NDI

Newtek’s NDI is a network texture streaming protocol. It allows you to stream textures between several devices on the network. Lightact allows you to receive a texture from several NDI sources and transmit several textures with NDI.

Sending NDI

In order to send a texture using NDI, we open the Devices window by pressing F7 or going to Window top menu and clicking on Devices. Once there right click, hover over NDI and click on Add writer.

Once the node appears, select it and on the right-hand side fill in the properties.

• Name property is the name of LightAct node. It doesn’t have any effect on the functionality.
• NDI name is the name that will appear as the name of NDI source in all of the NDI receivers on the network.
• Texture width/height is the width and the height of the texture being sent.

Don’t forget to click on Apply button and to check Streaming checkbox when you are done.

That’s all we had to do in the Devices window. Now it’s time to open a Layer Layout.

Setup in Layer Layout

Create a layer and make sure the transport is on it (so the layer is active). Open the layer’s layout and insert 2 nodes: a Color sine node (as a matter of fact, you can use any other Texture generator) and an NDI Sender node and connect them like shown below:

We are almost there. We have to do just 2 more things:

1. In the Resolution input of the Color sine node, type in the same resolution as the one you typed in the NDI Client node in the Devices window. These 2 resolutions have to match.
2. Select the NDI Sender node and as it’s parent device, select the NDI writer node you created in the Devices window.

Receiving NDI

To receive a texture using NDI in LightAct is even simpler.

In the Devices window, create an NDI Reader node.

Once created, select it and click on Refresh list button. After a few seconds, all the available NDI sources on the network will appear. Select the one you’d like to receive the texture from.

Don’t forget to check the Listening checkbox and after a few seconds, the green Streaming label will appear.

Setup in Layer Layouts

Create a new layer or open the one you created at the beginning of this guide and create 2 nodes: an NDI Listener node and a Render to canvas node, and connect them as shown below.

The only thing that’s left for you to do is to select the NDI Listener node and in its properties on the right, in the Parent device section, select the NDI Reader node you created in the Devices window.

This is it! You should see the texture underneath the Render to Canvas node.