AVN: Nice to meet you Steven, can you tell us a little about your role and background?
C: I am Steven Cogels and the Global Director of Business Development for PlexusAV (www.plexusAV.com). I have held various roles within the IT, AV and Broadcast Industries and previously worked for the parent company of PlexusAV, who are called Sencore (www.sencore.com).
AVN: So who are Sencore, for those of our readers who are unfamiliar?
SC: Sencore are a Global Leader in the Broadcast sector, who back in 2022 realised that the next major convergence of technology outside of AV & IT, was likely to be AV & Broadcast. With that in mind, Sencore hired me to review the AV market and come up with some ideas about how Sencore might launch into that market. Therefore, I spent around 6-12 months researching the various areas of AV for Sencore, including AVOIP.
AVN: So what did your research uncover?
SC: It confirmed that Sencore’s views on the next big convergence, being between AV & Broadcast, were indeed correct. Alsom for Sencore to enter the AV market, they couldn’t just “re-purpose” their current Broadcast products. In my opinion, they needed to consider a whole new approach and so from there PlexusAV was born.
AVN: What’s so different about PlexusAV and other Manufacturers?
SC: First off, PlexusAV have based their new range around IPMX – a true open standard which, we believe, will over the next year or so become the leading platform for true “interoperability” across IP based AV. Secondly, whilst the product range has an impressive list of features that already sets it apart from most walled garden solutions. We believe that by incorporating IPMX into all our products, we will provide the AV market with a more future proof solution that End Users, AV Consultants and Integrators will be looking for.
AVN: So, for those of our readers who don’t know IPMX, how does it differ to other platforms and specifically SDVoE?
SC: IPMX has been created by a dedicated workgroup inside of AIMS (Alliance for IP Media Solutions) that started its work in 2019. IPMX is based on the SMPTE 2110 standard which all major broadcasters have been using for years.
However, IPMX adds the extra capabilities needed for Pro-AV applications, such as supporting both compressed and uncompressed workflows, device discovery and connectivity, HDCP, USB routing, secure transport and EDID support. IPMX also addresses the PTP timing elephant in the room, by including a different set of requirements that fit perfectly for Pro-AV applications.
This ensures that the platform will be able to be used as the main system architecture on major projects to allow everything to work together, without any single brand being “in charge” of the operating platform since IPMX is based on a standard.
Where it differs to SDVoE and other many AVOIP solutions, is that it is not a single manufacturer promoting and controlling the technology or development roadmap. It is also not restricted by a specific chipset. It is an “open standard” that allows an even playing field for all manufacturers to work together and most importantly, it will allow End Users, Consultants and Integrators to connect anything they want up to the system and it will always then work seamlessly.
AVN: How do we know that IPMX is reliable and what do you believe the adoption of IMPX will be?
SC: As stated, Broadcast has been using the SMPTE 2110 standard for years and it has been 100% reliable. There is no way that you could Broadcast huge Global Music or Sporting World Cups and other such events, without having a 100% reliable and true “inter-operable platform”. The features that have been added for AV, are simply the “bells and whistles”. In terms of adoption, we believe that more and more manufacturers will adopt this platform, because it will be driven by the End Users, Consultants and SI’s, as it makes all their lives easier.
AVN: You said earlier that your products work both with and without IPMX, can you tell us more about the products?
SC: Our current range, recently shown at ISE, is the AVN4, Visual Array and Stream Conversion Gateway.
The Plexus AVN-4 transceiver, is the systems encoder and decoder of video and audio signals, adds advanced features like video thumbnail support and one-click source switching. These features make configuration and monitoring of content a breeze on the P-AVN-4. Thanks to NMOS (the control protocol in IPMX) the transceiver provides simple, easy to use signal routing while allowing video, audio, and control on separate ethernet ports. And to top it off, the Flawless Imaging Profile (FIP) adds advanced video encoding that boosts quality for the most challenging video content.
The Visual Array (VA) management platform is all about bulk deployment and management, with the ability to configure large number of units quickly and is super easy to drive. It provides a System Dashboard providing device statistics, alarm aggregation and even handy tools such as IGMP auto detect and IP Conflict detection. This can bring up a full PlexusAV system quickly and auto configure transceivers, create video walls, and monitor content with live video thumbnails from one screen.
Finally, the Stream Conversion Gateway (SCG) allows your AV over IP installation to break free from the traditional limitations of other AV over IP solutions that ignore existing 3rd party protocol-based sources. There is no need to go back to baseband to connect signals in your AV over IP network to “outside” destinations such as lecture capture platforms or archiving solutions. We’ve also now added NDI capabilities to the SCG to provide users with further expanded interoperability.
AVN: It certainly sounds like a very exciting venture, is there anything the readers of AV News should know?
SC: The above products are really just the start, we have plans for lots of other products, but for now, we just want to get started. Whilst our main focus will be the US and EMEA, we have been really pleased with the level of interest Globally. So, for those wanting to know more about what we do, please visit https://plexusav.com/ and keep up with the latest news from PlexusAV on LinkedIn, X and YouTube or just mail us directly sales@plexusav.com
AVN: Many thanks for your time Steven, and we wish you luck with PlexusAV going forward!
SC: Thanks for taking the time to interview Me, much appreciated!
