Feb
Blog
Simple SDI to ST2110 Converter Using Dektec DTA-2110 and DTA-2178 PCie add-in Cards
Dektec video cards come with a powerful SDK, and support easy to use video processing software, such as ffmpeg. In this article we describe how the DTA-2110 10G Smart NIC and the DTA-2178 8 Channel SDI card in a basic Windows 11 PC can be used to build a low cost SDI to IP converter platform.
The two Dektec components used for this demonstration are the DTA-2110 10G Intelligent NIC and the DTA-2178 UHD SDI ingest / playout PCIe card.
DTA-2110 Manufacturer’s Description:
DekTec SmartNICs bring high-performance SMPTE 2110 support to standard PCs. Hardware-based PTP synchronization ensures precise timing, while direct data paths to your application, via hardware pipes, bypass the network stack for maximum efficiency.
A robust foundation for building time-critical A/V solutions entirely in software.
Key Specifications:
| Feature | DTA-2110 | DTA-2125 |
|---|---|---|
| List Price | €806 | €1,014 |
| Port Speed | 10G / 1G | 25G / 10G |
| SFP Slots | 1 | 1 |
| Port Type | SFP+ | SFP28 |
| Optimized For | SMPTE 2110 | SMPTE 2110 |
| Pipes | ||
| Hardware Pipes (Rx) | 3 | 5 |
| Hardware Pipes (Tx) | 3 | 5 |
| Software Pipes | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Networking | ||
| IPv4 / IPv6 | Yes | Yes |
| VLAN | 802.1Q | 802.1Q |
| Standards | ||
| SMPTE 2110 | Yes | Yes |
| SMPTE 2022 | Yes | Yes |
| PTP (ST 2059) | Yes | Yes |
| Misc | ||
| Power | 9W | 16W |
| Operating Temp | 0–45 °C | 0–45 °C |
DTA-2178 Manufacturer’s Description:
High density, attractive price. Eight ports that can do SD to 3G, and ASI, in any mix. Ports 1 and 5 can receive or transmit full 12G-SDI to stream two times 2160p50/60. Each port can scale 4K to 2K, enabling the monitoring of eight 12G-SDI signals.
Dektec Product Page
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SDI to IP Converter Demo
For this Demonstration we used a 1U Server from Advantech Advantech the HPC-6120 with the Advantech Motherboard ASMB-610V3 .
The key features of the motherboard are:
LGA 1700 Intel® 12/13th Gen. Core™ Proprietary Server Board with 4 x DDR5, 1 x PCIeX16, 2 x PCIeX4, 5 x USB 3.2, 4 x SATA 3, Quad LANs and IPMI
- LGA 1700 Intel® 12/13th Gen. Core™ i9/i7/i5/i3 processors with W680 chipset
- Compatible with HPC-61 series chassis
- DDR5 ECC/Non-ECC 4400/4000/3600 MHz UDIMM up to 128 GB
- One PCIe x16 slot or two PCIe x8 slots support FH/10.5″ Length Cards
- Two PCIeX4 slots support low profile expansion cards
- 4 x SATA 3 ports and 5x USB 3.2 ports
- One M.2 2280/22110 (SATA / PCIe compatible)
- Quad LAN with Intel I350
- Flexible IO board design
The Windows 11 installation was then loaded with the FFMPEG build which we created in the previous blogs Building FFMPEG Part 1 Building FFMPEg Part 2
Follow those instructions as far as building the FFMPEG library. In fact there’s more there than you need as we included Freetype in the buiild, which isn’t strictly necessary for this demo. Putting together the FFMPEG build can be tricky if you’ve not done it before or don’t have the necessary tool-chain in place. If you’re having problems contact us at Sales and we can arrange to send you a built library..
Now her’e the FFMPEG code for a single channel of SDI to IP conversion on channel 1 of the DTA-2178
For a single channel:
Change directory to c:\ffmpeg_build (or where you have your ffmpeg build folder)
ffmpeg -f dektec -i 2178009568:1 -url:v 239.10.10.10:5000 -url:a 239.10.10.12:5010 -aspp 8 -f dektec 2110000030
Where 2178009568:1 refers to the DTA-2178 serial number and channel 1 and 2110000030 is the serial number of the DTA-2110. ST2110 video sent on multicast IP address 239.10.10.10:5000 and audio on 239.10.10.12:5010
To run 4 channels you can create a batch file, something like:
cd c:\ffmpeg_build
start ffmpeg -f dektec -i 2178009568:1 -url:v 239.10.10.10:5000 -url:a 239.10.10.12:5010 -aspp 8 -f dektec 2110000030
start ffmpeg -f dektec -i 2178009568:2 -url:v 239.10.10.20:5000 -url:a 239.10.10.22:5010 -aspp 8 -f dektec 2110000030
start ffmpeg -f dektec -i 2178009568:3 -url:v 239.10.10.30:5000 -url:a 239.10.10.32:5010 -aspp 8 -f dektec 2110000030
start ffmpeg -f dektec -i 2178009568:4 -url:v 239.10.10.40:5000 -url:a 239.10.10.42:5010 -aspp 8 -f dektec 2110000030
Run the FFMPEG command line or batch file and the system will start, ingesting SDI and outputing it through the DTA-2110 to your network. We used Embrionix and CoreEL Technolopgy to decode the stream.
The important thing to note is that we used a farly high specification PC but the Dektec cards use very little processing power, in fact it’s likely you will already have a PC available which will easily do the job. For our demonstrations at IBC we used a low cost ITX-mini board running a Ryzen 5 with 16GB of RAM, but for this demo we needed the extra PCIe Gen3 slots available on the Advantech.
As for price, the DTA-2110 list price is £702 and the DTA-2178 is £936. NOTE – we used the combination of parts we had available, to optimise the solution cost, you would probably want to use the 25G NIC card version at £883 each, that way you get an 8 channel SDI to IP converter for under £2,000 assuming you can re-cycle an existing PC for the purpose.
