At IBC in Amsterdam, NewTek announced its Network Device Interface (NDI), a new open protocol for live production IP workflows over standard Ethernet networks. NDI allows multiple video systems to identify and communicate with one another over IP, and to encode, transmit and receive many streams of high quality, low latency, frame-accurate video and audio in real-time. Details ahead.
At IBC in Amsterdam, NewTek announced its Network Device Interface (NDI), a new open protocol for live production IP workflows over standard Ethernet networks. NDI allows multiple video systems to identify and communicate with one another over IP, and to encode, transmit and receive many streams of high quality, low latency, frame-accurate video and audio in real-time.
This new protocol from NewTek can benefit any network-connected video device, including video mixers (aka “switchers”), graphics systems, capture cards, and many other production devices. NewTek says that the open NDI protocol will be available in the fourth quarter of 2015 as a royalty-free SDK (software developer kit) for anyone wanting to enable IP workflows in their facilities, or in production devices and systems they manufacture.
“The move to IP for professional video production will unquestionably be among the most revolutionary and transformative changes of the decade. We are very excited to be opening our network protocols so that the entire industry can benefit from them,” said Dr. Andrew Cross, NewTek’s president and CTO. “At launch, NDI will work with applications from almost every major vendor and virtually every I/O card on the market, meaning that it will be broadly available for real-world production use starting in Q4 this year.”
NewTek says that NDI’s superb performance over standard gigabit Ethernet networks makes it possible to transition facilities to an incredibly versatile IP video production pipeline without negating existing investments in SDI cameras and infrastructure, or costly new high-speed network infrastructures. The company adds that by leveraging more than a decade of their experience with IP in the context of computer-based live video production workflows, NDI support at launch extends to well over 100,000 compatible systems already deployed worldwide, making it by far the most prolific IP video transfer method in the production market.
NewTek disclosed that the company worked closely with a large number of top manufacturers and developers to allow IP connectivity between devices. Representatives of the company explained that NDI’s backwards compatibility means that along with NewTek products and systems from Brainstorm, CasparCG, CharacterWorks, ChyronHego, ClassX, Compix, EasyWorship, Gnural Net, Graphics Outfitters, LiveXpert, Media 5, PlayBox Technology, Teradek, Vizrt, Wasp3D and many more will be NDI-enabled on the day of launch. NewTek has also collaborated with AJA, DELTACAST and Matrox to enable their capture cards to act as NDI senders or receivers. NewTek also revealed that support for Blackmagic Design cards will also be provided, and that Boland, JVC, LiveU, Microsoft Skype TX, NewsMaker, Panasonic, PESA, Sienna and Wowza are also working on providing NDI-based solutions.
Fortunately, with NDI, there seems to be no standards war in site! For more information, visit ndi.newtek.com.
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