Several years ago, a name began to ring loudly in control rooms and broadcasting studios: NDI (Network Device Interface). This protocol forever changed the way we send video over a network. All of a sudden, an Ethernet cable was enough to move multiple high-definition signals, with minimal latency and without the need for dedicated SDI cards. For many it was like opening a door to a more agile and flexible future

*This content is included in the September issue of TM BROADCAST. You can access the full magazine here.

By Alonso Valdivia, Technical Specialist for AVoIP Broadcasting

But like everything in this technological world, new technologies are always springing up. A new name promises to do the same, but with a twist that could turn it into a game changer. That name is OMT – Open Media Transport.

The old-timer: NDI and its IP video reign

NDI was born in 2015 from the hand of NewTek and quickly became the protocol of choice for production over IP. Its strength was practicity: very low latency, automatic discovery of sources on the network, support for hundreds of products and a friendly learning curve. A 10GbE network was no longer required to move 4K video, a Gigabit was enough.

Over time, NDI established itself as a standard in broadcast workflows, sports, corporate streaming, and even in educational production. However, behind this apparent universality there was a detail that never went unnoticed: NDI is a proprietary system. It is based on a closed SDK and controlled by Vizrt, the company that acquired NewTek.

The new rival: what is OMT and why is it a threat to the giant?

OMT (Open Media Transport) is a royalty-free, open-source IP video protocol licensed under MIT. It was born in 2025, driven by the community, and relies on a strong participation of developers linked to vMix and Sienna, two companies that had historically built solutions based on NDI.

The comparison with NDI is inevitable as they both pursue the same goal: to send high-quality video and audio over a common network, with minimal latency and without relying on proprietary hardware. In essence, OMT wants to be what NDI was in 2015, but this time without any padlocks.

Hence the narrative that is so exciting for many: what if OMT becomes the “free NDI” that everyone was expecting?

OMT (Open Media Transport) is a royalty-free, open-source IP video protocol licensed under MIT

OMT’s weapons: technical specifications

Let’s tell the story from the technical side, because that’s where OMT poses itself as a serious rival.

OMT uses a lightweight codec designed for minimal latency. It supports 4:2:2 video as a standard production format, but also supports variants such as 4:4:4 with alpha and depths of up to 16 bits per channel, thus making it suitable for both broadcast environments and demanding HDR and graphics streams with transparency.

As for audio, OMT broadcasts in uncompressed floating 32-bit PCM, with up to 32 channels per stream, making it suitable for complex productions.

Bandwidth is a key issue. OMT offers three quality settings (Low, Medium and High), which adjust compression according to network needs. Approximate values are:

Table 1. Approximate OMT bitrates depending on resolution and quality.

These figures show its versatility: it can be more efficient than NDI in certain scenarios, or scale up to higher quality if the network so permits. Latency remains in the range of less than one frame, which is comparable to the NDI experience.

OMT also features automatic discovery by using DNS-SD (similar to Bonjour) and allows to attach XML metadata synchronized by frame, which is useful for tally, subtitles or automation. All this comes with the benefit that anyone can read, adapt and improve the code.

As for the protocol, it relies exclusively on TCP unicast connections, which ensures reliability and simplicity in small or medium-size networks. However, this scheme implies that each receiver requires its own flow, thus resulting in increased bandwidth consumption as the number of destinations grows. This is unlike NDI, which can operate in multicast mode and distribute a single stream to multiple receivers more efficiently on large-scale projects.

NDI has a ten-year head start, a gigantic ecosystem, and strong business backing. For large-scale productions, it’s still the safe choice

The battlefield: where to try OMT nowadays

A technological promise is worth little if it cannot be tweaked. And here OMT begins to demonstrate that it is more than just a concept.

• vMix 29 already features native support for sending and receiving OMT streams, which makes it a key platform for testing in professional environments.
• OBS Studio has an official plugin based on FFmpeg that allows OMT to be easily integrated, both for sending and receiving.
• Sienna released free apps (Free OMT Tools), some of which are very similar to what we have in NDI tools.
• In addition, patches for FFmpeg open the door for applications such as VLC to adopt OMT in a short timeframe.

In regard to dedicated hardware, there are no cameras or switches equipped with built-in OMT yet, but as it is open-source, any manufacturer can implement it without restrictions. It is not unreasonable to think that we will soon see firmware updates announcing compatibility.

In regard to dedicated hardware, there are no cameras or switches equipped with built-in OMT yet, but as it is open-source, any manufacturer can implement it without restrictions

Can OMT overthrow NDI?

Here is where the story gets interesting. Can OMT overthrow NDI? The honest answer is: not yet.

NDI has a ten-year head start, a gigantic ecosystem, and strong business backing. For large-scale productions, it’s still the safe choice.

But OMT has already planted its banner: it is open, flexible and responds to a real need of the industry. It is likely that during the next few years both systems will coexist. NDI as the well-established king of mass productions, and OMT as the young challenger that is making headway into medium-size, educational or experimental projects. With a broad level of adoption, it could well end up taking the place of the prevailing standard.

So the next time you hear about OMT, think of it not as the immediate replacement for NDI, but as the start of a new chapter. A chapter where community, transparency and open-source code come into play to shape the future of IP video.

OMT has already planted its banner: it is open, flexible and responds to a real need of the industry. It is likely that during the next few years both systems will coexist