VSF Enhances RIST Protocol with Decoder Synchronization and Multicast Discovery Features

08 February 2024 – The Video Services Forum (VSF) has released two new ancillary features to enhance the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating Decoder Synchronization and Multicast Discovery.

Detailed in TR-06-4 Part 4, the Decoder Synchronization, the fourth in a series of ancillary features for RIST specifications, provides a way to synchronize the decoder playback when multiple encoders are transmitting signals to multiple decoders over IP for applications such as live sport or worship.

When multiple cameras are in use at live events or for worship in remote locations, their feeds need to be played back in a synchronized fashion.  TR-06-4 Part 4 provides a common specification to achieve this, supporting an arbitrary number of encoders and decoders.

The fifth ancillary feature detailed in TR-06-4 Part 5, Multicast Discovery provides a simplified way to manage multicast traffic over RIST tunnels, to avoid unnecessarily sending streams to receivers not interested in them, thus saving bandwidth.

Dr. Ciro Noronha, President of The RIST Forum, commented: “The number of RIST-enabled solutions on the market continues to increase. With these latest releases covering decoder synchronization and multicast discovery, RIST can now be implemented into many more products covering each part of the contribution and distribution workflow.”

VSF has also announced the release of the 2023 version of the RIST Protocol Specification: Main Profile, TR-06-2.  This is a minor update to correct some editorial issues.

The RIST protocol is designed to reliably transport video over over unmanaged networks such as the Internet. It provides an open, interoperable, and technically robust solution for low latency video contribution. It can be used for any use case where video needs to be transported over the Internet, but is typically used for professional media workflows, such as news and sports contribution, remote production, affiliate distribution and primary distribution.

Technical recommendations are freely available from the VSF website for all to download and to use.

At VidTrans24 Ciro Noronha will provide an overview of RIST Multicast Discovery, and  Merrick Ackermans, the RIST AG Chairman, will provide an update on the ongoing RIST Specifications.