06 August 2024 – The Video Services Forum (VSF) has released the latest ancillary feature to enhance the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol for Multi-Program Transport Streams (MPTS) when sending MPEG Transport Streams.
Detailed in TR-06-4 Part 6, RIST Transport Stream Program Selection creates a mechanism for the RIST Receiver to tell the RIST Sender what content it needs. Using existing backward-compatible extensions to RIST Main Profile (TR-06-2) and RIST Advanced Profile (TR-06-3) the method enables the RIST Sender to only transmit the programs and/or PIDs required by the RIST Receiver, which saves network bandwidth by removing the need to transmit unnecessary programs or PIDs. The specification defines an extension to the RIST Main Profile Keep-Alive message that supports per-flow program selection.
Dr. Ciro Noronha, President of The RIST Forum, commented: “The latest ancillary feature optimizes network bandwidth usage by allowing the RIST Receiver to tell the Sender what content it needs, avoiding unnecessary transmission. This is another step in meeting the growing demand for interoperable reliable content transport solutions.”
VSF has also announced minor updates to RIST Advanced Profile, TR-06-3 and RIST Main Profile, TR-06-2 to mitigate the risk of excessive CPU utilization under some conditions.
The RIST protocol is designed to reliably transport video 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.