Bridging Broadcast and Pro AV

The boundary between broadcast engineering and Pro AV design has become less distinct. What were once disciplines that evolved in parallel, shaped by different standards, budgets, and expectations, are now sectors addressing a common set of problems.

Audiences expect higher quality visuals, operators demand lower latency and system designers are under pressure to deliver flexible workflows without sacrificing reliability. The infrastructure that underpins professional video is changing accordingly. For years, SDI delivered a predictable, tightly controlled transport layer for broadcast. ProAV systems, by contrast, were built around fixed matrix architectures and point-to-point routing. These models served their domains well, yet they struggled to scale in an era defined by distributed production, hybrid live environments and AV deployments that needed to span multiple locations.

IP is the New Foundation

IP offers not only packet-based transport, but infrastructures capable of carrying high-bandwidth media with the determinism that professional use requires. SMPTE 2110 sits at the heart of that transition. Developed to modernise broadcast facilities, it specifies how video, audio and ancillary data are carried over IP as separate, synchronised streams. This approach gives systems much greater routing precision and software flexibility than baseband ever allowed. In broadcast, it enables distributed production and remote workflows. In ProAV, it challenges proprietary AV-over-IP schemes with an open, standards-based alternative.

Yet the shift to IP isn’t a clean break from the past, and the installed base remains largely SDI. Frame rates differ across sources. Formats are inconsistent. A system’s tolerance for timing errors can be razor thin. Making hybrid infrastructures coexist is harder than simply replacing cabling, and that is where practical convergence begins. Moving to IP demands not only compliant networking hardware, but processing that understands timing, colour fidelity, and synchronisation across domains. Conversion, once a supporting task, now sits squarely in the critical path of adoption.

Conversion as Infrastructure

Legacy equipment cannot be ignored. It needs to be managed transparently and without costly customisation, so that SDI feeds can mesh with IP-native streams. In many systems, timing discrepancies and format mismatches will emerge the moment traffic moves onto an IP fabric. The tools that can manage those realities will become next-generation infrastructure. In practice, successful hybrid deployments depend on a small set of non-negotiables:

• Precise timing alignment across SDI and IP domains to preserve deterministic behaviour.

• Adaptive format handling that tolerates mixed frame rates and resolutions without manual intervention.

• Predictable latency characteristics that remain stable as systems scale.

InSync’s heritage in frame rate and standards conversion was built on broadcast’s strict performance requirements, where even small errors are visible and timing deviations are unacceptable. Applying that discipline to SMPTE 2110 workflows makes conversion a guarantor of AV system integrity.

Why Compute Matters for Networks

Networks can only be as reliable as the media they carry. IP exposes weaknesses rapidly and systems without robust handling of edge cases will show their limits when load increases or formats mix. InSync’s approach reflects an understanding that real-world deployments require more than compliance alone, and must be fully integrated rather than bolted on.

The collaboration through AMD’s Embedded Partner Ecosystem highlights a broader architectural shift. Media transport is no longer separate from compute. Processing density, I/O capacity, and deterministic performance are now platform-level attributes. Embedded CPUs and GPUs make it feasible to combine conversion, timing correction, and network handling within a single system.

This isn’t just about faster hardware. CPUs and accelerators optimised for media tasks enable systems where conversion and synchronisation are intrinsic. In such environments, IP workflows start to feel less like a leap and more like a natural evolution.

Convergence in Deployment

The landscapes of broadcast and ProAV are adopting similar expectations. Control rooms, large venues, and enterprise spaces are increasingly designed around demands once exclusive to broadcast. Factors such as; frame-accurate switching, multi-format ingest, and latency performance that’s measurable down to sub-frame precision. SMPTE 2110 provides the transport architecture, but conversion and processing provide the continuity customers ultimately judge.

There is also a cultural shift. Broadcast engineers bring a discipline shaped by deterministic design. AV integrators bring a flexible mindset that supports scaling and user-centric control. IP brings these traditions together, with agnostic standards replacing proprietary lock-in and software defining signal paths and interoperability becoming a design requirement. In the future; production, presentation and distribution will share a common infrastructure. The convergence of broadcast and ProAV is shaping the architectures being delivered now and those that will define video transport for years to come.

Discover how InSync, as an AMD Embedded Partner, is enabling hybrid SDI and SMPTE 2110 workflows here or get in touch with the InSync team.