You bought a brand spanking new encoder for your last live event and proudly stored it in your closet, eager to drag it out again for your next big event. But what if by then it’s already gone obsolete?
Many encoders (or other broadcast products), especially throwdown products, are built using traditional “embedded systems” principles. And while these principles were necessary several decades ago, they are also the very reason why your encoders might be struggling to adapt to the rate of change in the industry.
What are embedded systems and why are they problematic?
Embedded systems are highly specialised devices designed to perform dedicated tasks within a larger system, often with limited resources. And historically that made sense, encoders were designed to perform specific, dedicated tasks – encoding video and audio – within a larger broadcast system. So, it makes sense to design them using the principles of embedded systems: a simple, fixed-function design, often with the exact amount of processing power need at that time.
At least, it used to make sense – until the shift to IP and cloud fundamentally changed how we need to approach broadcast technology. In this new world, products require the flexibility and power of general-purpose computing systems where new features can be added in the field as requirements change so rapidly.
This summarises the classical thinking of “embedded devices” – sell a device that has just enough processing power to do something so that the vendor can sell you another one in a few years. Rinse and Repeat. In contrast, products like ours built around general purpose compute are field upgradable to add substantially new capabilities.
What era do your encoders and decoders come from?
Many encoders and decoders, especially throwdown encoders and decoders, are built using the embedded systems principles described above. Owing to their long design cycles, many were designed even before IP became important, at a time when the main paradigm was satellite or ASI.
Let’s examine why this is now causing challenges in the industry:
Insufficient Processing Power
Imagine using an encoder built with a CPU that’s only powerful enough to render web pages. That’s the reality of many encoders today, since when they were designed when IP video was a nascent technology and so CPUs were used just to render a simple web page. But as the world changed rapidly and these CPUs ended up being too weak, severely limiting their ability to handle IP video streams and audio processing. The reason is simple: they did not consider future use cases such as multiple audio tracks, encryption, or advanced protocols such as SRT and RIST, and the list goes on. This often means that encoders and other products have substantial feature limitations when new technologies (e.g audio track limitations, encryption limitations).
Beware Binary Blobs
Some manufacturers license third-party technology for their encoders, often from companies with limited knowledge of the broadcast market. This allows for a shorter time-to-market and avoids having to re-invent the wheel. But relying on a “binary blob” can be a serious handicap – especially when there are compatibility issues or when you need to update or modify the system. Even worse, the third-party provider might discontinue support or updates, leaving you with a device that cannot adapt to new standards or technologies – essentially, making your encoder obsolete. We’ve talked about this more in another blog post: Why does in-house development matter.
Reliability Challenges
Reliability is critical in broadcasting, yet many broadcast products use unreliable solutions for two of the most critical functions: storage and power supply. The embedded industry often uses SD cards as their main storage solution (no joke). While convenient, SD cards are unsuitable for critical 24/7 operations. They are susceptible to data corruption in the event of sudden power loss, have a finite number of write/erase cycles, can have their performance affected by environmental factors, and lack built-in redundancy. Considering the lengths we go to on many product lines to offer dual redundant enterprise-grade disks, the fact many high-end products’ main form of storage is an SD card is astonishing in the 21st century. In the picture above you can see the encoder in question uses an SD card as its main form of storage.
Many embedded products also use single DC power supplies as their main source of power. These are of course not redundant and make you dependent on low-cost power bricks. Both in our lab and in real world use, we have seen issues where DC power bricks either have failed or have broken in a subtle way causing strange issues with products. In contrast, we are able to offer dual redundant power supplies for the highest reliability.
Monolithic Updates
When it comes to software updates on encoders and decoders that follow “embedded systems” principles, in many cases you need to update the entire system rather than just the specific part you want to modify. This often forces unnecessary downtime – and the issue is compounded if the update introduces new bugs or issues. We covered this topic in more detail in our blog post Debunking the Myths of Software-Based Contribution Solutions. In our product, a simple web page update can often be done without affecting any live services.
Lower-End Embedded Devices
Many lower-end embedded devices, particularly those sourced from less reputable manufacturers, may not be suited for continuous operation or for example maintain strict MPEG Transport Stream compliance. These devices can struggle under the demands of 24/7 broadcasting, leading to failures and interruptions that can impact your live events.
Investing in reliability
With IP becoming dominant in the broadcasting industry, it’s important to recognise the limitations of encoders and decoders built on traditional embedded systems principles. While these may have served their purpose in historical broadcast environment, the shift to IP demands a new approach that prioritises flexibility and power to ensure reliability. With the success of your live broadcast at stake, you don’t want to take unnecessary risks.
So next time you drag out that “embedded” encoder from your closet – beware! You might want to consider investing in a new, reliable, and future-proof one to replace it.
Learn more about the future-proof nature of our low-latency encoders and decoders.
