What Is SMPTE 2110? IP vs Baseband Broadcasting Explained | CBA Meta

If you have spent any time in a broadcast facility in the last five years, you have heard the phrase “moving to IP.” The standard driving that shift is SMPTE 2110 — a suite of specifications that lets broadcasters transport video, audio, and metadata over standard IP networks instead of dedicated SDI cables.

For decades, baseband SDI was the only way to move signals around a live production environment. It worked. It was reliable. But it was also rigid, expensive to scale, and increasingly unable to keep up with the demands of 4K, HDR, high frame rates, and remote production.

Alongside 2110, transport protocols like SRT are accelerating the shift from satellite and baseband to IP delivery. Together, they represent a fundamental change in how live content moves from camera to audience.

Here is how SMPTE 2110 works, what makes it different from baseband, and why it matters for anyone involved in live broadcasting.

What Is Baseband SDI?

Baseband is the traditional method of transporting broadcast signals using SDI (Serial Digital Interface) cables — typically coaxial or fibre. For over 30 years, SDI has been the backbone of live production, carrying video with embedded audio from cameras to switchers, replay servers, and playout systems.

It is a point-to-point system. One cable carries one signal from one source to one destination. If you need 20 camera feeds going to a vision mixer, a replay server, and a graphics system, you need a lot of cables and a matrix router to manage them all.

SDI comes in several generations: SD-SDI, HD-SDI, 3G-SDI (1080p), and 12G-SDI (4K). Each step up required new cabling or infrastructure upgrades. That is the fundamental limitation — every time the industry moves to a higher resolution or frame rate, the physical infrastructure needs to follow.

Baseband is robust, low-latency, and well understood by every broadcast engineer on the planet. But it was designed for an era when a single production meant one venue, one OB truck, and one set of cables.

What Is SMPTE 2110?

SMPTE ST 2110 is a suite of standards developed by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. It defines how to transport uncompressed video, audio, and ancillary data as separate, independent streams over standard IP-based broadcasting networks.

The key standards within the suite:

SMPTE 2110-20 handles uncompressed video. Each video feed becomes an IP stream that can be routed anywhere on the network — no physical re-patching required.

SMPTE 2110-30 handles audio using the AES67 standard. Audio streams are completely independent from video, meaning you can route, mix, and process audio separately.

SMPTE 2110-40 handles ancillary data — subtitles, closed captions, timecode, and metadata. Again, as a separate stream.

SMPTE 2110-21 defines traffic shaping and delivery timing, ensuring that video packets arrive at the right time to be reconstructed without glitches.

The critical difference from SDI: in a 2110 environment, video, audio, and data are no longer locked together in a single cable. They travel independently and can be combined, split, or rerouted in software.

Why Broadcasters Are Moving to 2110

The shift from baseband to IP is not theoretical. It is happening now, driven by practical production needs.

Scalability without rewiring. In a baseband facility, adding 10 more camera feeds means installing 10 more cables, updating the router, and possibly running out of physical ports. In a 2110 environment, you add streams to the network. The infrastructure scales with bandwidth, not cabling.

Remote and distributed production. SMPTE 2110 enables production teams to work from different locations. A vision mixer operator can sit in London while camera feeds come from Dubai. This remote production model (sometimes called REMI or “at-home” production) is already standard for major sports broadcasters and is growing rapidly in the Middle East.

Independent signal management. Because video, audio, and metadata travel as separate streams, each can be processed independently. An audio engineer can adjust a mix without touching the video path. A graphics operator can overlay data without intercepting the main feed. This flexibility is impossible with embedded SDI.

Format flexibility. SMPTE 2110 natively supports HD, UHD, 4K, HDR, and high frame rate content. Moving between formats is a network configuration change, not a hardware upgrade. As 8K and next-generation formats emerge, 2110 facilities are ready without ripping out infrastructure.

Software-defined routing. Instead of a physical matrix router with BNC patch panels, signal routing in a 2110 facility happens in software. An operator can reconfigure the entire signal flow from a control interface. This is faster, cheaper, and more flexible than any hardware router.

Vendor interoperability. SMPTE 2110 is an open standard. Equipment from different manufacturers — cameras, switchers, replay servers, multiviewers — can all communicate on the same IP network. This breaks the vendor lock-in that has characterised broadcast infrastructure for decades.

SMPTE 2110 vs Baseband SDI: Comparison

How 2110 Works in Practice: Inside a Live Production

In a traditional SDI production, every camera connects via a dedicated cable to a matrix router. The router sends feeds to the vision mixer, replay server, graphics system, and multiviewer — each on its own cable. If the director wants to add a camera, an engineer physically patches it in.

In a 2110 production, every camera feed enters the IP network as a stream. The network switch replaces the matrix router. Any device on the network can access any stream, subject to permissions. Adding a camera means adding a stream to the network — no physical patching, no downtime.

Replay systems like the Evertz DreamCatcher and EVS XT-VIA connect natively to 2110 networks, ingesting multiple camera feeds directly from IP streams. Vision mixers, multiviewers, and graphics systems do the same. The entire multicam workflow operates on a shared IP fabric.

This is why new broadcast facilities and OB trucks being built today are overwhelmingly 2110-based. The operational advantages compound over time: less cabling, faster setup, easier reconfiguration, and lower cost for expansion.

2110 in the Middle East and GCC

The Middle East is one of the fastest-growing regions for IP-based broadcast infrastructure. New studio builds in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar are being designed as 2110 facilities from the ground up, rather than retrofitting existing SDI plants.

Major events in the region — from international sports tournaments like the Esports World Cup in Riyadh to government summits and entertainment festivals — increasingly rely on IP-based production workflows. The ability to support remote production is particularly valuable when covering events across multiple GCC countries from a central production hub.

At Creative Broadcast Agency, we work with 2110-based systems for live event streaming, esports broadcast production, and corporate event production across the GCC. Our engineering team designs hybrid IP and baseband workflows for clients transitioning from legacy infrastructure, as well as fully IP-native setups for new builds and flypack deployments.

The Hybrid Reality: IP and Baseband Together

Moving to 2110 does not mean throwing out every SDI cable overnight. Most facilities today run hybrid environments where baseband SDI equipment interfaces with 2110 gateways.

A gateway converts SDI signals into 2110 IP streams (and vice versa), allowing legacy cameras, routers, and monitors to coexist with new IP-native equipment. This is the pragmatic path that most broadcasters take — a gradual migration rather than a full rip-and-replace.

Hybrid infrastructure allows production teams to keep using proven SDI equipment where it makes sense while gaining the benefits of IP routing, remote production, and software-defined workflows where they matter most.

FAQ

What does SMPTE 2110 stand for? SMPTE stands for the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. ST 2110 is their suite of standards for transporting professional media — video, audio, and data — over managed IP networks.

Is SMPTE 2110 better than SDI? For scalability, flexibility, and remote production, yes. For simple point-to-point connections in small facilities, SDI remains perfectly adequate. Most new large-scale facilities are being built on 2110 because the long-term operational advantages outweigh the initial network design complexity.

What is the difference between SMPTE 2110 and NDI? SMPTE 2110 transports uncompressed video over managed networks and is designed for professional broadcast. NDI (Network Device Interface) uses compressed video over standard LANs and is designed for production environments like studios and corporate AV. They serve different use cases and can coexist in the same facility.

Do I need special network equipment for SMPTE 2110? Yes. A 2110 network requires managed switches capable of handling high-bandwidth, low-latency video traffic with PTP (Precision Time Protocol) synchronisation. Standard office network equipment is not suitable.

What replay systems support SMPTE 2110? The Evertz DreamCatcher and EVS XT-VIA both connect natively to 2110 networks. We covered how these systems work in our guide to live sports replay systems. Most modern broadcast equipment from major manufacturers now supports 2110 connectivity.

Can Creative Broadcast Agency set up 2110 for my event? Yes. We design and deploy IP-based production workflows for live events, esports tournaments, and corporate broadcasts across the UAE and GCC. Contact us to discuss your production requirements.