I am trying to use NDI cam on a iPad Mini into vmix as a sideline camera and audio interview device at local basketball games. I'm having tons of problems with video stuttering and audio dropping in and out I have a net gear router connected to the vita mix computer via cat five and the iPad says it has plenty of signal. My question is do I need a gigabit router to solve this issue? Even with low bandwidth checked the problem still exists. If the router is my issue does anyone have any suggestions on something they've used that works well and gets some decent distance/range?

Plug your ipad with an ethernet cable to the network and it will work.

You can get a USB to Ethernet adaptor for iPad or iPhone

Thanks Kelvin...you are correct. I'm using the NewTek app, connected wirelessly to a netgear router, which is connected to my vMix pc via cat 5. It's the ONLY device on this private network. My guess is that it's a bandwidth issue. I'm looking for confirmation of this and what the solution might be...meaning appropriate wireless/wired router that will give the iPad the bandwidth it needs to send over quality audio and smooth video via NDI.

When working with wireless there are a lot factors to deal with.

What level of WiFi are you working with? I highly recommend going with 802.11ac, but nothing less than wireless N. Of course, your devices need to also support the level of wireless you want to use as well. I'd also recommend a base station with gigabit Ethernet ports on it.

Then you have spectrum, 2.4G and 5G are the options with current equipment. 2.4G tends to be more congested, so you might try using 5G to see if that helps. 5G will also allow for higher speeds. But on the flip side, 2.4G tends to work better over longer ranges and better thru walls.

WiFi base stations that have MIMO (multiple input multiple output) can perform better, these are typically WiFi base stations with multiple antennas. Usually more antennas will be better.

The manufacturer the of the base station can come into play as well. Some WiFi solutions are just better than others. Typically the more expensive solutions will work better, I would avoid the cheap $30 unit and try to get something a bit higher end. While the cheap unit might be fine for email and surfing the web, you are really pushing WiFi to its limits when trying to use NDI with it.

The last thing (and hardest to work around) is just the number of devices in the area. If this is an a stadium or gymnasium filled with people you will probably have problems no matter what you do. When you have large group people all with cell phones looking for WiFi signals, the spectrum is so congested with all of the 'noise' that you aren't going to get a good high quality signal. In these cases you need to go with a wired solution.

Kane Peterson
NewTek