APOLOGIES - this will be a long one - but hopefully make sense.
Predominately the below refers to OB's where we are videoing Sports (Australian Rules) - and doing live scores, Graphics, etc.
We have a situation where we built our own RTMP Relay server - similar to Restream, etc. which works fine most of the time...However we find more and more recently - when the internet for our Outside Broadcast location is questionable (Thanks Telstra 5G,) the Ingress RTMP to the server from our OB VMIX - can cut out, and sometimes fail to come back.
Our Main stream each weekend has a FULL VMIX PC doing all the graphics, replays, etc. then Pushing to the RTMP Server, and that server then relaying to YT, FB, etc. So it is Vmix-RTMP > RTMP-Server > YT,YT,FB
For some of our other Live Stream games - to date with those devices - we stream in via RTMP to the RTMP Server, Vmix on a "control PC" picks up the RTMP Source as an input, and we also then control APIs and a JSON datasource to overlay Score graphics automatically from an App the camera operator uses on-site. This means it can be a 1 Person job on-site, and all happens automatically.
RTMP has worked ok there - but last night it failed dramatically. EVEN though RTMP from the device was hitting the RTMP Server with ZERO dropped frames, VMIX was struggling to pull the RTMP Feed.
THEN I discovered SRT, and did some tests, it is Definitely a Winner...and looks like we can easily use it. Instead of the intermediary RTMP Server - we have added a NAT rule for SRT Direct to the Control PC - added an SRT Listener, and as soon as we press GO on the Atomos Connect, etc. it shows up instantly in VMIX. GREAT - that will work perfect for the lower level OB.
With the MAIN OB though - I want to still use VMIX on-site, as we often Mix different inputs, and also do replays, etc. The Issue is - the Custom Stream Options do NOT include SRT.
I found somewhere to do it - and it seems to work...but...it seems like it is designed for something else.
Namely - if I go to Outputs, I can see SRT as an Output for each of the Outputs, 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on and Can individually set an IP, Port, Bitrate, all that...
and then just tick the tick box to change the Output to go live...But it certainly doesn't have the same Feel as having the Stream button RED in your face, or Yellow and blinking when it starts to fail.
It seems the SRT Output function is nominally designed for feeding Local/Closed-loop or Permanently UP systems.
For our situation I may setup an OB at say 10 in the morning, do a Stream test with RMTP - make sure it works, then shut it down. Whereas if SRT Enable is more of an Always On feature - that could result in an excess of Data
Is anyone else using SRT communication VMIX to VMIX, and more specifically Across a WAN link?
More-over - is there any chance of there being a Custom SRT Stream Option ?!
(or am I just missing seeing an option...apparently the other Shall-not-be-named product has had SRT streaming since v27, and been considered "1st class option since 30+)
