NDI Output: Route Any Stream to NDI on Your Local Network

NDI Output: From IP Streams to Studio Gear

NDI (Network Device Interface) is the standard for moving video between devices on a local network. Production switchers, graphics engines, multiviewers, and monitoring software all speak NDI. If it is on your LAN, NDI discovers it automatically.

Vajra Cast now includes NDI output — any incoming stream (SRT, RTMP, RTSP, HLS, HTTP/TS, UDP) can be converted to an NDI source visible to every NDI-compatible device on your network. This is an on-premise feature available on self-hosted deployments.

Why NDI Output Matters

The problem: your remote feeds arrive via SRT or RTMP, but your production switcher (TriCaster, vMix, Vizrt) expects NDI sources. Previously, you needed a separate hardware converter or a dedicated machine running NDI Bridge.

With Vajra Cast’s NDI output, the gateway itself becomes the bridge. Each route can expose an NDI source with a custom name that appears automatically in every NDI finder on the network.

Remote encoder ──SRT──> Vajra Cast ──NDI──> TriCaster / vMix / Vizrt
IP camera ──RTSP──> Vajra Cast ──NDI──> Graphics engine
CDN feed ──HLS──> Vajra Cast ──NDI──> Multiviewer

No extra hardware. No manual IP configuration. NDI’s zero-config mDNS discovery handles it.

How It Works

Vajra Cast uses a GStreamer pipeline with the NDI SDK to decode the incoming stream and output uncompressed UYVY video as an NDI source.

Under the hood:

1. The incoming stream (SRT, RTMP, RTSP, etc.) arrives at a Vajra Cast route
2. The stream is decoded from its compressed format (H.264/H.265)
3. The decoded frames are passed to the NDI sink with a configurable source name
4. Every NDI finder on the network discovers Vajracast-{routeName} automatically

Configuration

In the Vajra Cast web UI:

1. Create or edit a route
2. Add an output of type NDI
3. Set the NDI source name (defaults to the route name)
4. Start the route

The NDI source appears immediately in any NDI-compatible application on the same network.

Requirements

On-Premise Only

NDI output is available exclusively on self-hosted Vajra Cast deployments. It is not available on the managed (cloud) plan.

This is by design. NDI operates over multicast/unicast on local networks — it is not designed for internet transport. The NDI source needs to be on the same LAN (or bridged VLAN) as the receiving devices.

For remote transport, use SRT or SRTLA. For local studio integration, use NDI.

Use Cases

Remote Production with Local NDI Delivery

Receive SRT streams from remote encoders and expose them as NDI sources for your local production switcher. Your TriCaster or vMix sees them as native NDI inputs — same as if the cameras were in the building.

IP Camera to NDI Conversion

Pull from RTSP IP cameras and convert to NDI. Your production team works with NDI sources in their switcher instead of dealing with RTSP URLs and decoder boxes.

Multi-Site Aggregation

Receive feeds from multiple remote sites via SRT, apply failover between redundant feeds, and output the winning source as NDI. Your switcher operator sees one stable NDI source per feed — the failover logic is invisible.

Monitoring and Multiview

Route any stream to NDI for display on NDI-compatible multiviewers (NDI Monitor, Sienna NDI Monitor, vMix multiview). Useful for engineering monitoring of incoming feeds.

NDI vs ST 2110

Both are local network protocols for video, but they serve different tiers:

Choose NDI when you want plug-and-play on standard Gigabit Ethernet. Choose ST 2110 when you need broadcast-grade uncompressed video on a dedicated 10GbE fabric.

Vajra Cast supports both as on-premise outputs.

Bandwidth Considerations

NDI uses compression (SpeedHQ codec), so bandwidth requirements are much lower than uncompressed:

This fits comfortably on Gigabit Ethernet. Multiple NDI streams can share the same network infrastructure without dedicated switches.

Summary

NDI output turns Vajra Cast into a protocol bridge between the IP streaming world (SRT, RTMP, RTSP) and the studio production world (NDI). Any incoming stream becomes an NDI source, discoverable by every device on your LAN, with no extra hardware and no licensing fees.

Available on self-hosted deployments only. Combine with ST 2110 output for broadcast-grade uncompressed delivery on the same gateway.