better production workflows using IP technology.
The live production industry is being challenged by the need for high quality and reliability along with extremely low latency. And increasingly, the world’s biggest events – like international, multi-site sports competitions – bring about the additional hurdles of distance and complexity. More cameras than ever are capturing the action, in the highest resolutions like 4K and 8K.
These challenges will not be met by simply installing newer versions of the same equipment we’ve been using for twenty years. Instead, the industry needs to adopt new ways of working. And that’s where the real benefits of IP-driven infrastructure show themselves. V-Stack underpins this new way of working.
V-Stack is unique in that it runs on Aperi’s intelligent edge servers, or any other FPGA-based unit instead of using GPU or CPU-based processing. Aperi is the only technology provider using a hypervisor structure for live media production. The platform uses service-oriented architecture (SOA) software design to virtualize media functions. It has taken proven data center techniques, technologies and open source code and adapted them for real-time, ultra-low-latency live broadcasting.
Those virtualized media functions can be easily spun up and down, letting operators take advantage of floating licences that can be easily switched between users and locations. This means live programming can be produced, transported and delivered using a much more efficient and cost-effective pay-as-you-go model. Applications are deployed as needed, removing the physical road blocks of cumbersome hardware-only facilities. It also saves bandwidth and resources and delivers high-quality programming with significantly lower latency.
The Aperi platform has powered contribution networks for several major live events including a World Cup and continent-wide multi-sport tournament. It forms the media processing and transport backbone of an innovative distributed production network of 29 stadiums in Australia and one of America’s major sports leagues is also taking advantage of V-Stack for a playout infrastructure.
These projects feature some of the biggest names in live broadcasting and their deployment of Aperi’s V-Stack and live production platform show the shift in approach from yesterday’s live workflows to tomorrow’s. Winning this award from the IABM would cement that, providing further proof that the industry is ready for a changing of the guard.
