SMPTE 2110 Missing Link?

OK... so it's not a missing link but, with the pending arrival of BMD's 2110 IP Converter and Decklink IP HD cards, there's a mismatch between the disruptive low cost of these devices and the high price tag of a 2110-compliant 10G Ethernet switch ( >$5K as far as I can tell).

From purely a market perspective, a $1K - 1.5K 8-port switch w/ four 2110-compliant 10G ports could address the needs of smaller live productions preferring 2110 over NDI. I mention this primarily to see if the community feel BMD should consider bringing this device to market.

The precedence for this exists with AVB-compliant switches. Similar to 2110, AVB is supported by the large switch manufacturers however the likes of Presonus and MOTU from the audio / DAW world sell their own branded AVB switches with a 5-port count for ~$500 USD.

This allows smaller professional and home studio users to use AVB for IP transport for audio - attractive to Mac users as Apple's ethernet HW and operating system is AVB compliant. Like NDI for video, Dante is the de facto standard for audio over IP but the advantages of SMPTE 2110 over NDI are apparent when uncompressed video is being sent over IP.

I hope there will be a more cost effective SMPTE 2110 switch offer either from BMD or from a vendor on Alibaba soon. As much as I'd like to use BMD's 2110 products, the current costs of compliant switches make it prohibitive to do so.

been thinking the same thing for a while. I believe this has to do with the need for IEEE-1588 switch chipsets which appear to sell for a huge (read : not justified) markup

It's more than IEEE-1558 support/cost as the low-cost AVB switches I referenced support PTP - but not the specification required for 2110 transport.

I believe the cost is the 10 GB switch ports and the high throughput switch backplane required to transport uncompressed video. This is what the Broadcast market requires. I wouldn't disagree it's overkill for a lot of live productions but BMD is disrupting the 2110 endpoint market which triggered my original post.

Netgear officially say their ProAV switches are designed for pro AV and not broadcast, however I did see a production company claiming successful 2110 video transport with Netgear's M4300 switches. The lowest cost M4300 is the M4300-8X8F which has 8 copper and 8 fiber 10Gb ports. Ditch the fiber and sell the 8-port copper side for half of the current $2600 and that could be interesting.

Unfortunately Netgear say they have no intention to go after broadcast with the ProAV line so I'm still holding out hope for something on Alibaba or for BMD to do it

Ditch the fiber and sell the 8-port copper side for half of the current $2600 and that could be interesting.

In fact, the fiber would be actually less expensive (because you need no chips, no line transformers, the fiber cage is just a connector connected directly to the switch chipset), and requires less energy for the same data throughput.
so I'd rather have all fiber, and no copper whatsoever.

that reminds me Dante configuration with Energy-Efficient Ethernet (EEE).
And It's only audio

Unfortunately Netgear say they have no intention to go after broadcast with the ProAV line

Have a look at the M4350 line: https://www.netgear.com/support/product/m4350

The M4350-16V4C and M4350-40X4C units include both ST2110 and AES67 profiles, along with PTP Boundary and Grandmaster clock modes.

That seems to confirm 2110 compatibility with at least some of the Netgear M4350 but both those switches appear to be >$6K. There are options in the Cisco and Arista product lines as well that support 2110 around that price point.

Going back to my original post, a 5-port or 8-port 10G switch that's 2110 compliant for around $1500 (if feasible) would open up the uncompressed video over IP market to a lot more live productions that could take advantage of the new low-cost BMD 2110 endpoints.