One major theme was the shift from SDI to IP. Hawkings described an industry in transition. SDI is still common, but most new systems are now built for IP.

鈥淚P is overtaking SDI,鈥� he said, adding that SDI is 鈥渟till kind of the engine that鈥檚 running a lot of production around the world.鈥�

For broadcasters, the point is not simply to replace one transport standard with another. IP creates the foundation for more flexible production models, including software-defined workflows, virtualization, remote production, and easier scaling.

Kumar connected this shift to facility design. With IP infrastructure and virtualization, broadcasters can move from rigid, purpose-built SDI workflows to more flexible, software-defined approaches.

The shift matters for new projects like . Rather than a partial step, AZPM built a fully IP-based facility. McSpadden said, 鈥渨e can actually do the whole thing 2110.鈥�

One of the strongest ideas in the webinar came from McSpadden, who pushed back on the familiar phrase 鈥渇uture-proof.鈥�

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 future-proof something,鈥� he said. AZPM instead focused on current needs, near-term goals, and what was reasonably possible in the long term.

They thought beyond equipment: designing for fiber, power, cooling, data, and adaptable spaces. McSpadden said studios with green screens today may use LED volumes later, requiring 鈥渁 whole lot more power and a whole lot more air conditioning.鈥�

Kumar agreed. For a facility meant to last beyond 2035, 鈥渇lexibility and scalability become core design principles from day one.鈥� The message for broadcasters is simple: do not build around a single workflow. Build around the ability to change workflows.

AI came up throughout the webinar, but the panel kept the conversation grounded. Hawkings called AI ‘probably the most transformational technology that we will see,’ but focused on its near-term value as an assistive tool.

Practically, this means AI helps with tasks like transcription, metadata, captioning, clipping, archive search, rough cuts, and packaging. Hawkings pointed to tools that automatically edit based on transcription, freeing editors to focus on their craft.

Kumar added that AI can personalize viewing, creating content around specific interests, teams, or topics. Viewers may eventually get 鈥渕ore personalized experiences鈥� instead of a single linear feed.

But when the conversation turned to live sports, news, and master control, the panelists agreed: people are essential. Hawkings said it is hard to replace ‘that feel that directors and producers have on a live show.’ Kumar added that live television still depends on human editorial judgment and storytelling.

Transform your studio without rebuilding it

Visitors saw how a single space can support multiple looks and formats without physical set changes.

Environments switched in real time as productions moved between segments. What used to take hours or days now happens in moments.

The result is more content, more variety, and more value from the same footprint.

Elevate every production with real-time visuals

Realistic environments came to life in real time.

With Voyager powering the visuals, scenes responded instantly during production. Lighting, reflections, and depth worked together to create a more natural viewing experience.

This demonstrated how teams can deliver higher production value without slowing anything down.

Take control with faster, more consistent workflows

Visitors saw how everything came together through a single control layer.

With Lucid Studio, operators managed scenes, transitions, and production elements with speed and consistency. Templated control helps teams execute with confidence, even under tight timelines.

It showed how teams can do more, with fewer steps and less guesswork.

Explore flexible workflows that adapt to your production

Every production is different. Your workflow should be able to adapt.

At the pod, visitors saw both tracked and trackless approaches in action:

• When tracking is required for precision
• When a trackless approach can reduce technical footprint and cost
• How both approaches deliver the virtual experience production teams need

This demonstrated how teams can choose the right approach for each show without being locked into one way of working.

What鈥檚 new and what it means for your team

For those familiar with 天美传媒 Virtual 天美传媒, there was more to discover this year.

Visitors experienced the latest updates in Voyager, including:

• Faster setup with reusable presets
• Better visibility across production
• More creative control within workflows

These updates are designed to help teams move quicker, stay aligned, and deliver consistently.

Built for todays production demands

Production demands aren鈥檛 slowing down.

Teams are being asked to create more content, deliver higher quality, and stay flexible, all within the same space and resources.

天美传媒 Virtual 天美传媒 is built to support that reality. It brings together real-time visuals, unified control, and flexible workflows so teams can get more from every production.

Continue the conversation

Seeing it at NAB was just the start.

If you didn鈥檛 get a chance to visit the RVS pod, or want to explore how this applies to your workflow, book a meeting with our team to take a closer look at 天美传媒 Virtual 天美传媒.

When we asked, 鈥淲hat is currently driving the most change in your production environment?鈥�, respondents pointed to a combination of economic and audience factors. Across the responses and commentary, three themes kept showing up:

1. Budget pressure and efficiency demands: Budgets are tight, even as expectations grow. Respondents discussed the need to produce more content across more platforms, without a corresponding increase in headcount or capital spend.
2. New audience expectations and multi-platform delivery: Audiences want more of everything, and more content tailored to their interests. That鈥檚 a growing challenge when content has to land across linear, streaming, FAST, social, in-venue, and owned platforms.
3. Skills and talent constraints: Skill and talent shortages are very real, adding pressure to build flexible, distributed workflows and multifunctional roles instead of relying on a large, highly specialized on-site team for every production.

We could sum up these drivers as a push to 鈥渕ake more, for more people, in more places.鈥� That backdrop is important: conversations about IP, cloud, and AI aren鈥檛 happening in isolation. They鈥檙e about finding practical ways to deal with those pressures.

Most teams are trying to keep workflows flexible so they can do more with the same or fewer resources. Several contributors described this as a shift away from big, highly specialized stacks and toward multi-purpose content creation platforms that can handle a broader range of shows.

To see how those pressures might shape workflows in the near term, we asked: 鈥淲hich technology will have the most significant impact on your live productions in the next five years?鈥�

Respondents highlighted a handful of technologies that stand out as near-term levers, rather than distant bets:

The same story shows up again when听we听asked which technologies are priority investments over the next five years.听Budgets are favoring the plumbing and the people听who听use it:

When respondents were asked 飞丑补迟鈥檚 driving the most change in their production environments today, three themes consistently rose to the top:听

1. Budget pressure and efficiency听demands听
2. New audience expectations and multi-platform delivery听
3. Ongoing technology innovation听

In practice, that means most teams are trying to do more with the same or fewer resources, serve audiences who expect content on more platforms, in more formats, and keep up with new tools and workflows that promise to help, but can also add complexity.

The conversation about SDI, IP, and cloud isn鈥檛 happening in isolation. It鈥檚 happening amid tightening budgets, new viewing habits, and a constant push to work smarter with the people already on staff.

Two questions helped build a picture of how respondents think infrastructure will be structured in the longer term:听

1. Where do you expect most live production workflows to happen by 2035?听
2. By 2035, what percentage of your live production workflows do you expect to be cloud-based?听

On the first question, only a small minority felt that, by 2035, the majority of workflows would still live in a traditional, centralized on-prem facility. Many more pointed to a hybrid model, where workflows span on-prem, data center, and cloud environments.

On the second question, few responses sat at either extreme of 鈥渁lmost nothing in the cloud鈥� or 鈥渆verything in the cloud.鈥� Most forecasts clustered around a substantial but not total shift to cloud-based workflows.

Looking ahead, respondents were also asked: 鈥淲hich areas of live production do you expect will most benefit from AI?鈥�

Their answers point AI at the same version-heavy, repeatable parts of the stack first:

Alongside potential gains, we asked respondents:听鈥淲hat concerns you most about increased AI use in broadcast production?鈥�

Their top concerns land exactly where you might expect:

We also asked:听鈥淗ow important is sustainability when making technology decisions for production?鈥�

Nearly two-thirds of respondents agreed that sustainability is important, but most are not making key decisions based on sustainability alone. Teams still optimize for cost, reliability, and output first.听Even so, the guide highlights some notable findings:

• Sustainable infrastructure is a priority investment for a meaningful听portion听of respondents.
• Remote and distributed workforces can reduce travel costs and environmental impact.
• Hybrid productions with shared compute and memory resources may drive further sustainability gains鈥攕omething that could be important as AI workloads increase energy use.

In听live video production, the biggest footprint is often travel and energy use. Being able to spin resources up and down as required in the cloud or elsewhere can be a differentiator when it improves both content quality and the bottom line.

In other words, sustainability is听increasingly appearing听as a by-product of听more efficient, flexible operations,听rather than a standalone goal.

Vision 2035 reflects the views of a specific group of respondents听and听doesn鈥檛 claim to represent the entire industry. But their answers do highlight some patterns you may want to keep in mind as you plan your own next steps.听

A few ideas you might bring into internal discussions:听

• Aim AI at the workload, not the show: Start where AI can clearly remove repetitive work鈥攃aptioning, tagging, versioning, localization鈥攚hile leaving creative control and on-air decisions firmly听in the hands of听human teams.听
• Pair every AI initiative with a trust and provenance question: For anything that could affect audience听perception, ask: how will we verify this, review it, and stand behind it if听there鈥檚听a dispute?听
• Keep humans at the center of brand-critical work:The survey responses and expert commentary both imply a strong role for people in any work that touches editorial judgment, storytelling, and brand voice, even as assistive tools expand.
• Treat sustainability as an outcome of efficiency moves: Remote production, hybrid infrastructure, and elastic compute often improve both听economics听and environmental impact. Framing sustainability in those terms can make it easier to align with budget and performance goals.听
• Design pilots with clear guardrails: Narrowly scoped trials can help teams gain confidence in AI-assisted workflows without risking marquee properties.

Enhanced creative tools: Cinema4D Import

Now you can eliminate time consuming conversions and create more cinematic, engaging designs with direct import of Cinema 4D content into XPression 鈥� this includes 3D models, animation tracks, and scene lighting.

• Direct Cinema4D model import for faster creative workflows.
• Retain animation data and scene lighting for higher visual fidelity.
• Reduce preparation time by working with native 3D assets.

Real-time, data-driven displays: Tessera Enhancements

XPression Tessera receives significant updates in 12.5, making it easier to build large-scale LED experiences:

• Data-driven, MOS-capable workflows听reduce dependency on pre-rendered content.
• Designers and operators can respond faster to live data, delivering up-to-the-second storytelling.
• Ideal for studios and sports venues requiring dynamic, high-impact visuals.

Smarter newsroom integration

For editorial-driven environments, 12.5 improves MOS workflow support:

• Tighter collaboration between editorial and graphics teams.
• Streamlined handoffs, ensuring graphics remain in sync with rundowns.
• Faster turnaround for live shows, breaking news, and event coverage.

Performance and reliability upgrades

Behind-the-scenes upgrades deliver smoother, more reliable performance:

• Optimized rendering and caching for reduced latency.
• Enhanced system responsiveness for faster playout.
• Greater stability in high-pressure, live production scenarios.

XPression 12.5 helps teams elevate their creative storytelling with speed, flexibility, and unmatched performance. Whether you鈥檙e creating cinematic openers, driving real-time LED displays, or powering fast-paced newsroom graphics, XPression ensures you can deliver with confidence.

Visit the XPression product page to explore the full XPression product family and see how each solution fits your workflow.

The same tiering logic applies to fixed facilities.听

Top-level facilities 鈥� such as CNN’s Hudson Yards or The Sphere in Las Vegas 鈥� operate with thousands of multicast streams and IP endpoints. They rely on standards like SMPTE ST 2110 and precision timing protocols such as PTP to maintain exacting performance across massive infrastructure. In similar large-scale IP environments, visually lossless compression formats like JPEG XS are often used to optimize bandwidth without compromising quality.听

Mid-level facilities 鈥� often regional broadcasters, government agencies, or universities 鈥� lean into NDI and hybrid SDI-IP models, layering in more advanced protocols where justified by production value.听

Lower-level facilities 鈥� such as high schools, small studios, or non-profits 鈥� often remain in SDI, adding NDI or WebRTC at the edge. Their IP journey starts with simplicity and grows based on real need.听

One of the most critical considerations is how compression, quality, and bandwidth are in constant negotiation with one another. Your IP transport decision lies at the center of that triangle.听

• Want pristine, uncompressed video? You’ll need a high-bandwidth, low-latency connection, as well as the budget to support it.听
• Need to operate over public internet or cellular networks? You’ll rely on compressed video, accept some latency, and choose protocols like SRT or RIST.听
• Operating in the middle? JPEG XS offers a visually lossless sweet spot. High quality, but with lower bandwidth requirements and support in ST 2110 and TR-07 workflows.听

This isn’t just a technical puzzle. It’s a strategic one. Your audience expectations, monetization strategy, and available infrastructure all influence where you land.听

The whitepaper makes a helpful distinction between IP transport and IP contribution:听

• Transport protocols (like ST 2110, NDI, Dante AV) move essences across a local area network (LAN) 鈥� typically inside a venue or between racks in a facility.听
• Contribution protocols (like SRT, RIST, WebRTC) are built for wide area networks (WAN) 鈥� connecting remote sources, field crews, or cloud instances to centralized production hubs.听

Choosing the wrong tool for the wrong layer creates bottlenecks, or worse, breakdowns.听

One of the most overlooked but critical parts of IP planning is control.听

ST 2110 and IPMX networks require careful timing and multicast management. Precision Time Protocol (PTP), leader/follower clocks, and tightly managed network architecture are non-negotiable.听

Even “plug-and-play” solutions like Dante AV or NDI can become fragile at scale. Beyond ~20 devices, you’ll need control software, monitoring tools, and often custom integrations.听

You also need to decide: Will you manage everything internally, or use a managed service provider like LTN, BitFire, or Nextologies? Going fully DIY offers control, but it also adds complexity. Managed services reduce overhead but may limit flexibility.听

There is no single “best” IP transport. There’s only the right one for your tier, your team, and your trajectory. The best thing you can do is build a strategy grounded in reality, not aspiration.听

This year’s migration might be hybrid. Next year might be full ST 2110. You might have one show running in the cloud, another on-site in SDI, and a third somewhere in between. That’s the nature of live production in 2025; it’s modular, adaptable, and evolving fast. Choose IP solutions that match your goals, your workflows, and your people today, and can adapt when they change tomorrow.听听

Want the full breakdown with detailed transport comparisons, tiered examples, and workflow recommendations?听Download the complete guide.