[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] avformat/opensrt: add Haivision Open SRT protocol

[Sven Dueking]

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: ffmpeg-devel [mailto:ffmpeg-devel-bounces at ffmpeg.org] Im Auftrag
> von Nicolas George
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 22. März 2018 16:03
> An: FFmpeg development discussions and patches
> Betreff: Re: [FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] avformat/opensrt: add Haivision
> Open SRT protocol
> 
> Sven Dueking (2018-03-16):
> > Ping !?!?
> 
> I think I am actually expected to reply.
> 
> I think that by reviewing the patch I gave the impression that I was
> promising to accept the patch in FFmpeg. It was not so, and I apologize
> if it was taken that way. The original patch contained significant
> changes in the standard network code that made it much more complex, I
> wanted to avoid that, that is the reason I reviewed, it was purely
> technical. The decision to accept a patch in FFmpeg is not purely
> technical, it also involves balancing the cost of maintenance with the
> benefit for users.
> 
> In this instance, the recent discussion on libav-dev seems to indicate
> that the API and ABI of this library could be not very stable, making
> the cost of maintenance relatively high, a fact that is worsened by the
> library not being integrated in major Linux distros. As for the benefit
> for users, are there public servers serving interesting content
> accessible with this protocol? Are there situations where this protocol
> would allow several instances of ffmpeg to communicate significantly
> better than other protocols? I am not aware of any.
> 
> That, plus the poor choice of name (seriously, who dabs in multimedia
> and does not know that SRT has been a subtitle format for more than
> fifteen years? and there is the SRTP profile too) makes me doubtful
> about integrating this in FFmpeg.
> 
> But it is not my choice only.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> --
>   Nicolas George

Hi,

The SRT library has been made Open Source in April 2017, but was used before
in Haivision products since 2013. It is used in 100s of mission critical
installation (medical, sports, broadcast, military) worldwide and its
reliability has been proven. Since it’s Open Source, 100 organizations have
joined the SRT Alliance (https://www.srtalliance.org/) in order to create a
new ecosystem for broadcast quality streaming over the public internet,
which wasn’t available as Open Source up to that point and only offered as
commercial solutions by very few specialized companies. Meanwhile many
organizations including the EBU (Eurovision), Wowza, Matrox and many more
have SRT Ready solutions. SRT has been integrated into VLC and GStreamer.
The SRT Alliance is working with the video services forum, who recommends
standards to SMPTE, towards a standardization of the protocol. Many
architectures in the broadcast industry are using either libav or ffmpeg and
are asking when they will be able to utilize SRT though these known media
libraries. I understand the name is not optimal, but when it was initially
created in 2013 unfortunately nobody thought about taken it Open Source due
to the typical industry mindset at that time.

Thank you!