Rascular Embraces Newtek's NDI IP Protocol

Rascular has announced that it has embraced NewTek's NDI video-over-IP protocol, recognising its importance to the future of compressed video transport and has launched its first compatible product: RouteMaster Lite. RouteMaster Lite will be on show at BVE 2018 on the DigiBox stand – M44.

As NewTek states: "NewTek NDI is a royalty free standard anyone can implement to connect video equipment across a network." In essence, it's a compressed IP format that allows the use of a standard Ethernet network. It's already clear that there's a considerable range of NDI-compliant products on the market. Newtek says, "It's a bi-directional standard, not only enabling you to share video and audio over IP, but to send and receive multiple input and output signals between devices on your network—making a completely connected facility entirely possible."

Rascular's first product to embrace the protocol is RouteMaster Lite, a standalone, PC-based, single licence application. This is based on Rascular's powerful RouteMaster technology and is designed to provide comprehensive router control for NDI sources up to maximum 20x20 router size.

Particularly applicable in the production sector, with OB units a prime example, RouteMaster Lite works in three key ways to present operators working in an NDI environment with familiar, and therefore easy-to-use, router control interfaces. It: virtualises the NDI source and destination devices (the IP addresses) in the system making them sources and destinations on a virtual NDI router; it then allows full router source/destination control via a web panel that will be familiar to operators; and it also provides control via hardware router control panels (AJA Kumo and BlackMagic).

Roddy Pratt, Technical Director with Rascular, said: "NDI is a powerful compressed video-over-IP protocol with a strong product ecosystem developing around it. But what's crucial for operators working in a pressurised production environment is that they are presented with a familiar, easy-to-use, router control/tally interface – be that hardware or software-based – that they can use to select sources and destinations in the heat of the moment. That's what RouteMaster Lite allows. They don't want to be looking at IP addresses or web pages. Of course, we are developing additional products that also embrace NDI."

rascular.com