NewTek TriCaster TC1 (2 RU) - Manual (Page 323)

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NETWORK SETTINGS
FIGURE 375
Just beneath the Reset , Reboot and Restore controls in the Device Settings tab is a control group labeled
Network Settings , which is host to NDI Connection , Ethernet , and Local – Link settings.
NDI C ONNECTION
FIGURE 376
C ONNECTION : D EFAULT OR M ULTICAST
Although it serves no useful purpose when connecting directly to one of TriCaster TC Mini ’s dedicated NDI
inputs, this option may be helpful in some more sophisticated environments. Select Multicast to transmit
video using multicast, rather than the default unicast method. A suitable multicast address is generated, but
you can edit the result manually if you need to. To update the address to another random value, click
Generate .
Please take time to consider the following information before enabling this feature.
M ULTICAST OR U NICAST ?
Multicast can seem like a bandwidth-saving mira cle. Unlike NDI’s default mode (unicast), multicast does not
require a unique stream from the source to each receiver. When using unicast, each connection to the sender
reduces the bandwidth available by a similar amount.
By contrast, multicast connections do not add significantly to the bandwidth required as connections
multiply. You could be forgiven for wondering why anyone would ever turn this option off - yet, it is off by
default. Why?
This is because multicast requires more careful network configuration. While you might not notice any issues
in a simple network setting; a poorly configured environment can have serious impact on more complex
networks.
• Specifically, it is essential that IGMP snooping be enabled for each switch on the network. This lets
the device listen to traffic between other hosts, switches and routers, and identify receiving ports
using various IP multicast streams.