Set Up SRT for Elemental to Makito Decoder

This article will guide you through the process of setting up an SRT Stream from an Elemental Live device to a Makito Decoder. For the basis of this guide, we are assuming that your Elemental has already been set up and configured on your network.

Before you begin:

• Determine if the Elemental will be the caller or the listener
  • If Caller
    • Obtain the URL and/or IP Address for Listener
    • Locate the Destination Port for the SRT Route
  • If Listener
    • Locate the Destination Port for the Caller to access
• If Encrypting the stream
  • Determine an AES level
  • Create a passphrase

Set Up Order

Items that are hyperlinked are covered in this article.

1. Create Port Forwarding Rules (if applicable)
2. Configure an Event on your Elemental
   1. Create the Output on your Elemental
   2. Activate the Output
3. Set up your Decoder (see this article for this step)
   1. Create the Stream
   2. Activate the Stream
4. Verify the signal is received and is strong

Create Port Forwarding Rules

If you are streaming from one campus/venue to another, you will need to make some adjustments at your firewall in order for your onsite SRT listener to be able to connect to the offsite SRT caller. 

Contact your Network Administrator and request that they establish a port-forwarding rule at the firewall. Inform them that all TCP and UDP traffic arriving to that port will need to be forwarded from the firewall/campus’ public IP address to the SRT listener’s private network IP address.

Also request from your network administrator your campus’ exact public IP address. Notate this for your offsite SRT caller setup.

Example:

• SRT Encoder (located at Campus A) will be the listener at IP address 192.168.10.101 and will be listening at port 2500.
• Campus A’s network administrator establishes a forwarding rule, and directs all TCP/UDP traffic from port 2500 at the public IP, which is 8.8.8.8 to the SRT encoder

Configure an Event on your Elemental

Access the Elemental’s web interface to begin the process. To create a new event, click on “New Event +” in the upper right corner.

Enter a name for the Event

Select the Input Type. Typically, this will be an SDI input. Be sure to verify with the client which SDI input will be used.

You can click the Preview button to the right of the Input field to see if there is an active video signal on that input. If there is not a signal, the interface will tell you.

Output Groups

You will need set up the Output Group to be SRT (or Reliable TS). Delete all output groups except for Reliable_TS.

You will not need to make any modifications “out of the gate” to the Output Group, so you can advance to the next step.

Outputs

We will only need 1 output. Under “New Output”, click on “Add Output +” on the right-hand side.

An output will appear in the section, and a stream config will appear in the Stream section below. 

1. Change Delivery Protocol to “Secure Reliable Transport”
2. Paste your SRT address and port number into the Primary Destination field
   1. If your Elemental will be a LISTENER, use srt://127.0.0.1:port[] for the address
   2. Replace port with the 4- or 5-digit port number
   3. If your Elemental will be a CALLER, enter the address for the listener
3. Select your Encryption Level
   1. This will need to be None, AES-128, or AES-256
4. If encrypted, paste your SRT passkey into the Zixi KeyValue/SRT Passphrase field
5. Change Latency to at least 500ms

Streams

Now it’s time to configure the stream that is being fed to each output. 

1. Under Video:
   1. Enter Resolution as 1920 w X 1080 h
   2. Click on the Advanced Settings icon
   3. Typical adjustments here include:
      1. Framerate (change this only if you want to force a certain framerate, such as 30fps)
      2. Bitrate - Recommend starting at 10m but can be as little as 6m. We also recommend no more than 12m - 18m  
      3. GOP size and units (this is the segment duration). We recommend:
         1. GOP size: 4 
         2. Units: Seconds 
         3. B Frames: 2 
2. Under Audio
   1. Adjust bitrate for 192 kbps

Review and Save

Take a moment to review all of your settings. Once you are satisfied, you can click the “Create+” button found at the top right and bottom right of the page. This will create the Event and you will be taken to the Event control page.

The image below is an example of the Event Control Page. This is an Event that is ready to start:

Activate the Output

Click “Start” on the Elemental event. This will start the SRT stream and encoding process.

Now it is time to configure your decoder. Proceed to the article Set Up Your Makito Decoder to Receive a SRT Stream.