Ingex: Bringing Open Source to the Broadcast Industry

Ingex is a tapeless multi-camera studio recording system, built on open source software such as FFmpeg and Linux and released under the GPL on ingex.sourceforge.net. Running on commodity hardware, with a broadcast quality video capture card, an Ingex box can replace tens of thousands of dollars worth of broadcast equipment in TV studios.

The system was developed by BBC R&D and is now used in real productions within the BBC (such as EastEnders and Dragon’s Den). Being available for free on the internet means that some enterprising third parties have implemented Ingex on their own

We discuss the change management, commercial and ecosystem issues we have faced in getting Ingex used by the broadcasting industry, generally unaware of the benefits of open source.

Topics include:

• creating partner programmes and certification schemes in the broadcast industry, creating the right incentives to build an ecosystem around a GPL product
• working with “dry hire” and “wet hire” agencies used to renting out hardware-only such as TV cameras and vision mixers
• change management issues around TV production staff moving from hardware, tape-based environments to PC-based Linux software

We can also show videos demonstrating the Ingex tool in action on BBC TV and radio programmes.