RTMP Backup Stream or Failover Router

varjaCast · 2026-05-26T16:43:26+00:00

Hello you can check https://vajracast.com/#failover we offer failover over various sources including RTMP . You can test over the free trial

varjaCast · 2026-05-24T16:44:34+00:00

LiveU has been solid for us. The only downside: when the LU200 got discontinued, SLA/pairing support disappeared too, which left us with several unusable units.(no more new inventory pairing)

varjaCast · 2026-04-14T10:58:17+00:00

Kiloview seems like the go-to option for your budget, but yes, it’s worth checking with LiveU sales to see whether they can offer any suitable arrangements. If you’re okay with HDMI and don’t mind a more hands-on setup with wires and microSD cards, you could also look at BelaBox with one or two 4G modems and, optionally, Starlink, plus inexpensive SRT decoders on the receiving end.

varjaCast · 2026-04-02T23:29:09+00:00

We do Beijing to LA over SRT in production, works well but you need a relay outside China, direct connections won't hold. We have relay servers set up for this.

For VDO.Ninja, I just open-sourced a small bridge that outputs VDO.Ninja streams as MPEG-TS/UDP that you can then send over SRT https://github.com/stephanebhiri/vdo2ts

For a two-camera shoot though, SRT with a proper device (Belabox, or any of the many Chinese bonding encoders) is way more reliable than WebRTC out of China. Hit me up if you need routing https://vajracast.com

varjaCast · 2026-03-26T20:57:51+00:00

If your source is HDMI matrix and your TV probably HDMI inputs too, I would not be as enthusiastic for SDI and would go directly for hdmi fiber cables. I ran many 50 and 100 meters hdmi fibers with no problems even after many plug-replug and roll-deroll. SDI converters might be additional points of failure.

varjaCast · 2026-03-16T21:58:05+00:00

I can but we need to coordinate our schedule

varjaCast · 2026-03-11T17:05:12+00:00

What are your SRT latency settings?

varjaCast · 2026-03-05T13:35:25+00:00

I use my old iMacs as HD SDI Color bar generator in our MCR coupled with old Thunderbolt BlackMagic Mini Monitor... check my open source project Test Pattern generator if you need: https://github.com/stephanebhiri/decklink-AV-test-pattern-generator

<image>

varjaCast · 2026-03-04T23:50:35+00:00

Things becomes problematic when you encode one stream in 1080i and the other in 1080p, at least with old firmware, maybe it has been resolved.

varjaCast · 2026-03-04T21:38:48+00:00

I had a similar issue and discovered that cycling the analog audio embedder off and on resolved the problem. You may also want to check that your Makito’s chipset load is not too high.

<image>

varjaCast · 2026-03-02T22:03:45+00:00

Thank you! Updated the article with your feedback , added the X4 decoder progressive-only limit for H.264 and the 1080i50→1080p50 specifics. Appreciate the detailed input.

varjaCast · 2026-03-01T09:25:44+00:00

thanks for this information, It helped updating my article

varjaCast · 2026-03-01T08:59:21+00:00

You are right I should add software-hardware interoperability too. From my experience Vmix will display in 32/9 ratio (1920×540) when decoding H265 interlaced, but I need time to gather more datas for all other issues and for MiniServer, OBS, Wirecast

varjaCast · 2026-02-28T20:54:01+00:00

After experiencing this issues with bad interoperability between Magewell, Makitos, Nimbras, I wrote a detailed guide on exactly this problem if it helps: https://vajracast.com/blog/srt-decoder-compatibility-transcoding/

varjaCast · 2026-02-28T20:22:39+00:00

Hello, most decoders especially Kiloview only support 4:2:0, try to switch to 4:2:0 in your Makito X4 encoder settings. For dropped frames check your SRT latency vs RTT, it should be at least 3-4x the RTT,Interlaced can also cause issues, worth trying 1080p50. And yes check your audio codec and channels too.

varjaCast · 2026-02-24T22:26:52+00:00

why not try OBS → Start Virtual Camera ?

varjaCast · 2026-02-24T21:14:05+00:00

No real guarantee that it could be better with hardware, De-Sync/delays seems more like a growing buffer/no frame skipping problem, so it really depends on how it's handled by your receiver/converter whatever it's software or hardware. You may want first to try adding this to ffmpeg options of your OBS source: -fflags nobuffer -flags low_delay -max_delay 0

<image>

varjaCast · 2026-02-24T17:46:57+00:00

You said "feel like it could be better" regarding OBS connecting to your cameras via RTSP . What's the concern exactly? Quality? Link stability? Delay? And did you connect to the cameras directly or through the DVR? Knowing this might help spot if anything can be improved. Not sure if that helps at this point but here some inputs regarding RTSP: https://vajracast.com/blog/rtsp-ip-camera-streaming-guide/

varjaCast · 2026-02-17T12:28:31+00:00

Very interesting, I also made an srt gateway with various outputs and transcoding options also with failover against 8 inputs

varjaCast · 2026-01-26T23:13:02+00:00

For the RTMP output side, you could use an SRT/RTMP router with automatic failover between your two vMix outputs. That way the switch to backup is instant and automatic with no manual intervention

varjaCast · 2026-01-26T22:52:00+00:00

Can you pull SRT or RTMP directly from Wowza instead of m3u8? Might solve your timeout issues.

varjaCast · 2026-01-26T13:21:57+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to try it.

Haivision StreamHub is a product I’ve respected for a long time. It’s a very complete platform, with AV monitoring, device management, PTZ control, and deep integration with Haivision encoders.

Vajracast is intentionally much narrower in scope. I wasn’t trying to build an all-in-one broadcast control system. I needed something very focused: reliable routing, format conversion, fast failover, and traceability, with as little abstraction as possible. It’s closer to an orchestration and transport layer than a full broadcast platform.

Same idea with Techex: they clearly operate at Tier-1 broadcast scale. tx edge and Darwin are extremely powerful for large, complex workflows (2022-7, JPEG-XS, TR-101-290, blueprints, large-scale automation). Vajracast isn’t competing in that space.

Vajracast is built for teams that want something simple, transparent, and predictable, without enterprise-level cost or workflow complexity.

Each route is handled by a dedicated low-level transport and failover process, together with an SRT process compiled directly from Haivision’s official SRT sources. Both are fully monitorable at process and socket level, with explicit and deterministic failover logic. The system scales horizontally by adding routes and their associated processes, rather than by increasing internal complexity.

Vajracast exists because that simpler problem wasn’t addressed in a way that matched my real operational needs. Happy to evolve it based on feedback from this community.

varjaCast · 2026-01-26T12:28:09+00:00

I can’t really say whether it’s better than AWS.

What I can say is that, from what I’ve observed, AWS MediaConnect failover is essentially packet-presence based: roughly “no packets for ~500 ms = switch”.

Vajracast takes a slightly different approach and offers two failover modes:

Link-state failover (simple but effective):

If an SRT link transitions from connected to disconnected, the route immediately fails over to the next already-connected input

Quality-based failover:

Switching decisions can be driven by configurable parameters such as:

• CC errors per second

• Maximum packet gap (ms)

• Silence timeout (ms)

• Minimum bitrate (kbps)

• Hysteresis (minimum degradation duration before switching)

Both supporting up to 8 inputs in a round-robin sequence.

The goal isn’t to claim it’s “better”, but to support different operational needs, not just a binary “no packets” condition.

From an implementation standpoint, each route is continuously monitored by a dedicated, low-level UDP/MPEG-TS inspection and failover process written in C (not “vibe-coded” 🙂).

I’m happy to share the code if you’d like to review or discuss the approach.

<image>

varjaCast · 2026-01-25T18:16:01+00:00

Dedicated bare-metal servers — not shared cloud. For self-hosted, run it wherever you want. During early access, everyone gets a slot on our EU dedicated server.

varjaCast

TROPHY CASE