SMPTE ST 2110

What it is

SMPTE ST 2110 is a multi-part standard from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers that replaces SDI in broadcast facilities. It splits video (-20), audio (-30), and ancillary data (-40) into separate IP streams, all locked to a common PTP (IEEE 1588) clock.

The adoption curve in 2026

Haivision's annual Broadcast Transformation Report tracks the shift: the 2025 edition surveyed nearly 900 broadcast professionals across 110 countries, and in the 2026 edition (more than 1,300 respondents) 30% reported using ST 2110, up from 26% a year earlier, while 82% still use SDI infrastructure. In 2025 SMPTE, the EBU and the VSF received the Television Academy's Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy for ST 2110. Greenfield broadcast builds and major sporting events now default to ST 2110.

Why most control rooms still don't run it

Uncompressed ST 2110-20 video needs 10/25 Gbit/s links plus PTP, plus precise switch QoS, plus a discovery and control plane (now standardised as NMOS). For NOC, SOC and situation rooms that workload is overkill: compressed sources (NDI, RTSP, KVM) cover the use case at a fraction of the cost. The Pro-AV-side answer to "we want ST 2110 compatibility without ST 2110 infrastructure" is IPMX — same lineage, with JPEG XS-compressed video (as in ST 2110-22) on 1 GbE networks and optional PTP.

Where it fits and doesn't

• Fits: broadcast playout, live sports trucks, master control, studio infrastructure replacing SDI.
• Doesn't fit: classic control rooms, NOC walls, corporate AV. Specifying it there raises the BOM considerably without operational benefit.

Related terms

• IPMX
• NMOS
• AV over IP