This is especially powerful on a local network (LAN), where low-latency is critical for tasks like providing real-time confidence monitoring for presenters on smart TVs, streaming to directors on iPads during live shoots, or sharing live feeds with production teams across multiple rooms. And while it’s optimized for LAN use, the system can also extend its reach to a wide-area network (WAN), making it a versatile solution for hybrid workflows where some team members might be working remotely.
With the added muscle of NVIDIA graphics cards, Central Control can handle multiple 4K60 streams simultaneously, making it ideal for demanding environments. Whether you’re streaming to a dozen smart TVs for real-time feedback or enabling remote operators to view NDI feeds from any device, the power of GPU ensures smooth, reliable performance. It’s an efficient, cost-effective way to extend your video streams across your production ecosystem without the hassle of additional decoders or infrastructure.
Let’s take a look at how we get this setup.
- Let’s start with a blank Central Control project, and add the Connect module to the project by clicking add device and searching for Connect, and choosing Connect (NDI).
- Now we’ve added the module, let’s take a look at the parameters it provides. The first one is quite self explantory and allows you to select the NDI source, followed by a parameter to
select the low bandwidth 640×360 version of the source. The next allows you to select the resolution and frame rate. While Connect is capable of converting resolutions and frame rates on the fly, for performance it’s best to match it to the source as closely as possible. Then, the last two are related to the encoding of the video stream. Firstly, a quality parameter to adjust the bitrate of the WebRTC stream, and lastly, a selection to select the encoding device. You can use either CPU or any NVIDIA cards within your device. For best performance the use the NVIDIA GPU. Once all the parameters have been set to your liking, you can now enable the module by clicking the toggle. - Once we’ve enabled the module, we are streaming and the only thing that remains is to access our WebRTC stream! Central Control makes this easy for us. On the module itself, click the “Connect” button. This will open a window that allows us to create links and QR codes to view our stream on our devices. To create our link/QR code, first select the applicable IP address (the default will be your 1st LAN IP), and then select the stream you wish to generate the link for. If you have multiple Connect modules they will all be shown here. Once you’ve selected this, either click the “Copy Link” to copy the link to your stream to the clipboard.
And that’s it! You can use as many Connect modules in your project as you like (bandwidth and computing power allowing!) to provide different streams for different devices. Central Control Connect is available in Central Control Studio MAX and NEO.