Imagine and Panasonic integrate SNP-XL and KAIROS for ST-2110 IP production

The transition to all-IP remains the primary infrastructure hurdle for live production. By offering a pre-validated, high-density gateway between legacy SDI and ST-2110, Imagine and Panasonic are addressing the 'complexity gap' that often stalls large-scale migrations. Concretely, this allows live venues and trucks to scale to UHD/HDR without a forklift upgrade of existing SDI cameras. This partnership solidifies the Selenio/KAIROS stack as a de facto benchmark for hybrid IP workflows in an increasingly fragmented hardware market. Watch for whether this interoperability benchmark forces rival switcher OEMs like Grass Valley or Sony to accelerate their own tight-knit third-party gateway integrations.

The Imagine-Panasonic collaboration arrives as the industry's shift toward SMPTE ST-2110 enters a second, more pragmatic phase focused on hybrid interoperability. According to the 2026 Haivision Global Broadcast Tech Report, SDI still serves as the primary production backbone for 82% of broadcast operations, despite the growth of IP-based remote production. This persistence of legacy hardware has led vendors to prioritize 'glue' products that can bridge environments. At the 2026 NAB Show, Imagine Communications marked a decade of ST-2110 involvement by highlighting that nearly 6,000 SNP units have now been shipped globally, managing more than 180,000 concurrent video streams, per Imagine Communications’ April 2026 reporting.

Panasonic has simultaneously updated its KAIROS firmware to Version 2.0 as of March 2026, which introduces increased SDI I/O capacity and supports new hardware frames such as the AT-KC2000S1. These updates eliminate previous limitations where enabling ST 2022-7 network redundancy would often halve the available input counts. Per Panasonic Connect Europe in January 2024, the platform’s evolution toward a more silent, high-airflow 4RU chassis design was specifically targeted at placing processing hardware closer to the live action in studio and remote setups.

Industry-wide, the focus is shifting toward simplifying the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and Control Plane (NMOS) elements of IP, which remain significant pain points. Per TV Technology coverage in April 2026, major mobile fleet operators like Game Creek Video and Mobile TV Group still report that PTP synchronization is the most frequent point of failure in ST-2110 environments. The integration of established control layers like Imagine’s Magellan into the KAIROS environment is a direct response to these synchronization and management hurdles that have historically slowed ST-2110 adoption.