RIST Tunnelling Enables Advanced Remote Control
‘RIST Tunneling Enables Advanced Remote Control’
The broadcast industry has worked hard to develop and implement transport protocols that address the challenges associated with transporting broadcast grade video content over IP, particularly around latency, reliability, and security.
Although these transport protocols essentially share the same purpose to securely transport video over the internet with its quality intact, the protocols don’t all work in the same way. Therefore, they don’t all offer the same benefits.
RIST (Reliable Internet Stream Transport) is one such transport protocol and one of the significant differences between RIST and other transport protocols is that it features a tunnelling capability that enables multiple streams to travel in any direction.
Enhanced Tunnelling Functionality
RIST is available across three profiles, basic, main, and advanced, each of which enables video to be sent over IP without loss of quality. Each profile has been developed to provide additional security, features, and functionality.
Both RIST Main and Advanced Profiles provide bidirectional tunnelling capabilities, which allows broadcasters the ability to remotely control devices such as encoders, decoders, and PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) cameras. RIST's tunnelling capabilities offer a comprehensive solution for secure and reliable transport of broadcast content and data. The tunnels support not just audio and video, but any IP-based protocols between two RIST peers. This makes it suitable for camera control traffic.
For scenarios where operators require two-way audio and full camera control, such as productions using robotic cameras, the bidirectional capabilities that the RIST tunnel provides enables those cameras to be operated remotely.
Reliable and Secure Remote Control
To address the challenge of variable network conditions, RIST employs Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) and Forward Error Correction (FEC) mechanisms to ensure data reliability, even in challenging network conditions. Advanced Profile extends this support to any existing protocol, making it a flexible choice for various applications and industries.
RIST Advanced Profile provides transparent fragmentation, which enables it to efficiently handle large data packets by breaking them into smaller, manageable pieces. This ensures that even in the face of network challenges, content remains intact and arrives as intended. Additionally, lossless compression algorithms ensure that data is transmitted without any compromise in quality. The advanced profile offers optional support for lossless data compression, using the LZ4 algorithm.
To ensure data integrity, RIST incorporates new ciphers and payload hashing techniques, to provide an extra layer of confidence. It also utilizes direct payload transport and maintains a protocol registry, simplifying the process of identifying and managing data within the system.
Recognizing that alongside reliability, efficiency is key, RIST reduces the size of packet headers to optimize data transport while minimizing overhead. The protocol also introduces the concept of flow attributes, which helps define and manage the characteristics of data streams, ensuring that each stream is handled appropriately.
For broadcast content, and particularly valuable broadcast content, maintaining security throughout the process, from end to end, is critical. While the RIST Simple Profile is intended for those use cases where video can be transported over the internet without security, the RIST Main Profile adds encryption and authentication, making it a more secure option. It also offers DTLS and PSK for additional security.
Empowering Broadcasters and Content Producers Worldwide
Through its enhanced tunnelling capabilities, RIST is providing broadcasters and content producers with reliable remote control of critical devices. Whether you're broadcasting from a bustling city or producing content in remote corners of the world, RIST can empower you to do it with confidence.
The number of products that are RIST-enabled is constantly expanding as more vendors implement it in their equipment across all parts of the contribution and distribution workflow. For more information about RIST-enabled products or to find out about becoming a RIST member, get in touch.