Understanding Standards: SMPTE ST 2110-41

Standards drive many technologies that we use in our day-to-day lives, from media to medicine to food production-yet the average person is not aware of the invisible role that they play. As a Standards Developing Organization (SDO) with over a century of accomplishments, SMPTE and its members strive to create a more interoperable world. In this series, we will explore SMPTE Standards in a way that's easy to understand. Today's Standard: SMPTE ST 2110-41 - Professional Media Over Managed IP Networks - Fast Metadata Framework.

This Standard defines a flexible RTP payload framework for data items. The framework can be used to transport data items which are tightly time-associated with video or audio RTP Streams, or those that are independent of any video or audio RTP streams. This framework defines a base RTP payload format, SDP signaling conventions, and an optional object segmentation method.

How does this benefit us?

In IP Networks that are using SMPTE ST 2110, one can send and receive many individual audio, video, and data streams. The data streams, until now, were using an older, very specific, narrowly defined format. This Standard, on the other hand, provides a flexible framework for those data streams to contain many different formats of data. Anything from subtitles to audio metadata can be sent and received in a way that both the source and destination can understand.

Basically, imagine you have a pen pal across the globe, and both of you were only ever able to communicate in one specific way. Then, one day, a helpful delivery person comes along and offers to expand the possible ways of communicating with your pen pal exponentially, from sending letters, voice-memos, and more. SMPTE ST 2110-41 is the person capable of sending different types, or formats, of messages to your pen pal, keeping communication clear and concise.

Each data format in a stream has a Data Item Type (DIT) which identifies it to anyone who is receiving said data stream. A DIT is registered and displayed publicly on the SMPTE Registration Authority website (https://smpte-ra.org/smpte-st2110-41-ar) so that everybody knows about the different data formats that could be in a SMPTE ST 2110-41 streams.

SMPTE ST 2110-41 makes sending and receiving data of any kind a simple task. For a deeper dive on the SMPTE ST 2110 family, click here. To purchase SMPTE ST 2110-41, or to download it for free if you're a SMPTE Member, click here. To learn how you can participate in the SMPTE Standards Community, click here.

Stay tuned for more simple explanations for the Standards that make everyone's lives better! For more information on SMPTE, our Standards, our education initiatives, or our events, please feel free to connect with us!