What Network Does a Church Need for NDI?

The network is the new video cable

With NDI, the network carries your video. That’s what makes it affordable and flexible, and it’s also why the network deserves a little planning. The good news: a church-sized NDI network is ordinary, affordable equipment, not broadcast gear.

The checklist

1. Wired, gigabit, everywhere it matters

Every NDI device, including cameras, encoders, decoders and the production computer, should be on a wired gigabit connection. Wi-Fi is fine for a tablet running Camera Control, not for video.

2. A good PoE switch

Network PTZ cameras usually take power from the switch (PoE). Check two numbers:

• Per-port power: many PTZ cameras need PoE+ (802.3at)
• Total power budget: the sum of every powered device, with headroom

See PoE classes for church AV for the details.

3. Keep production apart from guest Wi-Fi

On a full Sunday, hundreds of phones join the guest network. Keep production traffic on its own switch or its own network segment (VLAN) so a busy lobby never touches the stream. (See network infrastructure for church AV and streaming.)

4. Add up the bandwidth

Rough planning numbers at 1080p60:

Source	Approximate bandwidth
NDI|HX3 camera	50 to 62 Mbps
Full-bandwidth NDI source	About 125 Mbps

Add every source the production computer receives at once. Four HX3 cameras plus a full-NDI slide feed is roughly 325 to 375 Mbps, which is comfortable on gigabit. Larger systems give the production computer a faster link; our Broadcast Livestream System has dual 10GbE for that reason.

5. Know which signals belong on the switch

NDI and Dante ride a network switch happily. Some audio snakes and extenders look like network cables but must run point to point. Plugging one into the switch is a classic Sunday disaster. (See which AV signals survive a network switch.)

6. Write it down

Label the switch ports and document which device is where. The Signal Map separates signals that can ride a switch from ones that can’t, and prints a diagram for the booth wall.

Questions to ask your IT volunteer

• Is the booth wired to a switch we control?
• Can we give production its own switch or VLAN?
• What’s the PoE budget on the switch the cameras will use?
• Is multicast or IGMP snooping configured? (Helpful on larger NDI networks.)
• Who has the switch’s login, and is it written down?

Planning a move to NDI?

Map your current system and include your network in the notes. We’ll tell you whether your switches are ready, what to add, and which cameras and screens can move onto the network first.

Learn more on our NDI for churches page, or read NDI over IP: replacing cables with your church network.