ITN Brings IP Control Room Latency Down to 1–1.5 Frames Across Ten 4K Multiviewers

December 10, 2025 by guest author, John Berkovich

ITN Productions has put a new, fully IP production control room (PCR) on air, powering daily news bulletins for a major UK public broadcaster. The system is notable for delivering multiviewer latency of just 1–1.5 frames across ten 4K displays, a response time more commonly associated with baseband galleries than all-IP environments.

Techex designed the gallery and tightly integrates TAG’s Realtime Media Platform with Matrox ConvertIP ST 2110–HDMI decoders to create a software-defined production environment that behaves like a traditional live control room. Core monitoring, probing, and mosaic generation are handled in software via TAG Video Systems, with IP signals converted to native HDMI at each 4K multiviewer by Matrox Video hardware.

According to ITN, the design removes one of the biggest operational objections to IP galleries: perceived delay at the multiviewer. Lead Media Engineer James Wickes says the new setup restores the “direct connection” feel for vision mixers, with consistent, frame-accurate synchronization across every display and no perceptible lag when cutting between sources.

The monitoring layer supports SMPTE ST 2110 and JPEG XS, giving the engineering team a standards-based path for compressed and uncompressed IP workflows. TAG’s Operator Console allows gallery staff to reconfigure layouts and sources as productions change, without hardware swaps or downtime.

For Techex, the project centers on deterministic timing and predictable performance in a software-first architecture. The company says close coordination with TAG and Matrox was key to achieving the low-latency target across multiple 4K outputs while keeping the system fully IP-native.

With the gallery now live, ITN is operating an IP control room that matches the immediacy of legacy baseband systems while retaining the flexibility of software-defined operations, which is a combination many broadcasters have cited as the final barrier to complete IP migration.