Inside Look: swXtch.io at NAB 2024

Last week, we took our swXtch.io broadcasting cloud solutions to the big stage at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show 2024 in Vegas. It was a busy week at our swXtch.io booth, where we got to demonstrate how our cloudSwXtch solution is adapting broadcasting for the future with cloud integration, high availability, and operational flexibility. Here’s a rundown of the four-day conference.

Welcome to Booth W4429

Picture this: a modern booth with symmetrically paced stations for viewing demos. Those stations were situated at four spokes that resembled an X, paying homage to both our unique branding and the core network switch functionality of cloudSwXtch. The clever layout offered plenty of room for visitors to move about freely, and created a natural environment for conversations. The large “X” atop the booth was an inspiring touch, rising just high enough above the horizons of the cavernous West Hall to lure curious observers. The booth was adorned with bright lights running through that X, across the top and down the four spokes with intermittent stoppages, giving the impression of IP packets moving through a network of perhaps questionable conditions—an inside joke for the IT networking crowd, if you will.

Demos Galore: Flexibility in Broadcast Solutions

At the swXtch.io booth, we showcased the versatility of our cloudSwXtch solution, supporting up to eight copies of the same live stream with hitless-packet-merge per ST 2022-7 standards for enhanced availability and robustness. Our demonstrations showed how seamlessly cloudSwXtch integrates with a variety of broadcast standards, including multicast, RTP, UDP, SRT, 2022-7, and 2110 flows, ensuring reliable transport and lossless UDP to safeguard media stream integrity. We highlighted the system's agility in handling sophisticated video switching and graphics, reducing latency significantly with our JPEG-XS compression, ideal for live production in the cloud. Additionally, we demonstrated our platform's support for collaborative editing across geographically dispersed teams and its ability to extend workflows across multiple cloud platforms and on-prem setups seamlessly—without any need for code changes or operational re-training. This practical, scalable approach helps broadcasters adapt to the evolving media landscape efficiently and cost-effectively, without sacrificing performance or quality.

The Launch of the Federated Partner Program

One of the highlights was launching our Federated Partner Program. This initiative is designed to build an intelligent cloud networking ecosystem for the broadcast, media, and entertainment industries. Connecting customers with technology partners, systems integrators, and public clouds, the program is all about making the transition from on-premise networks to the cloud smoother. It offers limited membership, online sales training, and a self-serve ‘partner portal’ for lead sharing and deal registration. At NAB, it was great showing off some of the cooler innovations enabling cloud media workflows that we’ve been working on with partners like Matrox, Red Camera (2110 Ground to Cloud), and Cinegy (media channel playout).

Celebrating Our Achievements

We were thrilled to be recognized with three awards at the NAB Show: TV Technology Best of Show, TVB Europe Best of Show, and NAB Product of the Year in the Cloud Computing and Storage category. This was our first year entering the NAB Product of the Year awards, and the award took on special meaning as it coincided with our first year as an NAB exhibitor. We are also grateful for the recognition from two of Future Media’s anchor publications for the broadcast market, including our first award from the TVB Europe team. We’re honored to see our hard work recognized, and we couldn’t have done it without the amazing teamwork behind the scenes.

Real Conversations, Real Solutions

We had some great conversations at the booth about how to integrate high bandwidth, high volume media workflows into the cloud. Many folks were interested in hybrid workflows that could leverage both on-prem and cloud resources. Demonstrations like our wXcked Eye user interface and Tachyon LIVE integration provided clear examples of how our solutions manage and enhance media flows across various environments. NAB 2024 was a landmark event for swXtch.io, not only showcasing all that cloudSwXtch can do but also  cementing that swXtch.io continues to lead the charge in transforming broadcast workflows through unmatched cloud-based solutions.

Ready to transform your broadcast workflows with swXtch.io? Schedule a meeting with us to learn more about how our solutions can transform your operations.