NDI isses with subnets

[RWillats]

Hi all,

I'm working on a project that requires live video to be sent from a small set element that moves on and off stage to the operating laptop at the back of the theatre. My plan has been to use NDI (from NDI HX on a phone) over the in-house WiFi reserved for the theatre's tech. The trouble is, sometimes the feed shows up and is stable, and sometimes I can't find the NDI source at all. I believe this might be happening because there are multiple subnets to their WiFi (?). Is there a way to guarantee the operating computer and this phone are on the same subnet? If it helps, they're both Apple products with the same Apple ID.

Best,

Rory

[eamon]

Hi

Imy not be able to answer your query ref subnets. I am not 100% sure what you mean here.

My take on this is that you are using an existing installed wifi network not of your design. There may be many options in this set up that do not play well with your intentions.

Would it be a thing that you use your own router/access point that is dedicated only to your needs. My thought would be to install the router/AP as near to the iphone as necessary with a Cat 6a cable ran direct to the laptop or switch into laptop. This way you could set all your IP/Subnet ranges as you need? 

I think you should re-look at using the wifi network belonging to the theatre and concentrate on creating your own. Depending on the actual items, it might not be that expensive.

There are plenty of users here that could offer advice on brands and set ups. Some routers are better than others for connectivity and the performance use.

iphones are painful for their incessant need to dial up the mothership.This is one of the reasons I gave up on them. They will constantly hop off your bespoke network to find a way to dial home. It is very annoying to be honest and I have wasted so much time forcing the device back onto my own network.

It looks like if you cannot edit/control the wifi source in the building so you are better off changing up how you control all with your own network. It also sounds like you are connecting via DHCP and there are multiple subnets on the network which is probably adding to the confusion...?

You should be giving yourself a static range for both devices. Without knowing any particulars, it might be a great deal easier to configure your own little WiFi set up here. 

Hope this helps.

eamon

[Fred]

@rwillats A dedicated wifi that you control is the only way to go. I like UNIFI products - they are designed to work from the ceiling and can be attached to a clamp to hang on a lighting bar or truss easily.

Get the biggest bandwidth you can - connect all computers via LAN and use the config software to scan for the best free frequencies.

The Unifi U7 has pro/max and long range versions if you want long range.

You will want a controller and router with that too - the cloud gateway ultra is the smallest and cheapest. 

Together these give the flexibility, control and throughput you need to have reliable wireless on stage.

BUT I also doubt you will be experiencing issues with a sub net unless there is some really big config issues or the devices are connecting to different networks (many theaters have a public wifi, an admin and a tech - on all the devices make sure you forget all of them except for the tech wifi you are using. Next turn off the SIM based internet. iPhones have a feature that will switch the network to the sim card if it thinks the internet there is faster - this will mess up your wifi network too. Depending on the config of the in house system you can make manual IP addresses on your devices and have them reserved in the in house wifi matching the mac addresses (be sure to turn off the wandering mac address feature on ios/mac os.

Getting any settings changed on the in house network infrastructure is often impossible  - ergot it is way easier to bring your own isolated network you can tune to your needs.

Fred

[Woland]

@fred said:

Getting any settings changed on the in house network infrastructure is often impossible  - ergot it is way easier to bring your own isolated network you can tune to your needs.

Just a warning that I've run into educational institutions with ironclad security where I've not been allowed to set up my own network, even if it's not connected to their network nor the internet.

[RWillats]

This is all very helpful, thank you! 

and @woland , I bump into this quite regularly. An ongoing challenge when teaching projection work. 

[Woland]

@rwillats said:

I bump into this quite regularly. An ongoing challenge when teaching projection work. 

I once did some work for an academic institution and found out that a different department than the one I was working for had just purchased a bunch of Rokoko SmartSuits. The SmartSuits require a wifi network to work, and the university would neither allow the department to connect the suits to an existing network, nor set up a separate network, so they basically had US$10k+ worth of electronic paperweights.

[RWillats]

@woland

Yikes!

[Woland]

@rwillats

Also worth noting that with newer iPhones and newer Apple computers that are on the same iCloud account, the iPhone will just show up as a camera source in Input > Live Capture. I think they communicate over Bluetooth, but I can't say for sure how they're talking to each other. I just ran into this while assisting with a workshop last week where the participants had newer phones and computers than I did 

[RWillats]

@woland

The apple integration connection is so great when you can use it. Low-latency and high resolution. In this case, the local network has worked (thank you all).