The BBC has highlighted next year’s Commonwealth Games as a potential milestone in the rollout of its IP-based production tools, with delivery of 4K content over IP a possibility for the Glasgow event.

The importance of IP-based infrastructure for making and delivering programmes was highlighted at a BBC R&D event this week at which Phil Tudor, BBC R&D section lead for automated production and media management, said that in three to five years, IP camera links would be increasingly commonplace.

“We already have a production and delivery chain where programmes can be handled as files. The next big step is live, and how live infrastructure moves to an IP platform,” said Tudor.

An R&D project named IP Studio is set to move live, studiobased productions away from Serial Digital Interface (SDI or HD-SDI) links to IP-based formats.

Tudor said the BBC R&D team was working hard to develop a system for the Commonwealth Games that would reduce the need for large-scale OB facilities by using locally sourced feeds.

The department’s Stagebox technology, which allows HD content to be sent over standard IP networks, was used for coverage of last month’s Glastonbury Festival.

It provided 18 feeds to the BBC’s R&D lab at White City, which was used as a virtual control room.

The Commonwealth Games coverage is likely to be more extensive, with the BBC keen to match its comprehensive coverage of last year’s Olympics in London.

BBC R&D is expected to be involved in other events taking place in 2014, such as the Winter Olympics and the World Cup, but a spokesman said it was too early to go into detail about specific technologies to be used at each event.

BBC R&D controller Matthew Postgate told Broadcast that a 4K version of the camera-mounted device is being worked on as part of Stagebox’s development.

“There is every chance 4K could be an IP-oriented service, and I can see [4K] tracking the rollout of super-fast broadband,” he said.

“We’re not there yet, but 4K could happen next year in a limited sense.”

Tudor also raised the prospect of a shift to IP-based infrastructure allowing for a more “personalised” viewing experience.

He said: “We are trying to create individual pieces of a jigsaw that can be sent out to a network and then pieced together by an end user’s system.

“For example, the way graphics are overlaid might not be appropriate for someone with a large screen, or some viewers might want a clean picture while others might want more stats.”

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