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USER_GUIDE_NDI_TEST_APP.md

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NDI/CDI Test Application User Guide

This is the usage guide for the example NDI/CDI Test application ndi_test.

In addition to filing CDI-SDK bugs/issues, please use the discussion pages for Q&A, Ideas, Show and Tell or other General topics so the whole community can benefit.

Minimal requirements

For basic, minimal workings, it is only required to have one CDI/NDI-enabled EC2 instance. The instance can run NDI source generation and receiver applications from the NDI-SDK examples, run this test application and run the CDI minimal transmitter and receiver applications for basic testing and understanding purposes.

Building the test application

Building on Linux

Follow the steps to install and build the CDI-SDK using the INSTALL_GUIDE_LINUX, except as noted below:

Download and install the NDI-SDK in a folder at the same level as the aws-cdi-sdk. It should be called "NDI-SDK".

When building, use the NDI_SDK option on the make command line to specify the location of the NDI-SDK. This option MUST be used in order to build the ndi_test application. An example is shown below that builds a debug variant of the CDI-SDK, including ndi_test:

cd aws-cdi-sdk
make test DEBUG=y NO_MONITORING=y NDI_SDK=../../NDI-SDK

Note the usage of NO_MONITORING=y. This removes several dependencies and disables performance metric collection by the AWS CDI SDK.

For the Linux variant, only Amazon Linux 2 has been tested.

Building on Windows

Follow the steps to install and build the CDI-SDK using the INSTALL_GUIDE_WINDOWS, except as noted below:

Download and install the NDI-SDK to the default folder C:\Program Files\NDI\NDI 5 SDK. If it is installed in another location, then the Visual Studio project ndi_test must be modified. Settings for C/C++->General->Additional Include Directories, Linker->General->Additional Library Directories and Build Events->Post-Build Event require changes.

To build, select either the Debug_DLL_NDI or Release_DLL_NDI Visual Studio solution configuration. Note that these configurations contain the preprocessor definition CDI_NO_MONITORING. This removes several dependencies and disables performance metric collection by the AWS CDI SDK.

The application binaries will be generated in the folders shown below:

Debug_DLL_NDI configuration

aws-cdi-sdk/proj/x64/Debug_DLL_NDI - ndi_test application
aws-cdi-sdk/proj/x64/Debug_DLL - Other CDI test applications

Release_DLL_NDI configuration

aws-cdi-sdk/proj/x64/Release_DLL_NDI - ndi_test application
aws-cdi-sdk/proj/x64/Release_DLL - Other CDI test applications

Running the Test Application

The NDI Test application provides a starting point to help understand how to convert between NDI and CDI transports. Use the commands listed in this section from the aws-cdi-sdk folder.

Note: All of the following example test commands are Linux-centric, but the basic command syntax is the same for Windows. The only difference is that for Linux the executable is at build/debug|release/bin/ndi_test and for Windows the executable is at proj\x64\Debug|Release\ndi_test.exe.

Test application help

Running the --help command will display all of the command-line options for the application.

./build/debug/bin/ndi_test --help

Show NDI sources

Example command used to show all available NDI sources:

./build/debug/bin/ndi_test --show_ndi_sources

Convert NDI to CDI

Example command used to receive a NDI source called MY_MACHINE (My Test Program), convert to CDI and send to remote CDI host at IP address 1.2.3.4 on port 5000:

./build/debug/bin/ndi_test --local_ip 127.0.0.1 --ndi_rx --remote_ip 1.2.3.4 --dest_port 5000 --ndi_source_name "MY_MACHINE (My Test Program)"

Convert CDI to NDI

Example command used to receive a CDI stream on port 5000 and convert to an NDI source called My Test Pattern:

./build/debug/bin/ndi_test --local_ip 127.0.0.1 --bind_ip 127.0.0.1 --dest_port 5000 --ndi_tx --ndi_source_name "My Test Program"

Test application notes

In the scenario where a static pattern is used as the source, NDI will reduce the number of frames sent down to as low as one frame per second. In order to support CDI full-frame rate output, the test application handles this by replicating the NDI source frames.

NDI usage notes

NDI-SDK

The NDI-SDK has a number of NDI source generation and receiver applications. A NDI source application will send video, audio, and/or metadata over the network and establish itself as a named NDI source on the network. Any number of NDI receivers can then connect to the content. A NDI receive application will find NDI sources on the network and receive video, audio, and metadata over the network.

NDI Tools (Windows)

NDI Tools contains several useful tools and can be installed on a Windows EC2 instance. In order the use the Studio Monitor application the instance must contain a GPU and have the correct driver installed. For example, if using Windows Server 2016-2019 on a g4dn.8xlarge instance type, the driver can be downloaded from:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-windows-nvidia-drivers/g4/latest/462.96_grid_win10_winserver2016_winserver2019_64bit_aws_swl.exe

To see a list of other available drivers, use:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-windows-nvidia-drivers
  • Studio Monitor - View and hear NDI sources. If multiple sources are present, there is an option to select which source to view.
  • Access Manager - Configure the IP addresses of NDI sources or an NDI discovery server. See more details in the next section.
  • Test Patterns - Generated NDI sources using static test patterns and audio tones.

Recommended first steps using the NDI-SDK

  • Use NDI Tools Studio Monitor to view and hear NDI source content
    • Example: NDI Test Patterns seen on NDI Studio Monitor
  • Run a NDI sender and a NDI receiver program on the same instance
    • Example: NDIlib_Send_10bit and NDIlib_Recv
  • Run a NDI sender and a NDI receiver program on separate instances
    • Example: NDIlib_Send_10bit and NDIlib_Recv

NDI source configuration

To add, remove, or alter any NDI configuration you must create or modify ndi-config.v1.json. For Linux the file is located at $HOME/.ndi/ndi-config.v1.json. For Windows you can either edit it directly at C:\ProgramData\NDI\ndi-config.v1.json or use the NDI Tools Access Manager.

Basic configuration example is shown below. Note: You can either define the IP addresses of NDI sources or use one or more discovery servers.

    {
        "ndi": {
            "machinename": "ABC",
            "networks": {
                ## Statically define NDI source IP addresses.
                "ips": "x.x.x.x,x.x.x.x", ## Use a comma to separate IPs
                ## or ##
                ## Designate one or more NDI discovery servers.
                "ips": "",
                "discovery": "x.x.x.x,x.x.x.x" # Use a comma to separate IPs
            },
            "rudp": {
                "send": {
                    "enable": true
                },
                "recv": {
                    "enable": true
                }
            },
            "multicast": {
                "send": {
                    "enable": false
                },
                "recv": {
                    "enable": false
                }
            },
            "tcp": {
                "send": {
                    "enable": false
                },
                "recv": {
                    "enable": false
                }
            },
            "unicast": {
                "send": {
                        "enable": true
                },
                "recv": {
                    "enable": true
                }
            }
        }
    }