ndi NDI and multiple NIC

[SteffVernier]

Hi, 

To add an interactivity layout over an existing system we consider streaming NDI feed.

I know that Watchout can't chose multiple NIC, so is there safe to say that watchout traffic AND NDI feed must be going trough the same NIC ?

Anyone already did 4 x 4k input ?

[Eddy Yanto]

We did a few setups with multiple BirdDog Mini (1080p@60) — some using WATCHPAX60 with 4 x 1080pNDI and some using our custom-built servers with 6 x 1080p NDI.

All in all, to keep things simple and easier for troubleshooting, we only use single NIC even when our custom-built servers have an external 4-ports network card (and on WATCHPAX60 only 1 port is active/usable whereas the second NIC is reserved for future).

I believe your milage may vary and if you're going for 4 x 4K NDI, you might want to go for 10G network switch with 10G port on your WATCHOUT display (be it WATCHPAX60 or custom built. There's some benchmark out there that state the limit on 1G network is 8 x 1080p NDI stream? Anything more than this will exceed the theoretical bandwidth. So, it's a good practice to have a bigger network pipe and to leave some bandwidth for additional stuff.

Now coming back to using multiple NIC — it should be possible through some tweaking the priority and metric config (this is only possible for custom-built server). The downsize is, when there's any unintended tweaking changes, the NDI streams may not be discoverable through WATCHOUT or any other NDI tools on the custom-built server anymore.

[RBeddig]

10 hours ago, SteffVernier said:

I know that Watchout can't chose multiple NIC, so is there safe to say that watchout traffic AND NDI feed must be going trough the same NIC ?

Yes, while the NDI signal will use way more bandwidth than WATCHOUT.

10 hours ago, SteffVernier said:

Anyone already did 4 x 4k input ?

Not me. We have an installation where WATCHOUT is used as a seamless switcher to drive an LED screen with 5760x2160px and different sub-screen areas. The server has 4x HDMI 2.0 inputs for external sources and we have two 4K NDI streamers (Newtek Connect Spark Pro 4K to NDI) in the room. This worked so far but you need to consider bandwidth limitations.

What are your sources? Are we talking about NDI or NDI|HX?

Newtek writes in it's manual for the mentioned devices:  https://downloads.ndi.tv/Firmware/SparkPro/NewTek Connect Spark Pro Manual.pdf

Quote

Note: Multiple connections to UHD video can quickly saturate a gigabit network. Use the 4K option only when
it is really needed. And if many 4K connections are required, consider using the Multicast setting (although
this requires special care when configuring the network

Also read page 13 of the manual!

Pls. also read this nice article on NDI bandwidth: https://streamgeeks.us/how-much-bandwidth-do-i-need-for-ndi/

If you would talk about 4x NDI 1080p60 into 4 pictures on your WATCHOUT screen, you would need a network bandwidth of roughly 1Gbit/s without any headroom!

[SteffVernier]

Hi, 

Thanks for your responses.

It confirms me that I need to change all network pipeline for a 10gb one.

The 4 feeds would be coming from a touchdesigner.

There would be NDI as we want to keep the minimum latency.

 

 

[Walter]

On 4/4/2024 at 4:09 PM, SteffVernier said:

Hi, 

Thanks for your responses.

It confirms me that I need to change all network pipeline for a 10gb one.

The 4 feeds would be coming from a touchdesigner.

There would be NDI as we want to keep the minimum latency.

 

 

Remember though that WO7 supports multiple NIC setups