StreamGuys has announced the imminent availability of Reflector EVO, a cloud service for enterprise-level audio contribution and distribution that begins shipping as the 2024 NAB Show opens. Developed in partnership with Barix‘s Audio over IP team, StreamGuys will lead all sales efforts and provide service hosting and 24/7 technical support for radio broadcasters, program syndicators, and audio content creators that require a scalable, one-to-many cloud networking architecture for content delivery.
Reflector EVO is the second generation of the Reflector service, developed 14 years ago to help broadcasters move high-quality audio over the public internet. The original version removed network configuration challenges and made it simple to immediately send audio between studios and transmitters sites upon connecting a Barix encoder and decoder.
Streamguys says Reflector EVO can transport bulk audio streams to many locations at once, including uncompressed PCM signals with high bandwidth requirements. That makes Reflector EVO a far more affordable alternative to satellite for syndicated program delivery, multi-studio networking and other distribution services with wide geographic dispersion. StreamGuys has strengthened redundancy for mission-critical broadcast delivery, with primary and backup streams operating in parallel to optimize signal integrity. The redundant streams borrow packets from each other as drops occur, ensuring streams are reassembled upon reaching endpoints.
Barix has updated its encoding and decoding hardware for additional network resiliency, enabling fast switching between encoders and adding support for lossless audio compression. Barix’s new LX400 broadcast codec, also to be introduced at the NAB Show (Booth C2348), offers OPUS audio support for customers that want the highest possible audio quality and bandwidth conservation, with support for constant and variable bitrates (6kb/s to 510kb/s). Customers can manually configure encoding quality and the audio delay level of the receiving decoder (between three and 30 seconds), with seamless communication between each device worldwide.
Reflector EVO isn’t merely an improvement on the original; it’s a reimagining of the infrastructure
Eduardo Martinez, vice president of technology at StreamGuys
The LX400 devices also include standard Barix AoIP codec features such as selectable input gain, relay support, and contact closures. The latter allows broadcast networks to provide affiliates with precisely timed triggers for local ad breaks over EVO.
“Reflector EVO isn’t merely an improvement on the original; it’s a reimagining of the infrastructure for the reliable transport of large media workloads, and modernized for today’s enterprise broadcast networks,” said Eduardo Martinez, vice president of technology at StreamGuys. “With options for uncompressed transport, lossless compression and legacy compression, broadcasters have an array of options for high-quality delivery of speech and music and are assured a high level of service and consistent uptime for all cloud networking applications.”
StreamGuys will offer several service plan options for Reflector EVO across technical formats (compressed or uncompressed), hardware (purchase or lease) and support (standard tech support or direct StreamGuys support for all affiliates).
StreamGuys will demonstrate Reflector EVO at the ENCO booth (W1743), where it is sharing space.