Imagine and Arista Team Up to Streamline ST 2110 IP Workflows

The transition to IP remains a significant technical hurdle for broadcasters due to the complexity of managing thousands of uncompressed flows. By abstracting network topology and bandwidth awareness through a unified API, this partnership reduces the operational friction of moving from SDI to COTS-based IP fabrics. As UHD and HDR become standard, the ability to dynamically reconfigure network footprints without manual link management is critical for facility scalability. Watch for similar deep integrations between broadcast controllers and IT-centric network services to become the default requirement for greenfield Tier 1 deployments. This shift signals a move away from bespoke broadcast hardware toward a software-defined ecosystem that prioritizes interoperability over proprietary lock-in.

Imagine Communications has been building out its ST 2110 IP production portfolio with Arista Networks as a core infrastructure partner. Sky Italia, Italy's largest pay-TV operator, migrated its Rome operations center to SMPTE ST 2110 video infrastructure using Imagine's Selenio Network Processor and Magellan Control System with an Arista spine-leaf architecture, deploying NMOS-based orchestration and JPEG XS compression for inter-facility connectivity between Rome and Milan. The deployment demonstrates the same Magellan-to-Arista bandwidth management integration described in this partnership, with Imagine's control system providing orchestration of multiple ST 2110 streams across the Arista network fabric.

Arista Networks formally launched its Media Control Service as an extension of EOS and CloudVision for media and entertainment customers, positioning MCS as a licensed software layer that dynamically programs bandwidth-protected multicast flows across Arista IP topologies. John Mailhot, CTO of Networking and Infrastructure at Imagine Communications, confirmed the integration of the Arista MCS API into Magellan, noting that the collaboration between the two development teams enabled the control system to push names and bandwidth tags to MCS for ingress policing and flow orchestration. MCS runs on all Arista EOS-based platforms including 7000-series switches at 10/25/40/50/100/400G speeds.

The Imagine and Arista combination addresses a specific operational challenge in ST 2110 facilities: UHD expands signal bandwidth by 4x compared to HD and can saturate spine-leaf linkages without careful design. Imagine's joint solution with Arista manages bandwidth through Magellan's integration with MCS, performing routing operations in parallel on A and B networks in ST 2022-7 hitless configurations for full 1+1 redundancy. The system supports reconfiguration between UHD and 1080p workflows on a consistent network footprint, a capability that matters for facilities transitioning at their own pace without over-provisioning from day one.