SDVoE

What it is

SDVoE (Software Defined Video over Ethernet) is an AV-over-IP standard promoted by the SDVoE Alliance. It transports HD and 4K30 video uncompressed — and 4K60 4:4:4 with light (≈1.4:1) visually lossless compression — across standard 10 Gbit/s Ethernet with sub-frame latency. Every certified encoder / decoder is built on Semtech's BlueRiver chipset (originally AptoVision), usually paired with a Marvell (ex-Aquantia) AQrate 10GBASE-T PHY.

Why people choose it

• Sub-frame latency — under one video frame end-to-end, which matters for live operator control and for any workflow with operator-pointing interaction.
• Uncompressed or visually lossless quality — no visible compression artefacts (only 4K60 4:4:4 is lightly compressed), useful for colour-critical and forensic workflows.
• USB and serial over the same cable — KVM-class workflows with one transport.

The trade-offs

• 10 GbE everywhere — switches, cables, NICs. Costs considerably more than the equivalent 1 GbE fabric you'd use for NDI or IPMX with JPEG XS.
• Chipset lock-in — every SDVoE-compliant endpoint uses the same silicon family, which constrains the vendor pool more than IPMX or NDI do.
• Tendency toward 1:1 source ↔ display — composition above the transport (multi-window, scaling) is possible but usually pushed up to a controller above the SDVoE layer.

Where it fits

Trading floors, broadcast suites with strict latency budgets, and operations centres that already own the 10 GbE fabric. For greenfield ProAV with cost sensitivity, IPMX usually wins on price-performance.

Related terms

• AV over IP
• IPMX
• NDI (Network Device Interface)