swXtch.io is a young company that has come a long way in a short period. Our first NAB show was in 2022, where our cloudSwXtch media network platform quietly powered cloud networking demonstrations in collaboration with key technology suppliers. The 2023 NAB Show was a major leap forward, with cloudSwXtch visible on a larger number of booths and swXtch.io winning a IABM BaM Award in the Manage category.
As cloudSwXtch continues to mature with momentum behind cloud adoption building, it makes perfect sense that NAB Show 2024 is the first event for swXtch.io as a standalone exhibitor. Here is a peak at what we have in store for this year’s show at Booth 4429, which takes place April 14-17 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Introducing cloudSwXtch: Unmatched Performance in Cloud Networking
cloudSwXtch is a game-changing solution that not only achieves unparalleled high bandwidth throughput but is also completely transforming cloud networking standardization. Through extensive testing in Azure and AWS, we've achieved nearly 100Gb/s of egress throughput on VMs, thanks to our innovative use of DPDK technology. The test setup included 40 560Mb/s JPEG XS sources to the cloudSwXtch and the cloudSwXtch multicasted each of those sources to 4 endpoints resulting in 90.8 Gb/s of egress and 23.6 Gb/s of ingress.
cloudSwXtch's unique capability to normalize network behavior ensures that each cloud network appears identical to integrating technology vendors. It does away with bandwidth limitations and compatibility headaches, pushing forward a new era of seamless, high-performance cloud networking. In other words, cloudSwXtch acts as a virtual switch created for the things that never existed in the cloud, but now can - without sacrificing any of the performance you’re accustomed to.
Workflow Demonstrations
Visitors to the booth will see firsthand how cloudSwXtch is flexible across many use cases. swXtch.io will highlight six demonstrations including live production, content delivery and playout, media transport, and remote collaboration. These demonstrations will emphasize the many cloudSwXtch features and applications tailored for each workflow example, including existing features such as multicast, PTP, packet monitoring and network path redundancy. There will be a common theme across all workflows: cloudSwXtch offers seamless broadcasting in the cloud, and is ready to help media businesses move their live production and playout workflows to the cloud.
swXtch.io has added several new enhancements that will make migration to the cloud possible for high-quality, robust media broadcasting, and help customers create one big broadcast network that is deployable, monitorable and functional both on-prem and across all clouds, including JPEG-XS, Lossless UDP, SRT Gateways and NMOS Workflows.
Adaptable Live Production Workflows
Perhaps the most exciting cloudSwXtch development for NAB is support for JPEG-XS compressions flows. The SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards addresses four components of IP networking, one of which emphasizes specific system concerns for the management of uncompressed streams. While this provides a bridge from the SDI legacy world, uncompressed video streams consume a large amount of bandwidth. In addition to limitations as to how many channels can pass through, the costs of moving uncompressed video through the cloud can quickly add up.
The introduction of JPEG-XS compression flows within cloudSwXtch changes the game by allowing customers to move visually lossless video at very low latency into and through the cloud. JPEG-XS compression addresses the challenge of managing the heavy bandwidth and high costs of uncompressed video in the cloud while retaining premium broadcast-quality pictures. swXtch.io will prominently demonstrate this capability across most demos, and will also show cloudSwXtch’s support for uncompressed ST-2110 workflows, providing customers will compressed and uncompressed options for managing their live production workflows in the cloud.
Reliable, High-Availability Cloud Networks
swXtch.io has also added Lossless UDP, which provides additional protection for media streams across dynamic bridging (ground-to-cloud) and multi-cloud networking applications. Lossless UDP optimizes packet delivery for high-bandwidth streams with minimal latency for dynamic ground-to-cloud bridging, and without any SDK integrations or software changes required.
For maximum stream protection, cloudSwXtch customers can also leverage its SMPTE ST-2022-7 hitless merge feature, which offering network path redundancy as parallel streams move through the cloud. swXtch.io will demonstrate both features across various demonstrations, with especially strong visibility at the media transport station.
Agile Workflows for Media Channel Realization
swXtch.io has also implemented Network Media Open Specifications (NMOS) workflows in cloudSwXtch networks, streamlining the management and orchestration of media workflows in the cloud and ensuring they align with on-prem systems. Benefits include a unified language for endpoints and routing control systems, less time spent on provisioning, utilizing and upgrading network infrastructure so that broadcasters can quickly deploy new services.
NMOS simplifies the management of on-prem SMPTE ST 2110 IP video systems. introducing standardized specifications like IS-04 for device discovery and registration, and IS-05 for device connection management. This standardization simplifies integration, allowing for smoother orchestration of media flows across a wide range of streaming formats, including SMPTE 2110, 2022-6, RTP, and AES67. NMOS's ability to manage differences in resolution, framerate, compression, codec, and technological generation is a testament to its flexibility.
More Gateways to the Cloud
swXtch.io has also developed a solution to manage SRT streams in the cloud. Originally designed to overcome problematic links, SRT is a popular transport mechanism for live video transport over public internet connections, typically to support live production and distribution, remote contribution and collaboration. SRT’s ability to move large volumes of data in real-time without dropping packets, even when network conditions are erratic, is favored within the broadcast and production community.
swXtch.io’s SRT Gateway solution SRT Gateway solution allows users to send their SRT workflows directly into cloudSwXtch. Once in the cloud, cloudSwXtch can add multicast capabilities to enable dynamic workflows, or fan out signals to other SRT endpoints as unicast or RIST streams, for example, paying respect to SRT’s ability to interface with many different protocols at once. Specifically, cloudSwXtch provides all the functionality required to manage SRT flows. cloudSwXtch essentially turns SRT’s point-to-point connectivity into a switched protocol, which makes it more flexible and even easier to use.
Flexible Standards Conversion
swXtch.io will also demonstrate its partnership with Cinnafilm to make live, broadcast-quality standards conversions and Hollywood format conversions in the cloud a reality. cloudSwXtch enables various types of network traffic to easily traverse from across the network to Cinnafilm’s Tachyon LIVE in the cloud, ensuring seamless, efficient data flows and accurate real-time standards conversion. Cinnafilm has deployed Tachyon LIVE as a feature on cloudSwXtch, which provides immediate access to media packets where frame rate conversions, deinterlacing, scaling, and motion compensation take place, increasing the performance of the network.
Cinnafilm will be one of many partners visible on the swXtch.io booth, which will feature a dedicated area for its growing network of cloudSwXtch partners. At NAB, swXtch.io will launch its Federated Partner Program, which brings manufacturers, systems integrators and cloud providers together to develop simple, scalable and innovative solutions propelled through a go-to-market model. Those interested in learning more can visit the swXtch.io booth for more details or contact our sales team.
The technology foundation of cloudSwXtch enables customers to demand more of their cloud networks, allowing users the freedom to turn features on and off, quickly relocate to new data centers at low cost, and manage their entire live production workflows in the cloud. With availability on all major public clouds along with its intrinsic multi-cloud networking abilities, cloudSwXtch is a platform that users can grow with well into the future and without compromise. We look forward to sharing much more with new and existing customers and partners at NAB. See you there.
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