Media Links gear carried All-Asia Games venue feeds over IP to one broadcast hub
Feeds were JPEG-XS encoded.
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Key facts, context, and what it means.
Key takeaways
At the All-Asia Games, live video from the venues was encoded using JPEG-XS and transported to the broadcasting centre, where Xscend systems received and aggregated feeds for distribution to broadcasters and media rights holders across Asia.
Before treating the event as a reference, note the release omits the venue-link networks and includes no performance figures.
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The interesting part for a host-broadcast engineering lead is the layout: compact systems at the edges, one aggregation point in the middle, and a codec picked to keep delay low without giving up picture quality.
Gateways at the venues, aggregation at the hub
The system had two tiers. The MDP3020 IP media gateways were deployed at the venues. The Xscend systems at the broadcasting centre received everything, pulled it together and handled the handoff to rights holders. Live video was encoded using JPEG-XS and transported to that broadcasting centre, where Xscend received and aggregated the feeds for distribution to broadcasters and media rights holders across Asia.
Media Links says JPEG-XS cuts the bandwidth needed while keeping image quality visually lossless and latency very low.
The company also highlights remote configuration: the compact systems can be reconfigured from a distance when requirements shift. Toshiyuki Naka, Media Links' senior vice president of global sales, said there is very little margin for uncertainty at major sporting events. When dozens of venues are sending live content into one central broadcast operation, he said, the transport layer must be dependable and still adapt quickly as needs change. The release does not say how often the systems were reconfigured during the Games.
Contribution and distribution are different legs. Net Insight describes contribution as moving a produced event feed from the venue or source to rights-holding broadcasters, who then add logos, commentary and local studio segments. Distribution is the later step that delivers the finished program to audiences.
The economics of occasional use
Net Insight, a video transport vendor, notes that video has typically been backhauled from venues over satellite links or permanently installed cable networks, and that this traditional circuit-based infrastructure has high fixed costs.
Net Insight says IP-based solutions can be scaled up and down according to the event, which makes them more economic, and that IP makes it easier to send specific adapted content to different rights holders. For operators weighing satellite against IP, that could make the All-Asia Games setup a useful reference.
There is a strong counterargument. Net Insight also notes that satellite is still used to a large extent because of its proven reliability, and that internet-based transport has yet to gain the trust of rights holders for the largest events. The Media Links release does not describe the networks the venue links ran over, and for operators weighing reliability, that detail could matter.
Who sold it and who built it
Its regional partner, New Share Report (NSR), proposed the solution together with SinoTech, the systems integrator that supported the deployment. According to the release, the selection reflected Media Links' record in large live sports and the practical requirements of this event.
That three-party chain may matter most to broadcasters planning events in the region. The manufacturer provides the gateways and the hub hardware, the regional partner proposed the solution, and the systems integrator supported the deployment. For a broadcast-operations director weighing a similar setup, the integrator's event experience may carry as much weight as the spec sheet. APB News reports that Media Links also offers professional services covering network design, installation and maintenance, which suggests buyers could get that work from either source.
If you plan to use this event as a reference, ask NSR or SinoTech for the event's packet-loss, failover and outage records. The published accounts describe the architecture and the vendor's claims but include no performance figures.
The wider product family
On its site, Media Links lists the MDP3020 in MAX and SFN versions and Xscend in 1RU and 2RU sizes. APB News reports that the company's solutions are built to interoperate with industry standards, bridge legacy interfaces to IP, and support workflows including remote, distributed and cloud production. The same release says Media Links IP technology delivers low-latency, bandwidth-efficient, fail-safe operation along with the capability for high-speed "hitless" data transmission.
The release published by APB News lists Inter BEE 2026: Booth 5402, Hall 5. Engineers who attend could ask about the gateway-and-hub setup used at the Games.
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