Just Add Power's HDMI Over IP Solution Explained

[Otto-Mate]

Just Add Power’s HDMI over IP solution is now available in the UK. This new "game changing" system converts a HiDef signals to packet data meaning it can be sent across a normal Ethernet LAN. Check out the video and the other photos...

http://www.wordpress-1219309-4387497.cloudwaysapps.com/Announcements/Just-Add-Power-s-HDMI-Over-IP-Solution-Explained.html

M.

[Kevin]

Just about to order some of these - If anyone is interested in some too then give me a shout today and I'll see if I can get a decent price break.

Kevin

[chris_j_hunter]

tempted, but ... was trying first to get a feel for bandwidth & the quality of switch needed to go with them - around 60Mbps seemed to be what people expect, per transmitter, 'though presumably it could go to double or treble this as refresh rates go up in the (near) future - plus how upset things could get when other traffic on the LAN comes & goes !

http://www.cepro.com/article/dealer_hdmi_over_ip_is_game_changing/

[Nded]

Bandwidth and Switches

The 60mbps is the MAXIMUM bandwidth that will be used by a Transmitter. Typical devices we have seen are hovering around 30-40Mbps, and some really boring movies with little action use much less bandwidth. In the demonstration video available on YouTube that shows us switching between 5 HDMI sources across 9 screens at the CEDIA convention, we were only using 4% of the Cisco Catalyst 2960 Model 24TT-L bandwidth (not an expensive switch). The videos are posted at http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSOHOS.../0/Z0LNaUdWnCA (HD and SD versions available for your viewing pleasure). In this video you will see that we are able to deliver instant seamless switching between HDMI inputs at multiple resolutions. And in case you're wondering, yes, that is me doing the demonstration. The first source in the seamless switching demonstration is a PlayStation 3 Blu-Ray disc that we were running at 1080p60 showing the Mummy movie. The second source was an Xbox 360 running at 720p playing the new Batman video game. The 3rd source was a Vudu XL running at 1080p24 showing a one of the Chronicles of Riddick movies. The 4th source was a Vudu BX100 running at 1080p24 showing The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe. The last source was a Sony HD Camcorder running at 1080i30. Because the Just Add Power HDMI over IP solution uses a SCALER in the receivers, we don't experience the delays in switching caused by the EDID negotiation that is inherent in most other companies offerings. As far as we know, no other company comes close the speed of the Just Add Power solution.

[chris_j_hunter]

thanks - clearly, multiple receivers are no problem, how about more than one transmitter ?

[Nded]

In the demonstration video we had 5 transmitters connected to the one switch. Because the transmitters are sending a MULTI-CAST, the bandwidth requirements pretty much stay the same, whether you are broadcasting to 2 screens, 20 screens, or 200 screens.

The key thing is to have a Managed Ethernet switch with enough bandwidth to sustain several VLAN's with simultaneous multi-casts. Besides the Cisco 2960's, we have had positive reports from users with Dell 35XX, Pakedge, HP Procurve, and Extreme Networks brand Managed Ethernet switches. We did try to do this with a Netgear FSM726E switch, and we could not get it to work well.

If you only have one source (i.e. a digital signage application), you don't need a Managed Ethernet switch to send the signal to multiple screens. We do advise users to put this type of one-to-many application on a dedicated "dumb" switch, as the multi-cast will slowdown other devices on an unmanaged network switch.

[chris_j_hunter]

thanks - my question was a bit too cryptic, but you got what I meant to ask !

[Otto-Mate]

Ed - thanks for responding in this thread.

Can you explain how the switching between each source works please? If I was sending say an HD digital satellite signal and a game console to a bedroom TV, how would I select which VLAN to view?

Thanks

M.

[Kevin]

We did try to do this with a Netgear FSM726E switch, and we could not get it to work well.

... and guess which switches we have here ;-) Hmmph . Actually they're FSM726's which I had kinda expected would have IGMP issues anyway as the e model added further IGMP support. I do have some Dell 29xx switches but they are the series below the ones you mention and again it appears these don't support IGMP.

So hunting around we also have a small Cisco SRW208MP which appears it might work but failing that I'll have to use the Allied Telesyn AT8264-POE - which is awkward as it's so noisy with the fans.

It's not obvious from the specs if they tolerate duplicate IP's however which I understand is required.

I did want to test this in a matrix situation ,in fact I was thinking of writing a xAP matrix driver. AIUI Mark you switch the receiver onto the same VLAN that the transmitter is using and this is handled via some user interface specific to the switch you have. This could be a web interface (on the Netgear it's just a dropdown box on each port), or perhaps more appropriate for HA control a telnet or RS232 'console' interface along with the appropriate ASCII command. This switching is then kinda similar to the way you might handle controlling a normal AV switcher, issued by your HA controller whatever that might be. For me that would be via xAP. By using IGMP/VLAN's it allows the bandwidth of multiple transmitters to only be present on specific network ports so as you expand transmitters you don't saturate segments.

K

PS It would be great if the boxes, or future ones supported POE - and user upgradeable firmware BTW.

[Nded]

We now have example GUI's for AMX, Crestron, and Control4 automation solutions. There are other drivers in the works, and we have had a good response from independent folks being willing to share their drivers when they are finished. I would encourage anybody on this board to consider making their own unique driver for HDMI over IP available for others.

We have had 100% success and reliability with the RS232 control of the Managed Ethernet switches. Here are the commands we use to "change channels" on the Cisco 2960 for the CEDIA demonstration. It should be noted that the GUI software we prepared for CEDIA assumed that the 9 screens were attached to ports 1-9 of the switch. For our purposes, we attached the 5 HDMI sources to the last 5 ports (20-24) of the switch, but you can change this if you like. Just adjust the VLAN assignments accordingly. NOTE: The default VLAN for newly activated ports is #1, and we don't recommend using VLAN 1 for HDMI over IP as a precaution to prevent accidental overload of the other LAN devices.


Here is how the GUI's "change channels".

Step 1) There is an "initialize" option behind the scenes of the GUIs that issues the ENABLE command and the associated password needed to be in "privileged" mode. This command only needs to be entered when the switch has been power cycled:

enable
password

Step 2) Select a port, and change its VLAN. To change port 1 to VLAN channel 4, here are the commands:

conf t
int fa0/1
switchport access vlan 4
exit
exit

To change port 9 to VLAN channel 6, here are the commands:

conf t
int fa0/9
switchport access vlan 6
exit
exit

That's all there is to it from an RS232 perspective.

[Nded]

.......

I did want to test this in a matrix situation ,in fact I was thinking of writing a xAP matrix driver. AIUI Mark you switch the receiver onto the same VLAN that the transmitter is using and this is handled via some user interface specific to the switch you have. This could be a web interface (on the Netgear it's just a dropdown box on each port), or perhaps more appropriate for HA control a telnet or RS232 'console' interface along with the appropriate ASCII command. This switching is then kinda similar to the way you might handle controlling a normal AV switcher, issued by your HA controller whatever that might be. For me that would be via xAP. By using IGMP/VLAN's it allows the bandwidth of multiple transmitters to only be present on specific network ports so as you expand transmitters you don't saturate segments.

Send me a PM or an email and I'll give you the entire command sequence we used to initialize a new Cisco 2960.

PS It would be great if the boxes, or future ones supported POE - and user upgradeable firmware BTW.

A common suggestion, and it is not falling on deaf ears.

[toscal]

Something else that would be great is if this VLAN switching could be done at the receiver box. Say via a pop up screen, maybe even be able to have some sort of customizable naming so channel 1 = DVD channel2= digibox etc.

[Kevin]

I was going to suggest a similar kind of thing - a standardised matrix command set (IP) that control system manufacturers could use over IP that was implemented within the Video over IP boxes.

Then you configure the boxes by means of a web interface which selects standard inbuilt command sequences for popular switches... or you can add a set of custom strings/responses. Users can contribute their own strings to a library and the control manufacturers don't have to adapt their modules as new switches appear - they just support the box protocol.

I like the onscreen selection idea ..

K

[Nded]

Some of the home automation companies we are working with are talking about adding that type of "heads up display" function to their drivers. We even have one company working on BlackBerry and iPhone apps to "change channels".

[toscal]

Some of the home automation companies we are working with are talking about adding that type of "heads up display" function to their drivers. We even have one company working on BlackBerry and iPhone apps to "change channels".

I think it really needs to be in the boxes themselves, if you want to sell lots of them. Otherwise it will only appeal to us tecno junkies, who like to tinker or those who have that particular company's control system.
Its better to be able to change channels via an IR remote and have say the iPhone app as an extra.