SMPTE® has announced the publication of the "Report of the Study Group on Flow Management in Professional Media Networks." The new, 52-page report investigates current and future technologies for media content flow management in professional media networks (PMN), explores user requirements, examines potential transmission methods for management commands, provides an overview of existing standards and specifications now available to the professional media industry, and offers a series of recommendations to the industry including some for future work.
"The Study Group report delves into critical considerations for establishing effective, interoperable flow management across IP networks," said Howard Lukk, SMPTE director of engineering and standards. "Based on the expertise of SMPTE Members and input from across the industry, the report offers a solid foundation on which to build future standards work — and thereby accelerate the industry's shift toward more efficient, scalable, agile, and flexible IP infrastructures and workflows."
Flow management is the mechanism for controlling how real-time media flows are guided through a fabric of Ethernet switches from senders to receivers with the appropriate functionality of media clean switching, reserved media bandwidth, and guaranteed required quality of service (QoS). Ideally, operators managing flows within internet protocol (IP) infrastructure should be able to use router panels and interfaces from the familiar serial digital interface (SDI) infrastructure, but the industry has yet to put forward the necessary underlying professional-grade protocols and mechanisms for this purpose. While work is already in progress within some organizations, open standards are not yet available.
The SMPTE report addresses the gap in existing standardization and ultimately makes recommendations for SMPTE standards work in the areas of QoS profile, congestion management, and authentication in PMN. It also discusses the need for harmonization of device control protocol standards currently available to the industry. Recommendations for the broader media industry include topic areas such as flow switching methods, software-defined networking (SDN) control, and anomaly detection.
The "Report of the Study Group on Flow Management in Professional Media Networks" is available here.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More