Nimble Streamer NDI Support

Softvelum’s Nimble Streamer supports NDI® input and output

NDI is a protocol for video delivery over IP that has been widely adopted by professionals in the live production industry. The protocol was designed with the idea of making video production and processing easier and more efficient. It achieves this by providing full interoperability between different vendor solutions, abstracting the video source from the video destination, and compressing video content moderately so it can be delivered over local networks.

Nimble Streamer is a powerful streaming platform that supports NDI input and output. It acts as a "bridge" between live production environments and global networks, taking NDI input and handling it for further processing. Nimble Streamer can take NDI from the local network, decode, and transform the stream with its Live Transcoder filters. It can also encode into various formats, such as H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, VP8, VP9, and re-package it into other protocols for further delivery. It can also convert NDI to Apple Low Latency HLS and DRM MPEG-DASH, and even record and play the streams using its DVR feature set.

Nimble Streamer can also create NDI output from any live stream input, including SRT, WebRTC, RIST, RTMP, and MPEG-TS. The generated NDI stream can be used by any NDI-powered tools, and it can also be synchronized with NTP SEI metadata. The platform also has a Server Playlist feature that allows it to generate NDI from a set of local files.

What is NDI?

NDI is a technology which was implemented with these ideas in mind:

Live video is produced and processed by professional production teams in local networks prior to outer-world delivery.
Various solutions from various vendors are fully interoperable using the same protocol.
Network topology doesn't matter, making it easy to find and capture video streams.
Video source is abstracted from video destinations, data is just sent into the network.
The video content is moderately compressed with 10x factor down to 100 MBps making it easy to deliver over local networks.
NDI is a replacement for SDI technology.

NDI in Nimble Streamer

Nimble Streamer has full support for NDI protocol input and output. Its main purpose is to deliver live streams efficiently therefore it is not a production-level mixing and editing tool.

NDI input
Nimble Streamer takes NDI input and handles it for further processing.

Get NDI from local network.
Decode and transform the stream with Live Transcoder filters: re-sizing, re-sampling etc.
Encode content into H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, VP8, VP9 with supported encoding libraries.
Re-package into other protocols for further delivery, like SRT, RTMP, HLS, DASH, Icecast etc.
Convert NDI to Apple Low Latency HLS.
Convert NDI to DRM MPEG-DASH.
Record and play via DVR feature set with HLS and MPEG-DASH, check this short tutorial.
Use Nimble native API to get a list of available NDI streams.
Handle heavy duty when serving streams to multiple viewers.

Example: Nimble Streamer gets NDI stream in local network, re-package it to SRT and deliver it to distant production site with high reliability and security.
Check NDI to SRT to AWS Elemental MediaConnect video as example.

NDI output
Nimble Streamer can take any live stream input and create output NDI stream.

Take any content input via supported protocols like SRT, WebRTC, RIST, RTMP, MPEG-TS etc.
The generated NDI can be used by any NDI-powered tools.
New: Synchronize output NDI with NTP SEI metadata. Watch video tutorial with a demo of SRT streams syncing up into NDI output.
Use Server Playlist to generate NDI from a set of local files.
Transcode and send the content via NDI into local network.

Example: having SRT stream from external public network, Nimble Streamer can re-package it into NDI for further production purposes.
Or generate NDI stream from local files via Server Playlist.

NDI monitoring console tool

In addition to supporting NDI, Nimble Streamer has a console tool for diagnosing NDI streams. This tool provides a list of active NDI streams in the network, as well as detailed information about video and audio frames. All of this makes it a valuable resource for testing and debugging the Nimble and NDI setup. With its ability to handle a high volume of streams for multiple viewers and its compatibility with various formats, Nimble Streamer is a powerful solution for delivering live streams efficiently and effectively.

Get the list of active NDI streams in your network;
Get detailed information about video and audio frames;
There is no GUI, just a plain text console for your convenience.

This has helped us test and debug our own solution. We are sure it will also help our customers debugging their setup of Nimble and NDI streams in general.

Installation and usage

Currently NDI is available in Nimble Streamer on Windows, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04.

To start using NDI in Nimble Streamer, users need to make the following installation of Softvelum products:

Sign up for WMSPanel account or log in if you have it.
Install Nimble Streamer or upgrade it to latest version.
Subscribe for WMSPanel account, the price starts from 30 USD per month.
Create Live Transcoder license and subscribe for it. It costs 50 USD per month per server.
Install Live Transcoder package and register the license on the server with Nimble Streamer instance
Follow full NDI setup instructions to make NDI-specific setup of Nimble Streamer and Live Transcoder.

Take a look at other NDI-related use cases.

New: Synchronize NDI output with SEI metadata with NTP if your source supports it.
Also, watch video tutorial with Makito X4 sending SRT streams to Nimble for NDI output sync-up.
Generate NDI stream from local files using Server Playlist feature of Nimble Streamer.

Also watch these video tutorials:

This playlist has all NDI-related videos explaining various use cases.

Please contact our teamif you have any questions or suggestions on NDI functionality.

NDI® is a registered trademark of NewTek, Inc.

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