ITVDesk External media source and SRT support

ITVDesk supports the Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) protocol, an innovative open-source Internet transmission standard designed for the efficient and secure delivery of high-quality, low-latency video streams across unstable networks. Developed through the collaboration between Haivision and Wowza, SRT is at the forefront of ensuring interoperable video streaming solutions, offering a robust framework for real-time network video transmission.

### Understanding SRT in ITVDesk

SRT enhances the UDP-based Data Transfer (UDT) protocol, retaining its core principles while introducing significant advancements. These include real-time flow control for audio and video, improved congestion and encryption mechanisms, and forward error correction (FEC) for heightened reliability. The protocol is engineered to address the challenges of secure, reliable, and low-latency video streaming.

### Key Features of SRT:

- **Security**: SRT employs AES encryption, safeguarding end-to-end video transmission and ensuring that your content remains secure against unauthorized access.
- **Reliability**: Leveraging FEC technology, SRT guarantees stable transmission across varying network conditions, effectively managing packet loss, jitter, and bandwidth fluctuations.
- **Low Latency**: Built on the UDP protocol, SRT overcomes the latency issues associated with TCP, supporting real-time transmission of high-definition video without delay.

### Advantages of Using SRT with ITVDesk:

- **Network Resilience**: SRT is optimized for any network environment, offering reliable performance despite packet loss, jitter, and bandwidth variability.
- **Optimized Latency**: By utilizing UDP and ARQ (Automatic Repeat reQuest) for packet loss recovery, SRT ensures transmission delays are kept to a minimum, generally below one second.
- **Superior Video Quality**: Thanks to its sophisticated transmission and error correction mechanisms, SRT can deliver higher bitrate video streams, ensuring excellent video quality even in suboptimal network conditions. Compatibility with efficient encoding formats like H.264 and HEVC further enhances video quality.
- **Efficient Bandwidth Use**: SRT's network-adaptive encoding and ARQ packet loss recovery mechanisms optimize bandwidth usage, reducing network congestion and improving the overall streaming experience.
- **Open Source and Cost-Effective**: As a completely free and open-source protocol, SRT offers a cost-effective solution for secure and reliable video streaming, free from licensing fees or proprietary restrictions.

### Limitations of SRT:

While SRT excels in point-to-point transmissions, ensuring high-quality, low-latency, and reliable delivery, it is less suited for distributing content to a broad audience. The protocol operates over a bidirectional UDP connection, optimized for direct, point-to-point scenarios rather than widespread content distribution.

By integrating SRT, ITVDesk enhances its capability to provide a secure, reliable, and low-latency External medial video streaming service. This addition ensures that users can expect the highest quality video transmission, even in challenging network conditions, cementing ITVDesk's position as a versatile and robust surveillance solution.