Bifrost and Gravity Media test 25G Quasi-Coherent transceiver for remote production

The successful testing of this 25G Quasi-Coherent transceiver offers a more efficient path for scaling remote production without the thermal and power overhead of traditional Digital Signal Processing. By eliminating the DSP, broadcasters can deploy high-density ST 2110 infrastructure at the edge while maintaining the reach required for stadium and outside broadcast environments. This development signals a shift toward specialized optical hardware that balances the performance of coherent optics with the cost-profile of standard Ethernet pluggables. As high-resolution video demands increase, watch for Bifrost to expand this DSP-free architecture into higher-capacity pluggable solutions for distributed AI and mobile fronthaul applications.

Bifrost Communications is positioning its quasi-coherent architecture as a middle ground between standard grey optics and full coherent transceivers for broadcast-grade IP transport. The company's DSP-free approach targets the specific latency and power constraints of SMPTE ST 2110 workflows, where microsecond-level jitter tolerance makes traditional coherent modules impractical for dense switching environments. Gravity Media has been an early adopter of IP-based production infrastructure across its outside broadcast fleet, operating ST 2110 networks that require optical links spanning several kilometers between venues and production hubs. The 25G SFP28 form factor aligns with the bandwidth profile of uncompressed 1080p video streams defined in ST 2110-20, making it a natural fit for current HD remote production pipelines.

The broader push toward IP-based media transport has created demand for optical interconnects that balance reach, latency, and power consumption in ways that telecom-grade coherent modules were not designed to address. SMPTE ST 2110 adoption accelerated through 2025 as major broadcasters completed facility migrations, with outside broadcast and remote production representing the fastest-growing deployment segment. The quasi-coherent category sits between short-reach direct-detect optics and full coherent systems that require DSP for chromatic dispersion compensation, offering extended reach without the power penalty. Bifrost Communications previously demonstrated its quasi-coherent technology at industry events targeting the broadcast and data center interconnect markets, positioning the architecture for applications where standard 10 km reach falls short but coherent DSP overhead is unacceptable.

Competing approaches to extending ST 2110 optical reach include coherent pluggables from vendors like Ciena and Cisco, which offer 100G and 400G capacities but consume significantly more power per port due to onboard DSP processing. Ciena's WaveLogic 6 Nano coherent pluggable targets data center interconnect at 400G with reduced power consumption, though it remains oriented toward telecom and enterprise workloads rather than broadcast-specific latency requirements. For broadcasters evaluating ST 2110 optical transport, the tradeoff is between the proven reach of coherent modules and the power density advantages of DSP-free designs like Bifrost's quasi-coherent approach. As 4K and 8K production workflows push bandwidth requirements toward 100G per stream, the question becomes whether quasi-coherent architectures can scale to higher capacities while maintaining their latency and power advantages over DSP-dependent alternatives.