Connect an NDI source

NDI® lets you to transmit and receive low latency video over Gigabit Ethernet networks. Pearl-2 accepts multicast and unicast NDI video content, high efficiency NDI|HX, and supports Alpha channel.

Video and audio can come from a variety of NDI sources, including:

  • Remote NDI enabled PTZ cameras
  • Any NDI unaware HDMI/SDI source using an NDI converter
  • Webcams connected to remote computers using the NewTek Connect application
  • NDI output from IOS and Android mobile devices running the NewTek NDI camera app

Pearl-2 discovers and lists all available NDI resources on the same network. Simply choose which NDI source you want from a list. Optionally, you can search for specific NDI sources by name and NDI group. You can also discover specific NDI devices installed on different networks, subnets, and on networks that have mDNS disabled.

NDI devices that use versions earlier than NDI version 2.0 do not support remote resource discovery across subnets and are detected only when installed on the same local network as Pearl-2.

Pearl-2 shows up on the network as an NDI resource for other NDI devices to access as soon as an NDI stream is started on Pearl-2, see Start and stop an NDI stream.

Important considerations

  • For NDI to work properly, network ports 49152 to 65535 need to be open for two-way traffic. Contact your network administrator for assistance.
  • The network discovery port 5557 on Pearl-2 must be enabled (default), see Disable the network discovery port.
  • Pearl-2 supports up to six 1920×1080@30 fps inputs simultaneously. Up to three of those 1080@30 inputs can be from NDI sources.
  • Pearl-2 supports up to four 4K4K inputs simultaneously. One of those 4K inputs can be from an NDI source.
  • Pearl-2 accepts multicast and unicast NDI inputs.
  • Streaming an NDI output consumes about the equivalent of an encoded 1920×1080@30 fps channel on Pearl-2. For best performance, see Optimum CPU performance.
  • You can use NDI on wired and wireless networks; however, NDI video is bandwidth intensive. We recommend high efficiency NDI|HX for wireless networks, which has H.264 compression to help lower bandwidth consumption.

  • Depending on the video content, a single 1920×1080@30 fps NDI video source needs about 125 Mbps of dedicated bandwidth. A single 1920×1080@30 fps NDI|HX video source needs from 8 to 20 Mbps of dedicated bandwidth.

To connect an NDI source to Pearl-2:

  1. Login to the Admin panel as admin, see Connect to Admin panel.
  1. From the Inputs menu, click Add input. The Add input page opens with all available NDI resources listed.

  2. Do one of the following:
    1. If the NDI resource is listed, select Add beside an NDI resource to select it. The new NDI input details page opens.
    2. If the NDI resource is assigned to an NDI group, enter the group name and then click Discover to see a list of available NDI resources in that group. Select Add beside an NDI resource to select it.
    3. If a remote NDI resource is on a different network or subnet than Pearl-2, or the network has mDNS disabled, enter the IP address of the remote NDI resource in the Extra source IP addresses field, then click Discover. Use a comma to separate multiple IP addresses. Select Add beside an NDI resource to select it.
    4. If you want to add an NDI input to Pearl-2 without selecting an NDI resource, click Add NDI input. The new NDI input is added and a blank NDI input details page opens. You can search for and assign an NDI resource to it later.
  1. (Optional) On the NDI input details page, check Ignore timecode to configure Pearl-2 to ignore any timecode information in the NDI signal. This is useful if the NDI source doesn't send a timecode or if the source's timecode is unstable.

  2. Click Apply.

After your NDI source is connected, you can view basic video and audio signal information and packet loss statistics for the source under the Status header at the top of the page. Any warnings or errors associated with the NDI signal are also displayed there.