Comparison: SDVoE vs. IPMX

SDVoE was created from the ground up to address the use cases encountered in the pro AV market. Since 2016 SDVoE has been deployed in a wide variety of applications in education, healthcare, enterprise, entertainment, government and military environments.

IPMX, on the other hand, is built on the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of broadcast specifications and protocols. The dream of IPMX is to eventually add specific features on top of all that to meet the unique requirements of pro AV users. However, few of these features and basic pro AV capabilities are currently available to the market, and the whole technology stack is unproven outside the highly-controlled environment of the broadcast studio.

SDVoE is here now solving today’s problems

SDVoE is a well-established standard with a catalogue of over 700 products available for deployment today from more than 50 manufacturers. IPMX is still in development and it will inevitably be years before products are for sale that deliver on the many promises that the IPMX group claims they will deliver.

SDVoE has evolved to the point that it is ASIC-based

The only implementation of IPMX that exists is FPGA-based.  FPGAs are valuable for their flexibility and ease of development, but the consumers of FPGA-based products pay a high price in dollars and in power consumption.  SDVoE has been implemented on FPGA as well as ASIC platforms, which are fully interoperable with one another. Mainstream users can enjoy low capital costs and low operating costs with the ASIC, while niche applications can be served by SDVoE’s FPGA-based implementations. The power savings of an ASIC can be greater than 80% compared to an FPGA.

SDVoE provides an open API

The SDVoE Alliance set a goal to make our platform the “Android of Pro AV”. We believe that by creating an open software platform based on standardized and widely available hardware, we can harness the creativity of the entire pro AV industry and enable the best user experiences possible. We are now training the first cohort in the SDVoE Developer Certification Program.  In summer 2021, we’ll make the cross-platform SDVoE API available publicly, completely for free. Free training around the SDVoE API will be ongoing.

SDVoE is license and royalty free

Manufacturers enjoy using SDVoE technology without the encumbrance of licenses or royalties, which are so often required with other standards including the JPEG XS codec, which may be an integral part of IPMX implementations.

SDVoE is designed to work on any network switch

Network convergence is an emerging reality and AV is fast becoming the responsibility of IT departments in many organizations. SDVoE systems are built on any commercial off-the-shelf network switches without special configuration.

IPMX comes from a background of highly-architected broadcast networks dedicated 100% to video that are built on specialized switch fabrics, typically supplied in an end-to-end system by a broadcast equipment manufacturer.   How well will that play with enterprise IT networks?  

SDVoE is easy to implement

We even offer free network design assistance by our networking experts based in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. They’ll help you design SDVoE systems with zero-latency and uncompromised video performance and realize the substantial cost savings and greater system flexibility and scalability SDVoE has to offer.

IPMX is super complex based on SMPTE ST 2110 and NMOS broadcast specs with AV-essential features to be added by SMPTE, AMWA, VSF and the AIMS Alliance. Read more about why broadcast standards are not appropriate for pro AV.

SDVoE advanced processing features are built in

SDVoE includes cropping, scaling, compositing, colorspace conversion, framerate conversion and other advanced processing capabilities needed in pro AV applications such as video walls.  With IPMX, you’re on your own to add expensive devices as modeled on the broadcast industry.

SDVoE and its membership are pro AV focused

The roots of SDVoE go back 10 years, and we have been the ONLY AV-over-IP solution focused on solving the challenges of pro AV. The SDVoE Alliance membership is made up of 50+ companies dedicated to pro AV and actually selling products to pro AV customers day in and day out. IPMX and the organizations surrounding its possible adoption are focused on broadcast facilities. Broadcast equipment manufacturers are looking for diversification into pro AV to overcome the challenges inherent in the declining broadcast market. How long will it take them to have the product lines and expertise to solve the real world challenges AV system designers and users are facing now?